Evening Benefits the NYU/Goldwater Hospital Writing Project
On Thursday, April 5, at 7 p.m., New York University’s Creative Writing Program will host an award ceremony and reading to benefit the NYU/Goldwater Hospital Writing Project. Russell Banks, whose many works include the novels Continental Drift, Affliction, and The Sweet Hereafter, will receive the eighth annual Jean Kennedy Smith NYU Creative Writing Award of Distinction. Novelist and poet Francine Prose will introduce Banks.
The event takes place in NYU’s Vanderbilt Hall, Greenberg Lounge, 40 Washington Square South; voluntary donations are requested at the door. For further information the public may call 212.998.8816.
The award ceremony will include a reading by writers from the NYU/Goldwater Writing Project - known as the Golden Writers; the presentation of the award; and a reading by Banks. The project provides writing workshops for residents of Coler Goldwater, a 900-bed state hospital for the severely physically challenged. The workshop teachers are graduate students in NYU’s Creative Writing Program, and the proceeds from the benefit reading will provide stipend support for these students as well as help underwrite other program expenses.
Banks, president of the International Parliament of Writers and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, is the author of numerous books. They include Cloudsplitter, Searching for Survivors, Family Life, and The New World, as well as Affliction and The Sweet Hereafter, which were adapted into feature films receiving widespread critical acclaim. Banks’ work has been translated into 20 languages, and his many awards include the Ingram Merrill Award, the St. Lawrence Award for Short Fiction, O. Henry and Best American Short Story Award, the John Dos Passos Award, and the Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
The next event in the NYU Creative Writing Program Spring Reading Series is on April 12 and features distinguished poet and NYU professor Yusef Komunyakaa.
The NYU Creative Writing Program, with permanent faculty members E.L. Doctorow, Paule Marshall, Breyten Breytenbach, Philip Levine, Yusef Komunyakaa, and Sharon Olds, has distinguished itself for over three decades as a leading national center for the study of literature and writing. The director of the program is Deborah Landau. The Reading Series, sponsored in cooperation with the NYU Book Centers and with the generous support of Robert E. Holmes, is a vital component of the Writing Program, bringing both established and new writers to NYU.