POETS, NOVELISTS, AND AUTHORS SLATED FOR PITT'S PITTSBURGH CONTEMPORARY WRITERS SERIES' THIRD SEASON

PITTSBURGH, Aug. 1 -- The third season of the University of Pittsburgh Writing Program's Pittsburgh Contemporary Writers Series will feature poets, novelists, journalists, and an African-American theater panel, opening with Merle Collins, novelist and poet, on Wednesday, Sept. 20, at

8:15 p.m., in 125 Frick Fine Arts Auditorium, Schenley Drive, Oakland.

Collins is the author of two poetry collections, "Because the Dawn Breaks" and "Rotten Pomerack;" the novels "Angel" and "The Colour of Forgetting;" and a short story collection, "Rain Darling." This year the English Department and Africana Studies are hosting Contemporary Writers Series events focused on African-American literature and culture of the Diaspora.

"We're especially pleased to be participating in the first Provost's Year of Intellectual Enrichment," said Lynn Emanuel, coordinator of the Contemporary Writers Series and director of Pitt's Writing Program, the oldest writing program in the country. "The Writers Series and the Literature program are co-sponsoring a departmental colloquium entitled 'African-American Writing in The Academy and Other Public Places.' The culmination will be a reading by three notable African-American writers and critics: science fiction writer Samuel Delany, and poets Nathaniel Mackey and Lorenzo Thomas," said Emanuel.

The "Contemporary Writers Series" is co-sponsored by the Office of the Provost, the Wyndham Garden Hotel-University Place, The Book Center, Western Pennsylvania Writing Project, Department of Africana Studies, The Women's Studies Program, Center for Latin American Studies, East Asian Studies, University of Pittsburgh Press, Creative Nonfiction, Department of Hispanic Languages and Literatures, and the Honors College.

The series is free and open to the public. All readings begin at 8:15 p.m. Featured writers are:

Thursday, Oct. 26

Adria Bernardi, author of "In the Gathering Woods," which won

the Drue Heinz Literature Prize; also Frank Conroy, prize judge and

author of "Body and Soul" and "Stop-Time."

125 Frick Fine Arts Auditorium, Schenley Drive, Oakland.

Thursday, Nov. 2

David Lehman, author of "The Daily Mirror: A Journal in Poetry," and

several books of criticism, including "The Last Avant Garde."

125 Frick Fine Arts Auditorium, Schenley Drive, Oakland.

Thursday, Jan. 18, 2001 -- Triple Feature

Lorenzo Thomas, author of "The Bathers" and "Chances are Few;"

Samuel Delany, author of "Flight from Neveryon" and "Atlantis;" and

Nathaniel Mackey, author of "Eroding Witness."

125 Frick Fine Arts Auditorium, Schenley Drive, Oakland.

Wednesday, Feb. 21

Jane Kramer, author of "The Politics of Memory" and staff writer for

The New Yorker.

125 Frick Fine Arts Auditorium, Schenley Drive, Oakland.

Thursday, March 15

Marilyn Chin, author of poetry collections, "The Phoenix Gone" and

"The Terrace Empty."

125 Frick Fine Arts Auditorium, Schenley Drive, Oakland.

Tuesday, March 20

John McPhee, author of "Coming Into the Country" and "Basin and

Range."

120 David Lawrence Hall, Forbes Avenue, Oakland.

Wednesday, April 4

Sandra Cisneros, author of the novel, "The House on Mango Street."

120 David Lawrence Hall, Forbes Avenue, Oakland.

Monday, April 16

Artists and Influence: A Panel of African-American Theater

Author James Hatch, "Black Theater USA;" critic Woodie King Jr.,

"National Black Drama Anthology;" journalist Shauneille Perry,

"Black Playwrights of the Twentieth Century;" and playwright

Elizabeth Van Dyke, "Love to All, Lorraine."

120 David Lawrence Hall, Forbes Avenue, Oakland.

-30-

8/1/00/mgc