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WALTER MOSLEY SURE TO PROVOKE EXCHANGE ABOUT WORLD PEACE, GLOBAL CAPITALISM AND MYSTERY NOVELS Best-selling author and social activist kicks off TCC’s 3rd Annual Literary Festival

NORFOLK, Va. – (March 3, 2004) – Tidewater Community College celebrates its 3rd Annual Literary Festival with a provocative schedule of activities March 29-April 2. The Literary Festival is organized to foster the cultural development of students and residents in Hampton Roads. All events are free and open to the public.

Acclaimed mystery writer Walter Mosley opens the festival on March 29 at 7 p.m. at the TCC Jeanne and George Roper Performing Arts Center in Norfolk. Best known for his popular mysteries featuring private investigator Easy Rawlins, Mosley has claimed fame for 12 books including Devil in a Blue Dress, Six Easy Pieces, Bad Boy Brawly Brown, Black Betty and A Little Yellow Dog. The New York Times Book Review has called him “a literary artist as well as a master of mystery.”

Mosley is also an active voice for the black community and through his essays, lectures and nonfiction, examines ways that the African American perspective can contribute to political and social progress in the United States. His book, Workin’ on the Chain Gang, uses race history to examine the American economic and political machine. In What Next: A Memoir Toward World Peace, Mosley challenges African Americans to play a leading role in creating world peace.

With the City University of New York, Mosley created a new publishing certificate program aimed at young urban residents. It is the only program of its type in the country. Mosley serves on the board of directors of the National Book Awards, The Poetry Society of American and is past president of the Mystery Writers of America. A reception and book signing will follow his talk.

Dr. Charles Wilson, English Department chair at Old Dominion University, will introduce Walter Mosley’s keynote speech. Dr. Wilson is the author of Walter Mosley, A Critical Companion. Currently, he is working on another book “exploring race and racism” in American novels. Named one of the TIAA-CREF Outstanding Faculty for the Commonwealth of Virginia, he is also the past recipient of the A. Rufus Tonelson Faculty Award (2000) and Robert L. Stern Award for Excellence in Teaching from the College of Arts and Letters (1998).

See other Literary Festival activities, more information and directions to events.

March 30
Noon Faculty/Student/Staff Readings
Chesapeake Campus, Whitehurst Building, Room 2507
Refreshments served

7 p.m. Readings by John Slade
Chesapeake Campus, Whitehurst Building, Room 2507
John Slade has published a wide variety of titles in fiction and non-fiction including plays, poetry, a children’s book and several titles addressing issues from education to ecology. With his most recent book, Bootmaker to the Nation, he adds an historical novel to his already diverse list of topics. Bootmaker to the Nation was a five-year project that reflects Slade’s love of history and his intent to explain and bring to life the principles, the beliefs, and the dreams surrounding the American Revolution and the foundation of this country. Refreshments will be served following his talk.

12:30 p.m. Faculty/Student/Staff Readings
Virginia Beach Campus, Bayside Building, Room 100 (small auditorium in library)

March 31
10 a.m. Readings by John Slade
Portsmouth Campus, Beasley Building, Waterfront Conference Room
Refreshments served

12:30 p.m. Faculty/Student/Staff Readings
Norfolk Campus, Martin Building, Room 2502

5:30 p.m. Faculty/Student/Staff Readings
Portsmouth Campus, Waterfront Conference Room
Refreshments served

April 1
12:30 p.m. Readings by Robert Phillips
Virginia Beach Campus, Bayside Building, Room 100 (small auditorium in library)
Robert Phillips is a poet, critic and short story writer. He is the John and Rebecca Moores Professor of Literature at the University of Houston. In addition to three books of short stories, he has published six books of poetry with a seventh, Circumstances Beyond Our Control, due this spring.

5:30 p.m. Reading by Susan Wheeler
Norfolk Campus, Martin Building, Room 2502
Susan Wheeler’s first collection of poetry, Bag O’Diamonds, published in 1993, received the Norma Farber First Book Award of the Poetry Society of America and was short listed for the Los Angeles Times Book Award. Her second book of poetry, Smokes, won Four Way Books award, and her third collection, Source Codes, was published by SALT in 2000. Her work has appeared in four edition s of the Macmillan Anthology Best American Poetry, The Paris Review, The New Yorker and other journals. She received a Pushcart Prize in 1994 and teaches at the New School for Social Research and Princeton University. She received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1999.

7 p.m. Readings by Virginia Beach Faculty
Virginia Beach Campus, Pungo Auditorium

April 2
12:30 p.m. College-Wide Grand Mic Finale with Guest Poet Tim Seibles
Norfolk Campus, Martin Building, Room 2502
Seibles is the author of five collections of poetry, a former National Endowment for the Arts fellow and a recent finalist for the Library of Virginia Book Award for Poetry.

The following TCC faculty authors will appear throughout the week during faculty readings and with guest authors.

Rick Alley is the author of The Talking Book of July Poems, EWU Press. His poems have recently appeared in The Next Generation, American Poets under 40, Carnegie Mellon Press.

Rachel Blue Ankney has appeared in the Chrysler Museum’s Tribute to Ekphrasis publication. Her work will also appear this summer in the White Marsh Review.

Joe Antinarella is the author of Tried and True and Deciding to Lead, Heinemann Press.

Rob House is currently finishing his Ph.D. from the University of Houston. He has been published in numerous reviews, including the Paris Review, Western Humanities Review and the Texas Review. House was the poetry editor of Gulf Coast Journal and co-editor of Screeno, a collection of poems and stories by Delmore Schwartz.

Bob Kunzinger has been published in various newspapers and magazines, including Family Life & Columbia. His essay, “Measure Up,” will appear in the forthcoming anthology from Oswego State University Press. Kunzinger recently won a New England Essay award for “Sweeping,” an excerpt from Out of Nowhere.

Carolyn Melchor has co-authored two textbooks and published poetry in Virginia Appalachian Heritage, Literature and Belief and Virginia Country and other literary magazines. Her first collection of poetry, Poems from Chuckatuck, was published in 1999.

Tom Williams has been publishing poetry for more than 10 years, and his poems have appeared in Stray Dog, Hayden’s Ferry Review and Blue Collar Review. Williams was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize and his chapbook, Faceoff, is available from All Nations Press.

Tracie Zimmer is a free-lance writer and author of Sketches from a Spy Tree, a collection of poems to be published by Clarion Press in 2005.

Call 757-822-1122 for more information.

Tidewater Community College is the second largest of the 23 community colleges in the Commonwealth of Virginia, enrolling more than 34,000 students annually. The 37 th largest in the nation’s 1,600 community-college network, TCC ranks among the 50 fastest-growing large community colleges.   Founded in 1958 as a part of the Virginia Community College System, the college serves the South Hampton Roads region with campuses in Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth and Virginia Beach as well as the TCC Jeanne and George Roper Performing Arts Center in the theater district in downtown Norfolk, the Visual Arts Center in Olde Towne Portsmouth and a regional Advanced Technology Center in Virginia Beach. Forty-three percent of the region’s residents attending a college or university in Virginia last fall were enrolled at TCC.