Katha Pollitt regularly analyzes society in "Subject to Debate," her weekly column for The Nation. Clevelanders will have the opportunity to hear her in person when she speaks at at 4:30 p.m. today in the Thwing Center Ballroom.

Katha Pollitt

Her free talk, "Sense and Dissents on Feminism, Women & Culture," is the first program in CWRU's 2002-03 College Scholars Program Lecture Series.

The woman with the versatile, keen and witty pen is not only the acclaimed writer of the book of poems, Antarctic Traveler, which won the National Book Critics Award, but is known for her insightful look at current issues. Nineteen of her essays from "difference feminism" to "family values" are collected in Reasonable Creatures: Essays on Women and Feminism, and some of her best columns from The Nation appear in Subject to Debate: Sense and Dissents on Women, Politics and Culture.

Pollitt started contributing work to The Nation in 1980. Several of her columns have garnered her awards-in 1992 an essay on culture wars earned the National Magazine Award, and in 1993 the essay "Why Do We Romanticize the Fetus?" was awarded the Maggie Award from the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

Her writing has found its way to the pages of such publications as The New Republic, The New Yorker, Mother Jones, Glamour, Mirabella and The New York Times. Her commentaries have been heard on National Public Radio's "Fresh Air" and "All Things Considered." She has made appearances on NBC's "Dateline," CNN, "The McLaughlin Group" and other programs in the United States and abroad.

For information, call 368-0528.