John Steinbeck’s work to be performed, discussed at
“Scribe of Social Conscience: Steinbeck Plus Seventy-Five”

UUFDC will host author/actor/educator Paul McComas, a Milwaukee native and two-time recipient of the Chicago Reader’s “Critic’s Choice” in Theater and Performance, on Saturday, August 31 at 3 pm. This event is open to the public and will be followed by a complimentary reception. Admission is $10. A portion of ticket sales, and of Paul’s sales of his own books after the program, will benefit the fight against poverty in Wisconsin.

Three-quarters of a century after the publication of “the great American novella” Of Mice and Men (1937) and the epic Depression-era protest novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939), McComas will present dramatic readings from, and cogent commentary on, these and three other Steinbeck classics. With his unflagging insistence that each of us must be our brothers’ and our sisters’ keeper, Steinbeck 75 years later is as timely as ever. McComas presented this program at Marquette University’s Center for Peacemaking in March; links to the extensive Milwaukee media coverage that event received can be found here: http://paulmccomas.com/steinbeck

McComas is the author of five acclaimed books: two novels, Planet of the Dates and Unplugged; two short-story collections, Unforgettable (a Silver Prize-winner at 2012’s Midwest Book Awards) and Twenty Questions; and the novella Fit for a Frankenstein. Since 1998, he’s taught writing, literature, and film, winning awards from National-Louis and Northwestern universities. A recipient of the Mental Health Association’s Distinguished Service Award, he serves on the National Leadership Council of the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN), as well as on its Speakers’ Bureau. He and wife Heather, a fellow fiction writer, live in Evanston, IL.