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Pulitzer-Winner Robert Olen Butler and
Elizabeth Dewberry to Read
Posted March 10, 2003
HOLLAND -- The Hope College Visiting Writers
Series will feature Pulitzer Prize- winner Robert Olen
Butler, and playwright Elizabeth Dewberry, on Thursday,
March 27, at 7 p.m. at the Knickerbocker Theatre.
The public is invited. Admission is free.
Butler has published 12 books since 1981,
including "A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain," which won
the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His short stories have
appeared in "The New Yorker," "The Paris Review," "Esquire,"
"Harpers," "GQ" and many other publications. They also have
been chosen for inclusion in four annual editions of "The
Best American Short Stories," seven annual editions of "New
Stories from the South," and numerous college literature
textbooks. His works have been translated into a dozen
languages, including Vietnamese, Thai, Korean, Polish,
Japanese and Greek.
A recipient of both a Guggenheim Fellowship in
fiction and a National Endowment for the Arts grant, he also
won the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award from
the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was a finalist
for the PEN/Faulkner Award. He was also a charter recipient
of the Tu Do Chinh Kien Award given by the Vietnam Veterans
of America for "outstanding contributions to American
culture by a Vietnam veteran."
Butler has also used the Internet as a writing
tool, having allowed viewers to follow along as he created
a new creative writing piece.
Since 1995 he has written feature-length
screenplays for New Regency, Twentieth Century Fox, Warner
Brothers, Paramount, Disney and Universal Pictures, and two
teleplays for HBO.
Elizabeth Dewberry is the Playwright-in-Residence
at Florida State University. Her first full-length play,
"Flesh and Blood," appeared in the 1996 Humana Festival and
on Broadway. She has also written three novels, including
"Sacrament of Lies" and "Break the Heart of Me." One
reviewer has said that "Dewberry's story engages the mind--
even as its narrator captivates the heart."
Butler and Dewberry are married to one another.
The reading will be preceded at 6 p.m. by a live
performance by the Faculty Jazz Combo, with special guest
singer Sunny Wilkenson.
The Knickerbocker Theatre is located at 86 East
8th Street in downtown Holland.
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