NCSU Libraries Focus Online

Volume 24 number 1 - Fall 2003

Lee Smith Charms Spring Dinner Audience

Lee Smith, always a delight, returned to NC State to speak at the Friends of the Library's annual Spring Dinner on April 30, 2003. Smith entertained the audience by reading passages from her latest book, The Last Girls, published in September 2002. The story centers on four college roommates who reunite after many years to scatter the ashes of a fifth friend. While on a Mississippi riverboat, they rekindle their friendships and offer humorous and insightful reflections on their life journeys.

Lee Smith is a retired professor from the NC State Department of English. She is the author of many books, including the 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 Last Girls was chosen as the number one pick for September and October 2002 by "Book Sense 76" and was a finalist for the 2003 Southeastern Booksellers Association Award for fiction.

Assad Meymandi, president of the Friends of the Library Board of Directors, hosted the Spring Dinner, and NC State Chancellor Marye Anne Fox greeted the audience. Susan Nutter, vice provost and director of Libraries, welcomed seven new life members and announced the establishment of four new library endowments and four new incubator endowments. Smith's editor, Shannon Ravenel of Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, delivered an eloquent introduction of Smith. The Friends of the Library gives special thanks to Wyndham Robertson and Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill for donations in support of the Spring Dinner.