The Works of Chapel Hill Author Elizabeth Spencer Highlighted in
One Special Night!
Local Literary Star Shines in Live From Lincoln Center's
The Light in the Piazza, Sunday, June 18, Beginning at 8 PM, on UNC-TV

Sunday, June 18, at 8 PM, UNC-TV presents the television premiere of the acclaimed new Live from Lincoln Center musical The Light in the Piazza, from the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center Theater. The winner of six 2005 Tony Awards, The Light in the Piazza follows the story of a Winston-Salem tobacco executive's wife (portrayed by Tony Award-winning actress Victoria Clark, whose father resided in Pittsboro and whose mother and stepfather live in Durham) and her daughter as they travel through Italy during the summer of 1953. As a handsome Florentine romances the daughter, her mother makes a determined effort to keep the two apart.

Following this lush, romantic presentation, at 10:30 PM, stay tuned for an interview with The Light in the Piazzaauthor Elizabeth Spencer during a special encore episode of UNC-TV's own local literary series, North Carolina Bookwatch with host D.G. Martin.

Since 1944, when she published her first story, Elizabeth Spencer has been acclaimed as a writer of short fiction in the great tradition of Mark Twain, Eudora Welty and Flannery O'Connor.During this exclusive sit down with North Carolina Bookwatch, the Chapel Hill resident shares the fictional families and coming-of-age narratives that marked her career-spanning collection The Southern Woman: New and Selected Fiction, including the novella The Light in the Piazza.

From the hill country and deltas of Mississippi to the romantic waterways of Italy, Spencer's Southern origins and international travels remain constant themes that are sure to please any lover of short fiction. Don't miss D.G. Martin's interview with Elizabeth Spencer on North Carolina Bookwatch, Sunday, June 18, at 8 PM, following the Live from Lincoln Center presentation of TheLight in the Piazza, only on UNC-TV!

Beginning July 7, stay tuned as the state's most acclaimed authors come to primetime, Friday nights at 9:30, when UNC-TV's local literary series North Carolina Bookwatch returns for an all-new ninth season to bring the Tar Heel State's best and brightest Southern scribes to the small screen. In every illuminating Friday interview, (with encores Sundays, at 5 PM) host D.G. Martin spotlights remarkable reads from North Carolina's wonderful writers, leading off with Will Blythe's discussion of his popular book To Hate Like This Is To Be Happy Forever, about the storied Duke-North Carolina basketball rivalry. Other authors featured in July include John Hart (July 14), Sarah Dessen, (July 21), and Kristin Henderson (July 28).

Funding for North Carolina Bookwatch is provided by UNC-TV members and by Quail Ridge Books and Music, Raleigh's independent, full service bookstore, bringing readers and writers together since 1984.

North Carolina Bookwatch is part of UNC-TV's ongoing commitment to produce programs for and about North Carolina. UNC-TV is the statewide 11-station broadcast network of the University of North Carolina. For more information, please visit www.unctv.org/ncbookwatch.

For more information about North Carolina Bookwatch and UNC-TV's other local productions, please visit our website at www.unctv.org.

-UNC-TV-