A series of free community readings and lectures given by well-known writers returns to USC this fall.

"Caught in the Creative Act: Writers Talk about their Writing" will take place Mondays and Wednesdays from 5:35 p.m.-7 p.m. Sept. 11-Nov. 15. The ten-week course is free and open to the public. Lectures will take place in the Gambrell Hall Auditorium unless otherwise indicated.

This year's course opens with a Nobel Laureate, includes this year's Pulitzer Prize winner and a Booker Prize honoree, and closes in a grand finale with this year's PEN/Faulkner winner and winner of the National Humanities Medal conferred by the White House.

"Caught in the Creative Act" is directed and taught by Janette Turner Hospital, Carolina Distinguished Professor of English and Distinguished Writer-in-Residence. Because Hospital was on sabbatical to finish writing a book, "Creative Act" was not held in 2005.

This year, the visiting writers scheduled to read their work and give a lecture are Elie Wiesel, Elise Blackwell, Geraldine Brooks, Lan Samantha Chang, Daniel Buckman, le thi diem thuy (pronounced lay TEE yim TWEE), Michael Ondaatje, Lynn Pruett, and E.L. Doctorow.

To learn more about this year's course, including author biographies and a complete schedule of events, click here.

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