MONTPELIER - Amherst College professor and author Ilan Stavans will look at the life of the controversial Yiddish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer in a talk at Montpelier's Kellogg-Hubbard Library on November 4.

His talk, "Singer's Typewriter. . . and Mine," is part of the Vermont Humanities Council's First Wednesdays series and takes place at 7:00 p.m.

Mr. Stavans, editor of the three-volume Collected Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer, will offer a journey through the life and work of Singer, the controversial Yiddish writer and Nobel Prize winner.

Mr. Stavans is an internationally renowned critic, linguist, translator, editor and author. He is Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst.

The Vermont Humanities Council's First Wednesdays series is held on the first Wednesday of every month from October through May, featuring speakers of national and regional renown. Talks are held at Kellogg Hubbard Library.

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Upcoming Montpelier talks include "Poetry's Spiritual Language" with Dartmouth English professor Nancy Jay Crumbine on December 2; "Vermont's State House at 150 Years" with Vermont State Curator David Schutz on January 6; and "The Truth about Happiness" with analyst and author Dr. Polly Young-Eisendrath on February 3.

First Wednesdays is also presented in eight other communities statewide: Brattleboro (at Brooks Memorial Library); Burlington (at Fletcher Free Library); Manchester (at First Congregational Church, hosted by Mark Skinner Library); Middlebury (at Ilsley Public Library); Newport/Stanstead, Quebec (at Goodrich Memorial Library and Stanstead College, in alternating months); Norwich (at Norwich Congregational Church, hosted by Norwich Public Library and Norwich Historical Society); Rutland (at Rutland Free Library); and at St. Johnsbury Athenaeum. The program is free, accessible to people with disabilities and open to the public.

The Vermont Department of Libraries is the statewide underwriter of First Wednesdays. First Wednesdays is also supported by The Preservation Trust of Vermont.

For more information, contact the Kellogg-Hubbard Library at 223-3338.