NATIONALLY KNOWN WRITERS CHEUSE AND WATSON TO READ AT UNIVERSITY

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Nationally known writers Alan Cheuse and Ellen Doré Watson will visit the University of Arkansas campus this week. Their visit, sponsored by the department of English and the programs in creative writing and translation, and funded in part by the Walton Foundation, will include free readings by both authors.

Watson will read at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 14, in Giffels Auditorium and Cheuse will read at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 15, in Giffels Auditorium.

Alan Cheuse, who is best known as a regular book reviewer for "All Things Considered" on National Public Radio, is the author of three novels, three collections of short fiction and the non fiction work "Fall Out of Heaven: An Autobiographical Journey Across Russia." His most recent book is a collection of essays entitled "Listening to the Page: Adventures in Readings and Writing." He holds a Ph.D. from Rutgers University and is on the faculty of the graduate program in creative writing at George Mason University.

Director of the Poetry Center at Smith College, Ellen Doré Watson is the author of "We Live in Bodies" and "Broken Railings," and the translator of eleven books from Brazilian Portuguese, including "The Alphabet in the Park: Selected Poems of Adélia Prado." Watson's poems have appeared widely in journals, including The American Poetry Review and The New Yorker. Among her awards and honors are the Bullis-Kizer Prize from Poetry Northwest, a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship and a 1998 Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Grant.

Both readings are free and open to the public.

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Marissa Fugate, director of publicity, creative writing program, (479)236-5192 or (479)575-4301, mfugate@uark.edu