Briefly Noted

Issue Date: 
October 4, 2010

Author Mark Kurlansky To Speak at Pitt Oct. 5

Mark Kurlansky, nonfiction author and journalist, will speak about his work at the University of Pittsburgh at 8:30 p.m. Oct. 5 in the Frick Fine Arts Auditorium. Part of the Pittsburgh Contemporary Writers Series, the event is free and open to the public.

Kurlansky is the author of a number of bestselling books, including Salt (Penguin, 2002), Cod (Vintage, 1997), and 1968 (Random House Trade, 2003), which earned him an American Library Association Notable Book Award.

The Eastern Stars (Riverhead Books, 2010), Kurlansky’s latest book, is a portrait of a small, impoverished area in the Dominican Republic that has produced 79 major league baseball players. In the book, Kurlansky examines the history, culture, and impact of baseball on this struggling Carribbean town.

A native of Hartford, Conn., Kurlansky received a BA degree in theater in 1970 from Butler University in Indianapolis, Ind. He began his career in New York City working as a playwright and as a playwright-in-residence at Brooklyn College. As a journalist, he has worked as a foreign correspondent for the International Herald Tribune, the Chicago Tribune, the Miami Herald, and the Philadelphia Inquirer, based in Paris and Mexico. His articles also have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and Time magazine.

The 2010-11 Pittsburgh Contemporary Writers Series season is sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh Book Center and the University of Pittsburgh Press. For more information, call 412-624-6508 or visit www.creativewriting.pitt.edu.

—By Jessica Myers

“The Inside Track to a Top-Notch Internship” Panel Discussion Set for Oct. 14

The University of Pittsburgh’s Department of English and The Pitt News, Pitt’s daily student newspaper, will cosponsor a panel discussion titled “The Inside Track to a Top-Notch Internship” at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 14 in the William Pitt Union Ballroom.

In addition to the panel discussion, the winner of the annual McDowell Award In Nonfiction, named in honor of late Pittsburgh broadcasting pioneer Al McDowell (A&S ‘52), will be announced. A dessert reception will follow the event.

David Shribman, executive editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, will serve as moderator of the panel discussion. Panelists include Mike Leary, managing editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer; Paul Steiger, editor-in-chief, president, and chief executive officer of ProPublica; Anne Linaberger, KDKA-TV news director; Terry Foxx, program director for Pittsburgh Sportsradio 93.7 The Fan; Cynthia Sterling, executive publisher of SterlingHouse Publisher, Inc.; Tom Meinert, partner at Meinert Mashek Communications; and Katelyn Polantz (A&S ’09), reporter for Virginia’s Roanoke Times.

For brief biographies of the panelists or more information about the panel discussion, contact Pitt Writing Internship Coordinator Caren Marcus at 412-624-1737 or caren@pitt.edu.

—By Sierra L. Starks

Haiti Rising Exhibition Comes to Pitt Oct. 14-17

The Haitian Art Society of Pittsburgh will present an exhibition titled Haiti Rising in the William Pitt Union’s (WPU) Kimbo Gallery

Oct. 14-17. The exhibition will feature Haitian art collected by the Pittsburgh community and a lecture by Marcus Rediker, Pitt Department of History’s Distinguished Professor of Atlantic History, at 1 p.m. Oct. 15 in the WPU Ballroom. More information is available by calling WPU at 412-648-7815.