Media Contacts:
Dr. Lucinda MacKethan, event coordinator, 919/515-4143 or macketha@unity.ncsu.edu
Mick Kulikowski, News Services, 919/515-8387 or mick_kulikowski@ncsu.edu

Nov. 29, 2000

NC State University Writers to Give Readings at Quail Ridge Books

Creative writers from the North Carolina State University English Department -- including professor of English and poet-in-residence John Balaban, whose recent book Spring Essence: The Poetry of Ho Xuan Huong has received rave reviews nationwide -- will read from their works and others at 7:30 p.m Thursday, Nov. 30 at Quail Ridge Books in Ridgewood Shopping Center on Wade Avenue.

Media coverage of the event is welcomed. The authors will be available for interviews. The event is free and open to the public.

Balaban is the author of 10 books of poetry and prose, including four volumes which together have won The Academy of American Poets' Lamont prize, a National Poetry Series Selection, and two nominations for the National Book Award. His Locusts at the Edge of Summer: New and Selected Poems won the 1998 William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America.

Other NC State writers who will take part in the event include Tim McLaurin, who will read from his memoir The River Less Run, and Robert Bateman, who will read excerpts of his work Over the Garden State. Portions of the newly reissued Ballad of the Flim Flam Man, written by deceased faculty member Guy Owen, will also be presented.

The reading is one of a series of new or expanded events and lectures sponsored by NC State's Creative Writing Program. Other events include an annual readers and writers marathon which raises funds for the Wake County Literacy Council; a reading series in which six notable authors -- including two Pulitzer Prize winners -- are giving free, public presentations of their works; and a poetry festival celebrating African-American literature and culture.

- kulikowski -

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