FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Date: April 15,
2003
Contact: Donna McCracken, 206-6716
SPRINGFIELD – The
University of Illinois at Springfield’s 2003 Verbal Arts Festival, scheduled
for April 21-26, will feature events ranging from readings of original works to
a lecture, performances, a workshop on how to get published, a film festival,
and an open mic night. All events in this annual celebration of the arts are
free and open to the public and will be held on the UIS campus.
Activities begin at 7 p.m. on Monday, April 21, in the
Studio Theatre with a reception debuting the 2003 Alchemist Review, the
campus’ literary magazine featuring fiction, poetry, and non-fiction by UIS
students and alumni. Authors represented in the latest edition will read
selections from their works and the Writers’ Repertory will announce the winner
of its first Short Fiction Contest. The Studio Theatre is located on the lower
level of the Public Affairs Center.
Events on Tuesday, April 22, include an open mic
session hosted by Nancy Perkins, assistant professor of English and author of
the NYX poetry trilogy. The session starts at 6 p.m. in the Studio
Theatre. Performers can sign up beginning at 5:30 p.m.
Immediately following the open mic session, at 7 p.m.
in the Studio Theatre, members of Writers’ Repertory will perform repertory
theater versions of their original plays and short fiction.
Two lectures are scheduled for Wednesday, April 23. At
noon in conference room F, Martha Miller will share tips on “How to Start Getting Published.” Miller is
the author of Skin to
Skin,
Nine Nights on the Windy Tree, and Dispatch
to Death, as well as numerous short stories and plays. Her brown bag
presentation will focus on issues important to writers who want to publish
-more-
their
work, such as creating a writer’s résumé, where to begin submitting
manuscripts, obtaining grants, self-promotion, writers’ conferences, and the
differences between publishing fiction and non-fiction. Conference room F is
located on the lower level of the PAC.
That evening, at 7 p.m. in the Studio Theatre, the
second program in the Everson Lecture Series will present Judith Everson
speaking on “Generations Lost and Found: Hemingway and Jones’s French
Connection.” Inaugurated in November 2002, this series honors the contributions
of Everson, UIS professor emerita of English, who was a member of the charter
faculty and who served the campus in many capacities until her retirement in
the spring of 2001. A booklet of essays written by students and colleagues will
be presented at a reception following the lecture.
On Thursday and Friday, April 24 and 25, a four-part
European Film Festival will be presented in Brookens Auditorium. Thursday’s
films are (4 p.m.) Les Quatre cents coups (The 400 Blows) and (7
p.m.) Domicile conjugal (Bed and Board). Both films were written
and directed by François Truffaut; both are in French with English subtitles.
Friday’s films are (4 p.m.) Sommarnattens leende
(Smiles of a Summer Night), written and directed by Ingmar Bergman
(Swedish with English subtitles), and (7 p.m.) Burnt by the Sun,
directed by Nikita Mikhalkov with screenplay by Mikhalkov and Rustam
Ibragimbekov (Russian with English subtitles).
The Verbal Arts Festival concludes with a performance
of James Joyce’s Dubliners: Four Movements, featuring associate
professor of English Ethan Lewis and the Verbal Arts Players, at 7 p.m.
Saturday, April 26, in the Studio Theatre.
The UIS English program, Speakers’ Bureau, Writers’
Repertory, and the Liberal Studies and Individual Options programs are the
sponsors of this year’s festival. For more information, go to
www.uis.edu/english/announcements.htm or contact the English program at (217)
206-6779.
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