LITERARY FESTIVAL CONTINUES TODAY WITH READING BY PULITZER PRIZE WINNER STEVEN MILLHAUSER, PANEL DISCUSSION

Old Dominion University's 23rd Annual Literary Festival, "A New World," continues today with readings by Fran Gordon, Michael Joyce and Steven Millhauser, and a panel discussion on "New Writing for a New World." All events are free and open to the public.

Gordon, Joyce and Millhauser will speak at 11 a.m., 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., respectively and all of these sessions will be held in Chandler Recital Hall of the Diehn Fine and Performing Arts Center.

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 discussion on "New Writing for a New World" will feature panelists Collin Brooks, Joel English, Joyce and Gordon, and will be held at 4 p.m., in the Hampton/Newport News Room in Webb University Center.

Ernest Gaines, on of the most important names in contemporary American fiction 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.

Also scheduled are:

*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.