Pitt Contemporary Writers Series to Feature Drue Heinz Literature Prize Reading

PITTSBURGH—The Pittsburgh Contemporary Writers Series will host a reading featuring this year's Drue Heinz Literature Prize winner David Harris Ebenbach and judge Stewart O'Nan, at 7:30 Nov. 2 in the Frick Fine Arts Auditorium, Room 125, Schenley Drive, Oakland.

Ebenbach is a writer of fiction and poetry, a teacher, and a freelance editor. His collection Between Camelots was selected for the Drue Heinz prize and was recently published by the University of Pittsburgh Press. He earned the M.F.A degree in creative writing at Vermont College of Norwich University and the Ph.D. degree at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Ebenbach's short fiction has been published in numerous literary magazines, including Denver Quarterly, Beloit Fiction Journal, and Crazyhorse. His poetry has appeared in Phoebe, Stickman Review, and Arbutus, among other publications.

O'Nan's In the Walled City (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1993) was awarded the 1993 Drue Heinz Literature Prize. O'Nan's works include The Names of the Dead (Doubleday, 1996), The Speed Queen (Doubleday, 1997), A Prayer for the Dying (Henry Holt and Co., 1999), and Everyday People (Grove Press, 2001). In 1996, Granta magazine named him one of America's Best Young Novelists. Snow Angels (Picador, 1994) won the 1993 Pirates Alley William Faulkner Prize. O'Nan also has written notable nonfiction, specifically The Circus Fire (Doubleday, 2000), an account of a tragic 1944 fire in Hartford, Conn. He received the M.F.A degree from Cornell University. He has taught at Cornell, the University of Central Oklahoma, and Trinity College.

The Drue Heinz Literature Prize is awarded annually by the University of Pittsburgh Press to recognize writers of short fiction and make their work available to readers around the world.

The 2005-2006 Contemporary Writers Series, which runs through April 5, is cosponsored by Wyndham Garden Hotel-University Place and Pitt's Book Center, Department of Classics, University of Pittsburgh Press, and Creative Nonfiction Program.

For more information, call 412-624-6505 or visit www.english.pitt.edu.

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10/26/05/blg