Source: Karin Westman, 785-532-2190, westmank@k-state.edu
News release prepared by: Rosie Hoefling, 785-532-2535, media@k-state.edu

Monday, Feb. 14, 2011

POETS, NOVELISTS AND MORE MAKE FOR LITERARY MONTH AT K-STATE

MANHATTAN -- Late February and early March offer a literary flair with lectures by noted scholars and poetry and fiction readings being offered by Kansas State University's department of English.

All events are free and open to the public. They include:

*Reading by poet Eamonn Wall, 3:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 18, Room 213, K-State Student Union. A native of Ireland, Wall has lived in the U.S. since 1982. He is a Smurfit-Stone Professor of Irish Studies and professor of English at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He is the author of five collections of poetry, and his book, "Writing the Irish West: Ecologies and Traditions," will be published in March by the University of Notre Dame Press. For more information visit http://www.eamonnwall.net/.

* Reading by novelist Philipp Meyer, 3:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 25, Little Theater, Union. Meyer's first novel, "American Rust," made numerous 2009 best book lists. He was a finalist in 2010 for the New York Public Library's Young Lions Award, was recognized in The New Yorker's 20 Under 40 fiction issue and received a Guggenheim Fellowship. More information on his presentation is available at http://www.k-state.edu/english/visit.html.

* Lecture by Susan Bordo, 5:30 p.m. Thursday, March 3, Ballroom, Union. A feminist scholar and cultural theorist, Bordo is a professor of English and gender and women's studies at the University of Kentucky. Her lecture is "The Creation of Anne Boleyn." The event is co-sponsored by the department of English and the women's studies program.

* Lecture by Terry Castle, 3:30 p.m. Friday, March 5, Little Theater, Union. Castle, professor of English at Stanford University, will present "'Outsider Art' and the Problem of Aesthetic Value." Her talk will address the global phenomenon of "outsider art" and the challenge it poses to traditional aesthetics and conceptions of the artist. The event is co-sponsored by Phi Beta Kappa, the department of English, the University Honors Program and the women's studies program.

* Poetry on Poyntz, 7 p.m. Friday, March 5, at the Strecker-Nelson Gallery, downtown Manhattan. Join various English department faculty and students as they gather to read some of their literary work.