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News

Inprint's annual gala Saturday

Chabon, 2001 Pulitzer Prize winner, billed as event's guest speaker

by MELISSA SEUFFERT
The Daily Cougar

Inprint Inc., a Houston nonprofit organization that serves readers and writers in the area, will hold its annual gala at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at the Houston Country Club, with some of the proceeds going to the UH Creative Writing Program.

Inprint works in collaboration with the CWP at the University to bring well-known authors and poets to campus, as well as aid in the program’s funding, Kathy Smathers, assistant director of the CWP, said.

"They’re big supporters of ours," she said. 

About 400 people are expected to attend the gala this year, Rich Levey, the executive director of Inprint, said.

The event’s guest speaker will be Michael Chabon, whose novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, received the 2001 Pulitzer Prize. 

Funds from the gala will go to support Inprint activities, Levy said, which include memoir-writing workshops for senior citizens, as well as other writing workshops for teachers and at-risk children.

"A chunk (of the proceeds) are helping to fund fellowships (for CWP students)," Levy said.

The fellowships are granted to every incoming CWP student, and they are each worth $5,000. 

Each year, Imprint hosts the Margarett Root Brown Houston Reading Series. Sometimes the invited writers hold "craft talks," in which they bring in manuscripts to talk about with students, Smathers said.

Levy said the relationship between Inprint and the CWP is a unique one, adding that part of Inprint’s mission is to help the faculty and students at UH.

"There is no other creative writing program in the country that gets this kind of community support," Levy said. "The gala is one of the primary ways this community support is possible."

Smathers said she can’t imagine Inprint not being involved with the CWP, and that it is a "great collaboration."

"They do so much for us," Smathers said. "We’re very proud of our program."

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