Ursula Hegi Appears Today On ‘Oprah’
Today’s the day for Ursula Hegi’s “Oprah” experience.
Hegi, a professor of creative writing at Eastern Washington University, will appear during the second half of the nationally broadcast Oprah Winfrey show. Air time on KREM-2, Spokane’s CBS network affiliate, is 4 p.m.
Hegi’s appearance will include some of the first comments that she has made publicly since the Feb. 28 announcement that her novel, “Stones From the River,” had been chosen as a featured selection of Winfrey’s book club.
“As a German-American woman, I was terrified to look that closely at the Holocaust,” she says to explain why she wrote “Stones From the River.” “And because I was that terrified, I needed to look at it.”
The first half of today’s “Oprah” features the family of Tejano singer Selena talking about the slain singer and the recent movie version of her life. Afterward, Winfrey will present Hegi to her studio audience.
Before they begin discussing the book, though, the show’s producers are expected to screen a short biography of the Nine Mile Falls author.
“That was taped in her area, around her home,” says “Oprah” publicist Audrey Pass.
Winfrey and three audience members also taped a dinner discussion with Hegi in a Chicago library on April 1, says Ruth Levine, Hegi’s publicist at Simon & Schuster.
The studio audience portion of the show was taped on Friday.
Hegi’s “Oprah” appearance by far is the biggest boost her career has experienced to date. Prompted by Hegi being featured on the show, which is broadcast daily to 20 million viewers, Simon & Schuster reprinted 1.2 million copies of “Stones From the River” in hardback and 50,000 copies in paper.
According to publicist Pass, though, Hegi is not the only one experiencing good fortune.
“The readers are lucky, too, I think,” she said. “I’m part of the book club, I’ve been reading along with them and I’ve been exposed to some wonderful books.”
Winfrey is expected to name next month’s book-club selection at the program’s conclusion.
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