The St. Lawrence University Writers Series 2007-2008

TOI DERRICOTTE

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2007 8:00 p.m. SYKES COMMON ROOM

Toi Derricotte is the author of the poetry collections Tender, winner of the 1998 Paterson

Poetry Prize; Captivity; Natural Birth and Empress of the Death House.  Her recent

memoir, The Black Notebooks, won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the Black Caucus

of the American Library Association Award in nonfiction, and was a New York Times

Notable Book of the Year. Her honors include the Pushcart Prize, inclusion in The Best

American Essays, and fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation, the John Simon

Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.  She is a

professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh.

TESS GALLAGHER

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2007  7:30 P.M. SYKES COMMON ROOM

Tess Gallagher is the author of eight volumes of poetry including Dear Ghosts, Moon

Crossing Bridge, and Amplitude: New and Selected Poems. She is also the author of Soul

Barnacles: Ten More Years with Ray, A Concert of Tenses: Essays on Poetry, and two

collections of short fiction, At the Owl Woman Saloon and The Lover of Horses and Other

 Stories.  Her honors include fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial

Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Maxine Cushing Gray Foundation

Award. This reading is sponsored by the Owen D. Young Library, The Friends of the Owen

D. Young and Launders Libraries, and the Department of English in celebration of the late

Frank P. Piskor (14th President of St. Lawrence University), a friend to poets and generous

donor of books.

ROBERT ROOT

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2007 8:00 P.M.  SYKES COMMON ROOM

Robert Root is the author of the historical memoir, Recovering Ruth: A Biographer’s Tale;  

Working at Writing;  E. B. White: The Emergence of An Essayist; and a textbook,

Wordsmithery.  He edited the recent anthology, Landscapes With Figures: The Nonfiction

of Place, and is co-editor of The Fourth Genre: Contemporary Writers of/on Creative

 Nonfiction and Those Who Do Can: Teachers Writing, Writers Teaching.  A recipient

of the 2006 Donald Murray Prize for Best Essay on Teaching and/or Writing, he is an editor

of the creative nonfiction journal, Fourth Genre.

JANE HAMILTON

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2007 8 P.M.  EBEN HOLDEN MAIN

Jane Hamilton is the author of the novels The Book of Ruth, The Guardian, The Short

History of a Prince, A Map of the World, Disobedience, and When Marguerite Was

Young.  A recipient of the Chicago Tribune’s Heartland Prize for Fiction as well as Publisher’s

 Weekly’s choice for “Best Book of the Year,  her work has been selected for Oprah’s Book

 Club and received the PEN/Hemingway Foundation Award.  She received an honorary

degree from St. Lawrence University in May, 2007.

PHILLIP LOPATE

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2007  8 P.M.  SYKES COMMON ROOM

Phillip Lopate is the author of the essay collections Bachelorhood, Against Joie de Vivre,

Portrait of My Body, and Getting Personal: Selected Writings.  His most recent book is

 the urbanistic meditation, Waterfront: A Journey Around Manhattan.  He is also the author

of two novels, two poetry collections, a memoir about teaching, and a collection of film

criticism: Totally Tenderly Tragically.  His honors include fellowships from the John Simon

Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the New York Public Library Center for Scholars and

Writers, the National Endowment for the Arts, a Pushcart Prize and inclusion in The Best

American Essays.  Editor of The Art of the Personal Essay and Writing New York, he currently holds the Adams Chair at Hofstra University, where he is Professor of English.

ALICE ELLIOTT DARK

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2007  8 P.M. SYKES COMMON ROOM

Alice Elliott Dark is the author of the novel, Think of England, and two short story collections, In The Gloaming and Naked to the Waist.  “In the Gloaming” was included in The Best American Short Stories of The Century and made into films by HBO and Trinity Playhouse.  Her honors include a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and inclusion in The Best American Short Stories and Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards.  She is currently a visiting professor in the MFA program at Rutgers, Newark.

 

K.L. COOK

Viebranz Visiting Professor of Creative Writing

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2008  8 P.M. SYKES COMMON ROOM

K. L. Cook is the author of a collection of stories, Last Call, which won the inaugural Prairie 

Schooner Book Prize in Fiction, and the novel, The Girl from Charnelle, which was named 

a Southwest Book of the Year, an Editor’s Choice selection of the Historical Novel Society, 

a Mississippi Press/Gulf Coast Live Best Book of the Year, and a School Library Journal 

Best Adult Book for High School Students.  He is a professor at Prescott College in Arizona 

and also teaches in Spalding University’ MFA in Writing Program.  

CORNELIUS EADY

THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 2008 8 P.M. SYKES COMMON ROOM

Cornelius Eady is the author of six books of poetry: Kartunes; Victims of the Latest Dance Craze, winner of the Lamont Prize from the Academy of American Poets; The Gathering of My Name, nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry; You Don’t Miss Your Water; The Autobiography of a Jukebox and Brutal Imagination.  A music-theatre piece he co-wrote, Running Man, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama and a theatrical production of Brutal Imagination won the Oppenheimer award for the best first play by an American Playwright. His honors include the Prairie Schooner Strousse Award and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Lila Wallace-Readers Digest Traveling Scholarship, and the Rockefeller Foundation. He is Associate Professor of English and Director of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Notre Dame.

FAITH ADIELE

MONDAY, APRIL 7, 2008  8 P.M. SYKES COMMON ROOM

Faith Adiele is the co-editor of Coming of Age Around the World: A Multicultural Anthology; and is author of Meeting Faith: The Forest Journals of a Black Buddhist Nun, which won the PEN Beyond Margins Award for Best Memoir.  She also starred in “My Journey Home,” a PBS documentary based on her life, writings, and trip to Nigeria.  She is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh

SENA JETER NASLUND

THURSDAY, April 24, 2008  8 P.M.  SYKES COMMON ROOM

Sena Jeter Naslund is the author of the novels Ahab’s Wife, Four Spirits, Sherlock in Love, Abundance, and a collection of stories, The Disobedience of Water.  She is Writer in Residence at the University of Louisville, program director of the Spalding University brief-residency MFA in Writing, and current Kentucky Poet Laureate. Recipient of the Harper Lee Award and the Southeastern Library Association Fiction Award, she is editor of The Louisville Review and the Fleur-de-Lis Press.

For more information:

Natalia Singer, Professor of English, St. Lawrence University,

Canton, NY 13617; 315-229-5898 or 5125; nsinger@stlawu.edu

www.stlawu.edu

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