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Writer visits college:  David Wright to speak 

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Award-winning author David Wright will give two presentations on campus Feb. 14.

Wright, a Knox College professor of English and African-American Studies, will talk about his forthcoming book at 2 p.m. in F-113 for the Honors Colloquium. The book, "Fire on the Beach: Recovering the Lost Story of Richard Etheridge and the Pea Island Lifesavers" will be published in July 2001 by Lisa Drew Books/Scribner.

At 7 p.m. he will give a reading from the book in the Fireplace Lounge. Both presentations are free and open to the public.

Wright has received numerous grants and awards including grants from the Illinois Arts Council and the NEH. His fiction, essays and articles have appeared in Transition, North Dakota Review, The Southern Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, the African American Review, Naval History and the CLA Journal.

Wright has an MFA from the University of Massachusetts, where he worked with John Edgar Wideman. He also attended L’Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France. His B.A. is from Carleton College.

Richard Etheridge, the subject of Wright’s book, was one of the first African-American Coast Guard commanders. The Pea Island Life-Saving Station was manned by African-Americans from 1880, when Etheridge assumed command, until 1947, when the station closed.