Fresno State Authors Featured

EDITORS and NEWS/PUBLIC AFFAIRS DIRECTORS: Press releases can be downloaded at www.fresnostatenews.com. University Relations also provides releases for news media companies via e-mail. To be added to the distribution list, send your e-mail address to tomu@csufresno.edu.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Shirley Melikian Armbruster

Sept. 6, 2001

FRESNO STATE AUTHORS FEATURED IN SEPTEMBER AT FIG GARDEN BOOKSTORE

Three faculty members from California State University, Fresno will be signing and reading from their new books on consecutive Saturdays in September at Fig Garden Bookstore in Fig Garden Village in Fresno. One of the events will be filmed for Book TV on C-SPAN2. All three are from 1-3 p.m.

On Sept. 8, part-time English professor Howard Hendrix will sign his new science fiction novel, "Empty Cities of the Full Moon."

Called “one of the very best of the new science fiction writers,” Hendrix tackles one of the life’s most enduring questions: What does it mean to be human? The novel brings together biology, anthropology and religion in a deeply researched science fiction epic with elements of fantasy and supernatural horror.

"Empty Cities of the Full Moon" is Hendrix's fourth novel. His others are: "Lightpaths" "Standing Waves," and "Better Angels."

On Sept. 15, Classics professor Victor Davis Hanson will give a short lecture and read from his new book, “Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise of Western Power.” A question-answer time will follow. The session will be filmed for Book TV for broadcast on a future date.

The book tries to account for the miraculous rise of Western culture and its eventual dominance militarily over most of the world. Unlike recent books that have suggested this dynamism occurred only recently, or was due to accidents like the presence or invention of germs, guns, or steel, Carnage and Culture demonstrates that Western culture has always from classical times exercised enormous global influence that was not commensurate with either Europe's relatively small land mass or population.

Hanson’s most recent books include “The Land Was Everything” and “The Soul of Battle.”

On Sept. 22, first-time novelist Odette Larson of Porterville, a part-time teacher in English, will sign her autobiographical odyssey “Flying Sparks: Growing Up on the Edge of Las Vegas.”

Larson received her master’s degree in English from Fresno State last May and won the Outstanding Thesis Award. Like critics of “Flying Sparks,” her thesis review committee had glowing praise: “Seldom do [educational] institutions recognize that they are in the presence of … genius while it resides on their campus. We believe that Ms. Larson possesses such genius …”

Revealing harsh realities of growing up poor in America, and of sexual and physical abuse, Larson’s version of the 1950s deeply contrasts the sanitized images of white families that have prevailed.

####

Featured: Faculty Who Energize Fresno State		Save Mart Center - Search
Maps: Heading to a campus event? -- Use our online maps