L-R News

John Updike to headline Visiting Writers Series

http://www.lrc.edu/visitingwriters/

(photo by Martha Updike)

John Updike

James Bradley

Don Paterson

Tony Abbot

Nikky Finney

Christopher Paul Curtis

Gary Snyder

John Updike — internationally recognized novelist, poet, short story writer and literary critic — will headline the 18th season of Lenoir-Rhyne College’s Visiting Writers Series: In Their Own Words.

A total of seven writers, including the first children’s author, will participate in this year’s series. All readings are free and open to the public.

The first Visiting Writer will be James Bradley, who will read at 8 p.m. Sept. 21 in the P.E. Monroe Auditorium. He is the author of “Flags of Our Fathers,” a book about the Marines who raised the flag on Iwo Jima during World War II. He is the son of Iwo Jima flag raiser John Bradley, who stands in the middle of the most reproduced photo in the history of photography. “Flags of Our Fathers” is now a major motion picture by Steven Spielberg, directed by Clint Eastwood. Bradley is also the author of “Flyboys,” another historical book about World War II that has been optioned for a motion picture. Bradley’s presentation will be recorded for broadcast as part of the “Charlotte Talks” program on WFAE 90.7 FM.

On Oct. 5, Don Paterson will read at 8 p.m. in the Belk Centrum. Paterson is a Scottish poet and musician who has won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. His most recent book is “The White Lie.”

John Updike will speak at 8 p.m. Nov. 16 in the P.E. Monroe Auditorium. Born in 1932, he attended Harvard University and has become one of the mostly highly regarded contemporary American authors. In 2003 he received the National Medal for Humanities at the White House. His most recent novel, “Terrorist,” follows a disillusioned American teen who joins the jihad movement. Updike’s Visiting Writers Series appearance has been made possible by Resource Partners LLC Portfolio and Wealth Management.

Tony Abbot, Davidson College professor emeritus of English, will be the Visiting Writer in Residence during the spring semester. He will read from his work at 8 p.m. Jan. 25 in the Belk Centrum. Abbott has published several books of poems, including “The Girl in the Yellow Raincoat,” “A Small Thing Like a Breath” and “The Search for Wonder in the Cradle of the World.” In 2003, he was awarded the Novello Prize for his first novel, “Leaving Maggie Hope.”

Nikky Finney, an African-American author from South Carolina, will read from her work at 8 p.m. Feb. 22 at the Belk Centrum. Finney has published three collections of poetry — “On Wings Made of Gauze,” “Rice” and “The World is Round” — in addition to a short story collection intended for literacy students, “Heartwood.” She recently appeared on Russell Simmons’ “Def Poetry Jam” on HBO.

Christopher Paul Curtis, The Little Read author, will read from his work at 2 p.m. March 24 in P.E. Monroe Auditorium. This is the first year of The Little Read, a program to encourage reading by elementary-age students. Curtis is an African-American author who grew up in Flint, Mich. After high school, he worked for 13 years on the assembly line at the Fisher Body Plant. During this time, he began writing his first novel, “The Watsons go to Birmingham – 1963.” Curtis’s second novel, “Bud, Not Buddy,” was published in 1999 and won the 2000 Newbery Medal. Curtis’s appearance is sponsored by the Visiting Writers Series: In Their Own Words, the Lenoir-Rhyne College School of Education and the Hickory Public Schools. Details are available at www.thelittleread.net.

Gary Snyder, noted environmental poet, will read from his work at 8 p.m. April 19 in the Belk Centrum. Snyder was born in San Francisco and raised in Oregon and Washington State. He received his bachelor’s degree in anthropology at Reed College in Portland in 1951. He was associated with the Beat writers such as Ginsberg and Kerouac. He lived in Japan from 1956 to 1964 and later studied Buddhism there. He has won numerous literary prizes, including a Guggenheim fellowship and the Pulitzer Prize. He now teaches literature and wilderness thought at the University of California at Davis. This author’s appearance is made possible through a collaboration of the Visiting Writers Series: In Their Own Words with the Thomas W. Reese Institute for Conservation of Natural Resources, Foothills Conservancy of North Carolina and The Trust for Public Land.

All readings in the Visiting Writers Series are free and open to the public thanks to the generous support of our donors. This project received support from the North Carolina Arts Council, an agency funded by the state of North Carolina and the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art. Other supporters of this year’s Visiting Writers Series include Barnes & Noble Booksellers; Ron and Sandra Deal; the Foothills Conservancy of North Carolina; Holiday Inn Select; the Thomas W. Reese Institute for Conservation of Natural Resources; the Trust for Public Land; People’s Bank; Resource Partners LLC Portfolio and Wealth Management; United Arts Council of Catawba County; and WFAE 90.7, Your NPR News Source.