Women writers from lower and working class backgrounds will gather for the 2008 Vanderbilt Visiting Writers Series Spring Symposium to share their experiences and work with readers and each other.

Beyond Our Beginnings – Women Writers from Lower and Working Class Backgrounds will be held March 25-27 on the Vanderbilt campus. The discussions and readings are free and open to the public.

“These days, diversity hinges on more than race and culture,” said Lorraine Lopez, an assistant professor of English at Vanderbilt and organizer of the symposium. “Class and gender are powerful influences in determining and defining human experience.”

Writers Joy Castro, Karen Salyer McElmurray, Heather Sellers and Dorothy Allison will participate. There will be a special performance by Minton Sparks, a performance artist who combines music, poetry and monologues.

The schedule:

Tuesday, March 25
4 p.m., panel discussion with all the participants at the Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center.
5 p.m., reception at the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities.
6 p.m., reading by Dorothy Allison and Heather Sellers at the All Faith Chapel, in the basement of Vanderbilt Divinity School.
7 p.m., book signing and reception in the Divinity School Refectory.

Wednesday, March 26
6 p.m., reading by Joy Castro and Karen McElmurray at the All Faith Chapel.
7 p.m., book signing and reception in the Divinity School Refectory.

Thursday, March 27
6 p.m., performance by Minton Sparks at All Faith Chapel.
7 p.m., book signing and reception in the Divinity School Refectory.

The Vanderbilt Visiting Writers Series is sponsored by an endowment given to the university by Gertrude and Harold S. Vanderbilt.

For information on the participants, go these Web sites:

Dorothy Allison, www.dorothyallison.net/
Joy Castro, www.joycastro.com/
Lorraine Lopez, www.vanderbilt.edu/english/lorraine_lopez
Karen McElmurray, http://al.gcsu.edu/ksmresume.htm
Heather Sellers, http://heathersellers.com/
Minton Sparks, www.mintonsparks.com/index.html

          
Contact: Jim Patterson, (615) 322-NEWS
jim.patterson@vanderbilt.edu