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Authors
to share prose and poetry during annual Literary Festival
Eileen M. Rafferty ‘06
The 6th Annual Villanova Literary Festival will feature five guest speakers
throughout the semester. All readings will begin at 7:30 p.m. The festival
commenced on Feb.10 with Dow Mossman’s reading of The Stones of Summer,
published by Barnes and Noble, 2003 reprint edition.
In the Connelly Center Cinema on Feb. 24, Sabrina Dhawan will introduce
the genre of film discussing her screenplay Cosmopolitan. The film communicates
the difficulties and delights that an Indian man living in Queens faces
after his wife of 20 years deserts him. Dhawan also wrote Monsoon Wedding
(2001), winner of the best film award, the Golden Lion, at the 58th Annual
Venice Film Festival.
In the De Leon Room (300) of the St. Augustine Center on March 17, poet
Harryette Mullen will read from National Book Award finalist Sleeping With
the Dictionary, published by University of California Press in 2002. According
to the Georgia Review, Mullen “indulges in language’s sensual
pleasure, and entices her readers with the sounds and rhythms particular
to American English.” Mullen has authored several books including
Trimmings published by Tender Buttons Books in 1991, S*PeRM**K*T published
by Singing Horse Press in 1992 and Muse & Drudge, published by Singing
Horse Press in 1995. She currently teaches African American literature and
creative writing at the University of California.
In the Connelly Center Cinema on March 30, Jonathan Franzen will be sharing
passages from The Corrections, his best selling, award-winning novel. The
Corrections, published by Picador USA in 2002, features the struggles an
American family tackles while trying to achieve success. The New York Observer
notes that the novel is “poised halfway between postmodern chic and
plain old-fashioned storytelling.” Franzen is also author of The Twenty-Seventh
City published by Picador USA in 1988 and Strong Motion published by Picador
USA in 1992. Currently, his articles appear in The New Yorker magazine.
In the President’s Lounge of the Connelly Center on April 15, award-winning
poet Robert Creely will conclude the festival by reading from his most recent
collection of poems If I Were Writing This (2003). He has been teaching
and writing poetry for more than 40 years. Some of his more recent works
are Echoes (1994), Loops: Ten Poems (1995) and Life and Death (1998). The
Library Journal commented “Creeley is a mature poet, looking back
on life . . . Intense, shadowed, and powerfully restrained, these poems
are miniatures but hardly small. Creeley has packed them with tremendous
vision.”
The Literary Festival was coordinated by Lisa Sewell, assistant professor,
English and Daniel Vilmure, assistant professor, English. It is being sponsored
by the College of Arts and Sciences, the English department, Africana Studies,
the Honors Program, Falvey Memorial Library and Campus Activities.
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