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Elizabeth Spencer to deliver Thomas Wolfe Lecture Oct. 3

CHAPEL HILL -- Award-winning author Elizabeth Spencer will give the third annual Thomas Wolfe Lecture and receive the accompanying Thomas Wolfe Prize Oct. 3 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Spencer, whose writing career spans nearly 60 years, will give the free public address at 7:30 p.m. in the Hanes Art Center Auditorium, off South Columbia Street beside the Ackland Art Museum. Her nine novels include "The Voice at the Back Door," "The Salt Line," "The Snare" and "The Night Travelers. "

She also has published a memoir, "Landscapes of the Heart," and short story collections including her latest book, "The Southern Woman: New and Selected Fiction." The book includes her best-known work, the novella "The Light in the Piazza," which was made into a movie in 1963 and now is under option for a musical production. The new collection includes stories set in the South and Italy.

"Elizabeth Spencer is a joy, her voice as distinctive as her art is distinguished," said Bland Simpson, assistant professor of English and director of UNC's creative writing program. "We are extremely pleased that she is this year’s Thomas Wolfe Lecturer and Prize recipient."

Spencer is a member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, having won two of its awards for writing. She also has won the Award of Merit for the Short Story from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the John Dos Passos Award for Literature. She has taught creative writing at UNC, the University of Mississippi and Concordia University in Montreal.

Spencer’s work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly and other magazines. Her first story was published in 1944 and her first novel in 1948. She received a master's degree from Vanderbilt University in 1943. A native of Carrollton, Mississippi, Spencer now lives in Chapel Hill.

As the Thomas Wolfe Lecturer, Spencer will speak to undergraduate and graduate English students while on campus.

UNC's English department, its Morgan Writer-in-Residence Program and the international Thomas Wolfe Society sponsor the prize and lectureship, bringing a major writer or scholar to campus annually. The award is aimed at writers of the highest quality who display energy, originality and dedication to their art and have made significant contributions to writing in the humanities. Previous Wolfe Lecturers were Tom Wolfe and Larry Brown.

The award and lecture are named in honor of Carolina's most famous literary graduate (in 1920), who wrote the novel "Look Homeward, Angel," an enduring classic.

In the mid-'90s, the Wolfe Society and others began raising funds to endow the prize and lectureship, which honor Wolfe's life, work and contribution to American literature. Donors raised $50,000 -- through efforts including a 1998 benefit lecture on campus by author Pat Conroy -- and the late UNC Chancellor Michael Hooker matched that amount with funds from his office.

For more information, call (919) 962-4283.

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Photo URL: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/visiting/spencer_elizabeth091702.jpg

Thomas Wolfe Prize and Lectureship contacts: Ellie Ferguson, (919) 962-4283, eefergus@email.unc.edu; Dee Reid, (919) 843-6339, deereid@unc.edu

News Services contact: L.J. Toler, (919) 962-8589, laura_toler@unc.edu