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Office of Student Life
University of Oregon
Author
to greet
winners
■The Kidd writing contest
winners will be announced
tonight and greeted by an
award-winning author
By Serena Markstrom
Oregon Daily Emerald
Award-winning author Barry
Lopez will do a reading tonight at 8
p.m. at Gerlinger Lounge for this
year’s Nancy and Walker Kidd
reading.
During the event Lopez will read
from his new book “Light Action in
the Caribbean,” which is sched
uled for release in November, and
the winners of the Kidd fiction
writing contest will be announced.
Tom Gerald, book events coordi
nator for the University Bookstore,
said he has worked many times
with Lopez, who lives in Eugene,
and knows him to be an intense
and passionate person.
Lopez “has deep concerns, and
those concerns translate into his
writing,” Gerald said. “When you
read Barry Lopez, you are reading
his heart, even when it’s fiction. ”
Lopez won the National Book
Award for “Arctic Dreams” and has
Barry Lopez reading
Who: Author and University grad
uate Barry Lopez
What: Nancy and Walker Kidd
reading
When: Tonight at 8p.m.
Where: Gerlinger Lounge
Cost: Free
published 12 other works of fiction
and nonfiction. His nonfiction
work is often about his travels and
his observations about nature and
society.
“I think he is one of the great con
temporary nature writers,” said
Glen Love, a retired English profes
sor who developed the Northwest
Literature class.
Lopez described his idea of what
a writer should be in an interview
with Capitola Book Cafe.
“My ideal is that the writer is a
servant in some way of the society
in which he resides,” he said. “That
society can be defined in a variety
of ways: geographic communities,
intellectual communities or even
political communities.
“I feel beholden to people whom
I hear from and who have spoken
to me about my work. ”
Lopez received his masters in
creative writing from the Universi
ty in 1970, and though he has since
acquired fame as an author, he has
maintained a private life in Eugene.
Gerald said Lopez has remained
in the area because “Eugene re
spects his privacy.”
Tonight’s event is not only to
honor Lopez, said Debra Gwartney,
who is an instructor and adminis
trator in the creative writing de
partment, but to honor the young
writers who won the Nancy Kidd
contest.
“Barry Lopez’s understanding of
fiction and language is so rich and
accomplished,” Gwartney said.
Lopez judged the fiction writing
portion of the contest, which
awards cash prizes ranging from
$250 to $1,000.
Gwartney said Lopez has a large
local following, and anyone who
loves literature will enjoy the read
ing.
Lopez is a world class talent,
Love said, and “we’re lucky to have
him in Oregon.”