University of Arkansas Press Author to Speak at Fayetteville Public Library

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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Vivienne Schiffer will be reading from and discussing her novel Camp Nine at the Fayetteville Public Library at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 19. Published by the University of Arkansas Press in 2011, Camp Nine is set in a fictionalized version of Rohwer, Ark., and the Rohwer Relocation Center in Desha County, one of two sites in Arkansas where 16,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated between 1942 and 1945.

Publishers Weekly called Camp Nine “a finely wrought debut novel.” Booklist called it “a compelling, vivid account of a shameful episode that should not be forgotten.”

Schiffer, a novelist and screenwriter who practiced law in Houston for many years, grew up in Desha County, Arkansas, not far from the Rowher site. Camp Nine is the story of a young girl, Chess Morton, growing up near an internment camp in Arkansas. Her life becomes intertwined with the lives of two young internees and an American soldier mysteriously connected to her mother’s past.  As Chess watches the struggles of these strangers and sees her mother seek justice for them, she discovers surprising and disturbing truths about her family’s past.

The Fayetteville Public Library is located at 401 W. Mountain St. in Fayetteville. Nightbird Books of Fayetteville will be on hand to sell signed copies of Camp Nine. The event is free and open to the public.