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Francine Prose is the
acclaimed author of 11 novels,

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as well as collections of
short stories and novellas,

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and has published three
works of translation.

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She's also a highly regarded
essayist and art critic,

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published regularly in Harper's
and The Wall Street Journal--

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Excuse me, I'm nervous--

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among other publications.

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Essays such as "Scent
of a Woman's Ink,"

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"Are Women Writers Really
Inferior?" and a "Wasteland

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of One's Own" about
the dumbed-down quality

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of media geared towards women
have spurred vigorous debate.

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She's written several
books for children,

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as well as a young adult
novel, After, about teens who,

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when in the chillingly paranoid
time following a school

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shooting, see more than just
their civil rights vanish.

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Her recent books include two
non-fiction works, The Lives

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of the Muses, a biographical
exploration of nine women

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and their complex relationships
with the artists they inspired.

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And Gluttony, a
provocative discourse

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on eating and religion.

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Her most recent adult
novel, Blue Angel,

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charts the downfall of creative
writing professor Ted Swenson

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as he blunders into an
affair with a young student

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at the peak of tension over
sexual harassment claims.

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It was hailed for
its satiric skewering

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of political correctness
and academia.

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And was a finalist for
the National Book Award.

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So given the material
in Blue Angel,

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perhaps it's not
surprising that Prose

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has taught at several
of the country's

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premier creative
writing programs.

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She is now on the faculty of
the New School University MFA

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Program in New York City.

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In fact, some years ago, she
taught in the creative writing

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program here at the
University of Arizona.

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And this part of the
world has surfaced

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in some of her fiction.

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In her novel, Hunters and
Gatherers, for example,

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a bickering group of East
Coast goddess worshippers

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get their comeuppance when
they make a pilgrimage

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to the desert outside
Tucson for a crash

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course in Native
American spirituality.

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Prose's forthcoming
novel, A Changed Man,

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due out this spring,
explores questions

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of redemption and
change as it tells

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the story of Vincent Nolan,
a 32-year-old ex-skinhead who

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becomes the willing
pawn of a human rights

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organization in its campaign
to raise money and resurrect

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its waning profile.

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Her fiction is
often a place where

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her characters' many pretensions
and hypocrisies are challenged.

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Yet Prose's contrarian
nature cuts both ways.

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As much as she is known
for her incisive wit,

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she is lauded for
treating her characters

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with compassion and tenderness.

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The effect is that
we the readers

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do not judge her characters,
but understand and identify

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with them.

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We are very pleased that
Francine Prose is here

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to speak with us tonight.

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Please welcome Francine Prose.

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[APPLAUSE]

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