Writer Ito Romo came to Penn State last week to kick off the Mary E. Rolling Reading Series. He’s pictured here at a Q&A in Bill Cobb’s graduate fiction workshop, where he discussed his writing and technique: he talked about the influence of setting, the importance of knowing where to end a story. His book The Border is Burning is a collection of very short stories, all of which take place in southern Texas, right on the Mexican border, and all of which, in Ito’s own words, are pretty depressing. Ito said that he chose to write the stories the way that he did to present people who are marginalized because of their social or economic classes or because of the drug trade in south Texas as very real and very human. He said people often tell him that his stories elicit physical pain, and this was evident when he gave his spirited, jarring reading on Thursday night. His stories are gripping and impossible to forget. We are so lucky to have had such a talented and gracious writer come speak with us!