Denison graduate Elissa Schappell, class of 1985, returns to campus for a reading of her fiction to open the 2000/2001 season of the Beck Lecture Series. Schappell will be reading from her new novel "Use Me" (Morrow) at 3:30 p.m. on Monday (Sept. 18) in the Slayter Hall University Room. This appearance will be free and open to the public.

Schappell, originally from Delaware, now resides in Brooklyn, New York, and works as co-editor of a new literary magazine "Tin House," a magazine founded by Schappell and her husband, Rob Spillman. She also works as an advisory editor for "The Paris Review" and a contributing editor at "Vanity Fair," where she writes the "Hot Type" book column. After graduating from Denison, Schappell attended New York University's Graduate Creative Writing Program on a full merit scholarship and was granted a fellowship to the Breadloaf writer's conference as well as a residency at the MacDowell colony. Her nonfiction articles and first-person undercover pieces have appeared in a range of magazines including "British GQ," "Vogue," "Mademoiselle" and "Allure," and she was named one of the four most promising writers to watch for in the future by "Interview" magazine in 1994.

Schappell's fictional debut, "Use Me," is a coming of age novel told in 10 stories about the life of Evie Wakefield as she confronts intimacy, rivalry, motherhood, and the loss of her beloved father to cancer.

About Denison:

Denison University, founded in 1831, is an independent, residential liberal arts institution located in Granville, Ohio. A highly selective college enrolling 2,100 full-time undergraduate students from all 50 states and dozens of foreign countries, Denison is a place where innovative faculty and motivated students collaborate in rigorous scholarship, civic engagement and the cultivation of independent thinking.

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