By Risa Engel
PRINCETON, NJ, March 1, 2011 n Pulitzer Prize-winning and best-selling author, Jhumpa Lahiri, will be the featured author at Stuart Country Day School of the Sacred Heart’s third annual Lies, Light, McCarthy Visiting Author Program on April 8, 2011.
The public is invited to an after-school reading on April 8, 2011 at 4:30pm in Stuart’s Cor Unum Center. This event is free of charge.
Ms. Lahiri received the Pulitzer Prize in 2000 for Interpreter of Maladies, her debut short story collection that explores issues of love and identity among immigrants and cultural transplants. Her best-selling novel The Namesake was published in the fall of 2003 to great acclaim. A film version of The Namesake (directed by Mira Nair) was released in 2007. Lahiri’s most recent book of short stories, entitled Unaccustomed Earth, received the 2008 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award (the world’s largest prize for a short story collection). Unaccustomed Earth debuted No. 1 on the New York Times Best Seller List in April 2008.
In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, Jhumpa Lahiri was awarded the PEN/Hemingway Award, an O. Henry Prize (for her short story collection, Interpreter of Maladies), and the Addison Metcalf Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Lahiri was granted a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2002 and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 2006. In 2009, she was awarded the Vallombrosa Von Rezzori Prize and the Asian American Literary Award for Fiction for Unaccustomed Earth. In 2010 Lahiri was appointed as a member of US President Barack Obama’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities.
During her visit to Stuart, Ms. Lahiri will meet with students of all ages to share her expertise on the craft of writing. She will spend one hour with K-5 Lower School students, share lunch with nine Stuart Senior Scholars, and give a private reading to Middle and Upper School students followed by a question and answer period. A public reading will be held at 4:30 p.m.. Ms. Lahiri will attend a private reception in her honor in the evening.
About the Visiting Author Program: The Lies, Light, McCarthy Visiting Author Program is an annual event that was the dream of a former English department head, Victoria McCarthy. A fund was established in her honor after her death. The fund is named after Stuart’s three former English department heads: Betty Lies, Nancy Light and Victoria McCarthy ’71. The goal of the program is to bring prominent authors to Stuart who will share their knowledge and experiences with the students. Past Visiting Authors include Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon (2009) and best-selling novelist Jonathan Safran Foer (2010).
About Stuart: Stuart Country Day School of the Sacred Heart is an independent, college preparatory, Roman Catholic school for girls in kindergarten through grade 12, and co-ed pre-school/junior kindergarten, in Princeton, New Jersey. Now celebrating its 47th year, Stuart is a member of the National and International Network of Sacred Heart Schools. Stuart offers an education deeply rooted in the goals and criteria of the Sacred Heart that enriches, inspires and empowers its students. While academic rigor is emphasized at Stuart, values are also placed on physical, social and moral growth.
Photo Caption: Jhumpa Lahiri, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author of Interpreter of Maladies, The Namesake and Unaccustomed Earth will spend the day and speak at Stuart Country Day School as part of the school’s Light, McCarthy Visiting Author Program. The public is welcome to a reading on April 8, 2011 at 4:30 p.m. in Stuart’s Cor Unum Center. The event is free of charge.
Note to Editor: For high resolution photo, contact Risa Engel at [email protected] or 609-921-2330 x 253.
