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October 27, 1997

Eminent author plans two-week residency at UC Santa Cruz

Grace Paley

By Barbara McKenna

Grace Paley, one of America's most revered short story writers, will come to UCSC November 3-14 as a UC Regents' Lecturer. Among the activities planned during Paley's visit are two public readings and visits with area high school students.

Born in the Bronx in 1922, Paley has become known as a bard of Jewish New York with such highly acclaimed collections as The Little Disturbances of Man (1959), Enormous Changes at the Last Minute (1974), and Later the Same Day (1985). Her most recent work, The Collected Stories, was published in 1994 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. A new collection of works, "Just As I Thought," will be published in April 1998.

Paley has received numerous awards and honors, including a Guggenheim grant, a National Endowment for the Arts grant, an American Academy Award, and the Edith Wharton Award. She has taught at several colleges and universities, including Columbia University, Sarah Lawrence College, Syracuse University, and the City College of New York.

During her time on campus, Paley will guest lecture in classes, meet with UCSC faculty and students, make presentations at Aptos and Santa Cruz High Schools, and present two public readings: Friday, November 7, 12:30-2:30 p.m., Santa Cruz Central Library Meeting Room, and Tuesday, November 11, 7 p.m., UCSC, Oakes College, Room 105. The readings are free and open to the public.

Paley's school visits are presented in conjunction with Creative Writing in the Schools--an outreach program of the UCSC Literature Department in which creative writing majors work with high school students and their teachers.

The UC Regents' Lecturer position was established by the University of California to bring distinguished men and women--ordinarily from nonacademic fields--to UC campuses for short residencies. For more information on Paley's residency, call the Literature Department at (408) 459-4129.


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