The Creative Writing Program has become very popular among undergraduate students and has grown from 22 to 72 majors in its six short years of existance. Another popular component of the program is the Creative Writing Reading Series, which brings respected writers to Atlanta to share their works and artistic impressions with students and the general public. This year's offerings include:
* Novelist John Edgar Wideman; Reading: 7 p.m., Oct. 7, Winship Ballroom, Dobbs Center; Colloquium: 3 p.m., Oct. 7, 201B Candler Library. Called "the Black Faulkner, the softcover Shakespeare" by the Los Angeles Times Book Review, Wideman is the author of numerous novels and short stories. He was awarded the PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction for Sent for You Yesterday and was nominated for a National Book Award for Brothers and Keepers. Wideman's other works include The Lynchers, Reuben, All Stories are True and Hurry Home. Co-sponsored with African American Studies.
* Novelist Kaye Gibbons; Reading: 8:15 p.m., Nov. 11, 206 White Hall; Colloquium: 2:30 p.m., Nov. 12, 106 Cannon Chapel. Known for her contemporary southern fiction, Gibbons is the author of A Virtuous Woman, A Cure for Dreams (1990 PEN/Revson Award winner), Charms for the Easy Life and Sights Unseen. She is noted for winning the Sue Kaufman Prize for Fiction for her novel Ellen Foster.
* Short story writer and poet Ha Jin; Reading: 8:15 p.m., Feb. 11, Location TBA. A former soldier in the People's Army of China, Jin is the author of Between Silences, a collection of poetry. Following the Tiananmen Square massacre, Jin became a permanent U.S. resident. He will be reading from his latest poetry collection, Facing Shadows, and his collection of short pieces, Ocean of Words: Army Stories.
* Poet and novelist Judson Mitcham; Reading: 8:15 p.m., Feb. 11, Location TBA. Mitcham, psychology department chairman at Fort Valley State College, and adjunct professor of Creative Writing at Emory, will read from his new novel, The Sweet Everlasting. His numerous honors include the Pushcart Prize and a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
* Poet A.R. Ammons; Reading: 8:15 p.m., March 17, Location TBA; Colloquium: 2:30 p.m., March 18, Location TBA. Author of Garbage, The Really Short Poems, Coast of Trees and Sphere: The Form of a Motion, Ammons is among the nation's most renowned poets. He currently serves as Goldwin Smith Professor of Poetry at Cornell University.
* Novelist and poet N. Scott Momaday; Awards Night Reading: 8:15 p.m., April 14, in Cannon Chapel; Colloquium: 2:30 p.m., April 15. Location TBA. Momaday, author of the 1969 Pulitzer Prize winning novel, House Made of Dawn, is a distinguished Native American author and painter. His other works include The Way to Rainy Mountain, Angle of Geese, The Names: A Memoir and In the Presence of the Sun: Stories and Poems 1961-1991.
--Dyshaun Muhammad