DETROIT, April 11, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Marygrove's English and Modern Languages Department is pleased to announce that novelist and award-winning poet Paul Beatty, will be the twenty-fourth guest in its Contemporary American Authors Lecture Series.
The careful craft Beatty employs in his language use has contributed to his prominence as a key writer of our time. According to The New York Times, "Mr. Beatty's blunt, impious, streetwise eloquence has a transfixing power." USA Today notes that "when Beatty writes, it's hard not to pay attention." The Village Voice calls him, "one of the most talented young writers to come along in years," and adds that he "has the guts and verve and genius of a Tiger Woods on paper." The Los Angeles Times refers to him as "an uncategorizable underground hero with a loyal, loud, smack-talking cult following." Adam Mansbach puts it simply, "nobody riffs like Paul Beatty."
Paul Beatty will deliver the Lillian and Don Bauder Lecture at 8 p.m. on Friday, April 20, 2012, in Alumnae Hall on the Marygrove College campus. Afterward, he will sign copies of his books, which will be available for purchase. This event is free and open to the community.
Sponsors for the 2012 CAALS include: the National Endowment for the Arts, Junior League of Detroit, Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs (MCACA)/City of Detroit Recreation Department and MGM Grand Detroit.
To schedule an interview with Mr. Beatty, contact Karen Cameron at (313) 927-1446 or kcameron@marygrove.edu.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Beatty is the author of three novels: The White Boy Shuffle (1996), Tuff (2000), and Slumberland (2008), and two books of poetry: Big Bank Take Little Bank (1991) and Joker, Joker, Deuce (1994). He also edited Hokum: An Anthology of African-American Humor (2006). He was the recipient of the first Grand Poetry Slam Championship of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in 1990.
Beatty has master's degrees in creative writing from Brooklyn College and psychology from Boston University. A native of Los Angeles, he now lives in New York City.
ABOUT THE SERIES
This series, now in its twenty-fourth year at Marygrove, is an annual event bringing a nationally-known author to its campus for a public lecture and seminar with students.
It began when the late Frederick P. Currier, a former Marygrove College trustee, attended a reception on campus and remarked that he would like to bring a national writer to Marygrove for a weekend. Mr. Currier's start-up check soon followed his suggestion, and in 1989 nearly 600 guests of the College heard Gloria Naylor inaugurate the series.
To date, nearly 10,000 people have joined Marygrove at the Friday night public readings to hear outstanding writers share their work.
For more information visit: http://english.marygrove.edu/caals/paul-beatty-2012.html or contact Professor Frank Rashid at (313) 927-1448.
ABOUT MARYGROVE COLLEGE
Founded by the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) in 1905, Marygrove College is an independent liberal arts college and a Catholic institution of higher learning committed to developing leaders for the new global society. The main campus is situated on 53 wooded acres in northwest Detroit.
8425 W. McNichols Rd., Detroit, MI 48221
Web site: www.marygrove.edu
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