NEWS from
CENTENARY COLLEGE OF LOUISIANA


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (3/98)
Contact: Lynn Stewart or Amy Boltinghouse, Centenary News Service
318-869-5120 or 869-5709

Award-winning Writer Elizabeth Spencer Returns to Centenary for Literary Study Series in Conjunction with Celebration of Women Week

SHREVEPORT, LA -- Noted author Elizabeth Spencer will be at Centenary during Celebration of Women Week to kick off the spring Literary Study Series and talk about her life and works during a noon luncheon on Tuesday, March 10 in Centenary's South Dining Hall.

During the luncheon, which is being sponsored by the Centenary Muses, the winner and runners-up of the Muses' annual $1,000 essay contest for incoming Centenary freshman women of North Louisiana will also be announced. The cost of the luncheon is $6.50 and it is open to the public as well as Centenary students, faculty, and staff.

This visit is not Ms. Spencer's first to Centenary. In the Spring of 1997, she visited the campus as the recipient of the seventh annual John William Corrington Award for Literary Excellence. Her other awards include the Rosenthal Award and the Award of Merit for the Short Story from the American Academy of Arts, and the John Dos Passos Award for Literature.

In addition to her nine novels, including The Light in the Piazza, and three collections of short stories, Ms. Spencer has recently published a memoir, Landscapes of the Heart. In it she recounts plantation life before World War II, years at Vanderbilt University, travels throughout Europe and Canada, literary friendships with writers such as Eudora Welty, Walker Percy, and Robert Penn Warren, and ultimately, her return to the South.

A course discussing Landscapes of the Heart, taught by Centenary professors , will begin on Tuesday, March 17, at 5:15 p.m. and continue for four more Tuesdays in Room 304 in Jackson Hall on Centenary's campus. The cost of this class is $30.

For more information, contact Janie Flournoy in the Centenary Office of Special Gifts at Centenary, 318-869-5103.

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