Author Cynthia Ozick, considered by many to be one of the most important writers in North America today, will speak on Tuesday, Oct. 27 at 7:30pm in Wong Auditorium (Tang Ctr, Building E51).
The recipient of numerous literary awards for her poetry, short stories, essays, novels and plays, Ms. Ozick says that she prefers the world of fiction to nonfiction. "There is a freedom in the delectable sense of making things up," she said in an interview for Atlantic Monthly's online publication, Atlantic Unbound.
"In an essay you have the outcome in your pocket before you set out on your journey, and very rarely do you make an intellectual or psychological discovery. But when you write fiction you don't know where you are going -- sometimes down to the last paragraph -- and that is the pleasure of it."
Ms. Ozick's talk is part of the Writers Series sponsored by the Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies. For more information, call x3-7894.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on October 21, 1998.
