Westminster College to Host Writer Workshop & Reading

Author David Griffith will read from his newly published creative nonfiction book and teach several workshops Thursday and Friday, March 23 and 24, at various locations on the campus of Westminster College.

 Thursday's schedule includes a non-fiction workshop at 4:30 p.m. and a fiction workshop at 7:30 p.m.   Both sessions will be held in the McKelvey Campus Center Club Room. 

 Friday's schedule includes speaking to a nonfiction class in Thompson Clark room 315 at 3:10 p.m.  Griffith will read from his newly published nonfiction book, "A Good War is Hard to Find: The Art of Violence in America" at 5 p.m. in the McKelvey Campus Center Witherspoon/Lakeview Rooms.    

 "I was inspired to write by the recent Abu Ghraib torture photo," Griffith said.  "My work is a personal journey through the vast catalogue of violent and sexual images that have accumulated in our collective unconscious, a journey I seek to understand through filters ranging from Flannery O'Connor to Susan Sontag to Andy Warhol."

 Sister Helen Prejean, author of "Dead Man Walking," says "Griffith offers gripping personal testimony to the difficulties of living out the Christian imperatives of love and forgiveness amid a culture that legitimizes violence as the only 'real' way to establish social order."

 During the summer, Griffith teaches fiction writing at the Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts and chairs the Creative Writing Department.  He currently teaches writing at the University of Notre Dame.  Griffith has won awards from the Heinz Foundation and the University of Pittsburgh.  He is a frequent contributor to "Godspy," a quarterly journal examining faith and culture.  His most recent work has appeared in "Image: A Journal of Arts and Religion," for which he has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

 The events are sponsored by "Scrawl," Westminster's literary magazine and are free and open to the public.  Contact Evann Garrison, instructor of English at Westminster College, at (724) 946-7341 or e-mail garriseg@westminster.edu.

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