The Wayne State University Library System will hold the first in a series of "Conversations with Authors" April 27, at 1 p.m. in the third-floor, Special Collections Room at the David Adamany Undergraduate Library. The event will begin with a tour of the newly dedicated Irwin T. and Shirley Holtzman Special Collection of Contemporary American English Literature - sponsor of the "Conversations" series.

Stanley Crouch, winner of the Jean Stein Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a MacArthur Foundation grant will open the "Conversations" series. He is the author of the novels "Don't the Moon Look Lonesome" and "Dead Man Blues for Saber Tooth." An actor, playwright and teacher, he has been featured broadly in magazines and newspapers including Harper's, The New Yorker Magazine, The New Republic and the New York Times; he has also published a collection of essays on identity titled, "The Artificial White Man."

At 1:30 p.m., Wayne State panelists Richard Grusin, chair of the English Department; Paul Beavers, director of Library Information Services; and Katrina Redd, owner/curator of the Redd Apple Gallery and other Detroit cultural endeavors, will join Crouch for a discussion of the authors in the Holtzman special collection. At 2:30 p.m., M.L. Leibler and Bill Harris, of the Wayne State English Department, will join Crouch in a discussion of the author's works. A book signing will follow the panel discussion.

For more information, contact Barton Lessin, at (313) 577-4373.

The Wayne State University Library System consists of the Library and
Information Science Program, the Office for Teaching and Learning and five libraries -- The David Adamany Undergraduate Library, the Purdy/Kresge Library, the Shiffman Medical Library, the Arthur Neef Law Library and the Science and Engineering Library.

Wayne State University is a premier institution offering more than 350 academic programs through 12 schools and colleges to more than 33,000 students in metropolitan Detroit.