The 1999 Harriet W. Sheridan Lecture

Dannie Abse, Welsh poet and physician, to read his work April 6 and 7

Welsh writer and physician Dannie Abse will read selections of his writings and speak about his life as a doctor and poet at the 1999 Harriet W. Sheridan Literature and Medicine Lecture. The presentation will take place at 4 p.m. Wednesday, April 7, in the Salomon Center for Teaching.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The 1999 Harriet W. Sheridan Literature and Medicine Lecture will showcase Welsh writer and physician Dannie Abse. He will read selections of his writings and speak about his life as a poet and doctor at 4 p.m. Wednesday, April 7, in Room 001 of the Salomon Center for Teaching, located on The College Green. His presentation is open to the public without charge. A reception will follow.

Abse will also read selections of his writings at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 6, in the Russell Lab of T. F. Green Hall, located at 5 Young Orchard Avenue.

"Dr. Abse is a retired physician of internal medicine, and is warm and enthusiastic speaker," said lecture organizer Dr. Lynn Epstein. The event is named for Harriet Sheridan, professor of English and former dean of the College, who died in 1992. Now in its seventh year, the Sheridan Lecture provides a special forum for interdisciplinary exploration of doctors, doctoring, illness and healing in literature.

"The lecture series is a way for the medical school to share the human aspects of healing through literature," said Epstein, who also is an associate dean at the School of Medicine.

Abse is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and president of the Welsh Academy of Letters. He has published 11 books of poetry, including, White Coat, Purple Coat. Among his prose works are Ash on a Young Man's Sleeve and There Was a Young Man from Cardiff. He is the recipient of Cholomondeley Award for Outstanding Achievement in Poetry, the Charles Henry Foyle Award for one his plays, and two Welsh Arts Council Literary Awards.

Abse has read widely in Great Britain and the United States and has participated in many literary festivals. Recent readings have taken place at the Edinburgh Festival and the U.S. Library of Congress. Additionally, he has served as writer-in-residence at Princeton University and co-authored the acclaimed Voices in the Gallery with his wife, art historian Joan Abse.