Author and Scholar Maxine Hong Kingston to Deliver Literary Reading At Pitt Sept. 29

PITTSBURGH-Author Maxine Hong Kingston will give a literary reading at 8:30 p.m. Sept. 29 in the Frick Fine Arts Auditorium, 650 Schenley Dr., Oakland. This event is part of the Pittsburgh Contemporary Writers Series 2008-09 season.

Kingston is a highly acclaimed academic and writer of fiction and nonfiction. She is the author of "The Fifth Book of Peace" (Knopf, 2006), "To Be the Poet (Harvard University Press, 2002), China Men" (Knopf, 1980), and "The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts" (Knopf, 1976). She also served as editor of "Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace" (Koa Books, 2006).

Kingston has received numerous awards for her work, including the 2007 Northern California Book Reviewers Special Award in Publishing for "Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace," the 1997 National Humanities Medal from President Bill Clinton, and the 1976 National Book Critics Circle Award in Nonfiction. She also served on the committee that chose the design for the California commemorative stamp in 2005.

Kingston earned a BA degree in English in 1962 and her teaching certificate in 1965. A professor emeritus at Berkeley, Kingston has taught literature in numerous colleges and universities in California, Hawaii, and Michigan.

The 2008-09 Pittsburgh Contemporary Writers Series season is cosponsored by Pitt's University Center for International Studies, Asian Studies Center, China Council Confucious Institute, Cultural Studies Program, Women's Studies Program, and Book Center and by the Carnegie Mellon University Creative Writing Program.

All events in the Writers Series are free and open to the public. For more information, contact Jeff Oaks at oaks@pitt.edu, or visit www.umc.pitt.edu/news/documents/morningreport/2008/08/wsschedule.pdf.

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