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March 19, 2002
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Novelist Cynthia Ozick to
Appear at Smith College
NORTHAMPTON, Mass.-The Program in Jewish
Studies at Smith College will present a lecture by acclaimed
American novelist, essayist and critic Cynthia Ozick at 5 p.m.
on Monday, April 8, in Seelye Hall 106. The event is free, open
to the public and wheelchair accessible.
Ozick's topic, "What Isaac Babel Knew (and Western Intellectuals
Didn't)," coincides with the recent release of "The
Complete Isaac Babel" (Norton, 2001), for which she wrote
the introduction. One of the leading American writers of today,
Ozick will comment on the tension between art, identity and politics
in the life and fiction of Russian-Jewish writer Isaac Babel
(1894-1940). Her talk is co-sponsored by the program in comparative
literature and the department of Russian language and literature
at Smith College.
Ozick is the author of more than half a dozen works of prose
fiction, including "The Pagan Rabbi and Other Stories,"
"The Cannibal Galaxy," "The Shawl" and "The
Puttermesser Papers." She has also published several
collections of literary essays, including "Art and Ardor,"
"Metaphor & Memory," "Fame & Folly"
and "Quarrel & Quandary." Her fiction and
essays have appeared in leading national publications, including
the New Yorker, Harper's, the Atlantic Monthly, the New Republic
and the New York Review of Books, and have been anthologized
in collections such as "Best American Short Stories,"
"Best American Essays" and "The Norton
Anthology of Jewish American Literature."
Among her many prizes, Ozick is a recipient of the National Book
Critic's Circle Award for Criticism, the John Cheever Award,
and several O. Henry First Prize Story Awards. She has twice
been a finalist for the National Book Award, and a finalist for
the Pulitzer Prize. Over the course of her career, she has received
16 honorary degrees, most recently from her alma mater, New York
University.
Ozick's lecture will be followed by a public reception to be
held in Seelye 207. For more information, call Jayne Mercier
in the Jewish Studies Program office at (413) 585-3390.
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