Pitt's 2007 Drue Heinz Literature Prize Winner and Judge to Read Selected Works Oct. 17

PITTSBURGH-The 2007 Drue Heinz Literature Prize winner Kirk Nessett and judge Hilary Masters will give an evening reading at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 17 in the Frick Fine Arts Auditorium, 650 Schenley Dr., Oakland.

Nesset has written two books of short stories, the Drue Heinz-winning "Paradise Road" (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2007) and "Mr. Agreeable" (Mammoth Press, 2006). He also has published a nonfiction study, "The Stories of Raymond Carver" (Ohio University Press, 1995), and more than 200 stories, poems, and essays in such journals as the "Pushcart Prize Anthology," "The Paris Review," and "Ploughshares."

Nesset earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English at the University of California at Santa Cruz. He later received MA and PhD degrees in English from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He is an associate professor of English and creative writing at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa., and serves regularly as a Writer-in-Residence at the Chautauqua Writer's Conference in New York.

Masters' first published work appeared in "The Quarterly Review of Literature" in 1963, and since then he has had numerous works published in both the United States and Ireland. He is best known for the memoir "Last Stands: Notes from Memory" (David Godine, 1982), an autobiographical account of his family history. His other works include "The Common Pasture" (MacMillan, 1967), "An American Marriage" (MacMillan, 1969), "Palace of Strangers" (World Publishing, 1971), "Clemmons" (David Godine, 1985), "Cooper" (St. Martin's Press, 1987), "Manuscript for Murder" (Dodd, Mead & Company, 1987), "Strickland" (St. Martin's Press, 1990), and "Home Is the Exile" (Permanent Press, 1996).

After a stint in the U. S. Navy in the late 1940s, Masters received his bachelor's degree from Brown University in 1952. He is a professor of English and creative writing at Carnegie Mellon University where he has been a faculty member for more than 20 years.

The Drue Heinz Literature Prize is awarded annually to a writer of short fiction. It includes a cash award of $15,000 and publication of the writers' work by the University of Pittsburgh Press.

The Pittsburgh Contemporary Writers Series, which runs through April 2, is cosponsored by Pitt's Book Center, Women's Studies Program, and the University of Pittsburgh Press. All events in the Writers Series are free and open to the public.

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