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University Communications

Award-winning writers from around the world will speak in University of Richmond lecture series

September 4, 2008

Award-winning novelists, poets, dramatists and memoirists from around the world will read from their works and speak in the University of Richmond's 2008-09 Department of English Writers' Series.

The visiting writers have won Pulitzer, Booker, T.S. Eliot, and Cannes Film Festival's Camera d'Or prizes and the National Book Critics Circle Award, among others. All programs are free and open to the public.

The series opens Oct. 1 with novelist Peter Carey, who will speak at 7 p.m., in Weinstein Hall's Brown-Alley Room. Carey is one of only two writers who have won the Booker Prize twice. His books deal with the complexities of personal identity, questions of authenticity and fakery and the role of the artist and the outsider. Born in Australia, Carey lives in New York City, where he teaches creative writing at Hunter College.

Other scheduled speakers include:

  • Australian John Kinsella, a poet, fiction writer, memoirist and dramatist, Oct. 6, 8 p.m., in Weinstein Hall's Brown-Alley Room. Author of 40 books, Kinsella founded the magazine Salt and has edited several anthologies of Australian poetry. A fellow of Churchill College at Cambridge University, he divides his time between England and Western Australia.

  • Australian poet Pam Brown, Oct. 20, 8 p.m., in Weinstein Hall's Brown-Alley Room. Brown has published 14 books of poetry and prose, including "Dear Deliria," which received the New South Wales Premiers Award. She is associate editor of the online journal Jacket and lives in Sydney.

  • American poet, memoirist and Richmond native Margaret Gibson, Oct. 21, 7 p.m., in Keller Hall Memorial Room. Author of nine books of poetry, including Lamont Prize-winner "Long Walks in the Afternoon" and National Book Award finalist "The Vigil: A Poem in Four Voices," Gibson is professor emeritus of English at the University of Connecticut.

  • Fiction writer and memoirist Bliss Broyard, Nov. 17, 4 p.m., in Weinstein Hall's Brown-Alley Room. Her short fiction is included in "Best American Short Stories of 1998" and "The Pushcart Anthology." Daughter of New York Times literary critic Anatole Broyard, she learned shortly before her father died in 1990 that he had African ancestry. Her book, "One Drop," explores her hidden family history and meetings with family members she had not previously known.

  • American poet and memoirist Katy Lederer, Jan. 29, 8 p.m., in Weinstein Hall's Brown-Alley Room. Poetry editor of Fence, Lederer is author of "Poker Face: A Girlhood among Gamblers," named one of the best books of 2003 by Esquire.

  • American poet Jennifer Atkinson, Feb. 5, 8 p.m., in Weinstein Hall's Brown-Alley Room. A member of the George Mason University faculty, Atkinson is author of three books of poetry, including "The Drowned City," winner of the Samuel Morse Prize. She also is a winner of the Pushcart Prize.

  • Irish poet Vona Groarke, Feb. 19, 8 p.m. in Weinstein Hall's Brown-Alley Room. Author of four books of poetry, Groarke has won numerous prizes, including the Hennessy Award and the Brendan Behan Memorial Prize. Her poems demonstrate commitment to place, family life and the song-like qualities of language. She teaches at the University of Manchester in England and Wake Forest University.

  • Israeli novelist and filmmaker Etgar Keret, March 23, 7 p.m., in Weinstein Hall's Brown-Alley Room. Winner of the Camera d'Or Prize at Cannes for his feature "Jellyfish," Keret fuses the banal with the surreal, depicting a world simultaneously funny and sad. A resident of Tel Aviv, he teaches at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Tel Aviv University.

  • Irish poet and dramatist Paul Muldoon, March 30, 8 p.m., in Weinstein Hall's Brown-Alley Room. Author of 10 books of poetry, including Pulitzer Prize winner, "Moy Sand and Gravel," he also is author of the play, "Six Honest Serving Men," and two operas. He is a professor at Princeton University and poetry editor of The New Yorker.

  • American poet and memoirist Mark Doty, April 9, 7 p.m., in Weinstein Hall's Brown-Alley Room. The only American poet to have won Great Britain's T.S. Eliot Prize, Doty is author of six books of poems. His "My Alexandria" received the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. He teaches in the graduate program at the University of Houston.