Bridgewater, Va.- On Wednesday, Feb. 19 author Snowden Wright will be giving an endowed lecture in the Carter Center Concert Hall at Bridgewater College at 7:30 p.m. 

Wright was born and raised in Mississippi. He is a graduate of both Dartmouth College and Columbia University. Wright holds a Bachelor of Arts in creative writing from Dartmouth College and a Master of Fine Arts in fiction writing from Columbia University.

Wright’s novel is a story of family, ambition, passion and tragedy, that brings to life the southern dynasty that was the Forsters. The Forsters were the founders of the world’s first major soft drink company. 

“American Pop” is a Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance’s Okra Pick, a Wall Street Journal Plus Book of the Month, NPR Favorite Book of the Year, nominee for the Mississippi Institute of Arts & Letters Award for fiction and a selection for Barnes & Noble’s “Discover Great New Writers” program.

Wright’s first novel, “Play Pretty Blues,” won the 2012 Summer Literary Seminars’ Graywolf Prize. 

He has been given residences and fellowships by the Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences, Stone Court, Monson Arts and Yaddo, which is an artists’ community located on a 400-acre estate in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. He has also written for The Atlantic, Salon, Esquire, The Millions and the New York Daily News, among other publications. 

Wright also worked as a fiction reader at The New Yorker, Esquire and The Paris Review.

According to his website biography, Wright currently lives in Yazoo County, Mississippi, where he is working on his third novel.

According to Jennifer Babcock, director of endowed lectures, Wright will be speaking about his novel “American Pop” and his career as an author. “When authors visit they often also talk about their writing process and offer advice to students who are considering becoming professional writers,” said Babcock. 

This lecture is sponsored by the Harold H. Hersch Education Fund and Bridgewater College’s Division of Communication Studies, Fine Arts and Literature.