Wednesday, July 06, 2011

In the coming months, five UNC Wilmington faculty members will be guests on Prologue, the StarNews/WHQR book club.

On Monday, July 11, film studies professor Todd Berliner will discuss his book Hollywood Incoherent: Narration in Seventies Cinema, which offers the first thorough analysis of the narrative and stylistic innovations of 1970s cinema and the period's influence on contemporary American filmmaking.

Associate computer science professor Laurie Patterson and creative writing professor Phil Furia will discuss their book The Songs of Hollywood on Monday, Aug. 8. The book traces the history of song in musical and dramatic film, highlighting certain songs that Hollywood made famous. Furia is also an arts contributor at WHQR and hosts The Great American Songbook.

On Monday, Sept. 12 associate professor of creative writing David Gessner will talk about his books My Green Manifesto and The Tarball Chronicles. In My Green Manifesto, Gessner recounts his own story of transforming the famously polluted Charles River into an urban haven for wildlife and people. The Tarball Chronicles illustrates how disasters like oil spills can affect an ecosystem forever.

Professor Clyde Edgerton will answer questions about his novel The Night Train (set for July 25 release by Little, Brown and Company) on Monday, Nov. 14. The book documents two young men from North Carolina and their mutual passion for music, which binds their friendship together while outside forces try to pull them apart.

Other UNCW faculty who have been Prologue guests over the years include Philip Gerard, Janet Ellerby, Robert Siegel, Karen Bender, Dana Sachs and Nan Graham. Prologue host Ben Steelman of the Wilmington StarNews says, "As long as the campus remains such a lively and intellectually exciting place, I suspect we'll be inviting more for many years to come."

All Prologue meetings are held at 7 p.m. on the third floor of the WHQR gallery space, located at 254 N. Front Street in downtown Wilmington. Free and open to all with light refreshments available.