94-03-23 Writers Mark Strand and Peter Matthiessen to Visit U.Va.

WRITERS MARK STRAND AND PETER MATTHIESSEN TO VISIT U.VA.

     CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., March 23 -- Both Mark Strand, 1990
United States Poet Laureate, and noted fiction and naturalist
writer Peter Matthiessen will be Rea Visiting Writers at the
University of Virginia in coming weeks.
     Strand will be at the University for the week of March 28,
leading an informal talk on poetry Tuesday, March 29, at 8 p.m. in
Wilson Hall, Room 308, and reading from his work Thursday, March
31, at 8 p.m. in Campbell Hall, Room 153.
     Matthiessen will arrive at U.Va. for his week-long visit on
April 11.  He will conduct a talk Tuesday, April 12, at 8 p.m. and
present selections from his writing Thursday, April 14, at 8 p.m. 
Both events will be held in Campbell Hall, Room 153.
     The Rea Visiting Writer Program in the English department is
intended to bring some of the most important contemporary writers
in the country to the University for an extended visit.  In
addition to scheduled talks and readings, which are free and open
to the public, Strand and Matthiessen will also work closely with
students in classes and workshops during their stay.
     Strand, known for precise language and surreal imagery, has
built a diverse career on poetry, short stories, art and
photography critiques, children's books, translations and editing
anthologies.
     Strand's 1973 collection of verse, "The Story of Our Lives,"
won the Edgar Allan Poe Award of the Academy of American Poets, and
his 1980 "Selected Poems" was named one of the most notable books
of the year by the American Library Association.  Other works
include "Dark Harbor," "The Continuous Life," "Mr. and Mrs. Baby
and Other Stories," "William Bailey," and "The Planet of Lost
Things."  Currently teaching English at the University of Utah,
Salt Lake City, Strand has received a Fulbright scholarship and
grants from the Ingram Merrill, Rockefeller, Guggenheim and
MacArthur Foundations, the National Endowment of the Arts, and the
Academy of American Poets.
     "The Snow Leopard," an autobiographical account of a 250-mile
journey across the Himalayas, is one of Peter Matthiessen's most
recognized works, winning both National Book and American Book
Awards.  Living parallel lives as a writer and naturalist,
Matthiessen explores endangered natural environments and threatened
native cultures in both his fiction and non-fiction.
     Matthiessen's "Wildlife in America" is in the White House
permanent library, and he has also been honored with the
Christopher Book Award for "Sal Si Puedes:  Cesar Chavez and the
New American Revolution," and the John Borroughs Medal and the
African Leadership Foundation Award for "Sand Rivers."  Other
widely acclaimed works include "At Play in the Fields of the Lord,"
"In the Spirit of Crazy Horse," "The Tree Where Man Was Born," and
"Killing Mister Watson."  In addition to literary accolades,
Matthiessen was co-founder and editor of the Paris Review, a New
York Zoological Society Trustee for 13 years, and was given a gold
medal of distinction in natural history from the Academy of Natural
Sciences.
     The Rea Visiting Writers Program is supported by the Dungannon
Foundation of New York City.  Its president Michael M. Rea, a book
and art collector, is a 1952 alumnus of the University.
                               ###
                                                   March 22, 1994
     FOR MORE INFORMATION, contact Sydney Blair, creative writing
administrator in the English Language and Literature department, at
(804) 924-6675.

[Submitted by: Karen A. Castle  (kac@uva.pcmail.virginia.edu)
               Wed, 23 Mar 94 09:42:46 EST]