Distinguished author and professor Allen Wier will present the
Connor Society's second
program of the year on September 27th at the UTC Fine Arts Center.
The author of the
novels "A Place for Outlaws," "Departing as Air" and "Blanco" will
speak at 7 pm in the
Roland Hayes Concert Hall.   The event is free and open to the public.
      The Connor Society was established last year to celebrate the
life of the late UTC English
professor and department head George C. Connor.   Connor was an
enormously influential
individual on and off the campus in his holes as teacher,
administrator, and civic leader.
A reception honoring Wier and saluting Mr. Connor will be held,
beginning at 5:30 pm in the
Patten House (Faculty Club) on the UTC Campus.    The cost is $25
with all proceeds going
to the Connor Society to fund future programs.
       Allen Wier holds the Hodges Chair for Distinguished Teaching at
the University of Tennessee
at Knoxville.   He has also taught at Carnegie-Mellon University,
Hollins College and the
University of Texas.    Wier, who has also written short stories and
essays, is a member of
the Fellowship of Southern Writers and has been featured at sessions
of the Chattanooga
Conference on Southern Literature.   He has appeared several times at
the Meacham Writers
Workshops at UTC as well in the past twenty years.
      In 1997 Wier received the one of the Fellowship of Southern
Writers most prestigious awards,
the Robert Penn Warren Award recognizing an outstanding young
Southern writer of fiction.
Wier is also recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a grant from
the National Endowment for the
Arts.   The UTK professor was featured on the cover of the spring
2004 issue of the UT Alumnus
magazine.
      Wier has recently completed a long novel about the Comanche wars
in Texas, "A Cloud of
Witnesses," which will be released soon and a literary thriller,
"Skin for Skin."   He is completing
a volume of new and selected short stories.
      Reservations for the reception mayd be made by sending a check
for $25 to the Connor Society,
732 Cherry Street, Chattanooga, TN 37402.   Please make check out to
the Connor Society of the UC
Foundation.
                          Craig Barrow
                          Connor Professor of American Literature