News Release — February 19, 2009

Harry Ransom Center Director Discusses Importance of Writing in Washington, D.C.

EVENT: The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), representing 50,000 members worldwide, will release the report "Writing in the 21st Century." At the same time, to celebrate writing, NCTE will announce the National Day on Writing, the National Gallery of Writing and the inception of the annual National High School, College and University Writing Awards in partnership with The Norman Mailer Writers Colony.

WHEN: 9 a.m. E.S.T. on Feb. 23

WHERE: National Press Club, 529 14th St., N.W., 13th Floor, Zenger Room, Washington, D.C.

BACKGROUND: Thomas F. Staley, director of the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin; author Gay Talese; teacher Dan Brown and student Mansur Muhammad, from SEED Public Charter School, Washington, D.C.; and NCTE Executive Director Kent Williamson will join report author Kathleen Blake Yancey, NCTE past president and writing researcher and writing faculty member, Florida State University, to discuss the centrality of writing in school, the workplace and society. The Ransom Center, a humanities research library and museum, holds major manuscript collections of Norman Mailer, Don DeLillo, James Joyce and William Faulkner. The Center's holdings provide a unique record of the creative process of writers and artists, deepening our understanding of literature, photography, film, art and the performing arts.