Tuesday, October 13: An Evening with Author Valerie Laken

The Racine Public Library, 75 Seventh St., will host an evening with highly acclaimed author Valerie Laken on Tuesday, October 13 at 6:30 pm. Laken will read from her very successful novel, Dream House, and will be available for questions, discussion, and book signings.

Dream House, (HarperCollins, Feb. 2009), Laken's first novel, tells the story of a young couple whose lives are upended when they discover that the historic home they've just bought was once the site of a murder. When the man who committed the crime gets released from prison and begins lurking around the house, the book gradually reveals the complexities surrounding this domestic homicide and charts the shock waves that spread out from that one terrible act to shape the lives of many disparate characters.

The novel, based on Laken's own experiences purchasing and renovating an old home, has garnered excellent reviews and has been called,

"The perfect haunted house story for these unnerving times."

--The New York Times Book Review

"A novel of elegant, poised assurance."

--The Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Eerily enticing."

--Entertainment Weekly

"A miracle of storytelling."

--The Charlottesville Daily Progress

Born and raised in Rockford, Illinois, Laken graduated from the University of Iowa with degrees in English and Russian. She worked and studied in Moscow, Prague, and Krakow before receiving her MA in Slavic Literature and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan. She has taught at the University of Michigan, was Writer in Residence at Carthage College and, most recently, joined the faculty at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee where she teaches in the Creative Writing program.

Valerie Laken's work has appeared in Ploughshares, The Missouri Review, The Alaska Quarterly Review, The Writer, and The Chicago Tribune. Her honors include a Pushcart Prize, two Hopwood Awards, a Missouri Review Editors' Prize, and an honorable mention in the Best American Short Stories.

Of the story behind Dream House, Laken says this,

"Stories emerge when people make mistakes, when they make bad choices or get tangled up in somebody else's bad choice....

In the winter of 1996...I fell in love with a terrible old house, a dump by any sane person's standards, and I talked my innocent husband into buying it. We had foolishly watched too many episodes of This Old House, and I convinced myself that really, it wouldn't be too hard to work, go to grad school, and in our free time completely gut and remodel this place with our bare hands. My husband, who had worked as a carpenter in the past, knew better.

What he didn't know, what neither of us knew, was that the home had once been the site of a homicide. This nugget of information didn't make its way to us until two weeks after we'd moved in. A neighbor came over to ask if he could put his old couch on the giant pile of garbage we were collecting at the foot of our driveway, and he mentioned the murder in passing, with a devious glint in his eyes.

When we asked him how and when the crime had occurred, he drew a total blank. To him it was casual neighborhood lore. For us it changed everything. Gap-jawed and wordless, we stood staring up at our dark, broken house..."

The event at the Racine Public Library is free and open to the public; no registration is necessary. Copies of Laken's novel, Dream House, are available for purchase on the internet or at local bookstores. Visit Laken's website at www.valerielaken.com for more intriguing information.