MARGARETT ROOT BROWN READING SERIES 2006/2007 ZADIE SMITH DENISE DUHAMEL STEPHEN DUNN Great Writers RICHARD FORD On Stage TERRENCE M cNALLY ALICIA GASPAR DE ALBA LUIS ALBERTO URREA ANITA DESAI KIRAN DESAI ALSO PRESENTING A SPECIAL EVENT WITH BARRY LOPEZ NEW MARY OLIVER INPRINT STUDIO SERIES The Inprint Margarett Root Brown Reading Series Great Writers On Stage Zadie Smith Sunday September 17, 2006 For the year, Inprint presents one of the finest reading series in the country at a price that makes the Inprint Brown Reading Denise Duhamel Series one of the city’s best cultural bar - and Stephen Dunn gains. Thanks to our underwriters—The Monday Brown Foundation, Inc., Weatherford November 6, 2006 International, and The National Endow- ment for the Arts—and our in-kind sup - porters—the Alley Theatre, Continental Richard Ford Monday Airlines, Hines, The Museum of Fine Arts, November 13, 2006 Houston, Rice University, Houston Chronicle , KUHF 88.7FM, and the City of Houston through the Theater District . Terrence McNally Monday Readings take place at four locations and January 22, 2007 begin at : p.m., except for the September reading featuring Zadie Smith, which Alicia Gaspar de Alba will begin at p.m. Doors open minutes and before each reading. Selected readings will Luis Alberto Urrea feature an on-stage interview conducted Monday February 26, 2007 by a Houston writer. All readings will be followed by a book sale and signing, run by Brazos Bookstore. Maps and parking Anita Desai information follow. and Kiran Desai Tickets: $5 per reading at the door, students and Monday March 26, 2007 senior citizens free of charge, except for the Terrence McNally and Mary Oliver readings, when all tickets are $10. A limited number of season tickets are being sold in advance through Inprint. Mary Oliver Monday April 16, 2007 Season Tickets: A season ticket will hold a reserved seat for each of the seven readings until start time , when reserved seats will be released. Other season Special Event ticket benefits include free parking at the Alley Theatre, Barry Lopez admission to a special“Season Supporters” reception Thursday with a visiting writer, and more. The purchase of sea - October 26, 2006 son tickets—$150 each—helps to make this series possible. For more information, see the inserted en- velope, contact Inprint at 713.521.2026, or visit www.inprint-inc.org. We look forward to seeing you. ZADIE SMITH SPECIAL EVENT BARRY LOPEZ, Sunday September 17, 2006 ANTONYA NELSON, 7 pm and Cullen Theater at DEBRA GWARTNEY Wortham Center 501 Texas Avenue Featuring Barry Lopez, UH Creative Writing Program faculty member Antonya Nelson, and writer/editor Debra Gwartney, this program focuses on the book, Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape . ZADIE SMITH , British West Indian writer, rose Edited by Lopez and to literary stardom at age with the publication Gwartney, Home Ground of her debut novel, White Teeth . It received rave brings together poets and Thursday reviews and won many awards, including the writers—including Nelson, Commonwealth Writer’s Prize. Michiko Barbara Kingsolver, Robert October 26, 2006 Kakutani of The New York Times called Smith Hass, Patricia Hampl, and 7:30 pm “a preternaturally gifted new writer (with) a Jon Krakauer—to write defi - voice that’s street-smart and learned, sassy and nitions for the words philosophical all at the same time.” Smith’s third we use to describe the Brown Auditorium and latest novel, On Beauty , was shortlisted for diverse landscapes of the Museum of Fine the Booker Prize and won the Orange U.S. Lopez will give a brief reading, Nelson will join Arts, Houston Prize, which celebrates excellence in English- him for a conversation on the language of landscape, 1001 Bissonnet language writing by women. Booklist calls and Gwartney will discuss the making of the book. On Beauty a “boisterous, funny, poignant, and Free and open to erudite novel that should firmly establish Smith BARRY LOPEZ is the author of Arctic Dreams , which the public as a literary force of nature.” Set on both sides won the National Book Award, Of Wolves and Men , of the Atlantic, On Beauty is a brilliant analysis Resistance , and other works of fiction and nonfiction. This event is of family life, the institution of marriage, inter- He is a contributor to the catalog for the Museum of cosponsored sections of the personal and political, and an Fine Arts, Houston’s exhibition, The Modern West : by the Museum honest look at people’s deceptions. American Landscapes , ‒ . of Fine Arts, Houston, and Antonya Nelson , one of The New Yorker ’s “ Writers is presented in conjunction with for the Century,” is the author of three novels the exhibition and four story collections, including Talking The Modern in Bed , Female Trouble , and her latest, Some Fun . West: American Landscapes, Photo: Roderick Field Debra Gwartney is a writer, editor, and university 1890–1950. teacher who lives in Eugene, Oregon. Photo: © 2005 Nancy Crampton DENISE DUHAMEL RICHARD FORD STEPHEN DUNN DENISE DUHAMEL ’s poetry, accord - ing to Publishers Weekly , lies “some - where between Sex and the City , Sharon Olds, and Spalding Gray,” and has established her as “a viva - cious, sarcastic, uninhibited, and Monday sometimes sex-obsessed observer of contemporary culture.” She is November 13, 2006 the author of five volumes of poet - 7:30 pm ry, including her latest, Two and Two , a collection of serious and zany critiques of social, sexual, Museum of Fine Arts, and cultural concerns, with a Houston sense of “depth dipped in whimsy 1001 Bissonnet pervading throughout.” Duhamel is a recipient of a National Endow- ment for the Arts Fellowship and teaches creative writing at Florida International University in Miami. RICHARD FORD , hailed as the “Babe Ruth of novelists and one of the finest curators of the great American living museum” STEPHEN DUNN is the author of by the Washington Post Book World , is the collections of poetry, including author of three collections of short fiction Different Hours , which won and six novels, including Independence Day , the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in the first novel to win both the Pulitzer Prize . Booklist calls Dunn’s poetry and the PEN/Faulkner Award. His soon- “ravishingly articulate and ever to-be-released novel, The Lay of the Land , veracious,” and Gerald Stern says brings back his everyman character from “wisdom might be something The Sportswriter and Independence Day , we could only learn through a Frank Bascombe, who, according to The language like Stephen Dunn’s, New York Times Book Review , has “earned unbearably fearless and beautiful.” his place beside Willy Loman and Harry According to Publishers Weekly, Angstrom in our literary landscape… with Dunn’s poetry “can read like a wry wit and a fin de siècle wisdom that is a conversation held within the very much his own.” The Globe and Mail Monday generous confines of an unusually of Toronto writes that “Ford captures the November 6, 2006 abundant self.” Dunn teaches intricacies of human beings better than creative writing at Richard just about any other writer alive…. He is 7:30 pm Stockton College in New Jersey. a master of the small moments that take His newest book, Everything Else place in between and shape the larger Stude Concert Hall at in the World , will be released movements of our lives.” Rice University this fall. Entrance #18 off of Photos: Nick Carbo Karen Zealand Photo: Robert Yager Rice Boulevard ALICIA GASPAR DE ALBA TERRENCE M cNALLY LUIS ALBERTO URREA ALICIA GASPAR DE ALBA , a native of the El Paso/Juárez border, is a poet, novelist, and Chicano TERRENCE M cNALLY , four-time Tony studies scholar. Her most recent award-winning playwright, is considered book, Desert Blood: The Juárez one of the leading American dramatists Murders , a novel about the ten- writing today. His works include Frankie year crime wave of murdered Monday and Johnny at the Claire de Lune , for which women in Ciudad Juárez, won January 22, 2007 he also wrote the screen adaptation star - the Lambda Literary Award and the Latino Book Award for Best 7:30 pm ring Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer; Lips Together, Teeth Apart; the stage adaptation Mystery Novel. Author James of Kiss of the Spider Woman; Love! Valour! Crumley says of Gaspar de Alba Hubbard Stage Compassion!, which, Vincent Canby in The that she brings to her writing “a scholar’s mind, a fine writer’s sen - Alley Theatre New York Times described as “a theatrical experience of unusual richness, about char - sitivity, and the open heart of her 615 Texas Avenue acters of unexpected dimension”; and his heritage. The result is a novel that most recent, Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s takes your breath away.” Gaspar $10 all seats Life , currently playing on Broadway. de Alba is also the author of Sor Juana’s Second Dream , named Best No student or He won his fourth Tony award for Best Book of a Musical for Ragtime, and the Historical Fiction by the Latino senior discounts San Francisco Opera presented Dead Literary Hall of Fame, about the Man Walking with McNally’s libretto. brilliant -century Mexican He has also written a number of TV nun. She teaches at UCLA. scripts, including Andre’s Mother , for which he won an Emmy award, and is LUIS ALBERTO URREA , born in the recipient of many awards, including Tijuana, Mexico, is the author a citation from the American Academy of several volumes of poetry, of Arts and Letters. non-fiction, and fiction. His memoir, Nobody’s Son , won the American Book Award in , and his book, The Devil’s High- Monday way , was a finalist for the February 26, 2007 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction.