Jane Kurtz, an author of children's books, will be the speaker at Bluffton University's weekly forum on Tuesday, April 3, as part of her visit to Bluffton that week.

The forum, recognizing The Lion and Lamb Peace Arts Center's 25th anniversary on campus, is free and open to the public at 11 a.m. in Yoder Recital Hall. During "A Visit with Jane Kurtz," the author will outline her evolution as a writer stemming from her youth in Ethiopia as a daughter of missionaries.

Born in Portland, Ore., Kurtz moved to the African nation with her family when she was 2 years old and grew up in Maji, a town in southwestern Ethiopia. Many of her books are set there, and she is a director of Ethiopia Reads, an organization dedicated to creating a reading culture in the country by connecting children with books.

Kurtz will participate in two other events open to the public on Tuesday. At 4 p.m., her books will be the focus of a visit with a group of students and others in the Musselman Library Reading Room. At 7:30 p.m., she will meet with education students and local teachers in Marbeck Center's Kreider Room to talk about incorporating multicultural literature in the classroom.

More information about the author's books is available at www.janekurtz.com/books/index.html.