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Stuart Dybek honored at Friday reception

Nov. 12, 2007

KALAMAZOO--Award-winning author Stuart Dybek, a 33-year member of the creative writing faculty at Western Michigan University, will be honored at a public reception from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 16, at the Kalamazoo Public Library, 315 S. Rose St.

The reception will include live music and refreshments and is open to the public free of charge. Brief remarks will be made by Ann Rohrbaugh, director of the Kalamazoo Public Library, and by representatives from the Portage District Library and the University Libraries at WMU.

Dybek will read from his work, answer questions from the audience, and sign copies of his books, which will be available for purchase at the event.

In a span of one week in September, Dybek was named a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellow, which carries a $500,000 prize, and received the $30,000 Rea Award for the Short Story.

Dybeck is a distinguished writer in residence at Northwestern University. He retired from full-time teaching at WMU earlier this year, but remains an adjunct member of the creative writing faculty and teaches in WMU's renowned Prague Summer Program.

The author of three short story collections, numerous anthologized works of short fiction, and two books of poetry, Dybek roots his writing firmly in the ethnic neighborhoods of his native Chicago. His fiction includes the books "Childhood and Other Neighborhoods," "The Coast of Chicago," and "I Sailed With Magellan." He is also the author of two collections of poetry--"Brass Knuckles" and "Streets in Their Own Ink," and his work has appeared in such publications as the New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, the Paris Review and the Atlantic Monthly.

In addition to the county's two major public libraries, sponsors of the reception honoring Dybek include Kalamazoo's four institutions of higher education and the Kalamazoo Gazette.

Related article
Stuart Dybek named MacArthur Foundation Fellow

Media contact: Thom Myers, (269) 387-8400, thom.myers@wmich.edu

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