UNC Asheville’s Literature Club and Humanities Student Association will present an evening with noted author Karen Essex at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 19, in UNCA’s Owen Conference Center. Her talk, reading and book signing is free and open to the public.

Essex is author of the critically acclaimed new book "Kleopatra," which will be made into a Warner Brothers screenplay. The book entails a decade of exhaustive research, rendering an image "beyond the distorted legend of Kleopatra as a stereotypically devious female." "Essex has penned an enthralling fictional account of her youthful ascension into politics and prominence," said Booklist.

Essex is also co-author of the "Bettie Page: The Life of a Pin-Up Legend," originally released in 1996 and set for re-release in 2002.  Page, one of the most popular Playboy centerfolds, challenged the conservative 1950s, earning a cult underground following and a Senate Committee investigation.

Essex is currently adapting Anne Rice’s best-selling book "The Mummy or Ramses the Damned" for Lightstorm Entertainment and Fox Studios. Her essays and profiles have appeared in numerous publications, including Vogue, TV Guide and L.A. Style Magazine. In 1991, she won highest honors form the Los Angeles Press Club for Entertainment Journalism.

For more information, call Cynthia Chadwick, UNCA adjunct literature and language lecturer, 828/251-6579.

Media Contacts:

• Cynthia Chadwick, UNCA Literature & Language Lecturer, 828/251-6579
• Jill Yarnall, UNCA Public Information Assistant, 828/251-6526