English department to host statewide conference Oct. 22 to 24

Shippensburg University's English department is hosting the English Association of Pennsylvania State Universities (EAPSU) conference Oct. 22 to 24.

Keynote speaker for the event is Dorothy Allison, noted author and McGee Professor in Creative Writing — writer in residence at Davidson College in North Carolina.

EAPSU is a regional professional organization whose members come from the English Departments and students of the 14 universities in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. Formed in 1980 and dedicated to excellence in English studies, EAPSU sponsors an annual fall conference and co-sponsors a spring conference for undergraduate English majors.

Allison will give her talk at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 22 in the H. Ric Luhrs Performing Arts Center. Performing Arts Center. Her talked is free and open to the public. She received mainstream recognition with her novel Bastard Out of Carolina, a finalist for the 1992 National Book Award. The novel also won the Ferro Grumley prize, an ALA Award for Lesbian and Gay Writing, and became a best seller, and an award-winning movie.

Cavedweller became a national bestseller, New York Times Notable book of the year, finalist for the Lillian Smith prize, and an ALA prize winner. It later was adapted for the stage and also became a feature movie. Her short story, "Compassion," was selected for both Best American Short Stories 2003 and Best New Stories from the South 2003.

She has also served as Emory University Center for Humanistic Inquiry's Distinguished Visiting Professor and as writer in residence at Columbia College in Chicago.

The conference is being funded through various university offices or programs including the President's Office, the Provost's Office, the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, the the GLBT Committee, the Women's Center, Womens Studies and the English Department. 

More information on the conference is available at here.