Campus News

Renowned author Michelle Cliff to deliver Coley Lecture

Renowned author Michelle Cliff to deliver the 15th annual Andrea Carson Coley Lecture at UGA

Athens, Ga. – Michelle Cliff, author of Abeng, No Telephone to Heaven and If I Could Write This in Fire, will give the 15th annual Andrea Carson Coley Lecture, titled “Everything Is Now,” on Friday, April 17, at 12:30 p.m. in the UGA Chapel. A reception honoring the Coley family will precede the lecture at 11:30 a.m. on the Chapel lawn.

Cliff was born in Jamaica and grew up there and in the United States. She was educated in New York City and at the Warburg Institute at the University of London, where she completed a Ph.D. on the Italian renaissance.

Cliff is the author of novels, short stories (Bodies of Water), prose poetry (The Land of Look Behind and Claiming and Identity They Taught Me to Despise), as well as numerous works of criticism. Her essays have appeared frequently in such publications as Ms. and The Village Voice.

The Andrea Carson Coley Lecture in the Institute for Women’s Studies was endowed through a donation made by Andrew and Kathy Coley in memory of their daughter Andrea Carson Coley (1972-1993), who was a certificate candidate in women’s studies. Each spring, the lecture brings to campus scholars who conduct cutting-edge research in the area of lesbian and gay studies.

This year’s lecture is sponsored by the Institute for Women’s Studies, the LGBT Resource Center, and GLOBES. For more information, see www.uga.edu/iws.