Contact:
Teresa S. Thomas
412-268-3580

For immediate release:
September 18, 2002

Peace Corps Poet to Present at Adamson Writers Series

PITTSBURGH—Award-winning narrative poet Mark Brazaitis will be featured at the Adamson Writers Series on Monday, Oct. 7, at 8 p.m., in the Adamson Wing of Baker Hall.

From 1991-1993 and 1995-1996, Brazaitis was a Peace Corps volunteer and trainer in Guatemala, which has greatly influenced his writing. "As a narrative poet, I love good stories, and Guatemala is full of them. To this day, I haven't stopped writing about Guatemala," he says.

Brazaitis's works include "The River of Lost Voices: Stories from Guatemala," winner of the 1998 Iowa Short Fiction Award, and a novel, "Steal My Heart." In addition, his poems, stories and essays have been featured in journals such as The Sun, Notre Dame Review and Atlanta Review, and newspapers such as The Washington Post, The Richmond Time-Dispatch, the Detroit Free Press and American Medical News.

Brazaitis is an assistant professor of English at West Virginia University.

For more information about the Adamson Visiting Writers Series, contact the English Department at 412-268-2850. All presentations are free and open to the public.

The Adamson Series is made possible by the generous support of the Pauline B. Adamson Fund.