Monday, February 16, 2009

Melanie McGrath, visiting professor in the Department of Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, will read at 7 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 26, in Kenan Lecture Hall (Kenan 1111) on the UNC Wilmington campus.

McGrath is the author of four books, including Motel Nirvana (Pica Books, 1997), which won the John Llewelyn-Rhys/Mail on Sunday award for Best New British and Commonwealth Writer under 35, Hard, Soft and Wet: The Digital Generation Comes of Age (Flamingo, 1998), Silvertown: An East End Family Memoir (Fourth Estate, 2002) and most recently, The Long Exile: A Tale of Inuit Betrayal and Survival in the High Arctic (Knopf, 2007).

McGrath writes for The Guardian, The Independent, The Times, The Evening Standard and Conde Nast Traveller. She is a regular broadcaster on radio and has been a television producer and presenter. A professor of creative writing at Roehampton University in London, where UNCW's creative writing department sponsors a study abroad program, McGrath is currently teaching a creative nonfiction class at UNCW.

The public is invited to attend this free event. A reception will follow, along with a book signing sponsored by Pomegranate Books.

Recent praise for The Long Exile: A Tale of Inuit Betrayal and Survival in the High Arctic:

"Melanie McGrath tells the story of this forced relocation—a tale of almost unrelenting horror—with so much moral vigor and descriptive verve that one quits reading only long enough to shake one's head in disbelief. And then, with a shiver, reads on."

—Elizabeth Royte, New York Times

"Meticulously researched—McGrath lived among the Inuit for a time—this is an engaging and poignant read."

—New Scientist

For further information on programs and events, please contact the Department of Creative Writing at 910.962.7063 or visit www.uncw.edu/writers.