Say hello to life: OSU author to release highly anticipated second novel

Monday, April 18, 2005

If art is just a snapshot in time, then Oklahoma State University novelist Andrea Koenig has just snapped the shutter on the woes of women that are making today's headlines.

In her forthcoming book, "Hello Life," out May 3, Koenig has her young characters coping with teen pregnancy and cancer in a logging town in the Pacific Northwest. 

The novel is Koenig's follow-up to her critically acclaimed first book, "Thumbelina." Known for her ability to lend her troubled characters a bluntly honest, yet endearing voice, Koenig is an acclaimed author winning the praise of Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Olen Butler and nominees Rilla Askew and Douglas Unger. 

In "Hello Life," Koenig tells the story of Gwen and Lila, two teenagers confronting adult issues in the kind of bickering tale that Koenig is increasingly making her own, according to Unger. Although the novel is not an autobiography, Koenig said her fictional town "Columbia" is based on a mill town in southwestern Washington where she graduated high school.

"It's hard to say what exactly inspires my material. I only hope readers will be able to relate to these girls, pity them and perhaps see themselves in their fear and toughness," Koenig said.

Published by New York's Soho Press, Koenig will read from "Hello Life" in a gala event at Tulsa's Skelly Mansion and make signing appearances at Borders, Steve's Sundries, Barnes & Noble and Full Circle Bookstore in Oklahoma City.

Her appearances will be tentatively scheduled throughout May. Now in her sixth year at OSU, Koenig teaches courses on both the Stillwater and Tulsa campuses in fiction writing and literature.