Keynote Speaker Selected for Library Dedication

Penelope Niven, Writer-in-Residence at Salem College, will be the keynote speaker at the Upjohn Library Commons dedication ceremonies on April 22, 2006. Niven is the author of Carl Sandburg: A Biography (Scribner, 1991; Eastern National Press, 2001); co-author, with the actor James Earl Jones, of Voices and Silences (Scribner, 1993; Simon & Schuster, 1994: Proscenium Limelight edition, 2002); author of Steichen: A Biography (Clarkson Potter/Crown/Random House, 1997; Eastern National Press, 2004); Carl Sandburg: Adventures of a Poet (Harcourt, 2003); and Swimming Lessons (Harcourt, 2004).

She has lectured in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain and was principal consultant for the PBS film biography "Carl Sandburg -- Echoes and Silences." She has served as a consultant for television films on Sandburg, Jones, Steichen and Wilder. She is currently working on a biography of Thornton Wilder.

For more biographical information on Penelope Niven, see the Salem College Center for Women Writers.

Jo Ellen Parker, Executive Director of the National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education (NITLE) and former president of the Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA) will also speak at the dedication.