Correction appended
Award-winning author Toni Morrison will speak at 8 p.m. on April 7 in the Eisenhower Auditorium, hosted by the Paterno Fellows program.
Morrison, author of novels including "Beloved," "The Bluest Eye" and "Song of Solomon," won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988 and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993.
She's the latest recipient of the Penn State Institute for the Arts' Medal for Distinguished Contributions to the Arts and Humanities.
Though admission is free, tickets may be required, according to an Institute press release. Details on ticket distribution have not yet been released.
Prior to the lecture, Paterno Fellows can attend a reception where director of the Africana Research Center and Penn State English Professor Lovalerie King will deliver a brief introduction, according to the Paterno Fellows' blog.
Sue Paterno said she'd like to meet Paterno Fellows, and Joe Paterno may attend, according to the blog.
Agora editor Sean Healy said he plans to attend -- after all, he loved "Song of Solomon." Morrison is an "excellent" author, though her style is difficult to explain, Healy (junior-political science and sociology) said.
"She made me think differently about race and what it's like to be black in America -- what it's like to be a family, finding their roots, and all that stuff," Healy said.
Though he's never read any of Morrison's books, Ben Reimold (junior-nuclear engineering) said he thinks he'll attend with his girlfriend. As he puts it, anyone who has won the Nobel Prize is probably worth seeing.
He said having the opportunity to see distinguished speakers like Morrison is a perk of being a large school like Penn State.
"It's really cool to make someone like that accessible to the average college student," Reimold said. "It's a pretty incredible thing."
And while Justin Sloane (senior-premedicine and political science) said he doesn't have much time for pleasure reading, he's happy to attend the lecture of someone of such "caliber."
"Because of the existence of the Paterno Fellows, you can hear about the author's motivations firsthand, and that's the opportunity you can't find anywhere else," Sloane said.
Healy said he expects many Penn State students will attend because of Morrison's accomplishments.
This article incorrectly stated information about Toni Morrison's speech. Morrison was invited to campus by the Penn State Institute for the Arts and Humanities to receive the Penn State Institute for the Arts and Humanities Medal for Distinguished Contributions to the Arts and Humanities. The speech is not a part of the Distinguished Speaker Series. Tickets are required and are available starting March 29 at Eisenhower Auditorium, Penn State Tickets Downtown and HUB-Robeson Center.
