MOBILE, Ala. — Fairhope writer and University of South Alabama alumni Sonny Brewer will deliver the keynote address at this Saturday’s launch of the 2009 edition of the university’s fine arts magazine.

Now in its seventh year, this year’s edition of the Oracle Fine Arts Review includes 24 color plates in its 209 pages.

Fine arts magazines often serve as important apprenticeship opportunities for writers and artists, as was the case for Brewer.

While a USA student in the 1970s, Brewer co-edited the university’s first literary magazine, Southern Bard, and was a reporter for The Vanguard school newspaper. Since that time, he has published several novels and nonfiction works, served as editor of local magazines and literature anthologies, and been the catalyst for a literary festival each November in Fairhope, where he founded Over the Transom bookstore.

“I'm always asked when I started writing, and I always answer that things got serious for me when I was a student at the University of South Alabama,” Brewer said. “That's where I put actual work together with the academics of writing. And I count reporting for The Vanguard and editing the Southern Bard just as important as classwork.”

Brewer’s newest novel, The Widow and the Tree, is set for a Sept. 9 release.

Since 2003, the Oracle has published student and community work in fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, stageplay, screenplay, essay, mixed media, painting, photography, illustration, printmaking, ceramics, sculpture and drawing. In 2004, the student-run magazine won the University and College Designers Association Award of Excellence.

The launch event will also include a silent art auction featuring work by Pensacola artist and alumni Sam Nettles, who sculpted the large jaguar on the Mobile campus.

Known by many as the creator of the National Missing Children’s Memorial in Pensacola, Nettles is a nationally recognized sculptor and artist, and winner of numerous awards.

The event will also feature readings and exhibits by contributors to this year’s edition, as well as food and beverage.

The event is from 5 to 7 p.m., Saturday, April 4, in the University Ballroom at the Student Center on the Mobile campus of USA.

The ballroom is on the second floor of the student center. The program will begin at 5:15, with Brewer’s keynote address starting at 5:30 p.m.

The event is free and open to the public.

For more information, visit the university magazine’s Web site at www.southalabama.edu/oracle.