NEWS from
CENTENARY COLLEGE OF LOUISIANA


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (11/97)
Contact: Lynn Stewart, Centenary News Service
318-869-5120 or 869-5709

Commentator-columnist-author Andrei Codrescu
To Speak Thursday, Nov. 6 at Centenary College

SHREVEPORT, LA -- Andrei Codrescu of New Orleans, commentator for National Public Radio's All Things Considered, will speak at 11:10 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 6 in Centenary College's Hurley Auditorium. The program is free and open to the public as a service of the college's Convocations Committee.

Codrescu, born in Romania in 1946, emigrated to the United States at age 20. Immediately following the fall of the Ceausescu government, he returned to his homeland to cover the collapse of communism for NPR and ABC's Nightline. His book describing his experiences was The Hole in the Flag, which was a New York Times "Notable Book of the Year." His novel, The Blood Countess (Simon and Schuster, 1995) was a national bestseller.

He has published fiction, memoirs, poetry and essays, and has written and starred in the Peabody Award-winning movie Road Scholar. In addition to All Things Considered and Nightline, his national appearances have included The David Letterman Show, The Charlie Rose Show and CNN International Hour. His writing has appeared in The Baltimore Sun, The Chicago Tribune, Playboy and The New York Times.

Codrescu is the winner of the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for poetry, editing and radio; the General Electric Foundation Poetry Prize; the Peabody Award for the PBS version of Road Scholar; and the ACLU Freedom of Speech Award, 1995.

He teaches writing at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, and edits Exquisite Corpse: A Journal of Letters and Life.

His latest books are The Dog with the Chip in His Neck: Essays from NPR and Elsewhere (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996) and Alien Candor: Selected Poems 1970-1996 (Santa Rosa; Black Sparrow Press, 1996).

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