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Two Memoir Writers to Share Their Stories at Embry-Riddle Event

Nola Perez Daytona Beach, Fla., March 4, 2010 -- Two Southern writers will share their personal “Stories of Love and Loss” on Tuesday, March 9, presented by Embry-Riddle’s Arts & Letters Series.

Relating their life experiences will be award-winning poet and memoir writer Nola Perez and an Embry-Riddle humanities professor, Dr. Libbie Searcy.

The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held at 7 p.m. in the auditorium of the Willie Miller Instructional Center on the university’s Daytona Beach campus, 600 S. Clyde Morris Blvd.

Libbie Searcy Perez is the author of The Movement of Bones: A Memoir and a volume of poetry titled In the Season of Tropical Depressions, among other published works. She was a finalist in the 1993 National Poetry Series and a runner-up in the 1998 Anhinga Press Florida Poetry Series. In 1997 she won the Robert Pen Warren First Poetry Prize (Vermont). Her website is www.nolaperez.com.

Searcy received her M.F.A in Creative Writing from Bowling Green State University and her Ph.D. in English with a creative dissertation from Western Michigan University. Before joining Embry-Riddle, she taught creative writing (fiction and creative non-fiction) at Bowling Green State University, Western Michigan University, and Flagler College.

“When people ask me how I could write a memoir when I’m only in my thirties, I say, ‘You haven't met my family,’ ” says Searcy. “My memoir, Bridge of Lions, tells the story of that family, especially my older brother, who is developmentally challenged and autistic and who I love more purely than I’ll ever love anyone. Although the book details some difficult times, it is ultimately a love story – a story about the family that has shaped who I am. Although I used to worry that no one would find a story about my life interesting, I’ve been continually assured by readers that it is, so I decided a while back to believe them. I hope anyone who comes to hear me read on Tuesday agrees.”

For more information on the event, call (386) 226-6668 or visit http://erau.edu/arts.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the world’s largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, offers more than 30 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in its colleges of Arts and Sciences, Aviation, Business, and Engineering. Embry-Riddle educates students at residential campuses in Prescott, Ariz., and Daytona Beach, Fla., through the Worldwide Campus at more than 150 campus centers in the United States, Europe, Canada, and the Middle East, and through online learning. For more information, visit www.embryriddle.edu.