February 8, 2001
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass—The Amherst College Creative Writing Center presents a reading by Thomas Glave on Monday, March 5, at 4 p.m. in the Babbott Room of the Octagon at Amherst College. The event is free and open to the public.

Thomas Glave, author of Whose Song? And Other Stories, has been hailed as the best black gay writer of his generation. He won the O. Henry Prize in 1997 and was a Fulbright Scholar in 1998 and 1999. He is a founding member of the Jamaica Forum of Lesbians, All-Sexuals, and Gays. His work is challenging, marked by energy, ambition and fearlessness.

Gloria Naylor writes, “In this collection of short stories Thomas Glave walks the path of such greats in American literature as Richard Wright and James Baldwin while forging new ground of his own. His voice is strong and his technique dazzling as he cuts to the bone of what it means to be black in America, white in America, gay in America, and human in the world at large. These stories…are brutal in some places, tender in others, but always honestly told.”

Glave was born in the Bronx and grew up there and in Kingston, Jamaica. A two-time New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow, he is a graduate of Bowdoin College and Brown University. He teaches at Binghamton University.

The Amherst College Creative Writing Center puts on a yearly reading series featuring emerging and established authors. Future events in the 2000-01 series include readings by Forrest Gander and Agha Shahid Ali and a celebration of the work of James Merrill. See the Center’s Website at www.amherst.edu/~cwc, for more information.

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