CORVALLIS n Lauren Kessler, author of an award-winning book on a Japanese-American family, will read from her work at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 17, in the Valley Library rotunda at Oregon State University.

Published by the OSU Press, "Stubborn Twig: Three Generations in the Life of a Japanese American Family" was chosen by the Oregon Library Association for its statewide Oregon Reads program to celebrate Oregon's 150th birthday. It was first published in 1993, telling the story of immigrants making their way in a new land.

The book opens with the tale of Masuo Yasui's odyssey from Japan to the Oregon Trail, and follows his path working from railroads to canneries, before settling in Hood River and becoming a successful orchardist. "Stubborn Twig" also takes readers through World War II and the internment of Japanese-Americans in Oregon, of the struggles of growing up with two distinct cultures, and finally the triumphs and tragedies of a family.

Kessler directs the graduate program in literary

nonfiction at the University of Oregon and is founder and editor of "Etude," an online journal of literary nonfiction. She is the author of 11 books.