Posted by Mary L. Wimberley on 2006-04-07

BIRMINGHAM---Pulitzer Prize-winning author Marilynne Robinson will speak at Samford University Wednesday, April 26, at 10:30 a.m. in Reid Chapel. The public is invited free of charge.

Robinson's novel Gilead won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for fiction and the Book Critics Circle Award as last year's best novel. Robinson also won the $200,000 Graumeyer Award for an outstanding work in religion.

Gilead is the fictional account of an elderly minister and his deep Christian faith. Robinson's first novel, Housekeeping (1980) won a PEN/Hemingway Award for best first novel, and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

Robinson's Wednesday lecture is sponsored by Samford's Howard College of Arts and Sciences, Department of English, Beeson Divinity School, Samford in Mission and Resource Center for Pastoral Excellence.

 
Samford is a leading Christian university offering undergraduate programs grounded in the liberal arts with an array of nationally recognized graduate and professional schools. Founded in 1841, Samford is the 87th-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Samford enrolls 5,791 students from 49 states, Puerto Rico and 16 countries in its 10 academic schools: arts, arts and sciences, business, divinity, education, health professions, law, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Samford fields 17 athletic teams that compete in the tradition-rich Southern Conference and ranks 6th nationally for its Graduation Success Rate among all NCAA Division I schools.