Prolific writer, Russell Banks, to speak at Warren Wilson

[Brittany Marcum]

It is that time of year again!  This year, acclaimed fiction writer, Russell Banks, will deliver the annual Harwood-Cole Memorial Lecture at Warren WIlson College. The event is free and open to the public and is sponsored by The Friends of the Pew Learning Center and Ellison Library.  It will take place in Canon Lounge of the Gladfelter Student Center at 4:00 p.m., November 17th, and will follow a 3:00 p.m. reception featuring The Dixie Darlings. For more information about the event, call 711-3061.

Russell Banks, author of "Dreaming up America" and "Lost Memory of Skin," is a highly decorated writer with numerous awards and literary honors.  Throughout his career, he has received the Merrill Award, the John Dos Passos Award and the Literary Award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters.  He has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize twice and for the PEN/Faulkner Award three times, and in 2011, he won the Common Wealth Award for Literature.  

The New England native began his writing career as a poet.  He has taught at a handful of prestigious colleges and universities including Columbia University, Sarah Lawrence College, University of New Hampshire, New England College, New York University, and Princeton University.