Illinois State University alum Mike Cadden will present “Before the
Beginning and After the End: Forewords, Afterwords, and Other Words in
Children’s Literature” at 7 p.m. on March 26 in room 147 of the Center for
the Visual Arts building as the 2007 Lois Lenski Children’s Lecture. The
lecture if free and open to the public and will feature the first alum to
deliver a Lenski Lecture.
The Lois Lenski Children's Literature Lecture Series started in 1994 to honor children's author Lois Lenski, who gave so generously of her time and her papers to the students of Illinois State University. Co-sponsored by Milner Library and the Department of English, the lecture is addressed annually to members of the local and university communities.
Cadden is a professor and director of the Minor in Childhood Studies at Missouri Western University and a noted authority on narrative theory. He is the author of “Ursula K. Le Guin Beyond Genre: Fiction for Children and Adults.” Cadden received his Doctor of Arts degree from Illinois State in 1996. He received two bachelor’s degrees and a master’s degree from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
Cadden is currently treasurer and member of the Executive Committee and previously served on the Board of Directors of the International Children’s Literature Association. He was named the Missouri Western State University Board of Governors Distinguished Associate Professor in 2005 and received the Missouri Western State College Foundations’ Dr. James V. Mehl Outstanding Faculty Scholarship Award and Jesse Lee Myers Excellence in Teaching Award.
For more information about the Lenski Lecture, contact Roberta Seelinger Trites at (309) 438-3651 or seeling@ilstu.edu.
