McCourt

Frank McCourt, author of Angela’s Ashes, ‘Tis, Teacher Man, and Angela and the Baby Jesus, will read at the Frauenthal Theater on Saturday, October 25, 2008, at 7 p.m. His appearance, sponsored by Muskegon Writers’ Center, will be part of the city’s Arts & Humanities Month (AHfest) festivities. Tickets are $42 for premier seating, $27 for regular seating, and $15 for students. They may be bought at the Frauenthal Ticket Office. McCourt’s books will be available for purchase, and the author will sign copies after the reading.

Born to Irish immigrant parents in Brooklyn in 1930, McCourt grew up in Limerick, Ireland, and returned to America in 1949. For thirty years he taught in New York City high schools. The story of his impoverished early years is told in Angela’s Ashes, which will be the featured book of AHfest. It won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the L.A. Times Book Award. In 2006 McCourt, a lively storyteller, also won the prestigious Ellis Island Family Heritage Award for Exemplary Service in the Field of Arts and the United Federation of Teachers John Dewey Award for Excellence in Education.

The Mona Shores Fiddlers, who recently returned from a trip to Ireland, where they played and toured, will perform on stage half an hour before the event. In conjunction with the reading, a coat drive will be held to benefit Muskegon’s Every Woman’s Place, a crisis center for women and their children. Donors are asked to bring a clean used coat to the ticket office when they purchase tickets or to the theater the night of October 25.