LITERARY FESTIVAL, "A NEW WORLD," OPENS OCT. 2
Old Dominion University's 23rd Annual Literary Festival will showcase original and mesmerizing writers who represent the fullness and diversity of contemporary American literature Oct. 2-6 on the Norfolk campus.
The festival, which carries the them "A New World," will feature drmatists and poets, nonfiction writers and novelists, writers of hypertext and photojournalists, and newly emerging student writers and Pulitzer Prize winners. All of the readings and lectures are free and open to the public.
Three of the most important names in contemporary American fiction -- Ernest Gaines, Tim O'Brien and Steven Millhauser -- will be featured at this year's festival.
Gaines will speak as part of the university's President's Lecture Series at 8 p.m. Oct. 5 in the Mills Godwin Jr. Life Sciences Building Auditorium. Working in the tradition of James Weldon Johnson, Ralph Ellison and Zora Neale Hurston, Gaines is the author of "A Lesson Before Dying," winner of the 1993 National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction.
Winner of both the National Book Award in fiction and France's Prix du Meilleur Libre Etranger, O'Brien will speak at 8 p.m. Oct. 3 in the Diehn Fine and Performing Arts Center's Chandler Recital Hall. O'Brien, who was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, has written numerous books, including "Going After Cacciato," "If I Die in a Combat Zone" and "Tomcat in Love."
Millhauser, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "Martin Dressler," will speak at 8 p.m. Oct. 4 in Chandler Recital Hall. His work has been said to have a "resonance and fairy tale allure." Other books by Millhauser include "Enchanted Night" and "The Knife Thrower and Other Stories."
The festival opens Oct. 2 with featured speakers Le Thi Diem Thuy at 11 a.m.; Christin Lore Weber at 2 p.m.; and Paula Allen at 8 p.m. All of these sessions will be held in Chandler Recital Hall.
Also scheduled are:
*Oct. 3 -- In Webb University Center: Reading by Michael Parker, 11 a.m., Hampton/Newport News Room; "The Future of the Book," a panel featuring Parker, Bino Realuyo, Laurie Stone and O'Brien, 2 p.m., River Rooms; reading by Realuyo, 4 p.m., Hampton/Newport News Room; reading by O'Brien, 8 p.m., Chandler Recital Hall.
*Oct. 4 -- Readings by Fran Gordon, Michael Joyce and Steven Millhauser, 11 a.m., 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., respectively, Chandler Recital Hall; panel featuring Collin Brooks, Joel English, Joyce and Gordon, 4 p.m., Hampton/Newport News Room.
*Oct. 5 -- Reading by Terrance Hayes, 4 p.m., Hampton/Newport News Room.
*Oct. 6 -- Readings by: three graduates of the university's master's program in creative writing, Judy Mercier, Anthony Enns and Ron Brooks, 11 a.m.; Laurie Stone, 2 p.m.; Old Dominion English department faculty Luisa Igloria, Michael Pearson, Janet Peery, Sheri Reynolds and Tim Seibles, 4 p.m.; and Brian Silberman, 8 p.m. All of the Oct. 6 readings will be given in the Diehn Center's Chandler Recital Hall.
For more information call 683-3991.