Former Professor Peter Orner: A Writer Whose Restlessness Comes Through in His Stories

VALLEY NEWS (WEST LEBANON, NEW HAMPSHIRE) -- “I guess I’m kind of restless. I always have to be on the move, always in motion,” Orner said. And, aside from roughly 15 years teaching at San Francisco State, Orner has bounced around a lot in his 50 years: Before moving to Norwich last year, Orner — along with his wife, best-selling author Katie Crouch, and their two young children — lived in Namibia as a Fulbright scholar, where he based one of his novels, “The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo.” Prior to that, he lived and worked all over the Midwest, plus Massachusetts, plus Mexico, plus eastern Europe. There are a lot of places he’s lived for no longer than a year or two — maybe not long enough to put down real roots, but long enough to get the lay of the land, and to be haunted by it after he leaves.