Eminent American writer Grace Paley, best known for her short stories, will give the third annual Joshua Ringel Memorial Lecture, at 3 p.m. on Sunday, March 19, in Mudd Hall, Homewood campus.

Paley's early works of fiction include The Little Disturbances of Man (1959), Enormous Changes at the Last Minute (1974) and The Collected Stories (1994), among others. Her collected nonfiction, Just as I Thought, was published in 1996. Paley's reading at Hopkins will feature work from her book of poems Begin Again (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000), as well as insights into her poetic sensibility.

Grace Paley

Paley, who taught at Sarah Lawrence College for many years and is presently on the faculty at Dartmouth, is known for her activism in the feminism movement and against the Vietnam War. Her writing speaks movingly and with humor to domestic as well as political life. "Grace Paley is a wonderful writer and troublemaker," short story master Donald Barthelme once said. "We are fortunate to have her in our country."

The Ringel Lecture has been given since 1998 in memory of Joshua Ringel, of Baltimore, who participated in several CTY programs during his teenage years, then later taught in Madrid, Spain, before his accidental death in 1996. The fund named for him supports an annual lecture in memory of his appreciation of poetry and imaginative writing. Last year's lecture was given by U.S. poet laureate Robert Pinsky.

The lecture is free and open to the public. A reception and book-signing with Paley follow the lecture.