Jeanne Murray Walker, University of Delaware professor of English, will read from her acclaimed new book The Geography of Memory: A Pilgrimage Through Alzheimer's at 5 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 16, in 127 Memorial Hall.
The presentation is part of the Department of English Faculty Reading and Lecture Series. A reception and book signing will follow in the dome on the third floor of Memorial Hall.
In an advance review of the book, which was published by Hachette Press and released in September, Mark Noll, Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History at Notre Dame, wrote, "This deeply humane memoir is at once a memorial to a mother whose memory failed before her body gave way, a poignant reflection on the sister who lived close by while the author flew in repeatedly from afar, and an insightful exposition on memory itself."
Walker's poems and essays have appeared in many periodicals, including Poetry, The Georgia Review, American Poetry Review, The Atlantic Monthly, and Best American Poetry. She is the author of seven books of poetry, including A Deed to the Light and New Tracks, Night Falling.
Among her awards are a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, eight Pennsylvania Council on the Arts fellowships, a Prairie-Schooner Glenna Luschei Prize, and a Pew Fellowship in the Arts. Her plays, which have been performed across the country and in London, are published by Dramatic Publishing.
Walker lectures, teaches, and gives readings extensively in places ranging from the Library of Congress and Oxford University, to Whidbey Island and Texas canyon country. In addition to being a professor at UD, she is a mentor in the Seattle Pacific University low-residency master of fine arts program.
A volume of her new and selected poetry, Windfall Light, will be published in 2014 by Word Farm Press.
Article originally published October 9, 2013 on UDaily.
