Turning history into fiction, and turning an innovative educational idea into reality, are the subjects of two separate talks by an award-winning Arizona novelist and educator at the University of Calgary campus October 3 and 4.

Dr. Jewell Parker Rhodes, founding artistic director of a unique educational enterprise at Arizona State University, will present a reading and talk on historical fiction. The event is free and open to the public.

Dr. Rhodes will read and discuss her third novel, Douglass' Women, which reimagines the lives of the black wife and white mistress of famed U.S. abolitionist Frederick Douglass (1817-1895). Her presentation is entitled: "Douglass' Women: History and the Creative Imagination."

The novel won the 2003 American Book Award and the 2003 Black Caucus of the American Library Association Award, among other honors. Dr. Rhodes is the Founding Artistic Director of ASU's Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing, where she also holds the Piper Chair in Creative Writing.

"I always wrote as a child," says Dr. Rhodes, "but it wasn't until I was 19 that I discovered black women wrote books. I felt as though my life had begun anew."

ASU's Piper Center serves as a support institution for the university's English Department-based creative writing program, and facilitates creative writing in the larger Phoenix community.

Somewhat like U of C's Markin-Flanagan Distinguished Writers Program, the Piper Center is funded by endowments and reports directly to a dean. Dr. Rhodes, the recipient of two teaching awards, will describe in detail the founding, operation and activities of the Piper Center at a talk on Thursday, October 4 at 2 pm in Social Sciences 1339. This event is also free, and all are welcome.

Her visit to the University of Calgary, sponsored by Humanities Dean and the English Department, is in connection with developing a student/faculty international exchange between the U of C and ASU.