Rarely do students, faculty and community members have the opportunity to hear an author who's been called the "world's best writer of prose."

Community Read 2009 will feature Marilynne Robinson, author of Housekeeping, at 7 p.m. Friday at the State Theatre, 130 W. College Ave.

The gala is the culmination of the third annual Community Read project, which began with four discussion sessions held downtown and on campus throughout March and April, Hester Blum, assistant professor of English and director of the Center for American Literary Studies, said.

The sessions focused on different aspects of the book such as scene, character analysis and plot, Blum said.

Co-sponsored by the Center for American Literary Studies, the Penn State department of English and the Moments of Change initiative, this event is one of more than 40 to result from that partnership, Institute for the Arts and Humanities Director Marica Tacconi, said.

Moments of Change is an initiative that yearly looks at a different 25-year period of history and partners with other centers and museums to sponsor events reflecting that era, Tacconi said.

"This particular event is really aimed at engaging not only faculty on campus but students ... and members of the State College community," she said.

This academic year, the initiative is looking at the turn of the 21st century, mainly the period between 1889 and 1914, Tacconi said. The novel's setting takes place within the last 100 years, which makes it fall into this category.

When a group of people read the same text, it's "a way to build community and spread love," Blum said, adding it gives students the ability to analyze literature outside of the classroom.

Robinson is one of Blum's favorite living writers, she said, and has also won numerous awards for Housekeeping, including the PEN/Hemingway Award.

"I chose the book because it's brilliant and cruel and beautiful and disturbing," Blum said. "I heard she was wise and interesting."

Blum said she's heard Robinson has lectured previously on the "intervention into the senses" and what Americans think of themselves. She noted the speech won't be only for people who have read the book.

"Being able to see someone who's been called the greatest living writer at work is a really rare and special opportunity," she said.

English department head Robin Schulze said Housekeeping is a book that's going to continue to be read for a long time.

"It's the equivalent of if you had a chance to sit down and talk with Ernest Hemingway before you knew his work was going to be immortalized," Schulze said, adding that type of moment is "something you just don't forget."