A List
2/23/04

NOVELIST MARK SALZMAN TO GIVE MACKAY LECTURE AT SLU

CANTON – Novelist Mark Salzman will deliver the Kathryn Fraser Mackay Memorial 
Lecture at St. Lawrence University on Wednesday, March 3, at 8 p.m. in Eben 
Holden. A book-signing will follow and both events are open to the public, 
free of charge.
	Author of the novels The Laughing Sutra and The Soloist, which was a 
finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for fiction, Salzman is also a 
cellist. His most recent novel is Lying Awake, a provocative work about a 
Carmelite nun in a spiritual crisis.
	Salzman has said that he wanted to grow up to become a master of the 
Chinese martial art of kung fu. He was accepted at Yale University at age 16 
because of his proficiency on the cello, but he changed his majors to Chinese 
language and philosophy. Those studies led Salzman to mainland China (Changsha 
in Hunan province), where he spent two years teaching English and studying 
traditional martial arts at their source.
	His first book, Iron and Silk, was a non-fiction account of his 
experiences living and working in China. It was a finalist for the Pulitzer 
Prize for non-fiction, and received the Christopher Award. Salzman's other 
non-fiction works include a memoir, Lost in Place: Growing Up Absurd in 
Suburbia, and his most recent book, True Notebooks, an  account of his 
experiences as a writing teacher at a maximum-security prison for juvenile 
offenders.  
	The Mackay Memorial Lecture was established in memory of Kathryn Fraser 
Mackay '77 by her family, to honor her interests and spirit. Traditionally, 
coordination of the lectures alternates between the departments of philosophy 
and religious studies.

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