Nonfiction Writer Dianne Aprile to Read Thursday at Pitt-Bradford

BRADFORD, Pa. – Writer Dianne Aprile, author of four books of nonfiction, will read from her work at noon Thursday, March 24, in the Mukaiyama University Room of the Frame-Westerberg Commons at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford.

Prior to Aprile’s reading, a luncheon will be served at 11:30 a.m. in the University Room. The event is free and open to the public and is being presented as part of the university’s Spectrum Series.

A former newspaper reporter and columnist, Aprile now teaches in the Master of Fine Arts writing program at Spalding University in Kentucky.

Her books include “The Abbey of Gethsemani: Place of Peace and Paradox” about the first Trappist monastery in the United States, which was started by Thomas Merton in Kentucky; “Making a Heart for God: A Week Inside a Catholic Monastery”; and “The Things We Don’t Forget: Views from Real Life,” a collection of her newspaper columns.

“She’s done a range of nonfiction writing – from news and feature to very literary creative nonfiction,” said Dr. Nancy McCabe, associate professor of writing.

Aprile is currently at work on a memoir, a portion of which was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

As a staff writer for The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Ky.) and The Louisville Times, she won the National Society of Newspaper Columnists’ top award in 1996, and in 1989 shared a staff Pulitzer Prize for team coverage of the aftermath of a northern Kentucky school bus crash.

Her collection of Courier-Journal columns, “The Things We Don’t Forget,” was adapted for stage and produced by the University of Louisville theater department.

As a journalist, she earned more than a dozen first-place awards from the Society of Professional Journalists in the areas of criticism, magazine writing, column writing and feature writing.

She holds a Master of Fine Arts in writing from Spalding.

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