University of South Carolina Fall Festival of Authors Set for Nov 13-20, 2008

COLUMBIA, SC – October 14, 2008 – Best-selling novelist David Baldacci, poet Louise Glück and novelist and short-story writer David Bajo will be the featured writers at the University of South Carolina’s annual Fall Festival of Authors this November.

All three will read from their works and sign books. The events, which are free and open to the public, will take place at 6 p.m. in the School of Law auditorium. Bajo will be featured Nov. 13, Glück, Nov. 18 and Baldacci, Nov. 20.

The Fall Festival of Authors is sponsored by the department of English and Thomas Cooper Library. For more information about the festival or the Thomas Cooper Society, contact the Thomas Cooper Library at 803-777-3142, or visit the festival Web site: www.sc.edu/library/fallfestival.html.

Bajo joined the University of South Carolina’s faculty this fall as an assistant professor of creative writing. His debut novel, “The 351 Books of Irma Arcuri,” was published in June and has received positive reviews. A tale that weaves love with literature and mathematics, the novel will be published in 10 other countries in 2009. Bajo, who also has written short stories, is writing his second novel, titled “And So to Sleep Again.”

Glück has written more than 11 books of poetry, including “The Wild Iris,” which won her the Pulitzer Prize and the Poetry Society of America’s William Carlos Williams Award. Many of her other books also have won prestigious awards, including “Vita Nova,” winner of The New Yorker magazine’s Book Award; “Ararat,” which won the Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry; and “The Triumph of Achilles,” winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Boston Globe Literary Press Award and the Poetry Society of America’s Melville Kane Award. Glück also wrote the collection of essays, “Proofs and Theories: Essays on Poetry,” in 1994, which won the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for Nonfiction. She has earned many other prizes and awards and served as the 12th U.S. poet laureate from 2003 – 04.

Baldacci, a former attorney, is known for his best-selling novels that combine secret service and CIA intrigue. His first novel, “Absolute Power,” in 1996 was an instant bestseller and the next year was made into a major motion picture featuring Clint Eastwood and Gene Hackman. He has written 13 novels, including his debut novel in his young adult series, “Freddy and the French Fries: Fries Alive!” His work also appears in magazines, newspapers, journals and other publications. His new thriller is titled “Stone Cold.”