Author, journalist to speak at upcoming 60+ meeting years ago
Author and journalist Liz Kliewer Black, Washington, D.C., will reminisce about growing up in western Kansas during the 1950s Monday at the 60+ Learning in Retirement Program.
Black's experiences are detailed in her award-winning book, "Buffalo Spirits," published by Story Line Press in 2004.
The session will begin at 10 a.m. in the Wohlgemuth Music Education Center Lobby, located on the campus of Tabor College, Hillsboro.
Black was born in Dodge City and raised near Ulysses, where her family was active in the Ulysses Mennonite Brethren Church.
During her senior year as a student at Tabor College, she studied creative writing at the University of Kansas, where she earned the university's top creative writing award for her short stories. In 1970, Black studied modern English literature at the University of London.
She then taught high school English in the Chicago area for three years before launching her professional writing career.
Between 1971 and 1985, Black wrote for a variety of publications, including the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Daily News, Chicago Magazine and a variety of women's magazines, including "Mademoiselle." From 1975 to 1977, she was co-editor of "Chicago Monthly" magazine.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Black pursued a second career in art direction and graphic design, serving as art director of a number of magazines, including "Great American Pace," "OS2 Professional and Biomechanics Magazine." She won a Folio Award for Art Direction in 1995 for "Biomechanics Magazine." During those years she also continued to publish articles in a variety of magazines, and edited "Stride," a quarterly women's health magazine.
In 1999, Black left graphic design to resume her writing career. Her first novel, "Buffalo Spirits," was named a finalist in the William Faulkner Novel Competition in 2002 and was awarded the 2002 Three Oaks Prize in Fiction and a Helene Wurlitzer Foundation Residency Award. A paperback version will be available in September 2006.
Black was awarded a Helene Wurlitzer Foundation Residency in July 2005, and spent three months in Taos, N.M., working on a second novel, "The Turning Around Place," which explores the choices and dilemmas facing women as they encounter the "empty nest."
She also is currently at work on "Amber Waves," a book detailing the migration of the Russian Mennonites to the American prairies in 1874, based on the journals of her great-grandfather, Peter A. Wiebe and his brother, Jacob A. Wiebe, along with other materials held in the archives at the Center for Mennonite Brethren Studies at Tabor College.
Older adults are invited to attend. Enrollment is $15 per person a semester, $28 per couple or $4 a session. In an effort to encourage participation, first-time visitors will be admitted free of charge. Registration and discount lunch cards will be available at the door.
For more information, contact Connie Isaac, coordinator, at 620-947-5964.
