Acclaimed writers have been gracing The University of Memphiswith their presence for years by participating in the River CityWriters Series.
The River City Writers Series will launch its spring 2004 seasonwith fiction writer Steve Yarbrough.
"This is a wonderful opportunity for students and the community,and it enhances the visibility of the creative writing program atThe U of M," said Cary Holladay, RCW director.
Yarbrough, who holds an endowed chair at Fresno StateUniversity, will present a free Fiction Writing Workshop for U of Mstudents. Yarbrough has authored several books including, "VisibleSpirits," "Family Men" and "The Oxygen Man."
"The series has been extremely popular, and I see a continuedincrease of its popularity," Holladay said.
Some lectures in the series were standing room only in fall 2003for writers like Robert Olen Butler and Elizabeth Dewberry,Holladay said.
"I heard a speaker in the spring of 2003 for a class, and it wasvery interesting," said Beth Hodges, a 21-year-old junior. "I had alot of fun listening to his views on what he wrote and the emphasishe put on certain parts of his stories."
The River City Writers Journal, formerly known as the MemphisState Review, is part of the creative writing program and invitesthe series guests to submit work, Holladay said.
This competitive journal holds contests twice a year for fictionand poetry to be published and is open to all writers.
The series was started in 1977 by Gordon Osing, professor ofEnglish and director of the creative writing program at TheUniversity.
Since its creation, the RCW speakers have included such writersas Eudora Welty, John Updike, Bobby Ann Mason and Margaret Skinner.The series has also featured authors from around the world, such asBei Dao from China, Carlos Fuentes from Mexico and Thomas Keneallyfrom Australia. River City has also featured Literature Nobel Prizewinners Seamus Heaney, Czeslaw Milosz and Derek Walcott. The RCWseries gives students a chance to interact with celebrated authorsand learn how to better their own writing skills, Holladaysaid.
"I think it's very important to have someone to model yourwriting after," said Rachel Banks, a writer for the Teen Appeal andOverton High School student.
Yarbrough will speak Feb. 2 at 1 p.m. in Patterson Hall, Room403.
Additional speakers for spring 2004 are Geoffrey G. O'Brien,Berkeley's 2003-2004 Holloway Poet, and Dara Weir, poet andprofessor at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.
