Duke student amateur sleuths can work on their writing skills this month with acclaimed mystery writer Margaret Maron.
Maron will be on campus for a week. She will hold a free, public reading at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 17, in the East Duke Building Parlors on Duke's East Campus.
The Department of English is bringing Maron to campus as a Blackburn Visiting Writer. She will spend a week working with 12 Duke students. By the end, they will have created an original piece suitable for submission to the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine.
Junior Alyssa Wong said she was interested by the prospect of working with and talking to a successful, published author.
"The opportunity to produce a publishable piece was too good to pass up," Wong said. "This is a field I'm interested in entering when I'm older, and I need to learn as much as I can and hone my skills as much as possible with the time I have left at Duke."
Junior Deja Beamon said she hoped to learn about the challenges of writing mysteries.
"I'm looking forward to seeing how one plans to write a mystery in particular," Beamon said. "I feel with mysteries it is essential to have a feel of the whole plot line before beginning and I want to see what techniques Maron uses to get started."
A North Carolina native, Maron is the author of more than 20 novels. Many of these novels are part of the Deborah Knott Series, a mystery series centered on a district judge living in North Carolina. Her 1992 book "Bootlegger's Daughter" won numerous awards and was on the Washington Post's bestseller list. Maron is the recipient of the Edgar, Anthony, Agatha and Macavity awards for accomplishments in mystery writing.
Named after legendary creative writing instructor William Blackburn, the Blackburn Visiting Writer program annually brings distinguished poets and fiction writers to campus to work with students and engage the public.