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MEDIA CONTACT: Department of English (585) 275-4092 or Helene Snihur (585) 275-7800
February 17, 2005
TIME, DATE, AND PLACE: 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 15, Welles-Brown Room in Rush Rhees Library on the University of Rochester’s River Campus
ADMISSION: Free and open to the public
Note: Parking is available on University lots after 7 p.m. weeknights
Alan Shapiro, an award-winning poet and the William Rand Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor of English at the University of North Carolina, will give a reading at 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 15, in the Welles-Brown Room in Rush Rhees Library on the University of Rochester’s River Campus. His program, which is free and open to the public, is part of the Plutzik Reading Series at the University.
Shapiro is the author of several books of poetry as well as works of non-fiction and literary criticism. In 2001, he was awarded the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award for emerging poets administered at Claremont Graduate University in California for his book The Dead, Alive, and Busy, a collection of poetry which explores issues of personal identity and the intimate bonds of family life.
Vigil, Shapiro’s non-fiction work detailing the last four weeks of his sister’s life as she battled breast cancer, won the Discovery Award from the New England Booksellers Association. Shapiro also received an O.B. Hardison Jr. Poetry Prize from the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington D.C. His other award-winning books include The Last Happy Occasion, Happy Hour, and Mixed Company.
Shapiro joined the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty in 1995. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass. Among other honors, Shapiro has received two awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Los Angeles Times prize for poetry. In 2003, he was elected a fellow of the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences in recognition of “preeminent contributions” in his field.
The Plutzik Series is one of the country’s oldest and most prestigious literary reading programs and readings are free and open to the public. Established to honor the work of Hyam Plutzik, a distinguished poet and Deane Professor of Poetry and Rhetoric at the University, it has featured more than 175 noted writers, including Pulitzer Prize winners Anthony Hecht, Elizabeth Bishop, and Galway Kinnell. The Plutzik Series is administered by the Department of English. For more information, please contact (585) 275-4092.
The University of Rochester (www.rochester.edu) is one of the nation's leading private universities. Located in Rochester, N.Y., the University gives students exceptional opportunities for interdisciplinary study and close collaboration with faculty through its unique cluster-based curriculum. Its College of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering is complemented by the Eastman School of Music, Simon School of Business, Warner School of Education, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, Schools of Medicine and Nursing, and the Memorial Art Gallery.
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