Bowers Writers House at Elizabethtown College hosts "Sixteen Candles" actress Debbie Pollack Feb. 29

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Debbie Pollack

• Jesse Waters
• Richard Fellinger
• Ilan Grave

ELIZABETHTOWN, PA (02/01/2012)(readMedia)-- Bowers Writers House at Elizabethtown College hosts actress Debbie Pollack at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 29. The pop culture icon ("Sixteen Candles") will offer a craft talk/workshop, titled "What I DIDN'T Learn at Drama School." During the afternoon workshop about the business of show business Pollack will share experiences and tips for what to do to prepare to become a professional actor or writer.

Pollack has danced with Shamu and Rob Marshall (hopefully not simultaneously); performed old-fashioned burlesque in New York's oldest vaudeville theater; worked with Carol Burnett, John Ritter and Bob Newhart; got kicked out of Carnegie Mellon University Music/Theater program for working too much as an actor; and then left show business for 20 years to raise her children. She is now a commercial, television and film actress.

The free event is open to the public, but admission is based on reservation – call 717-689-3945. Non-reserved seating is first-come first-served. Arrive at least half an hour before the event to secure seating.

Also in February, College faculty members will speak on subjects ranging from fiction writing to physics and poetry. All events are free and take place at Bowers Writers House, on the edge of the College campus, at 840 College Hill Lane.

Richard Fellinger, English, and Jesse Waters, director of Bowers Writers House, will give faculty readings from their own works at 8 p.m. Monday, Feb. 20. Both speakers are releasing new collections of fiction.

Fellinger's forthcoming collection, "They Hover Over Us," won the 2011 Serena McDonald Kennedy Fiction Award. A former journalist, his stories have appeared in Epiphany, Potomac Review, Willow Review, Westview, Forge and PANK. He also won the 2008 Flash Fiction Contest at Red Cedar Review.

Waters is the author of "Human Resources," a collection of poems, and "So Let Me Get this Straight," a collection of short fiction. He is runner-up for the Iowa Review Award for Fiction, a finalist in the Atlanta Review International Poetry Contest and a winner of the 2001 River Styx International Poetry Competition.

At 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 28, Elizabethtown College faculty member Dr. Ilan Gravé presents "From Quantum Wells to Dante's Inferno: How a Physicist Can Appreciate Poetry."

Though a member of the College's Department of Physics and Engineering, Gravé also has a love for poetry and will explain how the two come together in his life and have shaped him as a person.

Gravé grew up in Israel and Italy and studied physics and electrical engineering at Tel Aviv University. He earned his doctorate in applied physics from Caltech in Pasadena, Calif. Gravé has led high-tech projects in avionics in Israel and has been a senior scientist and consultant at FUB, the research institute in the Ministry of Telecommunications in Rome, Italy, before joining academic life at the University of Pittsburgh. He has been with Elizabethtown College since 2002.

Contact: Jesse Waters at writershouse@etown.edu or 717-689-3945.

Bowers Writers House at Elizabethtown College, 840 College Hill Lane, was created with a generous gift by Kenneth L. '59 and Rosalie E. '58 Bowers to support a culture of creative curiosity and foster a new sense of excitement and enthusiasm for intellectual diversity. The Bowers Writers House is an interdisciplinary venue for presentation, performance, expression and study. The programs-from dramatic readings to interactive panels to musical performances-offer a dynamic variety of enjoyable and informative experiences. Visit www.etown.edu/centers/writershouse.

Elizabethtown College, in south-central Pennsylvania, is a private coed institution offering more than four dozen liberal arts, fine and performing arts, science and engineering, business, communications and education degrees. Through personal attention, creative inspiration and academic challenge, Elizabethtown College students are encouraged to expand their intellectual curiosity and are given the opportunity to become an important part of the bigger world through experiential learning-research, internships and study abroad. Elizabethtown College's overall commitment to Educate for Service is fulfilled as students are taught intellectually, socially, aesthetically and ethically for lives of service and leadership.

Visit www.etown.edu for more information about Elizabethtown College.

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