Chicago-based author Mary Morris visits CMU's Steinberg Auditorium for a free lecture and reading from her acclaimed novel, The Jazz Palace (Nan A. Talese). The book, inspired by Morris’ own love of jazz and her hometown, is about two fictional Jewish families and a black trumpeter in 1920s Chicago who are united through music. Booklist calls it a “graceful and involving affirmation of the transcendent power of art.”

Morris has written 15 books to date. The Jazz Palace is her seventh novel. Her first book, Vanishing Animals & Other Stories, was published in 1979 and awarded the Rome Prize in Literature by the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. She is also a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, and a professor of writing at Sarah Lawrence College.

The event takes place at 4:30 p.m today. Steinberg Auditorium is on the CMU campus, at 5000 Forbes Ave., Oakland.

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