Toni Morrison Reading Sunday, Sept. 26; Tickets Available Sept. 7 for Campus Community; Sept. 8 for Public

SALISBURY, MD--A much anticipated reading by Nobel laureate Toni Morrison at Salisbury State University will be Sunday, September 26, at 2 p.m. in Maggs Gymnasium. Morrison's original visit in April was postponed after she became ill.

New tickets are needed for those wishing to attend the reading. SSU students, faculty and staff may get tickets beginning Tuesday, September 7, at the Guerrieri University Center Information Desk. Starting Wednesday, September 8, tickets will be available to the general public as well. Admission is free and seating is on a first come-first seated basis. The doors to the gymnasium open at 1 p.m.; the Keith Marks Trio will play. Morrison's reading begins at 2 p.m. Once she begins, no late comers will be admitted.

Last spring public response to Morrison's visit was the largest to a single artist or public figure in University history. Because of such high demand, the University is establishing a simulcast site for the reading in the Wicomico Room of the Guerrieri University Center. Tickets for the simulcast site also will be available at the Information Desk.

"Ms. Morrison's stature as one of the great American writers of the 20th century makes her a perfect choice to launch a new University lecture series devoted to bringing world leaders in the arts, humanities and sciences to the Eastern Shore," said SSU President William C. Merwin, when her visit was announced last spring.

Morrison, 68, has had a distinguished career as a teacher, editor, novelist and essayist. In 1993 she became the first African-American to win the Nobel Prize for literature.

Her seven novels, The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon, Tar Baby, Beloved, Jazz and Paradise, have received international critical acclaim. She received the National Book Critics Award in 1977 for Song of Solomon and the Pulitzer Prize for Beloved. Both novels also were chosen as the main selections for the Book of the Month Club.

She has received honorary degrees from Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, Sarah Lawrence, Oberlin, Dartmouth, Yale, Georgetown, Columbia, Brown, University of Michigan and Universite Paris 7-Denis Diderot. She was also the recipient of the Washington College Literary Award in 1987.

She was a senior editor at Random House for 20 years.

Morrison earned her bachelors degree from Howard Unversity and her masters from Cornell. She has taught on several campuses and currently is the Robert F. Goheen Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University.

Morrison is expected to read from her latest novel, Paradise.

SSU sponsors of Morrison's visit include the Student Government Association, Cultural Affairs Council and Multiethnic Student Services. Business sponsors include Perdue Farms Incorporated, Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company of Salisbury and Delmarby.

For more information call 410-543-6271 or 410-543-6006.