The Writers-in-the-Schools (WITS) program, which promotes learning through contemporary literature, will feature writer and poet Mary Karr at a public reading at 7 p.m. March 28 in UNLV's Moyer Student Union Ballroom. It is the third event in the WITS reading series this semester.

Karr is the author of "Cherry" and "Viper Rum." Her memoir, "The Liar's Club," was a national bestseller and selected as a notable book of 1995 by The New York Times and The New Yorker. She was a Bunting Fellow at Radcliffe College and is now the Jesse Truesdale Peck Professor of Literature at Syracuse University.

Prior to the public reading, Karr will lead workshops with the Clark County high school students and teachers participating in the WITS project. In 2001, the International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML), which is headquartered at UNLV, launched WITS as a pilot program. The innovative program received a $40,000 grant from the NEA and $46,374 in applied research initiative funding from UNLV. The project is also funded by more than $62,000 in private patron support through the IIML, including a generous donation from Park Place Entertainment.

This year, participants in the semester-long program include 20 Clark County English teachers. The teachers each chose one "literary-minded, deserving student" to participate in the program. Each student will receive up to $800 to take a preparatory class for admissions exams, a $1,000 scholarship to be awarded once he or she is admitted to a college or arts institute, and mentoring from a UNLV student in the master of fine arts in creative writing international program.
The high school teachers receive a $1,000 stipend as well as graduate tuition to enable them to study new methods for teaching contemporary literature.

The next WITS public reading will feature E. Ethelbert Miller on April 11. Miller is the author of the memoir "Fathering Words: The Making of an African American Writer" and the editor of many anthologies, including "In Search of Color Everywhere: A Collection of African American Poetry." He is director of the African American Resource Center at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

For more information, contact the UNLV creative writing program at 895-4366.