Press Releases

May 29, 2002
Southampton College's Literary Magazine Features Top Talent

McCourt and Rosenblatt Included with MFA Writing Students

Contact:
Darren Johnson
(631) 287 8313
Fax: (631) 283 4081

Along with the works of students from the heralded MFA Creative Writing program, Southampton College's literary journal Proteus touts samples of writing from Frank McCourt, Robert Reeves, Clark Blaise and Roger Rosenblatt, in an early taste of the annual Summer Writer's Conference.

Proteus is available for purchase from Paradise Books in Sag Harbor, Bookhampton in Easthampton and Southampton, The Southampton College Campus Bookstore and Lenox Hill Books in Manhattan.

In September 1996, Frank McCourt's childhood memoir was published. "Angela's Ashes" spent 117 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. After more than 65 printings, there are over 2,325,000 copies in print in North America alone. The book is available in 18 countries. McCourt followed the success of his first book with "'Tis," the story of his American journey from penniless immigrant to brilliant teacher. The excerpt included in this semester's Proteus is from an upcoming memoir ?Teacher Man.? This is his second year participating in the Writers Conference, which takes place July 16 through 27, 2003.

Robert Reeves, director of the conference and a professor at the college, is the author of two critically acclaimed novels, "Doubting Thomas" and "Peeping Thomas," as well as short fiction, essays and literary criticism. He has also taught writing at Harvard and Princeton.

Acclaimed Canadian short story writer and Southampton College professor Clark Blaise is the former head of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. He is the author of 16 books, most recently "Time Lord: Sir Sanford Fleming and the Creation of Standard Time." He has also collaborated with authors Bharati Mukherjee, Fenton Johnson and Michael J. Arlen.

Roger Rosenblatt is a journalist, author, playwright and professor. He recently published his latest work, a collection of pieces titled "Anything Can Happen: Notes on My Inadequate Life and Yours," some of which he intends to adapt for the stage. As an essayist for Time magazine, he has won two George Polk Awards, and awards from the Overseas Press Club and the American Bar Association, among others. His television essays on PBS for the "MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour" have won him a George Foster Peabody Award and an Emmy.

Proteus is published once each semester and features the creative impulses of both graduate and undergraduate students. Submissions include original works in art, poetry and prose. The entire publication is organized by Southampton College MFA students.