Centennial reading

The Creative Writing Reading Series at Cornell begins its fall 2009 schedule with a Centennial Reading Sept. 10 at 4:30 p.m. in Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall. The free reading features fiction writer and 2004 Pulitzer Prize finalist Susan Choi and alumni poets David Friedman '60 and Charity Ketz, M.F.A. 2004. Friedman earned his Cornell B.A. in English and has been a National Book Award and Pulitzer nominee.

Events celebrating the "centennial plus five" of creative writing at Cornell will continue throughout the academic year. A "Cornell Writers on Cornell Writers" panel, Sept. 16 in 258 Goldwin Smith, will feature Alison Lurie on E.B. White, Robert Morgan on James McConkey, and Emily Rosko on Phyllis Janowitz.

Information: http://www.arts.cornell.edu/english/creative/readings/2009/fall/.

Sporting lives

Hall of Fame athletes-turned-politicians Bill Bradley and Ken Dryden '70 will discuss "Lives on the Run: Sports, Service & Leadership," Sept. 10 at 7:30 p.m. in Bailey Hall. ESPN personality Jeremy Schaap '91 will moderate. Free tickets are available at the Willard Straight Ticket Desk. Questions for Bradley and Dryden can be submitted in advance at http://tinyurl.com/BradleyDryden.

Bradley is a former three-term Democratic senator from New Jersey, following a professional basketball career from 1967-77 with the New York Knicks. He was a three-time all-American and 1965 National Player of the Year at Princeton, and a Rhodes scholar.

Dryden is a former NHL goaltender and member of the Canadian Parliament. Rather than play for the Boston Bruins after the 1964 NHL Amateur Draft, he attended Cornell and led the Big Red to the 1967 NCAC championship and three straight ECAC titles. The Montreal Canadiens had six Stanley Cup-winning seasons with him; he retired from hockey in 1979 after earning a law degree at McGill University. The event is presented by the Sigma Phi Society's James Norris Oliphant Distinguished Speakers Fellowship.

Orchestral scores

The Alloy Orchestra returns to Cornell Cinema Tuesday, Sept. 8, to provide live original musical scores to two classic silent films from 1929.

The three-piece ensemble wil accompany Alfred Hitchcock's "Blackmail" (part of the 15-film Hitchcock 101 series screening this semester) at 7 p.m. and Russian director Dziga Vertov's masterpiece "Man with a Movie Camera" at 9:15 p.m. Both screenings feature either restored or new 35mm prints, the latter from the Moscow Film Archive. Advance tickets for each screening are $12, $9 for students and senior citizens, available at the Willard Straight Ticket Desk and at http://www.cornellcinematickets.com.

Poverty's future

A forum on "The Future of U.S. Poverty Policy and Research" will be held Sept. 9 at 2 p.m. in G10 Biotech. The forum intends to identify emerging trends in American poverty legislation over the next decade and provide a catalyst for new research opportunities for faculty and graduate students.

Panel presenters include Timothy Smeeding of the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Ron Haskins of the Brookings Institution; and Richard Burkhauser, the Sarah Gibson Blanding Professor of Public Policy in Cornell's Department of Policy Analysis and Management.

The forum is free and open to the public. It is presented by Cornell's Institute for the Social Sciences and its Persistent Poverty and Upward Mobility theme project. Information: http://www.socialsciences.cornell.edu/0811/US_Poverty_forum.html.

'The Calculus of Friendship'

Steven Strogatz, the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Applied Mathematics at Cornell, will read from his new book "The Calculus of Friendship," Sept. 10 from 6-7 p.m. at Buffalo Street Books.

The book is the story of an extraordinary life-changing mentorship and connection between a teacher and a student, based on their shared love of calculus and told through more than 30 years of correspondence. Strogatz will also sign copies of the book and answer questions after the reading. Information: 607-273-8246 or BuffaloStreetBooks@hotmail.com.

Good times for innovation

The worst of times for the economy may be the best time to be an entrepreneur. Find out why at a free public lecture by Jay Walker '77, Sept. 11 at 1:30 p.m. in Barnes Hall. Walker, the founder of Priceline.com, chairman of Walker Digital and Cornell's 2009 Entrepreneur of the Year, will present "Pick the Job You Want. YOU'RE HIRED!"

Walker has a Cornell B.S. in international relations and is a member of the Sigma Phi Society at Cornell. He has founded multiple successful startup companies serving more than 75 million customers in 15 different industries. He has been cited as an influential innovator and business leader by Business Week, Newsweek and Time magazine, which twice honored Walker as one of the "50 most influential business leaders in the digital age." A prolific inventor, he is named on more than 800 U.S. and international patents.