THE WRITING LIFE:
A MELLON SYMPOSIUM CELEBRATING 20 YEARS OF THE ZALE WRITER-IN-RESIDENCE PROGRAM

Convened by Ellen Gilchrist
20th Zale Writer-in-Residence and Distinguished Tulane Mellon Professor in the Humanities

Friday and Satruday
March 11-12, 2005

Freeman Auditorium
Woldenber Art Center
Newcomb College, Tulane University


Featuring visiting writers/teachers Ethan Canin (Iowa Writer's Workshop) and Molly Giles (University of Arkansas)

Moderated by Peter Cooley and Paula Morris, Tulane Creative Writing Program, Tulane Department of English

Hosted by the Zale Writer-in-Residence Committee of the Newcomb College Center for Research on Women, Newcomb College, Tulane University

Made possible by gifts from Dana Zale Gerard, Newcomb 1985; the M. B. and Edna Zale Foundation of Dallas, Texas; and the support of the Tulane Mellon Committee, the Tulane Office of the Provost, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

There is no charge for participation. Please note that seating is limited to 210 participants per session.

FRIDAY March 11

3:00: Welcome and thanks; opening comments

3:15-4:30 p.m. Opening session: "Meet Ellen Gilchrist"
Freeman Auditorium, Woldenberg Art Center, Newcomb College, Tulane University

Ellen Gilchrist will sit for an "Inside the Actor's Studio"-type interview with Paula Morris, Instructor, Tulane Creative Writing Program, and author of the novel Queen of Beauty

4:45 - 6 pm Friday: Reading by Molly Giles
Freeman Auditorium, Woldenberg Art Center, Newcomb College, Tulane University

6:00 -7:00 pm Reception, Atrium, Newcomb College Center for Research on Women

Book sales in Seltzer-Gerard Reading Room
Zale Writers exhibit in Seltzer-Gerard Reading Room



SATURDAY March 12

10:00-10:45 am: Yoga and/or meditation and/or gentle movement on the Newcomb Quad with Moria Anderson Miller, Ellen's teacher from Ocean Springs, Mississippi
(Rain location: Anna E. Many Lounge)

11:00 am-1:00 pm: "On the Writing Life: Conversations, questions, discussion"
with Ethan Canin, Peter Cooley, Ellen Gilchrist, Molly Giles, and Paula Morris.
Freeman Auditorium, Woldenberg Art Center, Newcomb College, Tulane University

1:00 pm - 2:00 pm: Buffet lunch, Atrium, Newcomb College Center for Research on Women

Book sales in Seltzer-Gerard Reading Room, NCCROW
Zale Writers exhibit in Seltzer-Gerard Reading Room

1:30-2:00: Meditation and gentle stretching on the Newcomb Quad with Moira Anderson Miller

2-3:30 pm: Reading by Ethan Canin, followed by Q&A
Freeman Auditorium, Woldenberg Art Center, Newcomb College, Tulane University

3:30-4:00 pm: Concluding remarks



ABOUT THE SYMPOSIUM'S FEATURED VOICES

ETHAN CANIN is the author of five books of fiction, among them the novel, Carry me Across the Water, the collection of novellas, The Palace Thief, and the collection of short stories, Emperor of the Air. His short fiction has appeared in Esquire, The Atlantic Monthly, The Paris Review, and The New Yorker, which named him one of 20 "writers for the new millennium." He is on the faculty of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and is also a physician.

PETER COOLEY is the author of seven books of poetry, six of them published by Carnegie Mellon and the most recent of which is A Place Made Of Starlight, 2003. His poems have appeared in many magazines, from The New Yorker and Poetry to Baby John Gets Shot On His Way To The West and in eighty-some anthologies. Since 1975 he has taught creative writing at Tulane where he is Director of Creative Writing and Professor of English. From 1970-2000 he was Poetry Editor of North American Review. He has taught creative writing to college and university students, nursery school, grade school and high school students, to "illiterates," inmates and the mentally ill.

MOLLY GILES is the author of two short story collections, Rough Translations and Creek Walk; and a novel, Iron Shoes. She and Ellen Gilchrist are colleagues in the English Department at the University of Arkansas, where Molly is Professor of Creative Writing. Originally from the West Coast, she attended the University of California - Berkeley, and graduated from San Francisco State University (BA and MFA). As a teacher, she is frequently noted as mentor to Amy Tan.

ELLEN GILCHRIST is author of over 20 books so far, including the National Book Award-winning short story collection Victory Over Japan, and her latest, I, Rhoda Manning, Go Hunting With My Daddy. Born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, Ellen grew up in Mississippi and all over the Midwest as her family followed her father's work, eventually returning South together for good. She attended Vanderbilt University, and is a graduate of Millsaps College (BA and MFA). She has life-long ties to New Orleans, and lived here during the late-1960s and the 1970s before moving to Fayetteville, Arkansas to write full-time. Much of her fiction is set in or references New Orleans, and engages the gender, racial, class, and social conundrums that characterize, spice, and confound the city. Since 2001, she has been Associate Professor of English in the Creative Writing Programs at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. The Writing Life, her new collection of short essays, is due from the University Press of Mississippi in March.

PAULA MORRIS is a novelist and short story writer from New Zealand. Her first novel, Queen of Beauty (Penguin Books, 2002) won best first work of fiction at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards. Her short fiction has been published in journals and anthologies, and broadcast on the radio, in New Zealand and the US. Paula, who is of English and Maori descent, has lived and worked in Britain and the U.S. for most of the last 20 years. She wrote Queen of Beauty while a student at the International Institute of Modern Letters in Wellington, New Zealand, and, in 2002, she was awarded a Schaeffer Fellowship to the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. At the University of Iowa, she was also a Teaching-Writing Fellow and writer-in-residence for the International Programs. Paula currently teaches creative writing at Tulane University.

ABOUT THE ZALE WRITER-IN-RESIDENCE PROGRAM

Coordinated through the Newcomb College Center for Research on Women, and facilitated by a committee composed of Newcomb and Tulane students, staff, and faculty, the Zale Writer-in-Residence program was established by Dana Zale Gerard, N ‘85, and is made possible by an annual gift from the M.B. and Edna Zale Foundation of Dallas, Texas.

Each year since 1985, the Zale Writer-in-Residence Program has brought to the Newcomb/Tulane campus a renowned woman writer to spend a week among her readers and student writers. In addition to sitting for a public interview and delivering a reading, the Zale Writer participates in creative writing, literature, and other liberal arts classes; as well as meeting with students in less formal settings.

Special thanks to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Tulane Mellon Committee for their support of the semester-long residencies of Mab Segrest (Fall 2004) and Ellen Gilchrist in recognition of the 20th Anniversary of the Zale Writer-in-Residence Program.

Please do not contact us about obtaining audio or video recordings of the events listed below. The Newcomb College Center for Research on Women will announce plans for distribution of recordings 2004-2005 Zale Writer-in-Residence and Tulane Mellon events at a later date. Per request of the participants, we must ask that individuals not make personal video or audio recordings of the events.

Should you have other questions about the events detailed below, please contact the Newcomb College Center for Research on Women, 200 Caroline Richardson Hall, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118 • 504 85 5238 voice • nccrow@tulane.edu

NAVIGATING TULANE

A map of campus
Parking map. Visitors may park on campus on weekends without a Tulane permit.
Tulane is accessible via the New Orleans RTA St. Charles Street car and the Freret, Broadway, and South Claiborne buses.

Newcomb College Center for Research on Women
Newcomb College
Tulane University