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Maxine
Hong Kington won the highly coveted National Book Critic
Circle Award for her first book, "The Woman Warrior:
Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts."
Of
her work Publisher's Weekly has said, "Immersed in the
myths, legends and superstitions of her ancestors, Kingston
has a magical facility for conveying an exotic culture
and its people in precise, stunning detail. Seldom are
we able to step with such ease into a culture so different
from ours, and to emerge with a sympathetic understanding,
tinged with awe and respect for the mysterious power
of an ancient civilization."
A
Book of the Month Club main selection, Kingston's second
book, "China Men," was excerpted in The New Yorker,
Redbook, and The American Poetry Review.
Kingston
will open the Literary Festival with her reading: at
8 p.m. Monday, Oct 6., in the Batten Arts and Letters
auditorium. She will speak on non-fiction writing at
12:30 pm. Tuesday, Oct. 7, in the Hampton/Newport News
rooms of Webb Center.
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Ed
Ochester is the author of eight published collections
of poetry, most recent of which are "Weehawken Ferry"
(Juniper Press, 1985) and "Changing the Name to Ochester"
(forthcoming from Carnegie Mellon).
Ochester
is the recipient of fellowships in poetry from the National
Endowment for the Arts and the Pennsylvania Council
on the Arts. In 1973 he received the Devins Award for
poetry. He edits the University of Pittsburgh Press
Poetry Series, and since its inception has served as
coordinator of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize for short
fiction.
Ochester
will speak on small vs. large press editing at 11 am.
Wednesday, Oct. 8, in the Hampton/Newport News rooms
of Webb Center. He will read with Ellen Bryant Voigt
at 12:30 p.m. immediately following.
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Jonathan
Holden's first poetry collection, "Design for a House,"
won the 1972 Devins Award. Another poetry collection,
"Leverage," won the AWP Award Series for Poetry in 1982.
He
is currently an associate professor of English at Kansas
State University where he teaches creative writing and
modern poetry. In addition to poetry, Holden has published
a critical study of William Stafford, a book of critical
essays, "Rhetoric of the Contemporary Lyric," and has
a book forthcoming on the poetry of Richard Hugo. His
most recent book of poems is "The Name of the Rapids."
Holden will read at 2 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 9, in the
Hampton/Newport News rooms of Webb Center.
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Well-known
writers to speak
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Eight
nationally known poets, playwrights and writers
will grace Old Dominion University's ninth annual
Literary Festival Oct. 6-9. The artists will lecture
about their craft, give readings from selected
works and hold open discussions. Al! events during
the festival are free and open to the public.
The
ninth annual festival is sponsored by the English
department in conjunction with the university's
Center for the Arts, It is supported by the Virginia
Commission on the Arts, the city of Norfolk and
the Norfolk Commission on the Arts and Humanities,
and the Associated Writing Programs.
For
more information about the festival call the English
department at 440-3991.
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Edna
O'Brien's first novel, "The Country Girls," published
in 1960, received the Kingsley Amis Award and was released
as a feature film. Her next two novels were centered
on the samecharacters. Since the trilogy, O'Brien has
published six more novels, four collections of stories,
a book of non-fiction on her native Ireland and several
plays and screenplays.
Her
play, "Virginia," starring Kate Nelligan, was produced
by Joseph Papp in New York. "Flesh and Blood" is slated
to open this year in Toronto. In 1984, Farrar, Straus
and Giroux published "A Fanatic Heart: The Selected
Stories of Edna O'Brien."
Writing
on the recently released omnibus edition of O'Brien's
first three novels ("The Country Girls Trilogy and Epilogue"),
Village Voice critic Terrence Rafferty said, "The raptures
here are in the rhythm of the prose, its seductive alternation
of curses and explosive comedy and lyrical grief. Ireland
may be a mother, but to get all the way back to it Edna
O'Brien has to be a bit of the father as well: she knows
that when life is at its frequent worst, there's nothing
for it but getting drunk on words, rocking back and
forth and singing all the songs you know."
Edna
O'Brien will read at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 7, in the
Batten Arts and Letters auditorium. She will speak on
Irish fiction at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 8, in the Hampton/
Newport News rooms of Webb Center.
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Robert
Bly has published eight books of poems, five volumes
of translations, and three books of criticism/ anthology.
His poetry has won him the highest critical praise-a
National Book Award-for "The Light Around the Body."
His new thinking on central issues in American Culture
has won him another audience far beyond the poetry world.
He is now at work on a book called "Waking from Newton's
Sleep: Essays on Literary Imagination" and "The Wild
Man and Other Stories for Men," a psychological interpretation
of fairytales as they relate to masculine development.
His most recent book of poems, "Loving a Woman in Two
Worlds," was published by Dial Press/Doubleday.
Bly
will read at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 8., in the Godwin
Building auditorium. He will speak on the connections
between poetry and mythology in a talk titled "Poetry
As A Dance Floor" at 11 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 9, in the
Hampton/ Newport News rooms of Webb Center.
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The
San Francisco Review of Books has written that, "In
Linda Pastan's world a poem is not just anything; it
is more than some inspired words strung together casually.
She reminds us of the origin of the word poet: 'maker.'
People who read books on the latest political, economic,
sociological and psychological concerns should put Pastan
on their lists. In her work there is a return to the
role of poet as it served the human race for centuries:
to fuel our thinking, show us our world in new ways,
and to get us to feel more intensely."
Linda
Pastan has received a fellowship from the National Endowment
for the Arts as well as the Dylan Thomas Poetry Award
and the di Castagnola Award. Her book, "AM/PM New and
Selected Poems," was a nominee for the American Book
Award in 1982.
She will give a reading at 2 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 9,
in theo Hampton/Newport News rooms of Webb Center.
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Recipient
of a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship and of fellowships
from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Vermont
Arts Council. Ellen Bryant Voigt has had poems appear
in The New Yorker. The Atlantic Monthly, and The Georgia
Review. Her most recent book of poems, "The Forces of
Plenty," was published by Norton Press.
Voigt
will read with Ed Ochester at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday,
Oct. 8, in the Hampton Newport Newsrooms of Webb Center.
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Of
Shange's most recent novel, "Betsy Brown," writer lsmael
Reed has said, "No contemporary writer has Ms. Shange's
uncanny gift for immersing herself within the situations
of so many different types of women. No wonder she has
achieved almost oracular status among her female readers.
She is a writer of many masks. She can serenade you
and she can cut you; she can chirp as well as growl;
she can delight as well as antagonize. With 'Betsy Brown'
the masks come off."
Ntozake
Shange has published several books of poetry, plays,
and fiction. She has won two Obie Awards(for "for colored
girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is
enuf" and "Mother Courage") and the Los Angeles Times
Book Prize for her collection, "Three Pieces." Shange
is currently at work on a book documenting five generations
of post-Katherine Dunhan Afro-American choreography
to be titled "Dance We Do."
Shange
will speak on playwriting at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct.
9, in the Hampton/Newport News rooms of Webb Center.
She will read that night at 8 p.m. in the Godwin Building
auditorium. Her appearance is sponsored by the Activities
Programming Board.
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