Eric Goodman will read from his fifth novel, Twelfth and Race, at 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 26, in Prairie Lights Books and live on the University of Iowa’s Writing University website.

Eric Goodman

The novel features Richard Allan Gordon, 30 years old and as white as they come. His life takes a strange turn when he discovers that, as a result of identity theft, five-year-old Jada Reece Gordon bears his name.

The product of a middle-class Jewish upbringing, Richie finds himself completely in love and lust with Jada’s mother, LaTisha, a 25-year-old African American nursing student, and longs to be a father to her child.

Jim Heynen, the author of The One-Room Schoolhouse, says, "I know of no other writer who has put all the race cards on the table with such honesty and humanity. Twelfth and Race may very well be a first of its kind.”

Goodman has been the recipient of three Ohio Arts Council fellowships as well as residencies at Ragdale and the MacDowell Colony. He has published more than 150 articles and essays, with work appearing in the Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine, GQ, Travel & Leisure, Saveur, and several anthologies.

For the past decade, Goodman has directed the creative writing program at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

For accommodations at the live event, contact jan@prairielights.com.