2008 Woodie Awards
Author to read from work focused on women's issues
Cortney Wimsatt
Issue date: 3/27/08 Section: Front Page
Author Amanda Eyre Ward will read from her fiction novels at 8 p.m. Thursday, March 27, in the Governor's Room of the Overman Student Center. A reception in the Heritage Room will follow.
This reading comes as the first for the spring semester of the Distinguished Visiting Writers Series sponsored by the English Department and the Student Fee Council. The Women's Studies Program is also promoting Ward's visit as an event for Women's History Month.
Karen Stolz, creative writing instructor on the Distinguished Visiting Writers committee, kept in touch with Ward from when they both lived in Austin, Texas.
"I knew her before her first book was published, and I even wrote a blurb in it," said Stolz.
Ward has won the Violet Crown Book Award for her novel "Sleep Toward Heaven," which speaks of women inmates on death row. Fox Searchlight and Sandra Bullock have optioned the 2003 fictional novel for a film.
Stolz says she believes that Ward is doing well because one of her books has been translated for 15 countries.
"Amanda is a wonderful writer but is also an engaging person," said Stolz. "She is also very young and has succeeded and I think it will be inspiring for people to see that."
Ward has also published a novel, "How To Be Lost," which was a Target Bookmarked pick. Ward has also written short stories that have been published in Zoetrope, Mississippi Review and Tin House. Ward's most recent novel, "Forgive Me," which depicts the struggle of a woman learning to become a mother, was researched in Cape Town, South Africa.
Her novels focus on women's issues. "How to Be Lost" tells of sisters and their lives 15 years later. For "Sleep Towards Heaven," Ward says she drew a fictional death row and each woman. She used these images as inspiration for the book. Ward also interviewed women on death row.
Poet Peggy Shumaker will be the next distinguished writer to visit Pittsburg on April 24 in the student center.
This reading comes as the first for the spring semester of the Distinguished Visiting Writers Series sponsored by the English Department and the Student Fee Council. The Women's Studies Program is also promoting Ward's visit as an event for Women's History Month.
Karen Stolz, creative writing instructor on the Distinguished Visiting Writers committee, kept in touch with Ward from when they both lived in Austin, Texas.
"I knew her before her first book was published, and I even wrote a blurb in it," said Stolz.
Ward has won the Violet Crown Book Award for her novel "Sleep Toward Heaven," which speaks of women inmates on death row. Fox Searchlight and Sandra Bullock have optioned the 2003 fictional novel for a film.
Stolz says she believes that Ward is doing well because one of her books has been translated for 15 countries.
"Amanda is a wonderful writer but is also an engaging person," said Stolz. "She is also very young and has succeeded and I think it will be inspiring for people to see that."
Ward has also published a novel, "How To Be Lost," which was a Target Bookmarked pick. Ward has also written short stories that have been published in Zoetrope, Mississippi Review and Tin House. Ward's most recent novel, "Forgive Me," which depicts the struggle of a woman learning to become a mother, was researched in Cape Town, South Africa.
Her novels focus on women's issues. "How to Be Lost" tells of sisters and their lives 15 years later. For "Sleep Towards Heaven," Ward says she drew a fictional death row and each woman. She used these images as inspiration for the book. Ward also interviewed women on death row.
Poet Peggy Shumaker will be the next distinguished writer to visit Pittsburg on April 24 in the student center.
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