Steinbeck Lecture Series to Feature Dr. Barbara Heavilin

Dr. Barbara A. Heavilin, co-founder and co-editor of the Steinbeck Review, will deliver this year’s Steinbeck Lecture on October 30, 2008, at 7:30 p.m. in Bracken Library’s Forum Room, BL-225. Her topic is John Steinbeck as Mr. American Spectator.

Dr. Heavilin is Associate Professor of English at Taylor University. She has published numerous articles and books on Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck, including The Critical Response to John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath and John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath: A Reference Guide. She has served as editor of the Steinbeck Yearbook series. Her latest book, A John Steinbeck Reader: Essays in Honor of Stephen A. George, will be published by Scarecrow Press this fall.

The Steinbeck Lecture Series was founded by Dr. and Mrs. Tetsumaro Hayashi in honor of Dr. Richard W. and Mrs. Dorothy Burkhardt and Dr. John J and Mrs. Angeline R. Pruis, whose generosity has helped Ball State University to recognize internationally prominent Steinbeck scholars and educators for 30 years. Dr. Hayashi is a noted Steinbeck scholar and past president of the Steinbeck Society of America, and the founder of the Steinbeck Research Institute at Ball State University.

The Steinbeck Lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, contact John B. Straw, JStraw@bsu.edu, 765-285-5078 or Dr. Robert Habich, RHabich@bsu.edu, 765-285-8407.