Kenneth McClane to speak at Cornell

Kenneth A. McClane will give the Phi Beta Kappa lecture at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday in Lewis Auditorium in Cornell’s Goldwin Smith Hall. “Friendship: A Narrative about Race, Family, War and Fishing” is the title of the talk.

McClane is the W.E.B. DuBois professor emeritus of literature at Cornell, where he taught English and creative writing for 37 years. In March 2004, he was named a Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow, Cornell’s highest teaching honor. The author of seven poetry collections, he has published two volumes of personal essays, “Walls: Essays 1985-1990” and “Color: Essays on Race, Family, and History,” which was awarded the 2009 Gold Medal for the best book of essays by ForeWord Reviews Magazine. In 2010, the University of Notre Dame Press reprinted his collection, “Walls: Essays 1985-1990” in paperback.

McClane serves on the board of trustees of the Tompkins County Public Library and the Collegiate School in New York City. He formerly served on the board of Adelphi University, the Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts, and the Community Foundation of Tompkins Country.

McClane was elected to Phi Beta Kappa at Cornell in 1973, when he graduated from the College of Arts and Sciences.