NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jane Smiley will speak Tuesday, Jan. 23, at Ingram Hall at the Blair School of Music on the Vanderbilt University campus.
Smiley won the Pulitzer in 1992 for A Thousand Acres, a modern version of King Lear set in a small Iowa farming community. A 1997 movie of the same name starring Jessica Lange and Michelle Pfeiffer explored the book‘s themes of incest, madness, marital infidelity, ugly family secrets, cancer and the corrupting power of sex and money.
In her most recent book, and her first major work of non-fiction, Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel, Smiley discusses why a novel does or doesn‘t succeed and takes the reader deep into the process of novel-writing, sharing the secrets of her own habits and her theories of creativity. She will share some of the same thoughts at her presentation.
Smiley is the author of 12 works of fiction, including The Age of Grief, The Greenlanders, Moo, Horse Heaven and A Thousand Acres. She is also a frequent contributor to The New Yorker, Vogue and Harper‘s. She has written on topics as diverse as politics, farming, horse training, impulse buying, Barbie™ and getting dressed.
The event will begin at 6 p.m., preceded by a complimentary reception at 5 p.m. in Ingram Hall. This event is free and open to the public. Reservations are not required, but seating is limited and available on a first-come, first-seated basis. Parking will be available in South Garage at 24th Avenue South and Children‘s Way.
Video of the lecture will be Webcast from VUCast, Vanderbilt‘s news network, www.vanderbilt.edu/news.
The speech is part of the 2006-2007 Chancellor‘s Lecture Series. The Chancellor‘s Lecture Series serves to bring to Vanderbilt and the wider Nashville community intellectuals who are shaping the world today. For more information about the Chancellor‘s Lecture Series, visit www.vanderbilt.edu/chancellor/cls.
Media contact: Melissa Pankake, (615) 322-NEWS
melissa.r.pankake@vanderbilt.edu