News Release (January 30, 1966)

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---_NEW COLLEGE NEWS RELEASE NEW COLLEGE, SARASOTA, FLORIDA FURMAN C ARTHUR INFORMATION FOR RELEASE: SUNDAY, January 30, 1966 A Texas-trorn author, now living and t-IritinP, in New York City, has been appointed a writer-in-residence at New College. Hack Thomas, t .J'hose first novel, "Gumbo," t-1as published last year and t-lon acclaim from major critical publications, \-lill live in a cottage on college property on Siesta Key while ';-70rkin g on a neH novel. Thomas ';.J'ill spend one day each on campus tvith students in-terested in creative writing The new writer-in-residence, first at New College, was born in Deni-son, Texas, 37 years ago. By his own description, he \-las born in "a tmvn of few words almost on the highway bettveen Haco and Hillsboro." After several years of college and service with the Air Force, Thomas went through a series of jobs which included pitching professional baseball, playing a jazz saxophone in a Texas hotel, being a radio disc jockey, inventing a chrome-plated bug deflector for automobiles, and instructing in an Arthur Murray dance studio. Several years ago Thomas turned seriously to writing and v1on con-siderable acclaim for his first novel, the story of seven years in the life of a Texas boy. -more-

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Page 2 Published by Grove Press, the book was reprinted in part in the Saturday Evening Post, Saturday Review of Literature, New York Times, and a number of metropolitan newspaper critics g ave very favorable reviews of the book. Thomas second novel is already about 100 pages underway and the author feels that it will run four times that long He said that he hopes to finish it while in residence here. The author said that he is anxious to talk to people both on and off campus. Conversation, he said, is his "laboratory." President Elmendorf said that College, by creating the writerin-residence appointment, hopes both to help to stimulate creative writing and also to bring students in contact with a professional author. -30-