Author Rosellen Brown to Speak at University of Richmond

September 11, 2002

Rosellen Brown, author of The New York Times best seller "Before and After," will read from her work and speak on writing and social change at the University of Richmond Sept. 25 at 8 p.m. in Keller Hall. Her appearance is open to the public at no charge.

Brown's most recent book is "Half a Heart," a story set in the civil rights era that traces the uneasy coexistence between blacks and whites in America from the point of view of a white, Jewish woman who is reunited with the biracial daughter she abandoned as an infant 17 years earlier. Her earlier novel, "Before and After," was translated into 23 languages and became a film starring Meryl Streep and Liam Neeson.

Author of five novels, Brown was named one of Ms. Magazine's 12 "women of the year" for 1984. She has received awards from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Ingram Merrill Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and other organizations.

Born in Philadelphia, Brown earned her B.A. from Barnard College and an M.A. from Brandeis University. She was a fellow of the Radcliffe Institute and taught creative writing at the University of Houston. She currently teaches in the graduate creative writing program at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Brown's appearance is sponsored by the Richmond Quest. For more information, call 804-287-6699.