Contemporary women's issues writer to speak at UNT Oct. 9

Sharon Oard Warner, whose fiction depicts women encountering both sad truths and opportunities for triumph in their daily lives, will read selections from her works at UNT Oct. 9.

Warner's reading begins at 8 p.m. in the University Union, Golden Eagle Suite. The reading, free and open to the public, will begin the 2002-03 Visiting Writer Series sponsored by the Department of English.

An associate professor of English at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, Warner sets her fiction in her native Texas. Her novel Deep in the Heart focuses on two women in Austin — Hannah, a 40-year-old assistant principal pregnant for the first time, and Penny, a 23-year-old manager of a flower shop who is taking her first steps toward independence from her religious grandmother. When Hannah becomes fearful about motherhood and decides to terminate her pregnancy without telling her husband, her path crosses Penny's in an unexpected way.

Deep in the Heart has been described by critics as "a deeply engaging, thought-provoking book filled with all-too-human characters" and "a novel about mothering and its lack in many lives, its myriad complex and unexpected forms." The book has been developed into a screenplay.

Warner is also the author of a short story collection, Learning to Dance and Other Stories. Her characters in the stories include a 15-year-old runaway, a woman bailing out of a troubled marriage and a college student who learns about the value of life while taking care of a mentally challenged girl at the Austin State School. One critic noted that through these characters, Warner "shows how a shift in perspective can turn humans into different people."

A member of the University of New Mexico faculty since 1994, Warner directs the Department of English's creative writing program and is the founding director of UNM's Taos Summer Writers' Conference. She is a former editor for Blue Mesa Review, a literary journal. Warner is also the editor of The Way We Write Now: Short Stories from the AIDS Crisis. Her short stories have been published in Prairie Schooner, Sacred Ground: Writings About Home, Other Voices, Iowa Women and other publications.

In addition to teaching at UNM, Warner has taught at Iowa State University, Northeast Louisiana State University, the University of Kansas and Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.

She received her bachelor's degree in philosophy from the University of Texas at Austin and her master's degree in creative writing from the University of Kansas.

BY NANCY KOLSTI nkolsti@unt.edu

Other featured articles in this issue

• Pohl launches e-newsletter to communicate with UNT alumni, friends
• Department of Veterans Affairs chooses UNT business college to develop cyber security
• Contract review process hits new high — help needed to keep up with trend
• Interim title holders named to positions permanently
• Student development faculty, staff have new way to demonstrate UNT pride
• Campus Catalog settles into new location
• SLIS book drive to benefit library in Thailand
• Faculty Senate kicks off 2002-03 year
• Dance, theatre arts season tickets for sale through Oct. 16
• Contemporary women's issues writer to speak at UNT Oct. 9

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