RELEASE ON RECEIPT




                NOVELIST JILL MCCORKLE, U.VA.'S REA VISITING WRITER, 
                           TO SPEAK AT UNIVERSITY BOOKSTORE

        CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va, Nov. 7 -- Fiction writer Jill McCorkle will be 
at the University of Virginia next week as the Rea Visiting Writer, speaking 
on the craft of fiction Nov.11 at 8 p.m. and reading from her work Nov.13 at 
8 p.m.  Both events will take place at the University Bookstore and are open 
to the public.
        A North Carolina native, McCorkle has woven together a community of 
myriad characters in a Southern setting in her most recent novel, "Carolina 
Moon," published last year.  The book involves six love stories, three 
strung-out smokers and several unsolved mysteries.
        McCorkle jumped into the literary scene at age 26, publishing "July 
7th" and "The Cheerleader" simultaneously in 1984. She followed them with the 
novels "Ferris Beach" and "Tending to Virginia" and the short story 
collection, "Crash Diet" (winner of The New England Booksellers Award). Her 
short fiction has been published in many literary journals and magazines
including The Atlantic Monthly, Cosmopolitan, Allure and the Agni Review.
        McCorkle currently teaches creative writing at Harvard University and 
Bennington College.
        The Rea Visiting Writer program in the U.Va. English department is 
sponsored each semester by the Dungannon Foundation and the Henry Hoyns Fund.  
During her visit McCorkle will work with students in the department's 
creative writing program.
                                        ###

                                                          November 6, 1997


        For additional information please contact Lisa Spaar in the U.Va. 
creative writing program at (804) 924-6675.  Television reporters should call 
our TV News Office at (804) 924-7550.