NCSU Libraries Focus Online
Volume 24 number 2 - Winter 2004
Alice Walker and Dennis Lehane To Launch 2004 North Carolina Literary Festival
By Laura Hudson, North Carolina Literary Festival
Award-winning poet, essayist, and novelist Alice Walker will kick off the
2004 North Carolina Literary Festival at NC State University on Thursday evening,
April 15, 2004, with the opening address. Georgia-born Walker's literary career
spans several decades, and her awards include honors from the National Endowment
for the Arts and the National Institute for Arts and Letters. Walker won the
1983 Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award for The Color Purple.
Walker is recognized for addressing challenging social issues and illuminating
black American culture and the lives of African American women. Her last novel, By
the Light of My Father's Smile, was published in 1998.
Dennis Lehane, the best-selling author of Mystic River who was born
and raised in Massachusetts, will provide the keynote address at the festival
on Friday evening, April 16, in Stewart Theater in the Talley Student Center.
A reception and book signing will follow. Mystic River was a finalist
for the PEN/Winship Award and won both the Anthony Award and the Barry Award
for Best Novel.
Lehane's mysteries and thrillers take place in New England, where he currently
resides. His first five novels featured the Kenzie and Gennaro duo that readers
have come to adore. Lehane has written seven novels, the latest of which is Shutter
Island.
Free tickets for both speeches can be obtained on the festival Web site. Receptions
will be held in conjunction with both events but may require separate fee-based
tickets. For more information about the speakers and scheduled events, visit
the regularly updated Web site at http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/nclitfest2004.
|
