FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: Nov. 1, 2006
CONTACT: John Davis, john.w.davis@ttu.edu
(806) 742-2136
LUBBOCK – Three award-winning Texas Tech University authors will discuss the writing
and publication process during the final fall installment of the Presidential Lecture
& Performance Series.
The President’s Book Award: A Panel Discussion begins at 3:30 p.m. Nov. 9 in the Matador
Room of the Student Union Building on the Texas Tech campus.
Faculty authors Philip A. Dennis, Dorothy Chansky and William Wenthe will discuss
their award-winning books and what it takes to be a writer and get published. The
event is free and open to the public.
“Researchers, artists, writers, and scholars of the highest quality can be found among
the faculty at Texas Tech University,” said Mary Jane Hurst, performance series organizer
and faculty assistant to the president. “This panel is comprised of the three authors
whose books received the most recent President’s Book Award at Texas Tech.”
Panelists include:
• Dorothy Chansky – author of “Composing Ourselves: The Little Theatre Movement.”
In an era of giant Broadway shows competing against the new medium of film, some artists
rebelled against the commercial aspects of theater in an effort to change it from
an entertainment to a serious art form. The book chronicles the Little Theatre Movement
from 1912 to 1925. During that time, theatre leaders created the foundation on which
modern theater is practiced today.
• William Wenthe – author of “Not Till We Are Lost: Poems.” The poems in this book
are arranged after the movement suggested by a passage in Thoreau’s “Walden.” This
provides the book’s title and epigraph, which means “not until we have lost the world
do we begin to find ourselves and realize where we are and the infinite extent of
our relations.” The lesson Wenthe writes in this collection focuses on losing some
of the trappings of modern society to gain insights to inner life.
• Philip A. Dennis – author of “The Miskitu People of Awastara.” Based on two and
a half years of field work, this book uses concepts from recent interpretive anthropology
to portray the life among this indigenous tribe in Nicaragua. To give a sense of the
humanity these people, Dennis describes the societal importance of family life, turtle
fishing, health practices and storytelling to the inhabitants of Awastara village.
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CONTACT: Mary Jane Hurst, faculty assistant to the president, Texas Tech University,
(806) 742-2121 or maryjane.hurst@ttu.edu.