Pulitzer Prize-winning writer to speak at 2012 Literary Awards
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Pulitzer Prize-winning fiction writer Michael Cunningham will speak Monday (April 9) at Purdue University as part of the 81st annual Literary Awards celebration.
Cunningham will present a reading at 8 p.m. in Stewart Center's Fowler Hall. The reading, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Department of English and Purdue Libraries.
Cunningham is the author of six books, including the novels "A Home at the End of the World," "Flesh and Blood," "Specimen Days," "By Nightfall" and "The Hours," which won the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Falkner Award in fiction in 1999. "The Hours" was made into a motion picture in 2003 and was nominated for nine Academy Awards. The film starred Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore and Nicole Kidman, who won the Oscar for Best Actress for her role as Virginia Woolf.
Prior to Cunningham's reading, Literary Awards recipients will be honored at 5:30 p.m. during a banquet in the Purdue Memorial Union's North Ballroom. The event features 80 awards, totaling more than $11,000 in prize money, for Indiana high school students and Purdue undergraduate and graduate students.
Cunningham also will speak at the banquet about the creative process of writing. Banquet tickets are $17 and $25 for adults and can be purchased in Heavilon Hall, Room 324, or by directing inquires to the Purdue English department at jhenders@purdue.edu.
Tickets include a pre-dinner reception, banquet dinner, awards ceremony and reserved seating for Cunningham's reading in Fowler Hall. The pre-dinner reception is 4:30-5:15 p.m. in Purdue Memorial Union's Anniversary Drawing Room.
Writer: Rebekah Piotrowicz, 765-496-3006, rpiotrow@purdue.edu
Source: Porter Shreve, chair of the Literary Awards Committee, pshreve@purdue.edu
Related website:
Department of English Literary Awards