NCSU Libraries Focus Online
Volume 23 number 2 - Winter 2003
Friends of the Library News -- Lee Smith To Be the Featured Speaker at
2003 Spring Dinner
By Mary Kate Keith, Friends of the Library
A very special evening is in store for those who attend the Friends of the
Library's 2003 Spring Dinner. Lee Smith will be the guest speaker at the annual
event, which will be held on Wednesday, April 30, 2003. Lee's latest novel, The
Last Girls, published in 2002, was selected as the number one pick for
September and October 2002 by "Book Sense 76." It also received starred
reviews in Publishers Weekly and Booklist. USA Today said
in its review that, "An honest portrait of intelligent, well-rounded southerners
is always refreshing, and The Last Girls delivers."
Helen W. Evans, chair of the Friends of the Library's Program Committee, praised
Smith, saying, "Lee makes the audience her friend. She is a marvelous
speaker who is engaging and always delivers a strong, thoughtful story. We
look forward to welcoming her back to NC State for this special night."
Smith, a retired faculty member from NC State's Department of English, has
written many books, including best-selling novels Oral History and Fair
and Tender Ladies and the collections Me and My Baby View the Eclipse and News
of the Spirit, both New York Times Notable Books. Her awards
include the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writer's Award and the 1999 Academy
Award for fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The Libraries'
Special Collections Department has a Web exhibit on her career entitled "A
Diamond from Coal Country" at http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/archives/exhibits/leesmith/.
She grew up in Grundy, Virginia, graduated from Hollins University in Virginia,
and resides in Hillsborough, North Carolina.
Please plan to join us for a wonderful evening with one of North Carolina's
most distinguished writers. For event and ticket information, please call the
Friends of the Library at (919) 515-2841.
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