Date: Aug 25, 2008

HOFSTRA'S "GREAT WRITERS, GREAT READINGS" SERIES LAUNCHES ITS FIFTH SEASON WITH ANN BEATTIE

Monday, September 15, 2008, at 7 p.m.; Guthart Cultural Center Theater, 1st Floor Axinn Library, South Campus

Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York ... Award-winning novelist and short story writer Ann Beattie is the first speaker in the fifth season of Hofstra University’s “Great Writers, Great Readings” series. Her reading will take place on Monday, September 15, at 7 p.m. at the Guthart Cultural Center Theater, located on the first floor of the Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library on the South Campus.

Ms. Beattie’s first novel, 1976’s Chilly Scenes of Winter was made into a film, followed by Falling in Place; Love Always; Picturing Will; Another You; My Life, Starring Dara Falcon; and The Doctor’s House. Her short story collections are Distortions, Secrets and Surprises, The Burning House, Where You’ll Find Me, What Was Mine, Park City: New and Selected Stories, Perfect Recall and Follies: New Stories.

This event is free and open to the public. For information, please call (516) 463-5410 or visit www.hofstra.edu/gwgr.

Ann Beattie received the Award in Literature from The American Academy of Arts and Letters and was later inducted as a member of that organization. She is also a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story and the Rea Award for the Short Story. Her stories have been included in four volumes of O. Henry Award collections.  

She has taught at Harvard College and the University of Connecticut and presently teaches at the University of Virginia where she is the Edgar Allan Poe Chair of the Department of English and Creative Writing. She has served as a visiting writer at Northwestern University and held brief residences at Rice University, University of Houston, University of Idaho and summer workshops at the Santa Monica Writers Conference, Writers at Work, Ropewalk and the New York State Writers Institute. Her writing has been translated into many languages, with book publications in France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Japan, Spain and Sweden.

“Great Writers, Great Readings” was launched by Hofstra University in recognition of the importance of writing and literature in a liberal arts education. In addition to a baccalaureate degree in English, Hofstra offers a Master of Arts in English and Creative Writing. The program’s faculty include eminent essayist Philip Lopate, writers Erik Brogger and Julia Markus and two Guggenheim Fellows: novelist Martha McPhee and poet Phillis Levin.

Future “Great Writers, Great Readings” events include:

Tuesday, November 18, 2008, at 7 p.m.
Molly Peacock, author of six volumes of poetry, including The Second Blush and Cornucopia: New & Selected Poems
Location: Monroe Lecture Center Theater California Avenue, South Campus

Wednesday, February 11, 2009, at 11 a.m.
Deborah Eisenberg, acclaimed short story writer, whose works include Transactions in a Foreign Currency , Under the 82nd Airborne, All Around Atlantis and Twilight of the Superheroes.
Location: Leo A. Guthart Cultural Center Theater, Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library, First Floor, South Campus

Tuesday, March 3, 2009, at 7 p.m.
Paul Muldoon was described by The Times Literary Supplement as “the most significant English-language poet born since the second World War,” He won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Moy Sand and Gravel (2002).
Location: Leo A. Guthart Cultural Center Theater, Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library, First Floor, South Campus
    
Wednesday, April 1, 2009, at 11 a.m.
Sarah Ruhl was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for her play The Clean House. Her newest work, Dead Man’s Cell Phone, was performed at Playwrights Horizons in March 2008 starring Mary-Louise Parker.
Location: Leo A. Guthart Cultural Center Theater, Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library, First Floor, South Campus

Related Link: Great Writers, Great Readings