Renowned Author to Open Pitt Contemporary Writers Series Oct. 19

PITTSBURGH-Author Charles Baxter will open the Pittsburgh Contemporary Writers Series season at 8:30 p.m. Oct. 19 in Room 125 of the University of Pittsburgh Frick Fine Arts Auditorium, Schenley Drive, Oakland.

Baxter is the author of Saul and Patsy (Pantheon, 2003). His previous novel, The Feast of Love (Vintage, 2000), was a finalist for the National Book Award. Baxter has published two other novels, First Light (Viking, 1987) and Shadow Play (W.W. Norton, 1993), and four books of stories, most recently Believers (Vintage, 1997). He has published essays on fiction collected in Burning Down the House (Graywolf, 1997), and the forthcoming Beyond Plot, and has edited or coedited three books of essays, The Business of Memory (Graywolf, 1999), Bringing the Devil to His Knees (The University of Michigan Press, 2001), and A William Maxwell Portrait (W.W. Norton, 2004). He also edited Best American Voices 2001 (Harcourt, 2001).

Born in Minneapolis, Baxter is currently the Edelstein-Keller Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Minnesota. He earned the Bachelor of Arts degree at Macalester College in 1969 and the Ph.D. degree at the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1974.

Baxter received the Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Prix St. Valentine in France, and the Catalan Bookseller's Association Award for book of the year in Spain. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and Harper's. His fiction has been widely anthologized and translated into 10 languages.

The 2005-2006 Contemporary Writers Series, which runs through April 5, is cosponsored by Wyndham Garden Hotel-University Place and Pitt's Book Center, Department of Classics, University of Pittsburgh Press, and Creative Nonfiction Program.

For more information, visit.www.english.pitt.edu.

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