Award-Winning Author Russell Banks to Speak at Wabash

Russell Banks

CRAWFORDSVILLE, IN—The Visiting Artists Series at Wabash College will present the award-winning author Russell Banks speaking on Thursday, November 7, at 8 p.m. in Salter Hall in the Fine Arts Center. Banks will read from his work and discuss the translation of his novels to film in the blockbusters The Sweet Hereafter and Affliction.

A prolific writer of fiction, Banks' titles include Cloudsplitter, Searching for Survivors, Family Life, Hamilton Stark, The New World, The Book of Jamaica, Trailerpark, The Relation of My Imprisonment, Continental Drift, Success Stories, Rule of the Bone, Affliction, and The Sweet Hereafter. The Sweet Hereafter and Affliction have been adapted for feature-length films. His latest collection of stories, the Angel on the Roof, has received critical acclaim. Banks has also contributed poems, stories, and essays to The Boston Globe Magazine, Vanity Fair, The New York Times Book Review, Esquire, Harper's, and many other publications. Banks has won numerous awards and prizes for his work, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship, and Best American Short Story Award. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Continental Drift and Cloudsplitter were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in 1986 and 1998 respectively. Affliction was short listed for both the PEN/Faulkner Fiction Prize and the Irish International Prize. In early 2001, Banks was elected as president of The International Parliament of Writers. He is the screenwriter of a film adaptation of Continental Drift and Rule of the Bone.

In advance of novelist Russell Banks' visit, Wabash will screen two film adaptations of Banks’ novels, The Sweet Hereafter (directed by Atom Egoyan) and Affliction (directed by Paul Schrader) on Monday, November 4 and Tuesday, November 5, respectively. The screenings will be presented at 4:15 and 9 p.m each day in Korb Classroom in the Fine Arts Center.

In celebration of the arts at Wabash, admission to all events on this year’s Visiting Artists Series is free. However, you must obtain your free tickets at the Fine Arts Box Office before attending Visiting Artists Series lectures and productions. Tickets are available from the Fine Arts Box Office Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. until curtain time. The Box Office will open one hour before curtain time for weekend performances. For phone reservations, call 765-361-6411.