Distinguished speakers and writers from across the nation who specialize in literature, politics and social issues are part of this season's thought-provoking lecture series. Events are subject to change. Please check the Black Mountain Institute Web site for updated event information or call (702) 895-5542. All events are free and open to the public. Directions to UNLV and campus locations may be found on the campus maps web page.
Reading with Malena Mörling
Date/Time: Thursday, Sept. 16, 7:30 p.m.
Location: UNLV Marjorie Barrick Museum Auditorium
Description: Malena Mörling, a Swedish-born poet and winner of the New Issues Press Poetry Prize in 1998 for her book of poetry called "Ocean Avenue," is an assistant professor of creative writing at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. She is also the author of "Astoria," and her poems have appeared in several publications and anthologies. In partnership with the UNLV English department and University Forum Lecture Series.
"The Death of Old News"
Date/Time: Wednesday, Sept. 22, 7 p.m.
Location: UNLV Student Union Ballroom
Description: Panel discussion on how the Internet impacts news gathering and reporting with Jim Lehrer, a longtime journalist, author and executive editor and anchor of "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" on PBS; and Alex Jones, a Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist, author and director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University. Brian Greenspun, president and editor of the Las Vegas Sun, moderates.
"Writing in the World: American Authors Looking Outward"
Date/Time: Thursday, Oct. 14, 7 p.m.
Location: UNLV Doc Rando Hall in the Beam Music Center
Description: Panel discussion with Peter Hessler, Paul Theroux and Mary-Ann Tirone Smith. Hessler is a former correspondent for The New Yorker whose books focus on his travels and experiences in China including "River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze," and "Country Driving: A Journey from Farm to Factory." Theroux is a fiction and travel writer and author of "A Dead Hand: A Crime in Calcutta" and Mary-Ann Tirone Smith is author of "Girls of Tender Age: A Memoir," which examines a classmate's murder and her brothers undiagnosed autism in the 1950s, was named by National Public Radio as a best work of nonfiction for 2006.
Vegas Valley Book Festival Opening Keynote Reading with T.C. Boyle
Date/Time: Wednesday, Nov. 3, 7 p.m.
Location: UNLV Student Union Ballroom
Description: T.C. Boyle, author of 20 novels and winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for "World's End," will kick off the Vegas Valley Book Festival. Boyle is a Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California and is the author of "The Road to Wellville," and "The Women." Co-sponsored by City of Las Vegas, Nevada Humanities, Las Vegas-Clark County Library District and Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Vegas Valley Book Festival and Nevada Humanities Lecture with Brian Turner
Date/Time: Saturday, Nov. 6, 7 p.m.
Location: UNLV Greenspun Hall Auditorium
Description: Brian Turner is a poet who served in the U.S. Army for seven years and won the 2005 Beatrice Hawley Award for his debut book of poems on the Iraq War, "Here, Bullet." Turner, who teaches at Sierra Nevada College, is also a contributor to The New York Times. Co-sponsored by Nevada Humanities.
Vegas Valley Book Festival Closing Keynote with Dennis Lehane
Date/Time: Sunday, Nov. 7, 6 p.m.
Location: Clark County Library, 1401. E. Flamingo Road, Las Vegas
Description: Dennis Lehane, author of several books adapted for film such as "Mystic River," "Gone Baby Gone" and "Shutter Island," is the recipient of the Massachusetts Book Award in Fiction and the Anthony Award and Barry Award for best novel. Lehane also authored "A Drink Before the War" and "The Given Day." Co-sponsored by City of Las Vegas, Nevada Humanities, Las Vegas-Clark County Library District and Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Reading with Richard Burgin
Date/Time: Wednesday, Nov. 17, 6 p.m.
Location: UNLV Marjorie Barrick Museum Auditorium
Description: Richard Burgin, author of 12 books including the novel, "Ghost Quartet," is a communication and English professor at St. Louis University. He was the founding editor of Boston Review and New York Arts Journal and his work has appeared in The Boston Globe and New York Times Book Review, among others. In partnership with UNLV English department and University Forum Lecture Series.
Reading with Alissa Nutting
Date/Time: Tuesday, Nov. 30, from 7 p.m.
Location: UNLV Greenspun Hall Auditorium
Description: A Schaeffer Fellow in fiction at UNLV, Nutting is an editor for the BMI's literary magazine "Witness." Her collection of stories, "Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls," was the recipient of the 6th Starcherone Books Prize for Innovative Fiction, which will be published in October. Her works have appeared in several journals such as "Mid-American Review" and "The Southeast Review."
"The Future of American Liberalism"
Date/Time: Thursday, Feb. 24, 2011, 7 p.m.
Location: UNLV Doc Rando Hall in the Beam Music Center
Description: Barbara Ehrenreich, Lewis Lapham and Curtis White discuss liberalism and its status in today's political landscape. Ehrenreich is the author of 12 books including "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America" and is a frequent contributor to The New York Times and Harper's Magazine. Lapham is the editor of Lapham's Quarterly and a former editor of Harper's Magazine. His books include "Money and Class in America" and "Pretensions to Empire." White is a novelist and essayist whose books included "The Middle Mind: Why Americans Don't Think for Themselves" and "The Barbaric Heart: Faith, Money and the Crisis of Nature." He is a professor emeritus of English at Illinois State University.
"Jazz: America's Gift to the World" Moderated by Marlena Shaw
Date/Time: Thursday, March 24, 2011, 7 p.m.
Location: UNLV Doc Rando Hall in the Beam Music Center
Description: David Loeb, Ellis Marsalis, Ishmael Reed, Marlena Shaw and Richard Williams provide a history of jazz music and its impact globally. Dave Loeb, director of UNLV Jazz Studies and an associate professor of music, conducts jazz ensembles and is instructor of jazz piano and jazz composition. Loeb has performed with renowned jazz artists including Freddie Hubbard, Tom Scott, Bobby Shew, Bill Watrous, Tom Harrell, Nancy Wilson, Joe Williams and Anita O'Day. He has played for many television shows. Marsalis is a longtime New-Orleans born musician whose influence helped spawn the careers of his sons Branford and Wynton as well as Harry Connick Jr. Reed is poet, essayist and novelist, author of nine novels and is the recipient of several awards including the American Civil Liberties Award and Guggenheim Foundation Award. Before he was chief sports writer for The Guardian, Williams was head of artists at Island Records. He recently authored a book on Miles Davis album "Some Kind of Blue." Marlena Shaw is among the most versatile and charismatic jazz vocalists performing today. Her music career began in 1963, when she worked with jazz trumpeter Howard McGhee, and by the mid-'60s she was performing regularly for audiences in the Catskills, around Manhattan. She went on to tour with the Count Basie Orchestra for four years, and was eventually signed to Blue Note Records, recording five albums and several singles for the label. She toured for a time with the late Sammy Davis, Jr. and continues to perform today.
Bennett Fellows in Conversation
Date/Time: Thursday, April 14, 2011, 7 p.m.
Location: UNLV Greenspun Hall Auditorium
Description: Uwem Akpan, Daniel Brook and Mary-Ann Tirone Smith are the BMI in-residence writers under the Diana L. Bennett Fellows Program. Akpan is a Nigerian-born author, who received the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book in the African region for "Say You're One of Them" which was also Oprah Winfrey's book club selection. Brook is the author of "The Trap: Selling out to Stay Afloat in Winner Take All America," and was the recipient of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting Fellowship in 2008. Tirone Smith, author of "Girls of Tender Age: A Memoir," which examines a classmate's murder and her brothers undiagnosed autism in the 1950s, was named by National Public Radio as a best work of nonfiction for 2006.
A Reading with C.D. Wright
Date/Time: Wednesday, April 20, 2011, 7 p.m.
Location: Student Union Theatre
Description: Born in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, C. D. Wright's regional background emanates from her published works. Her work includes the critically-acclaimed Deepstep Come Shining and One Big Self: An Investigation, a project with photographer Deborah Luster centered around Louisiana inmates. During her career in which she published over a dozen works, she has been honored as UNLV's 2011 Ghanem Chair in Creative Writing and by the Bunting Institute, the Guggenheim Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation among many others. Wright currently teaches at Brown University.
Founded in 2006, Black Mountain Institute (BMI) at UNLV is an international center dedicated to advancing literary and cross-cultural dialogue. Through public programs, residential fellowships, and publishing initiatives, Black Mountain provides a cultural lens through which today's most pressing issues can be addressed and evaluated.
