EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT

Jewish women and feminism: Honoring writer Marge Piercy

DATE: Oct. 21-22, 2004

EVENT: The University of Michigan will honor contemporary feminist writer and U-M graduate Marge Piercy with a two-day symposium on Jewish women’s writing and its relationship to feminism.

Piercy, a Detroit native, graduated from U-M in 1957. While a U-M student, she earned Hopwood Awards in both poetry and fiction. Though she has published 16 books of poetry, 16 novels and several books of prose, she is best known for her novels "Woman on the Edge of Time" (1976), "Braided Lives" (1982), "Gone to Soldiers" (1987) and "He, She, and It" (1991). Piercy’s archive is housed in U-M’s Special Collections Library.

"Jewish Women Writing Feminism: A Symposium in Honor of Marge Piercy" features keynote addresses by Susan Weidman Schneider, founding editor of "Lilith" and Susannah Heschel of Dartmouth College. Panels will discuss "Literature and Jewish Feminism," "The Sabbath of Mutual Respect: Judaism, Feminism and the Sacred Doorways," "Jewish, Feminist, Other: Marge Piercy’s Alternative Subjectivities" and "Themes in Marge Piercy’s Poetry."

Piercy will give a reading at 8 p.m. Oct. 21 in Rackham Amphitheater, 915 E. Washington St. on U-M’s Central Campus in Ann Arbor. The presentation, which is free and open to the public, will be followed by a book signing.

BACKGROUND: The Special Collections Library, located on the seventh floor of U-M’s Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library, is currently exhibiting "Marge Piercy: Writer, Feminist, Activist" featuring Piercy’s Hopwood-award winning manuscripts from her U-M undergraduate years, drafts of her works in various stages of creation, published books, articles, broadsides and evidence of her political activism spanning several decades. The exhibition continues through November 27. The Special Collections Library is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday and 10 a.m.-noon Saturdays. Admission is free.

For detailed information on the symposium, visit www.lib.umich.edu/spec-coll or call the Special Collections Library at (734) 764-9377.

Phone: 734-647-4418