UNLV President Carol C. Harter announced today that celebrated author Toni Morrison, the only living American Nobel Laureate in Literature, will present a special address at UNLV on Thursday, April 6. Morrison's lecture, which will explore many issues of current international significance, is the first public event sponsored by the Black Mountain Institute (BMI) and the North American Network of Cities of Asylum (NANCA).

The lecture is scheduled for 7:30 p.m., and will be held in the Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall at UNLV. Although the event is free and open to the public, tickets are required and will be available starting at 10 a.m. March 18 at the Performing Arts Center Box Office on campus. Tickets are limited to two per person.

Toni Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. Her eight major novels, "The Bluest Eye," "Sula," "Song of Solomon," "Tar Baby," "Beloved," "Jazz," " Paradise" and "Love" have received extensive critical acclaim. She received the National Book Critics Award in 1978 for "Song of Solomon" and the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for "Beloved." Both novels were chosen as the main selections for the Book of the Month Club, in 1977 and 1987 respectively.

Morrison also holds a distinguished record as an academic instructor and lecturer. She was appointed Robert F. Goheen Professor in the Council of the Humanities at Princeton University in the spring of 1989. She holds degrees from Howard and Cornell Universities. She has held teaching posts at such universities as Yale, Bard College and Rutgers, among others.

The New York State Board of Regents appointed Morrison to the Albert Schweitzer Chair in the Humanities at the State University of New York at Albany in 1984, a post she held until 1989. In 1988 she was the Obert C. Tanner Lecturer at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and the Jeannette K. Watson Distinguished Professor at Syracuse University. In 1990 she delivered the Clark Lectures at Trinity College, Cambridge, and the Massey Lectures at Harvard University. In 1994 she was the International Cordorcet Chair at the Ecole Normale Superieure and College de France.

Morrison is also a founding member of the Academie Universelle Des Culture, a trustee of the New York Public Library, a member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is a member of the American Philosophical Society, The International Parliament of Writers and the Author's Guild where she served on the Guild Council and as Foundation Treasurer. She served on the National Council of the Arts for six years, and is a member of the Africa Watch and Helsinki Watch Committees on Human Rights.

The Black Mountain Institute and the North American Network of Cities of Asylum are sponsoring Morrison's lecture at UNLV with major underwriting from philanthropist Beverly Rogers and KVBC Channel 3.

Morrison will also be the featured guest for a special fundraising event immediately prior to the lecture. Proceeds from the event will benefit the City of Asylum program which provides refuge for writers of dissent. Internationally recognized authors including Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, acclaimed novelists Russell Banks, Caryl Phillips, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Michael Ondaatje, and poet Carolyn Forche are anticipated to attend. Tables starting at $5,000 may be reserved by contacting 895-3201.

The newly created Black Mountain Institute will explore and emphasize discussion of major contemporary issues, refuge for writers, and publication. Upon retirement from the UNLV presidency in June, Dr. Carol Harter will take on the role of executive director for the institute. "It is the institute's goal to provide a way station for thinkers and writers from varied disciplines and sensibilities and from all segments of our global society," said Harter.

The North American Network of Cities of Asylum was born from a growing need to offer refuge cities for persecuted writers. The movement to protect dissident writers began in Europe in the late 1980s with the fatwa (death sentence) placed upon novelist Salman Rushdie by Iranian extremists. "NANCA represents not only writers, but people who, without the poetry of Neruda of the novels of Mafhouz, would not be heard and whose lives would otherwise remain unknown, invisible, lost in the maelstrom of history," said NANCA President Russell Banks.

For more information about the public lecture, please call the Performing Arts Center Box Office at 895-2787. For information about the fundraising event, please contact the UNLV President's Office at 895-3201.