Hendrix College Events and News, AR
09-11-06
Jane Smiley coming to Hendrix
CONWAY, Ark. (Sept. 11, 2006) - Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jane Smiley will
present a free public lecture at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 18, in Staples
Auditorium on the Hendrix College campus. A book signing and reception will
follow in Mills Library and lobby.
An author of rare depth and popular appeal, Smiley will open this year's HendrixMurphy Foundation Programs in Literature and Language. Her keynote address,
"The Literature and Language of the Land," will launch the second part in a twoyear emphasis on the importance of place in literature and language.
"A Thousand Acres," Smiley's acclaimed 1992 novel, earned her a Pulitzer Prize.
The book was adapted for a major motion picture with the same title starring
Michelle Pfeiffer and Jessica Lange.
Smiley is recognized for her 11 works of fiction, three works of nonfiction, and
articles for many academic and popular journals. Her topics range from politics to
child rearing. She is heralded for the moral complexity of her themes and her
keen insight into human nature.
The San Francisco Chronicle says, "There seems to be nothing Smiley can't
write about fabulously well; her insights startle, dazzle." Time magazine raves, "Is
there anything Jane Smiley cannot do?"
A writer of contemporary literature, Smiley explores the art of writing a novel in
her latest work, "Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel." A novelist, according to
Smiley, is "right on the cusp between someone who knows everything and
someone who knows nothing [and whose] job and ambition is to develop a theory
of how it feels to be alive."
In her latest work, "Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel," she explores the
intimacy of reading, why a novel is successful or not, and how the novel has
changed over time. Reading is extremely important and is "a lot like a meditation
in that it requires the reader to suspend her own consciousness, and yet it is
often exciting and suspenseful," she says.
As a novelist, mother, and former professor at Iowa State University, Smiley
has little worry about revealing the secrets of her craft. "Writing a novel is a way
of developing your inner life and communicating with others in a very complex
way," she says. The Los Angeles Times Book Review writes, "Smiley's
unmediated voice - blunt, uncompromising and witty - rings from every page." As
she says of "Thirteen Ways:" "Read this. I bet you'll like it."
The Hendrix-Murphy Foundation Programs in Literature and Language are
designed to enhance and enrich the study and teaching of literature and
language at Hendrix College. For more information about this and future events,
contact Henryetta Vanaman, 501-450-4597 or vanaman@hendrix.edu.
- 30 Media contact: Henryette Vanaman, 501/450-4597, vanaman@hendrix.edu