WordWhore

Now this just sounds absolutely incredible. What a great opportunity for writers in North Carolina. Just got this email from Ellen Rosenberg about the Kenan Writers’ Encounters.
It’s rather lengthy, but that’s necessary for so much information.

Dear Member of the Writing Community,

I am very excited to announce this year’s Kenan Writers’ Encounters program: Earth: Writers and Artists Engage the Environment. The speaking schedule may be found at the end of this letter, and I have attached a program PDF for your convenience.

Four renowned authors and artists will gather at the North Carolina School of the Arts (NCSA) and elsewhere in Winston-Salem on April 12-22 during the annual Kenan Writers’ Encounters to engage university students and faculty and the broader community on the important issue of environmental stewardship and the arts.

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and essayist W.S. Merwin; author and conservationist Terry Tempest Williams; environmental scientist and ethicist Jonathan Gilligan; and environmental sculptor Herb Parker will address the crucial subject of arts and the environment, and what authors and other artists can do to raise community awareness and to help facilitate dialogue and debate about saving the planet.

Funded by the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts, The Kenan Writers’ Encounters is a series of public lectures and receptions, master classes, workshops, and multimedia presentations devoted to the exploration of creativity across the arts. Inspired by the perspectives of renowned and rising authors and artists whose visions bridge the world of letters and other arts, The Kenan Writers’ Encounters invite local and state communities, NCSA conservatory artists-in-training, faculty and interested members of the public to share an extraordinary conversation with our participating writers.

W.S. Merwin has become one of the most widely read – and imitated – poets in America. The son of a Presbyterian minister, for whom he began writing hymns at the age of five, Merwin went to Europe as a young man and developed a love of languages that led to work as a literary translator. His youth also helped develop a career that has produced renowned works and a parade of awards, including the Pulitzer Prize in 1970, as well as the Tanning Prize, Bollinger Prize, Lannan Lifetime Achievement Award, Poetry Consultant to the Library of Congress, laureate of the Struga Poetry Evening Festival, and Golden Wreath Award. Merwin’s recent poetry is perhaps his most personal, arising from his deeply held beliefs and an intimate awareness of the natural world.

Merwin will present a public lecture on Monday, April 21, 7:30 p.m., at the Main Theatre, NCSA Film Village, followed by a reception and book signing in the BB&T Lobby, beginning approximately at 8:30 p.m. Contact the Stevens Center box office at (336) 721-1945 for ticket reservations for this event.

In addition, Merwin will conduct a reading on Tuesday, April 22, 7:00 p.m., at Reynolda House. This event is a joint program hosted by The Kenan Writers’ Encounters and Wake Forest University’s Dillon Johnston Writers Reading Series. A reception and book signing will follow the reading. Admission to the reading at Reynolda House is free, but tickets must be reserved by calling Reynolda House at (336) 758-5150, or Conor O’Callaghan in the Wake Forest University Department of English at (336) 758-3914.

Terry Tempest Williams, who is currently the Annie Clark Tanner Scholar in Environmental Humanities at the University of Utah, is a fierce advocate for freedom of speech. Williams has consistently advocated how environmental issues are social issues that ultimately become matters of justice. She received the 2006 Robert Marshall Award from The Wilderness Society, the organization’s highest honor given to an American citizen. She has received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Western American Literature Association and the Wallace Stegner Award given by the Center for the American West. She also received the Lannan Literary Fellowship and the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in creative nonfiction.

Williams will present a public lecture on Tuesday, April 15, 7:30 p.m., at the Main Theatre, NCSA Film Village, followed by a reception and book signing in the BB&T Lobby, beginning at 8:30 p.m. Contact the Stevens Center box office at (336) 721-1945 for ticket reservations.

Jonathan Gilligan, Ph.D., is a professor at Vanderbilt University’s Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences who specializes in science, ethics, and public policy. Gilligan works primarily at the intersection of science, ethics, and public policy with a focus on the ways in which scientific knowledge and uncertainty affect policy decisions about the environment. A 1991 Ph.D. recipient from Yale University, Gilligan has a broad background in many areas of science. He is currently pursuing research in three areas: the role of individual behavior in mitigating climate change; interactions between science and religion regarding environmental issues; and the use of rhetoric at the intersection of science and public policy. In addition, he partnered with his mother, Carol Gilligan, to produce a stage adaptation of The Scarlet Letter.

A conversation with Gilligan on the environment, spirituality and ethics will be conducted on Saturday, April 12, from 11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m., in the Special Events Room, 10th Floor, Stevens Center in downtown Winston-Salem. Contact the Stevens Center box office at (336) 721-1945 for ticket reservations.

Herb Parker, a native of Elizabeth City, N.C., is one of the nation’s premier environmental sculptors. Currently a professor of art at the College of Charleston in South Carolina, Parker has two concurrent bodies of work, which maintain separate identities, but are of equal importance in his life. The nature-based installations, which began in the mid-1970s, are created to enhance a viewer’s perception of the environment and our relationship with nature. These environmental installations evolved from his thoughts on the mechanism of natural systems in time. This series serves as an ephemeral memento to the resilience of nature and an affirmation of the continuum of systems within the natural order. Parker’s object-oriented work employs a variety of materials and is somewhat autobiographical. The work reflects the insecurities, fears and exhilarations of life. These works are fueled by social and political developments, as well as interpersonal and familial relationships and the expectations and antagonisms inherent in that association.

Parker will conduct a public lecture and unveil environmental art by NCSA students on Thursday, April 17, 3:45 p.m., at the NCSA Welcome Center Presentation Room. Seating is limited. Contact the Stevens Center box office at (336) 721-1945 for ticket reservations.

Ellen Rosenberg, Ph. D., the Project Director for The Kenan Writers’ Encounters, said: “The arts Community has the power to advocate for change, to raise our awareness, and to ask the necessary questions about global warming, environmental stewardship and ethical responsibility. The planet is every person’s temple, laboratory and sculpture studio, everybody’s kitchen and backyard. We all have a stake – and we should have a say – in the way the future unfolds.”

“The Kenan Institute for the Arts is thrilled with the development of this fourth season of The Kenan Writers’ Encounters,” said Executive Director Dr. Margaret Mertz. “The series of events over a concentrated ten-day, intensive period will allow students, faculty and the greater community an opportunity to focus their attention on serious issues surrounding our planet’s resources, while also encouraging artists from all backgrounds to imagine the influence they might bring from their work to environmental concerns.”

For more information about The Kenan Writers’ Encounters, call (336) 722-0030 or visit www.kenanarts.org.

The Kenan Writers’ Encounters is a project of the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts, which builds partnerships to support creative projects, many of which are associated with the North Carolina School of the Arts.

The 2008 Kenan Writers’ Encounters schedule of the five public events follows:

(There is no charge for these events, but tickets are required. For tickets reservations, contact the Stevens Center box office at (336) 721-1945)

Friday, April 12, 11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Special Events Room, 10th Floor, Stevens Center
Jonathan Gilligan, Conversation on the environment, spirituality and ethics

(coffee served)

Tuesday, April 15, 7:30 p.m., Main Theatre, NCSA Film Village
Terry Tempest Williams, Public Lecture

(followed by a reception and book signing in the BB&T Lobby)

Thursday, April 17, 3:45 p.m., NCSA Welcome Center Presentation Room
Herb Parker, Public Lecture, Unveiling of student environmental models

Monday, April 21, 7:30 p.m., Main Theatre, NCSA Film Village
W.S. Merwin, Public Lecture

(followed by a reception and book signing in the BB&T Lobby)

Tuesday, April 22, 7:00 p.m., Reynolda House
W.S. Merwin, Reading

Joint program of The Kenan Writers’ Encounters of NCSA and the Dillon Johnston Writers Reading Series of Wake Forest University.

(followed by a reception)

# # #

We hope you will join us.

P