A reception in the hotel atrium at 6:30 p.m. will precede the dinner at 7 p.m. In addition to her talk, Oates will be presented the 11th Thomas Cooper Medal for Distinction in the Arts & Sciences and will sign copies of her books.

For information on event tickets ($40) contact Maggie Workman at 7-3142.

Oates is a recipient of the National Book Award and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction. She is the author of the national bestsellers We Were the Mulvaneys (1996) and Blonde (2000), which was nominated for the National Book Award.
She is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University and has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978. In 2003 she received the Common Wealth Award for Distinguished Service in Literature and the Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement.

The Thomas Cooper Society and Thomas Cooper Library inaugurated the Thomas Cooper Medal in 1995 to recognize distinction in the arts and sciences. Cooper, for whom the main library is named, was the second president of South Carolina College, a friend of Thomas Jefferson, and a distinguished scientist and political economist.
Previous Thomas Cooper medalists include poets James Dickey and Derek Walcott; biographer Matthew Bruccoli; writer and editor George Plimpton; and novelists Pat Conroy, Joseph Heller, John Updike, Ray Bradbury, John Jakes, and William Styron.

The Thomas Cooper Society encourages community interest in the library and promoting a fuller understanding of its purpose, programs, and potential. Through membership in the society, library supporters share in library-based programs and activities and gain access to a range of library services. Since it began in 1990, the society has created a $90,000 endowment and has supported a series of significant purchases, chiefly for Thomas Cooper Library's Rare Books & Special Collections.

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