DATE: January 26, 2007
MEDIA CONTACT: Melanie McDonald, Director of Media Relations
PHONE: 574-284-4579
E-MAIL: mmcdonal@saintmarys.edu

Bombeck-esque Writer Speaks at Saint Mary’s

NOTRE DAME, Ind. — Mary Beth Ellis, a 1999 Saint Mary’s College alumna and published humorist, will be reading from her new book “Drink to the Lasses” and answering questions on Wednesday, Jan. 31 at noon in Stapleton Lounge, LeMans Hall. A book signing and reception will follow. Books will be available for purchase on-site.

"Drink to the Lasses,” published in October 2006 by Cold Tree Press, is the story of Ellis’ life at Saint Mary’s and is filled with the same wit that made her a popular campus columnist. “The Catholic Church doesn't teach much about Purgatory anymore, preferring instead to stage it live on Earth in the form of Freshman Orientation at its institutions of higher learning," Ellis writes in an excerpt from “Drink to the Lasses.” In another excerpt, she emphasizes a pet peeve. “Some have this assumption of Saint Mary’s as The People Who Couldn’t Get Into Notre Dame School For Girls, which…just…no,” says Ellis. “You don’t beat your brains out to get in to Notre Dame, fail, and then simply rebound across the street. A women’s college is an all-or-nothing proposition, not a fallback position.”

Ellis received an MFA in non-fiction writing from Bennington College and has previously worked in education at the Kennedy Space Center and as a sports reporter for the Thoroughbred racing industry. In November 2006, she was named Erma Bombeck Humor Writers’ Workshop Writer of the Month, and currently teaches writing at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach and Stetson University in DeLand, Fla.

Ellis will read at the University of Notre Dame’s 2007 Literary Festival in February. The event has a national reputation for attracting distinguished authors, including past participants Joyce Carol Oates, Kurt Vonnegut and Tennessee Williams.

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