Noted author Clark Blaise will speak about his recent book, “Time Lord: Sir Sandford Fleming and the Creation of Standard Time,” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 21 in the Cochran Library Browsing Room at Sweet Briar College. The event is free and open to the public. A reception will follow the talk, and copies of “Time Lord” will be available for sale.

The lecture is part of the SBC Honors Program’s yearlong “Space and Time” series. “It concerns the making of standard time in 1884 and its indebtedness to the work of a Canadian railroad engineer [Sandford Fleming], and its relation to many other technological marvels of the 19th century,” Blaise said. “I’ll also be talking about financial and artistic developments that foreshadowed standard time.”

Blaise is the former director of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa and a prolific author whose works include the novels “Lunar Attractions” and “Lusts,” and the story collections “Resident Alien” and “Man and His World.”

Among his non-fiction titles are “Days and Nights in Calcutta” and “The Sorrow and the Terror,” which he wrote with his wife, Bharati Mukherjee; and “I Had a Father: A Post-Modern Autobiography.”

Chris Hallman, this year’s Banister writer-in-residence at SBC, was Blaise’s student at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. “Mr. Blaise has a remarkable record, both as a writer and as a teacher,” Hallman said. “He has been at the fore in the world of creative writing for many years. The Sweet Briar community is fortunate to have this opportunity to meet him face to face.”

The lecture is co-sponsored by the College Lectures and Events Committee. For more information, please contact the SBC Honors Program office at (434) 381-6473.