NEWS RELEASE

Office of External Communications

Houston, TX 77204-5017 Fax: 713.743.8199

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 8, 2005

Contact: Angie Joe
713.743.8153 (office)
713.617.7138 (pager)
ajoe@uh.edu

ELENA PONIATOWSKA, JUDITH ORTIZ COFER
CONTINUE MARGARETT ROOT BROWN READING SERIES

Authors Elena Poniatowska and Judith Ortiz Cofer will continue the Margarett Root Brown Houston Reading Series, co-sponsored by Inprint and the University of Houston, March 21 in UH’s Cullen Auditorium.

French-born Mexican novelist and journalist Elena Poniatowska has authored more than 30 fiction and non-fiction works, most in Spanish. She has gained international attention through her bold, outspoken criticism of the Mexican government, which is a theme throughout most of her works. Some of Poniatowska’s books include “Massacre in Mexico,” about the government’s murder of 325 Mexican college students in 1968, and “Tinisima,” a biography of the Italian photographer Tina Modotti. In 2001 Poniatowska received the Alfaguara Prize, a Spanish-language literary award, for her latest novel “The Skin of the Sky.”

The New York Times has described author and professor Judith Ortiz Cofer as a “writer of authentic gifts, with a genuine and important story to tell.” A native Puerto Rican who grew up mostly in the U.S., Cofer is known for her collections of essays and poems that tell her story, including “Silent Dancing: A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood,” which received the PEN/Martha Albrand nonfiction award. Ortiz Cofer’s other works include “The Line of The Sun” and “The Latin Deli.” Her most recent work, “The Meaning of Consuelo,” received the 2003 Americas Award. Ortiz Cofer teaches English and creative writing at the University of Georgia.

Doors open to the public at 6:45 p.m., and the reading begins at 7:30 p.m. General admission is $5, and the event is free for students and senior citizens. Tickets are available only at the door the night of the reading. Seating is limited; no late seating is available.

The Margarett Root Brown Houston Reading Series, now in its 24th season and presented in association with the UH Creative Writing Program and the Alley Theatre, brings the world’s leading writers to Houston. The remaining writer for the series is Jonathan Franzen, who reads on April 11 at the Alley Theatre.

For information, call 713-521-2026 or visit http://www.inprint-inc.org

WHO: Elena Poniatowska and Judith Ortiz Cofer
WHAT: UH and Inprint’s Margarett Root Brown Houston Reading Series
WHEN: Monday, March 21, 2005
6:45 p.m. Doors open
7:30 p.m. Reading begins
WHERE: Cullen Performance Hall, University of Houston

For more information about UH visit the university’s ‘Newsroom’ at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.