ALL EVENTS ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Alice McDermott - novelist, is the author of Charming Billy (1998), winner of the 1998 National Book Award. Her other highly praised novels include At Weddings and Wakes (1992), a New York Times bestseller, That Night (1987), adapted into film by Warner Bros, and A Bigamist�s Daughter (1982).� McDermott's work deals with many aspects of love and family life and the nuances of Irish-American families.

Frank & Caroline Mouris - independent filmmakers, will provide film commentary and answer questions following the screenings of selected short films featuring their work and others.

Carolyn Kizer - Pulitzer Prize winning poet, is best known for her mastery of both traditional and free verse forms and for her unsentimental treatment of such subjects as nature, politics, and feminism. She is the author of seven poetry volumes including her most recent, Harping On (1996), The Nearness of You (1986), Yin (1984) which won the Pulitzer Prize, Mermaids in the Basement (1984), and Midnight Was My Cry (1971).

Thomas Keneally - Australian novelist and nonfiction writer, is the author most recently of The Great Shame: And the Triumph of the Irish in the English-Speaking World (1999), the story of how the Irish came to be dispersed all over the world. Keneally has published over 30 books including A River Town (1995), Woman on the Inner Sea (1992), To Asmara (1989), Schindler's List (1982), which won the Booker Prize and was the novel on which Steven Spielberg based his Oscar-winning film, Confederates (1979), and The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1972).

Marty Pottenger - performance artist, presents her Obie-winning solo theatrical production City Water Tunnel #3, a multi-media presentation which tells the story of the planning, building, and financing of the largest non-defense public-works project in the Western Hemisphere--New York City's Water Tunnel #3. It takes the audience on a tour of this 5 billion dollar project, as told through the stories of the people building it.

Gish Jen - novelist and short story writer is the author most recently of Who's Irish: And Other Stories (1999), termed "perceptive and sharply detailed" by Kirkus Reviews. Her acclaimed novels include Typical American (1991) and Mona in the Promised Land (1996). She has published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, The New Republic, The Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times.

Making Money: Is It Art?
Lawrence Weschler and J. S. G. Boggs - Weschler is a long-time writer for The New York Times and author of Boggs: A Comedy of Values (1999) and Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder (1995), which was a finalist the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award. He was a recipient of the Lannan Literary Award in 1998. Artist Boggs, who is chronicled in Weschler's book, draws currencies with remarkable precision and looks for merchants who will accept his artwork in lieu of cash. They will discuss the book, the value of currency and art, and Boggs's legal entanglements.

Nonfiction: The State of the Art
Four of today's best magazine writers discuss feature writing commercialism, censorship,and editorial standards in a wide-ranging panel discussion moderated by Donald Faulkner, the Writers Institute's Associate Director. Participants include: Joel Achenbach (The Washington Post), Susan Orlean (The New Yorker), Lawrence Weschler (The New York Times, see above), JoAnn Wypijewski (The Nation).

Joan Murray - poet, is the author most recently of Looking for the Parade (1999), which won the 1998 National Poetry Series, and Queen of the Mist (1999), a narrative poem on Annie Taylor, the intrepid woman who was the first person to plunge over Niagara Falls in a barrel.

Donald Hall & Sydney Lea; - Hall, best known for his poetry, has also published short stories, essays, a memoir, plays and children's books. His most recent work includes Without: Poems (1998), Fathers Playing Catch with Sons: Essays on Sport (1998), Principal Products of Portugal: Prose Pieces (1995), the memoir Life Work (1993), and numerous children's books. His poetry volume The One Day (1988) received the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Hall was Poet Laureate of New Hampshire for 1984-89.
Sydney Lea - poet, novelist, and essayist, is the author of To the Bone: New and Selected Poems, which was a co-winner of the 1998 Poet's Prize. Lea's previous poetry volumes include Prayer for the Little City (1990), No Sign (1987), The Floating Candles (1982), and Searching the Drowned Man (1980). His seventh verse collection, Pursuit of a Wound, all will be published next year. His novel, A Place in Mind, was published in 1989. Lea also was the founder and long time editor of the New England Review.

Ann Beattie - short story writer and novelist, has received critical acclaim for her depiction of the generation of Americas who grew up in the 60s. She has published six collections of short stories including Park City (1998), What Was Mine (1991), and The Burning House (1982), and six novels including My Life, Starring Dara Falcon (1997), Another You (1995), Picturing Will (1990), and Chilly Scenes of Winter (1976). She has received numerous awards for her work including an award for excellence from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.

Annie Proulx - award-winning novelist and short story writer, is the author most recently of Close Range: Wyoming Stories (1999). Her other work includes the novels Accordion Crimes (1996), Shipping News (1993), which won the Chicago Tribune's Heartland Award, the Irish Times International Fiction Prize, the National Book Award, and the Pulitzer Prize, and Postcards (1992), which won the 1993 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, and her first short story collection, Heart Songs (1988).

Novel into Film
Tom Perrotta, novelist and Jim Taylor, screenwriter, will present film commentary and answer questions immediately following the screening of the film Election, based on the novel by Tom Perrotta.

Brian Greene - physicist, is the author of The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory (1999). Greene explores, with remarkable clarity, the concept of string theory which attempts to embrace the conflicting tenets of quantum mechanics and the general theory of relativity in explaining all the happenings in the Universe. Greene is professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University.