RADFORD – The Radford Public Library will Radford University alumna Kristina Gorcheva-Newberry, winner of the 2021 Raz/Shumaker Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction, at a meet-the-author event on Thursday, Sept. 23, at 7 p.m.
According to the library, Gorcheva-Newberry is a Russian-Armenian émigré who moved to the U.S. in 1995 after witnessing perestroika and the collapse of the Soviet Empire. She graduated from both Radford and Hollins universities. She has published more than 50 stories and received eight Pushcart nominations.
She will be speaking about her writing and her book “What Isn’t remembered” at the library after an introduction from local author Rick Van Noy. Copies of “What Isn’t Remembered” will be available for purchase at the event.
According to Gorcheva-Newberry’s website, the stories in “What Isn’t Remembered” explore “the burden, the power, and the nature of love between people who often feel misplaced and estranged from their deepest selves and the world, where they cannot find a home.
“The characters yearn not only to redefine themselves and rebuild their relationships but also to recover lost loves, a parent, a child, a friend, a spouse, a partner,” she says. “A young man longs for his mother’s love while grieving the loss of his older brother. A mother’s affair sabotages her relationship with her daughter, causing a lifelong feud between the two. A divorced man struggles to come to terms with his failed marriage and his family’s genocidal past while trying to persuade his father to start cancer treatments.
“A high school girl feels responsible for the death of her best friend, and the guilt continues to haunt her decades later. Evocative and lyrical, the tales in this collection uncover complex events and emotions as well as the unpredictable ways in which people adapt to what happens in their lives, finding solace from the most surprising and unexpected sources.”
