Source: Karin Westman, 785-532-2190, westmank@k-state.edu
News release prepared by: Rosie Hoefling, 785-532-2535, media@k-state.edu
Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2012
Lively literature: English department to sponsor several literary events in March
MANHATTAN -- Several guest lectures and a variety of literary events, all sponsored by the department of English, will take place at Kansas State University throughout March.
March English events, all free and open to the public unless otherwise indicated, include:
* Visiting speaker David Chinitz will present a lecture on poet Langston Hughes at 4 p.m. Friday, March 2, in Room 212 of the K-State Student Union. A professor at Loyola University, Chinitz is the author of "A Companion to T. S. Eliot" and "T. S. Eliot and the Cultural Divide." Some of his articles include "'A real, solid, sane, racial something': Langston Hughes's Blues Poetry" in "Jazz and the Black Poet" and "A Vast Wasteland? Eliot and Popular Culture" in "A Companion to T. S. Eliot."
* A K-State English Department Colloquium will be at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 7, in Room 213 of the Union. K-State's Tim Dayton, professor of English, will present "The First World War, American Literary History and the Problem of Hegemony."
* A reading by guest author Ronaldo Wilson will be at 3:30 p.m. Friday, March 9, in the Union Little Theatre. Wilson is the author of "Narrative of the Life of the Brown Boy and the White Man" and "Poems of the Black Object." He is the winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize and has had four poems nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Wilson has also had fellowships at the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, the Vermont Studio Center, Cave Canem, Djerassi Resident Artists Program and the Yaddo Corp. Additionally, he has taught creative writing and African-American poetics at Mount Holyoke College and recently joined the faculty at University of Southern California.
* Hallows and Horcruxes Ball 5: A Wizard Rock Concert for Literacy will take place from 7 p.m. to midnight Saturday, March 10, in the K-State Alumni Center. The concert will feature performances by Alex Carpenter, Ministry of Magic, Lauren Fairweather, Tonks and the Aurors, The Whomping Willows, Gred and Forge, and Justin Finch-Fletchley and the Sugar Quills. The event is co-sponsored by the department of English, the Children's and Adolescent Literature Community, the Dow Chemical Multicultural Resource Center at Hale Library, the K-State Harry Potter Alliance and the Manhattan Music Coalition. Admission is free for K-State students with a valid Wildcat ID and $12 for the general public. Tickets will be available for K-State students beginning March 2 from the department of English, 108 English/Counseling Services Building. For all others, tickets are available online at http://www.k-state.edu/chalc/HHBall.html or at the door the night of the concert.
* Visiting scholar Marek Oziewicz from the University of Wroclaw, Poland, will present "Representations of Eastern Europe in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, Jonathan Stroud's The Bartimaeus Trilogy and J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter Series" at 4 p.m. Wednesday, March 14, in the Union Little Theatre.
* Guest fiction writer Rebecca Makkai will present a reading of her work at 3:30 p.m. Friday, March 30, in the Union Little Theatre. Makkai's short fiction has been anthologized in "The Best American Short Stories 2011" as well as the 2010, 2009 and 2008 editions; "The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2009"; "New Stories from the Midwest"; "Best American Fantasy"; and featured on Public Radio International's "Selected Shorts."
* Lecture by novelist Elizabeth Bunce, 11 a.m. Saturday, March 31, in the K-State Alumni Center. Bunce will be the keynote speaker for the interdisciplinary conference "The Power of Three: Children's Literature in English, Education and Library Science," sponsored by the Children's and Adolescent Literature Community and the department of English. An award-winning novelist, Bunce is acclaimed for her young adult novels that interweave history and fantasy. Her reading is open to the public with free preregistration for the conference, and a book signing courtesy of Claflin Books will follow the reading. For more information about the conference, visit http://www.ksu.edu/chalc.
More information about the events is available by contacting the department of English at english@k-state.edu or 785-532-2190.
