September 22, 1998

Rocky Mount, NC - The North Carolina Wesleyan College Visiting Writers Series will feature Michael Chitwood, Wednesday, October 7, at 7:30 p.m., in the Powers Recital Hall of the Dunn Center. The event is free and open to the public. Michael Chitwood is a poet, essayist, and writer of short stories who lives and works in Chapel Hill. His commentaries appear frequently on WUNC radio, and he is also a columnist for "The Independent," a Durham newspaper.

Chitwood is a graduate of Emory & Henry College and The University of Virginia. From time to time, he teaches in the creative writing program at UNC. His latest collection of poems, "The Weave Room," celebrates the lives of textile workers, many of whom he knew when he was growing up as the son of a father employed by J.P. Stevens. A rece ntly published collection of his essays, written in collaboration with Lee Smith, is entitled "Hitting Below the Bible Belt: Blood Kin, Baptist Voodoo, Grandma’s Teeth and Other Stories from the South," and is available in paperback.

# # #