"Writers Speak" Continues With Steve Hamilton, Emma Walton Hamilton and Guests

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y., March 13, 2009—The provocative and entertaining “Writers Speak” literary lecture series continues at Stony Brook Southampton with theater connoisseurs Steve Hamilton, Emma Walton Hamilton and their guests on March 18.

Julie Sheehan

Then, on March 25, recent Whiting Award winner Julie Sheehan will visit.

The events are part of Southampton's MFA in Writing and Literature program and its “Writers Speak” series of literary events, which all take place on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. in Duke Lecture Hall and are free and open to the public. For further information, call 631-632-5030.

Stephen Hamilton, a producer, actor, director, and teacher, co-founded Bay Street Theatre in 1991 with Emma Walton Hamilton and Sybil Christopher. For 17 years, Hamilton served as the Theatre's Executive Director and produced over 50 productions, many of which transferred to Broadway and Off-Broadway. Among his directing credits are the World Premiere of Ira Lewis' “Gross Points,” starring Alec Baldwin. Hamilton also served as director of Ensemble Studio Theatre's annual Summer Conference.

Emma Walton Hamilton is a theater professional and arts educator, as well as a best-selling author and editor. A co-founder of Bay Street, she served as the Theatre's Co-Artistic Director. Walton Hamilton has written 16 children's books in partnership with her mother, actress Julie Andrews, and serves as Editorial Director for The Julie Andrews Collection publishing program. Her latest book, a solo venture, is entitled “Raising Bookworms: Getting Kids Reading for Pleasure and Empowerment.”

Other talks this semester include:
March 25 – Julie Sheehan reads from her forthcoming collection, “Bar Book: Poems & Otherwise.”

MFA faculty poet Sheehan won a prestigious 2008 Whiting Writers Award, given annually to 10 emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and plays by the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation. The $50,000 prize is awarded based on accomplishment and promise. Winners are chosen from a pool of over 100 nominations by an anonymous committee of writers, literary scholars, and editors. Sheehan is the author of two poetry collections, “Thaw” and “Orient Point.” Her third collection, “Bar Book,” is forthcoming from W.W. Norton. She holds a B.A. from Yale and an M.F.A. from Columbia.

April 1 – The Southampton Review Launch in New York City -- Issue No. 4 hits the literary scene with a celebration at the MFA in Writing & Literature Program's Manhattan campus.
April 15 – Kaylie Jones -- MFA faculty member reads from her work.
April 22 – Fiona Maazel and John Wray -- Popular young fiction writers.
April 29 – Lynne Sharon Schwartz -- Prolific and multi-genre author reads from her most recent book, a memoir, “Not Now, Voyager,” just out from Counterpoint.
May 6 – MFA students.

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