The Creative Writing Program brings a distinguished author to campus every year to teach an undergraduate seminar and to share his work with the Stanford community at large. This year’s Stein Visiting Writer is the acclaimed Charles Baxter, who has won numerous awards for his novels, short stories and essays on writing and literature. On Monday evening, May 8, Baxter culminated his stint at Stanford by reading a poem and a story.

The poem, he told the audience, arose from the occasional poetry challenges that he issues himself; the requirements of this particular prompt included a dream sequence and a reference to a musical composer — and the entire poem had to be a single sentence. That elicited some incredulous murmurs from the crowd, but Baxter delivered. The poem was about love, which for all its ubiquitousness, he still managed to make original, as he wound his way through vivid descriptions of foot massages and symphonies and a cantankerous dead mother. The effect was enhanced by his reading voice, which had a certain calm, cat-whisperer quality to it.

He then segued into his short story, “Poor Devil,” which he chose for its geographic relevance (or so he said), it being the only one of his stories set on the West Coast. Fittingly, given the preceding poem, “Poor Devil” is a story about falling out of love; its protagonist and his ex-wife are, in the opening scene, cleaning the house they recently sold in preparation for its next occupants. The deft usage of language and the emotional complexity of this piece are simply wonderful; the story runs the gamut from bittersweet to humorous without ever appearing contrived, and the layers of inner narrative unfold as they would in real life. There is a certain understatedness to Baxter’s prose reminiscent of Jhumpa Lahiri (especially her story “A Temporary Matter,” which is frequently taught in creative writing courses) and Anton Chekhov. Baxter doesn’t need to be showy to capture the reader’s interest; the intelligence of his work does so all on its own.

Baxter demonstrates, also, a talent for banter and a level of comfort with public reading enviable in any contemporary author. This was, undoubtedly, aided by the enthusiasm of the audience, which included a large number of English majors and creative writing minors, as well as many faculty members, even more than at other readings. Whereas most English events are held in the Terrace Room of Margaret Jackson, Baxter read in Cubberley Auditorium, which was surely booked in anticipation of the large turnout. At the end of the reading, the applause was loud, heartfelt and even punctuated by a few cheers. And many audience members, their literary appetites whetted, gathered around the table in front, eager to purchase copies of Baxter’s work for themselves.