Acclaimed British novelist Zadie Smith reads at Grand Hall

By Ruby Gee     11/11/10 6:00pm

Invited as a part of the 2010 Campbell Lecture Series, British author Zadie Smith performed a reading in the Grand Hall Wednesday to an audience of more than 300 attendees. Her first novel, White Teeth, became an international best-seller in 2000 while she was a student at Cambridge University. A tenured professor of fiction at New York University, Smith was named by Granta, a UKbased literary magazine, as one of 20 best young writers in 2003.

Alumnus T.C. Campbell, an English major who graduated in 1934, donated $1 million to Rice for the 20- year literary lecture series.

The event was open to the public and free of charge. According to coordinator Christine Medina, Rice students composed approximately a third of the audience, with Rice alumni accounting for the rest of the attendees.

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Dean of Humanities Nicolas Shumway started the reading event off by introducing Smith, thanking event contributors and sharing the background behind the Campbell Lecture series.

"The goal of this lecture series is bring to Rice renowned speakers - our guest Zadie Smith certainly identifies [with] the spirit of the Campbell family's gift," Shumway said. "Her novels offer a splendid banquet for the reader to savor a variety of people and culture, all of it couched in splendid, beautifully crafted prose."

Smith read excerpts from her essay "Changing My Mind" and most recent novel On Beauty.

"It turns out that the perfect state of mind to read your own novel is two years after it's published, 10 minutes before you go onstage, in the loo," Smith said, to the laughter of the audience. "At that moment, every redundant phrase, all the pieces of deadwood and tedium are distressingly obvious to you."

Associate Professor Betty Joseph conducted an interview onstage after Smith's readings.

English Professor Joseph Campana, who has attended Smith's readings before, said that Smith is a wonderful public speaker.

"She has great things to say about literature and the state of literary writing," Campana said. "I think it's a real treat for the Rice community and a real testament to the support Rice alumni have for literary writing and creative writing at Rice that the Campbell lecture series exists at all.

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