Creative Writing Program holds annual Literary Festival
By Jason Robinaugh, Staff Writer
May 10, 2007 | 6:37 p.m.
The English Department’s Creative Writing Program put on the 22nd annual Spring Literary Festival at Baker University Center May 9-11 and was open and free to the public.
The festival, which was funded by the College of Arts and Sciences, has occurred since 1986 and is one of many products of the partnership between the English Department and African Studies.
Six writers were present at this year's festival, each lectured and read an excerpt from his or her work. Each also had books available for purchase after each one's program.
Provost Kathy Krendl opened the first event, saying that the Festival gives the OU community "a chance to reflect on the importance of reading and literature in our lives."
This year’s writers
Chenjerai Hove, who read from his novel Shadows Wednesday night and lectured Friday at noon, won the German-Africa Prize for literary contribution to freedom of expression. Hove, a Zimbabwean native who lives in exile in Norway, is a poet and novelist.
Filmmaker Trinh T. Minh-ha, who has published eight books in addition to her six feature films, presented her work following Hove's program Wednesday night. A post-colonial theorist and feminist, Min-ha gave her lecture Thursday morning.
Nawal El Saadawi's lecture followed Min-ha's Thursday. El Saadawi, a psychiatrist as well as a novelist, is widely popular in the Arab world and once served as Egypt's Minister of Public Health. She, like Hove however, was punished for her political action and was imprisoned by the Egyptian president. El Saadawi will read from her work Friday night at 7:30.
Charles Simic is an American author who has published more than 60 books, and he spoke Thursday afternoon and will follow El Saadawi Friday night with his lecture and close the program. Simic is a professor of English at the University of New Hampshire.
Another writer present with experience as an enemy of the government is Kofi Awoonor, who has a poetry collection entitled The House by the Sea, which is about his experiences. He read from his work Thursday evening at 7:30, and his lecture followed Friday afternoon at 4 p.m.
Fiction author Ron Carlson read following Awoonor's reading Thursday night, and he spoke before Hove Friday morning. Carlson is a professor of English at Arizona State University.