Released November 09, 2004

HATTIESBURG -- The University of Southern Mississippi's Center for Writers will wrap up its 2004 Visiting Writers Series Nov.10-11 with a workshop, panel discussion and reading by authors Elissa Shappell and Rob Spillman.

Schappell is a founding editor of Tin House magazine and is currently editor-at-large. She is also a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, where she writes the "Hot Type" column. Her first fiction collection, Use Me, was a runner-up for the PEN/Hemingway award, a New York Times notable book, and a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year.

Spillman is editor of "Tin House" and executive editor of Tin House Books, which published Center for Writers graduate Steven Carter's novel, I Was Howard Hughes. He was previously the monthly book columnist for Details magazine and is a contributor of book reviews and essays to Salon and Bookforum. He has written for the Baltimore Sun, the Boston Review, British GQ, Connoisseur, Details, Nerve, the New York Times Book Review, Premiere, Rolling Stone, Spin, Sports Illustrated, SPY, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and Worth, among other magazines, newspapers, and online magazines. He has also worked for Random House, Vanity Fair, and the New Yorker.

A fiction workshop will be held Nov. 10, followed by a panel discussion on publishing on Nov. 11. Schappell and Spillman will hold a public reading at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 11, at the Alumni House to close the series.

For more information, contact Rie Fortenberry at (601) 266-5600.

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