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Last Updated: 8/24/2009 1:42:29 PM

The Literary Southwest Explores War and Conscience

Authors Marvin Bell and Sean Huze

The Literary Southwest, The Hassayampa Institute’s popular literary series at Yavapai College, begins its second season on Friday, Sept. 11 at 7:00 p.m. with readings by Marvin Bell, one of America’s most distinguished poets, and Sean Huze, a playwright, actor, and Iraq War veteran. The program, which focuses on the theme “War and Conscience,” will be held in the Yavapai College Library’s Susan N. Webb Community Room (Bldg. 19, Room 147) on the Prescott Campus. A discussion and book signing follows the reading. All Literary Southwest programs are free and open to the public.  
 
To complement the reading, a special companion event will be held at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, September 10 at the downtown Prescott Public Library’s Founders Suite. That evening The Literary Southwest and the Library will present a free screening of the Emmy Award-winning PBS documentary Operation Homecoming: Writing the War Experience.  
 
Marvin Bell, an elegantly impassioned critic of war, is the author of several books of poetry, most recently Mars Being Red (Copper Canyon Press, 2007); Rampant (2004); and Nightworks: Poems, 1962-2000 (2000). An early collection, Stars Which See, Stars Which Do Not See, was a finalist for the National Book Award; A Probable Volume of Dreams was a Lamont Poetry Selection of the Academy of American Poets. He has also published Old Snow Just Melting: Essays and Interviews, as well as Segues: A Correspondence in Poetry with William Stafford. Bell’s honors include the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, and Senior Fulbright appointments to Yugoslavia and Australia. He was on the staff of The University of Iowa's Writers Workshop for more than thirty years, where he was the Flannery O'Connor Professor of Letters. A teacher and mentor to many of America’s finest poets, his students include former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove, James Tate, Jorie Graham, Norman Dubie, David St. John, Joy Harjo, and Marilyn Chin. Beginning in 2000, Bell served two terms as the state of Iowa's first Poet Laureate. He was a Lieutenant in the U.S. Army in 1964-65.  
 
Sean Huze enlisted in the U.S. Marines on September 12th, 2001, the day after the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. Deployed in Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedon, he saw action in Nasiriyah and Tikrit and received numerous commendations for his service. He returned home in 2005 and began suffering symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder—a condition he decided to “write his way out of” as opposed to the tragically common, self-destructive, other ways of coping. He wrote a one-act play, The Sand Storm: Stories from the Front, which dealt head-on with the realities of his war experiences. Only a short time later, Huze, a Louisiana native, was performing his play in Los Angeles and garnering national attention; The Sand Storm has since had productions around the U.S and in Europe. He has written two other acclaimed plays (The Weasel and The Wolf), completed a short film project (Homecoming), and appeared with Tommy Lee Jones in the film In the Valley of Elah. He also founded the VetStage Theater Company in Hollywood, which uses playwriting and acting to help veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  
 
The Hassayampa Institute Presents The Literary Southwest is made possible by Yavapai College and grants from The Prescott Area Arts and Humanities Council and The Friends of the Prescott Public Library, with additional support provided by Barnes & Noble.  
 
For complete author and series information, visit: http://www.yc.edu/content/HASSAYAMPA Or contact either Series Director Jim Natal, through the Communications Division at 928-776-2276 or James.Natal@yc.edu, or Gwen Raubolt, Yavapai College Quad-City Communications Manager, at 928.776.2288 or Gwen.Raubolt@yc.edu.