Contact: David West
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466

3/11/98

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NATCHITOCHES - Author John Updike captivated an audience at Northwestern State University Wednesday and gave them insight into why he has been one of America's best-known and honored authors for four decades.

Updike's appearance at NSU was part of the university's Distinguished Lecture Series. A capacity crowd in the A.A. Fredericks Auditorium heard his 75-minute lecture followed by a question and answer period.

The author admitted that he does not often deliver lectures in the morning and was a bit tired after speaking at the University of Georgia in Athens Tuesday night. He read several of his poems that had a theme involving mornings along with a short story set in an A&P supermarket.

"I didn't have a topic like the South like Faulkner did or war like Hemingway," said Updike in talking about his influences. "I grew up with interesting parents with their struggles and knew I had something to say about life in the middle class."

Updike joked that delivering the lecture to an audience largely consisting of junior high, high school and college students gave him an idea what teaching was like.

"I try to avoid teaching because I didn't feel I was smart enough to get my graduate degree. I got my undergraduate degree and didn't want to push my luck," he said. "I avoided teaching, but didn't realize how intoxicating it is."

Updike taught briefly during a summer session at Harvard University where he earned his degree. That helped develop his opinion of teaching.

"I couldn't see where my stuff was any better than theirs," he said of his creative writing class. "Creativity is in part innocence and teaching drains people of their innocence."

He has won two Pulitzer Prizes for two books that were among four volumes telling the story of the fictional Robert (Harry) Angstrom. Updike was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1982 for "Rabbit is Rich" and another Pulitzer in 1990 for "Rabbit at Rest." He is only the third American to receive the Pulitzer Prize on two occasions.

Updike said he and his fictional character Angstrom have little in common.

"I notice our differences rather than our similarities," said Updike. "We both grew up in the same area. He is a character that I admire for the qualities I don't have."

A novelist, critic, short story writer, poet, essayist and dramatist, Updike has written more than 20 novels, 17 books of poetry, 22 collections of short stories and numerous essays, adaptations, plays and children's books.

Updike joins a list of prominent writers who have appeared as part of Northwestern's Distinguished Lecture Series over the past 28 years including Ellen Gilchrist, Maya Angelou, W.P. Kinsella, Alex Haley, David McCullough, Ray Bradbury, E.J. Gaines, William F. Buckley, John Berendt, and Wendy Wasserstein.

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