May 20, Wednesday -- Novelist and essayist Louis D. Owens, professor of English at the University of New Mexico, will give a free public lecture titled "John Steinbeck's Ecocentric Vision: A Rebirth of Consciousness" at 4:15 p.m. in Kleiber Hall. His talk is sponsored by Chancellor Larry N. Vanderhoef and the UC Davis Commission on the Environment. Media contact: Lisa Crumrine Klionsky, News Service, (530) 752-9841, lrklionsky@ucdavis.edu.