A writer and critic, LaFarge reads from and discusses his work at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 13, in Skelton Lounge, Chase Hall, 56 Campus Ave.

The reading is part of Bates’ Language Arts Live series of literary events. Sponsored by the Bates English department, the programs in environmental studies and Spanish, the Humanities Fund, the Learning Associates Program and the John Tagliabue Poetry Fund, it is open to the public at no cost. For more information, please contact this eosucha@bates.edu.

LaFarge is the author of The Facts of Winter (McSweeney’s, 2005), Haussmann, or the Distinction (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2001) and The Artist of the Missing (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1999).

A recipient of grants from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Macdowell Colony, LaFarge is the 2005 winner of the Bard College Fiction Prize and the winner of the California Book Award for The Artist of the Missing. He has taught creative writing at Wesleyan and Columbia.

The Facts of Winter and Haussmann place LaFarge on the perimeter of the tale, purporting that he acts as a mere translator for obscure French writer and minimalist “Paul Poissel.” In an interview with the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, LaFarge said that Poissel “came into strange existence a long time ago. I don’t remember exactly how. But I thought, ‘God, it would be great to invent a minor French poet!’ “

Due to travel difficulties, tonight’s lecture titled Addressing Stereotype Threat by Joshua Aronson, associate professor of applied psychology at the Steinhardt School of Education, New York University, has been canceled.

Bates College regrets any inconvenience caused by the cancellation. For more information, please call 207-786-6195.