A conversation with Kim Stanley Robinson on the subject of environmental writing is scheduled from 4 to 6 p.m. May 17, sponsored by the University Writing Program.

The program, free and open to the public, is set to take place in the 90-seat University Club Lounge, with seating on a first-come, first-served basis.

Robinson, a winner of the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards, is the author of 11 published books, including the bestselling science fiction Mars trilogy.

His novels Fifty Degrees Below and Forty Signs of Rain are set on a planet Earth caught up in climate changes not unlike those the planet may be facing today. He wrote Antarctica, another futuristic disaster novel, after journeying to the Antarctic with the National Science Foundation's Antarctic Artists and Writers Program.

The conversation with Robinson is the second in an ongoing series sponsored by the University Writing Program on the craft of writing.