Joyce Carol Oates Is Coming to Indy!

The Vivian S. Delbrook Visiting Writers Series at Butler University has announced its fall speaker lineup. All events are free and open to the public. For more information, call 317:940-9861.

Here's the schedule:

--Ann Cummins, 7:30 p.m. 20 September, Krannert Room, Clowes Memorial Hall, Butler University campus.
Cummins, author of the short-story collection "Red Ant House" and the novel "Yellowcake," teaches creative writing at Northern Arizona University. The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, Quarterly West and the Sonora Review, as well as "The Best American Short Stories 2002," have published her writing.

--Galway Kinnell, 7:30 p.m. 1 October. Reilly Room, Atherton Union, Butler.
Kinnell, considered one of the most influential poets of the second half of the 20th century, is a social activist whose most popular poems include "St. Francis and the Sow" and "After Making Love We Hear Footsteps." The first edition of his "Selected Poems" (1980) won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. He was a professor of creative writing at New York University and chancellor of the American Academy of Poets before retiring, and "Strong Is Your Hold," his first collection in more than a decade, was just published.

--Michael Martone, noon 4 October, Vivian S. Delbrook Writers’ Studio (Room 304, Jordan Hall), Butler.
Fort Wayne native Martone's most recent book is "Double-Wide: Collected Fiction of Michael Martone." He is a professor of creative writing at the University of Alabama.

--Dan Wakefield, 7:30 p.m. 25 October, Krannert Room, Clowes Memorial Hall, Butler.
Indianapolis native Wakefield is well known for his best-selling novels "Going All The Way" and "Starting Over." He's written several books on spirituality, including "The Hijacking of Jesus: How the Religious Right Distorts Christianity and Promotes Prejudice and Hate." Wakefield's appearance is co-sponsored by the Center for Faith and Vocation.

--Joyce Carol Oates (photo, above left), 7:30 p.m. 31 October, Reilly Room, Atherton Union, Butler.
Oates' most recent book, "The Gravedigger's Daughter," is her 36th published novel. "Them," which was published in 1970, won a National Book Award, and first five of her other books have been finalists for that honor. Her 1994 book, "What I Lived For," was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. She has taught creative writing at Princeton University since 1978.

--Carl W. Ernst, 7:30 p.m. 5 November, Reilly Room, Atherton Union, Butler.
Ernst is a specialist in Islamic studies, with a focus on West and South Asia. His most recent book, "Following Muhammad: Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World," received several international awards. Ernst has been on the faculty in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Department of Religious Studies since 1992. His appearance is co-sponsored by the Change and Tradition Program.

--Adam Zagajewski, 7:30 p.m. 29 NOvember, Reilly Room, Atherton Union, Butler.
Poet, novelist and essayist Zagajewski, winner of the prestigious Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 2004, is a faculty member in the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. The New Yorker published his much-praised poem "Try to Praise the Mutilated World" after 9/11.