Oops!

I got confused. And Cynthia Barnett, executive director of the North Carolina Writers' Network, wrote to remind me that I made a major mistake regarding the Network Conference. "Although all your class descriptions were accurate, somehow you reported wrong information about the special activities Friday night and Saturday."

The network conference will not feature Susan Orlean for a keynote, and the Mark Bixler presentation of "The Lost Boys of Sudan."

"This year," Barnett writes, "instead of a keynote, we are inducting three beloved writers to our biennial North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame: poet Gerald Barrax, mystery writer Elizabeth Daniels Squire, and poet/prose writer Fred Chappell, our former poet laureate. That program is free and open to the public.

"There will be a special reception, reservations required, at 5:30 p.m. before the induction and all events will be at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel in Durham RTP, as you reported. Look also for two breakfasts with literary hotties John Hart ('The King of Lies') and Valerie Ann Leff ('Better Homes and Husbands'), whose first novel has been recently signed for a TV series."

See www.ncwriters.org for details and online registration. And do it soon. The Conference will be held on Nov. 10-12 at the Sheraton Imperial in Durham.

The North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame is now housed at the Weymouth Center for the Arts and Humanities, and the Sam Ragan Lecture Series is planning a local program for the new inductees in late April. You'll want to keep an eye out for this event.

Speaking of events, the Armfield Poetry Festival will be held at UNC-Chapel Hill, Nov. 8-9.

This first Armfield Poetry Festival will feature free public readings by four major prizewinning American poets who will be hosted by the Creative Writing Program at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Two poets will read each day, one in the afternoon at 3:30 and one in the evening at 7:30. All readings will be in the University Room of Hyde Hall at the Institute for the Arts and Humanities, on Polk Place near the intersection of Franklin and Henderson Streets.

On Wednesday, Nov. 8, Kenneth Fields will read at 3:30 p.m. His collections of poetry include "Other Walker," "Sunbelly," and most recently "Classic Rough News."

"These wonderful poems," say Eavan Boland, "offer a rare mix of the highest lyric craft in the service of a compelling, persuasive human voice. Again and again here, clear language and powerful music bring the reader into a world which is full of reflection, doubt, the pain of memory, and the exuberance of daily living."

On Wednesday evening, Nov. 8, poet, essayist, memoirist Mark Doty will read at 7:30 p.m. Doty is the author of seven books of poetry, most recently "School of the Arts," praised by one poet as "memorable, essential, big-hearted, joyous in music: the finest book of poems by one of our finest poets."

On Thursday, Nov. 9, Marie Howe will read at 3:30 p.m. The first of her two books of poetry, "The Good Thief," won the National Poetry Series; the judge, Margaret Atwood, said, "Marie Howe's poetry doesn't fool around. These poems are intensely felt, sparely expressed, and difficult to forget; poems of obsession that transcend their own dark roots."

On Thursday evening, Nov. 9, C. K. Williams winner of the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, for his collection "Repair" will read at 7:30 p.m.

"To put it simply," said the late Stanley Kunitz, "C. K. Williams is a wonderful poet, in the authentic American tradition of Walt Whitman and William Carlos Williams, who tells us on every page what it means to be alive in our time."

This event is made possible by a generous gift from the late Blanche Britt Armfield (M.A., English, 1928) "to champion the cause of poetry on the UNC campus." For further information, contact festival coordinator Alan Shapiro, Kenan Professor of English, at 962-1994 or ashapiro@email.unc.edu, or Jenne Herbst, Program Assistant for Creative Writing, at 962-4000 or jlherbst@email.unc.edu, or Michael McFee, Acting Director of the Creative Writing Program, at 962-3461 or mcfee@unc.edu.

Stephen Smith may be reached at travisses@hotmail.com.