MSU reading conference to 'look across time and place'

Contact: Maridith Geuder

From poetry to sports literature, the latest resources and strategies to encourage reading will be discussed Nov. 7 at a Mississippi State University conference.

Several hundred teachers, librarians, students, and interested community members are expected for the 8 a.m.-4 p.m. event in the Coskrey Auditorium of Memorial Hall.

The College of Education's department of curriculum and instruction is sponsoring the conference with assistance from the student Reading Council.

MSU Giles Distinguished Professor John F. Marszalek, a historian who authored an award-winning study of Civil War general William T. Sherman and seven other books, will be the keynote speaker. His 9:30 a.m. presentation will focus on ways he approaches writing.

Marszalek's 1972 book "Court Martial" was made into a Showtime cable network motion picture under the title "Assault at West Point."

Other conference speakers will address such topics as reading and the arts, reading and diversity, poetry across time and place, new releases in children's and young adult literature, sports literature, and technology as a reading tool.

For more information about the conference, telephone Nancy Verhoek-Miller or Diane C. Greene at (662) 325-3747.