K-State to offer talk on 'Tom Sawyer' to kick off new program in children's literature

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Source: Philip Nel, 785-532-2165, philnel@k-state.edu
http://www.mediarelations.k-state.edu/WEB/News/MediaGuide/pnelbio.html
News release prepared by: Michelle Hall, 785-532-6415, mhall@k-state.edu

Monday, September 25, 2006

K-STATE TO OFFER TALK ON 'TOM SAWYER' TO KICK OFF NEW PROGRAM IN CHILDREN'S LITERATURE

MANHATTAN -- Have you ever wondered why Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is considered a classic but "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" is not?

An upcoming presentation at Kansas State University may have the answer. Beverly Lyon Clark, professor of English at Wheaton College, Norton, Mass., will speak on "Why I Love and Hate Tom Sawyer" at 4 p.m. Friday, Oct. 13, in Room 212 at the K-State Student Union. Clark is currently editing the Norton Critical Edition of Twain's "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer."

"In the 19th century, each book received as much acclaim as the other," Phil Nel said of "Sawyer" and "Finn." "What happened? For an answer, there is no better person to turn to than Beverly Lyon Clark." Nel, associate professor of English and director of the graduate program in children's literature at K-State, said Clark will provide a fresh look at a famous American novel.

Clark also is the author of "Kiddie Lit: The Cultural Construction of Children's Literature in America," has received a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship and has held both the Prentice Chair for outstanding teaching and the Meneely Chair for outstanding scholarship at Wheaton College.

Clark's talk is part of the English department's fall visiting writers and speakers series and celebrates the start of K-State's master's program in children's literature.

Other upcoming presentations in the department's series include "Marrying the Classical and the Contemporary: Weaving 'The Wizard of Oz' into 'Harry Sue,'" by Sue Stauffacher. Stauffacher is the author of "Donuthead," which won the 2006 William Allen White Award for grades 3-5. The sequel, "Donutheart," will be published later this year. Her book "Harry Sue," is a novel with many allusions to "The Wizard of Oz." Stauffacher will speak at 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 5, in the Hemisphere Room at Hale Library.

"She is a very talented author with her finger on the pulse of what matters to readers of children's literature, as evidenced by her selection as a William Allen White winner," said K-State's Anne Phillips, associate professor of English.

"I'm especially enthusiastic about 'Harry Sue,' Stauffacher's book -- for slightly older readers, perhaps -- about a young woman whose parents are both in prison," Phillips said. "What makes the book amazingly creative and fascinating is its use of "prison-speak," so that Harry Sue will be able to communicate with her mother when she finds her again, and the novel's numerous allusions to and reworkings of L. Frank Baum's 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.' The college students to whom I've loaned or mentioned the book are finding it lively and fascinating."

A nonfiction reading by Judith Kitchen, author of "Only the Dance: Essays on Time and Memory" and "Distance and Direction," will be at 3:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 20, in Room 212 at the Union.

Darren Defrain will give a fiction reading at 3:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 3, in the Union's Room 212. Defrain is the author of the novel, "The Salt Palace," and a K-State alum. He is the writing program director at Wichita State University.

At 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 10, K-State students and others will present "Poetry on Poyntz" at the Strecker-Nelson Gallery in downtown Manhattan.

The series will wrap up with Dan Chaon, who will present a fiction reading at 4 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 7, in the Union's Room 212 at the Union. Chaon is the author of the novel, "You Remind Me of Me," and two collections of short stories.

All presentations are free and open to the public.

More information is available at http://www.k-state.edu/english/visit.html