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CORVALLIS - Prolific author Lynn Sharon Schwartz, whose writing has been called "wonderful," "shimmering" and the "tough, battered truth" by critics from the New York Times to Booklist, will give a lecture and read from her work on Thursday, May 26, at Oregon State University.

Her presentation begins at 7:30 p.m. in the main rotunda of the Valley Library on campus. It is free and open to the public; a book signing will follow.

Schwartz has written 19 books of fiction and non-fiction. One of her novels, "Leaving Brooklyn," was nominated for a PEN/Faulkner Award, while her debut novel, "Rough Strife," was nominated for a PEN/Hemingway First Novel Award. Other novels include "The Writing on the Wall," "Disturbances in the Field" and "In the Family Way."

She also has written a memoir, "Ruined by Reading," and a collection of poetry, "In Solitary."

A versatile writer, she also has written numerous short stories and essays that have appears in "Best American Short Stories," "Best American Essays" and "O'Henry Prize Stories."

Her latest book is "The Writing on the Wall," set in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attack. Publisher's Weekly praised the work, calling it a "complex balance of intellectual skepticism, emotional fragility and street smarts."

Schwartz says she feels an affinity to 19th-century writers and lists Marcel Proust and Henry James as her literary idols. She also was influenced by poets Chaucer, Shakespeare and Keats, she adds.

"The way they use language has remained in my ear," Schwartz said, "and in my writing I try to keep a sense of the stages the language has passed through, and the way the poets use it."

Her OSU appearance is the fifth event in the OSU English Department's 2004-05 Visiting Writers Series.