September 3, 2003 - Award winning writer, Harlan Ellison, will deliver a talk entitled "Dreams with Sharp Teeth: Weaving Biting Commentary into Fiction," on Wednesday, September 10 at Estrella Mountain Community College in Avondale. Ellison will speak to Estrella Moutain students at 9:30 a.m. in the Center for Teaching and Learning and to the general public at 6:00 p.m. in the Estrella Hall Community Room.
Ellison's more than 40 years of writing has spanned across genres. He has written or edited 75 books; more than 1700 stories, essays, articles, and newspaper columns; two dozen teleplays, for which he received the writers Guild of America most outstanding teleplay award for solo work an unprecedented four times; and a dozen movies. Known for his quick wit and lively presentations, Ellison has been characterized by The New York Times Book Review as having "the spellbinding quality of a great nonstop talker, with a cultural warehouse for a mind."
Ellison's speaking engagement for the Maricopa Community Colleges is made possible through the combined efforts of Rod Freeman, English faculty at Estrella Mountain Community College and Hannes Kvaran, economics and mathematics faculty at Glendale Community College. A Learning Grant applied for by Freeman facilitates Ellison's speaking engagement. In 1999, Kvaran's Learning Grant brought Ellison back to speak in the Phoenix Metro area for the first time since he served as Guest of Honor at the 1978 World Science Fiction Convention, IguanaCon.
"Our plan," said Freeman, "is for Mr. Ellison to speak in varied contexts to audiences including the EMCC Honor's Program, students in English and interdisciplinary classes including Storytelling, Sociology, and Humanities as well as faculty members." Ellison will also speak at Glendale Community College at 12:30 p.m. in the Student Union.
Ellison has created fantasies for Twilight Zone (including Danny Kaye's final performance) and The Outer Limits. Additionally, he's covered and written about civil rights marches, riots, antiwar demonstrations and other scenes of civil unrest. He traveled with The Rolling Stones; marched with Martin Luther King from Selma to Montgomery; and sued Paramount and ABC-TV for plagiarism and won $337,000. In 1990, Ellison was honored by P.E.N. for his continuing commitment to artistic freedom and the battle against censorship.
Among other achievements, Ellison won the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Allan Poe award twice, the Horror Writers Association Bram Stoker award six times (including The Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996), the Nebula three times, the Hugo 8½ times, and received the Silver Pen for Journalism from P.E.N. Not to mention The World Fantasy Award, the British Fantasy Award, the American Mystery Award, two Audie Awards, the Ray Bradbury Award, and a Grammy nomination for Spoken Word recordings.
For more information on the Estrella Mountain Community College event, contact Rod Freeman at (623) 935-8451. Hannes Kvaran at (623) 845-3000 is the contact for the Glendale Community College event.