Everett is a novelist whose 15 novels (several of which have won awards) include Suder, Watershed, God's Country, Glyph, and Erasure. Born and raised in South Carolina, he teaches at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. He lives with his wife on a ranch in Southern California and on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

Kidd's highly acclaimed debut novel, The Secret Life of Bees, won the 2003 SEBA Book of the Year award. A New York Times best seller, the novel was a finalist for the 2002 Orange Prize in England. Kidd is the recipient of a Katherine Ann Porter Fiction Award and the South Carolina Literary Fellowship. She has authored several non-fiction books, including The Dance of the Dissident Daughter. Kidd lives in Charleston, S.C.

George's first novel, A Great Deliverance, was honored with the Anthony and Agatha Best First Novel awards and received the Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere. Her third novel, Well-Schooled in Murder, was awarded the prestigious German prize for mystery fiction, the MIMI. Last year, PBS broadcast the BBC production of A Great Deliverance, thus making Elizabeth George the first American writer to be featured in the PBS Mystery series. Adaptations of four more George mysteries will air this year.

Walcott, 1992 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, was born in 1930 on the island of Saint Lucia in the Caribbean. After studying at St. Mary's College in his native island and at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, Walcott moved in 1953 to Trinidad, where he has worked as theater and art critic. At the age of 18, he made his debut with 25 Poems, but his breakthrough came with the collection of poems, In a Green Night (1962). For many years, he has divided his time between Trinidad, where he has his home as a writer, and Boston University, where he teaches literature and creative writing. His many collections of poetry include The Arkansas Testament (l987) and Omeros (1990), a Caribbean version of Homer's Odyssey.

The tentative schedule for the Fall Festival of Authors is:

• Oct. 22
  11 a.m, Masterclass (60 minutes of informal Q&A) with Derek Walcott for students in MFA, African-American Studies, and Theater programs
  
  6:30 p.m., Reading by Derek Walcott, Nobel Laureate, in Gambrell Auditorium
  
  7:30 p.m, Book signing
  
  
• Oct. 23
  11 a.m., Masterclass (60 minutes of informal Q&A) with Everett, Kidd, and George for MFA students
  
  2 p.m., Colloquium at Columbia Museum of Art auditorium with all festival authors, followed by reception at 3 p.m. Both the colloquium and reception are free and open to the public.
  
  6 p.m., Readings by Everett and Kidd in Gambrell Auditorium
  
  7:30 p.m. Book signing
  
  
• Oct. 24
  3 p.m., MFA Sixty-Minute Bistro: Short readings from MFA students in poetry and fiction
  
  6 p.m., Reading by George in Gambrell Auditorium
  
  7 p.m., Book signing.
  

For more information about the Fall Festival of Authors at USC, go to http://www.cla.sc.edu/litfest/.

05/03