Louisville, KY - Author Willliam Styron will deliver Bellarmine College's Guarnaschelli Lecture on Tuesday, April 14 at 7:30 pm in Frazier Hall.
Styron's Confessions of Nat Turner was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1968. Told from the point of view of a black man who had led the only significant rebellion in the history of slavery, the novel received critical acclaim marked by controversy since it reflected a white Southern man's attempt to understand the workings of the mind of a black slave.
In 1979, Styron published Sophie's Choice, a poignant and dramatic account of the Holocaust told through the story of a Polish Catholic woman whose life was irreparably damaged by war. The book, which was later made into a film by the same name, earned the 1980 American Book Award.
A native of Newport News, Virginia, Styron was diagnosed with clinical depression in 1985. The author articulated his experiences with the disease in Darkness Visible, characterized by Edmund Morris as an example of "art refined in the fire of experience: the writing is so pure one is hardly aware of the ink on the page."
Styron earned his B. A. from Duke University.
The Guranaschelli Lecture Series is designed to bring leading arts and humanities speakers to the Louisville community. It is made possible by a grant from Dr. John and Marty Guarnaschelli of Louisville.