Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Library to screen documentary on writers' colony

The Friends of Brookens Library will host a showing of the documentary Inside the Handy Writers' Colony on Tuesday, June 24, at 5:30 p.m. in Brookens Auditorium, located on the lower level of Brookens Library at the University of Illinois at Springfield. The event is free and open to the public.

Writer, director, producer Dawn Shapiro drew heavily on materials housed in the Brookens Library Archives to make this film about the Marshall, Illinois, writers' colony whose most famous member was James Jones, author of From Here to Eternity.

Founded in 1950 by Lowney and Harry Handy, the colony in its heyday supported numerous young writers, many of whose works were published. The colony dissolved after Lowney Handy died in 1964.

Shapiro will attend the screening, which will be followed by a question-and-answer session.

For more information, contact Jane Treadwell, UIS dean of library instructional services, at 206-6597.

See more information about the Handy Writers' Colony materials housed in Brookens Archives

The James Jones Literary Society

More about Friends of Brookens Library