Acclaimed Satirist and Best-Selling Novelist to Give Public "Performance" at Smith

Kurt Vonnegut, the author of "Player Piano" (1952) and "Bagombo Snuff Box" (1999) -- and some 18 books in between, including the best-selling satirical novel "Slaughterhouse Five" -- will present "How to Get a Job Like Mine" at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 5, at John M. Greene Hall.
The event, which Vonnegut is characterizing as "a performance with chalk on blackboard," is free and open to the public.

Vonnegut has recently arrived at Smith as writer-in-residence and distinguished senior lecturer in English. He is offering two master classes in creative writing and meeting individually with students to review and discuss their writing projects, including essays, speeches, poetry, plays, operas and television/film scenarios.

Vonnegut, who holds an advanced degree in anthropology and has taught at the University of Iowa Writers Workshop, Harvard University and the City University of New York, is also planning to speak to individual classes, whether in the English department or other disciplines.

In addition to his career as a writer, Vonnegut has been, at various points in his life, a journalist in Chicago, a soldier and prisoner of war in World War II, a car salesman, a corporate publicist, a boarding school teacher and a husband and father.

Reflecting on the writerly life, he once said, "What the heck, practicing an art isn't a way to make money. It's a way to make one's soul grow."

Contact: Laurie Fenlason, lfenlason@smith.edu

September 26, 2000