PITTSBURGH CONTEMPORARY WRITERS SERIES AT PITT TO HOST NOVELIST MARITA GOLDEN

PITTSBURGH, Oct. 29 -- Marita Golden, novelist, journalist, essayist and poet, will display her talents at the University of Pittsburgh as the third guest this year of the Pittsburgh Contemporary Writers Series on Wednesday, Nov. 11 at 8:15 p.m. in the Cathedral of Learning's room 324, Oakland.

A professor and director of the MFA Graduate Creative Writing Program at Virginia Commonwealth University, Golden is best-known as a novelist. Her works include "A Woman's Place," "Long Distance Life" and "The Edge of Heaven." In addition to her novels, Golden has contributed to "Skin Deep: Women on Race" and "An Intimation of Things Distant: The Collected Fiction of Nella Larsen." She also has written her autobiography, "Migrations of the Heart."

Golden is the founder and first president of the African American Writers Guild and the founder and executive director of the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation. She has been a writer in residence at the University of Illinois, Wayne State University, Central Michigan University, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Brandeis University, Manhattanville College, Eastern Michigan University, Duke Ellington High School for the Arts, and Antioch College.

Golden's honors include a Grants-in-Aid Award from the D. C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, a Faculty Enhancement Grant from George Mason University, Distinguished Alumni Award from American University, Woman of the Year Award from Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, and an Honorary Doctor of Arts and Letters from the University of Richmond.

Other writers scheduled to appear at Pitt's series over the next few months are Mark Doty, Barry Lopez, and Tess Gallagher. Gay Talese and Maxine Hong Kingston were the first two writers featured in this year's Contemporary Writers Series.

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