PSU Visiting Writers Series begins Thursday

Pittsburg State University's 2006-2007 Distinguished Visiting Writers Series opens on Thursday, Oct. 26, with Himilce Novas, a novelist, poet, playwright, historian, and radio commentator. Novas will read from her work at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 26, in the Balkans Room, with a reception to follow at 9 p.m. in the Heritage Room. Both rooms are in the Overman Student Center.

Novas' novels include "Mangos, Bananas and Coconuts: A Cuban Love Story," and "Princess Papaya," which Isabel Allende calls "beautifully rendered, chilling, touching and haunting." Among Novas' works of non-fiction is the popular "Everything You Need to Know About Latino History."

Novas lectures widely on Latino history and culture. During her visit to PSU, Novas will also visit fiction writing classes. Her talk, "From Writer to Author: The Five W's," which she will give at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 26, in 301 Grubbs Hall, is open to the public.

Novas, who lives in Scottsdale, Ariz., has taught at University of California at Santa Barbara, Wellesley College, and Tulane University. While living in Santa Barbara, she produced and hosted "THE NOVAS REPORT," a talk radio program dealing with books and other cultural and contemporary issues from a unique international perspective, with a solution-oriented approach to government, education, lifestyles and the arts. Novas has been published in The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, Connoisseur and Cuisine. She currently has a piece in The Multicultural Review and recently agreed to be their fiction editor.

---Pitt State---