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Hartsville, S.C. — Author Jerred Metz will read from his book about a real-life desperado, The Last Eleven Days of Earl Durand (High Plains Press, 2005), at 7 p.m. on Monday, February 6 in Coker College’s C.W. Coker Auditorium in Davidson Hall. Admission is free and the public is invited to attend.

In 1939, the 26-year old Durand went on a crime spree in Wyoming that began with the poaching of an elk and ended in the deaths of seven people. Durand’s last days also included eluding a posse of Montana National Guardsmen, who were armed with a howitzer, and robbing a bank. At the time, the events were front page news around the country.

As a college professor in the 1970s, Metz discovered the Durand story and he has interviewed many of the actual participants in the saga. Eleven of the people he interviewed knew Durand or his family personally. Metz uses these first person accounts in The Last Eleven Days of Earl Durand.

Metz, who teaches literature at Coker College, has published five books of poetry and two other books of prose. His appreciation for storytelling is inspired by his interest in people and his encounters with a variety of individuals are a major influence on his writings.

For the reading, Metz will be joined by his wife, Sarah Barker, an associate professor of theater at the University of South Carolina. Metz and Barker reside in Columbia.

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January 23, 2006