Author: Liam Otten

Kathryn Davis, the Fannie M. Hurst Senior Fiction Writer in The Writing Program in Arts & Sciences, has won a $150,000 Lannan Foundation Literary Award. Presented annually, the Lannan Literary Awards honor “both established and emerging writers whose work is of exceptional quality.”

David Kilper/WUSTL Photo Services*Women’s Voices* by Christine Knoblauch-O’NealWashington University Dance Theatre, the annual showcase of professionally choreographed works performed by student dancers, will present BODYMIND/Art of Movement, its 2006 concert, Dec. 1-3 in Edison Theatre. Performances will feature close to 50 dancers, selected by audition, performing seven works by faculty and guest choreographers.

Jerry BauerOrhan PamukTurkish writer Orhan Pamuk, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature, will receive Washington University’s inaugural Distinguished Humanist Medal as part of “Celebrating Our Books, Recognizing Our Authors,” the university’s fifth annual faculty book colloquium. The award — which includes a cash prize of $15,000 — is supported by the Center for the Humanities and the Office of International and Area Studies, both in Arts & Sciences. It will be given biannually to a distinguished scholar, writer or artist whose career merits special recognition for excellence and courage.

Four aspiring playwrights will present staged readings of their work Nov. 16 and 17 as part of Washington University’s 2006 A.E. Hotchner Playwriting Festival. Sponsored by the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences, the festival’s selection process actually began in January, when students from across the university submitted original plays to an adjudication committee made up of faculty and theater professionals. The committee then selected four plays — two full-length works and two shorts — to undergo an intense two-week workshop this fall, culminating in the staged readings.

Donald KosterNova Scotia summer cottageFaculty members, graduate students and recent alumni from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts have received a total of five 2006 Design Awards from the St. Louis Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. The annual awards honor architects, designers and craftspersons for their contributions to excellence in the built environment. In all, 18 awards were given in five categories: Craftsmanship, Drawings, Interiors, Unbuilt and Architecture.

The Washington University Symphony Orchestra will present “OrganFest,” a concert showcasing the university’s recently refurbished Graham Chapel organ, at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 19. Dan Presgrave, instrumental music coordinator in the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences, conducts the 70-plus-member orchestra. Featured soloist are William Partridge, Jr., university organist; and Barbara Raedeke, instructor in organ.

Four aspiring playwrights will present staged readings of their work Nov. 16 and 17 as part of Washington University’s 2006 A.E. Hotchner Playwriting Festival. Sponsored by the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences, the festival’s selection process actually began in January, when students from across the university submitted original plays to an adjudication committee made up of faculty and theater professionals. The committee then selected four plays — two full-length works and two shorts — to undergo an intense two-week workshop this fall, culminating in the staged readings.

Donald KosterNova Scotia summer cottageFaculty members, graduate students and recent alumni from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts have received a total of five 2006 Design Awards from the St. Louis Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. The annual awards honor architects, designers and crafts persons for their contributions to excellence in the built environment. In all, 18 awards were given in five categories: Craftsmanship, Drawings, Interiors, Unbuilt and Architecture. In addition, the Wainwright Building Complex received the chapter’s Twenty-Five Year Award.

Dan Morgenstern, director of the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University, will speak on “The Great Jazz Schism” at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 14. A former editor of Down Beat magazine, Morgenstern has won six Grammy awards for best album notes and served as a senior advisor to Ken Burns 10-part PBS series Jazz. Earlier this year he was named a “Jazz Master” by the National Endowment for the Arts — a designation The New York Times calls “the nation’s highest jazz honor.”

The Washington University Wind Ensemble will perform a free concert at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 9, in the University’s Graham Chapel. Dan Presgrave, instrumental music coordinator in the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences, directs the program, which includes music of Franz Joseph Haydn, Malcolm Arnold, Franz von Suppé and Gordon Jacob.