Mark Kurlansky to Speak October 8th

New York Times bestselling author Mark Kurlansky will be featured as the Arts & Humanities Distinguished Speaker at the second annual Auburn Writers Conference. A public lecture will be held October 8 at 3:00 p.m. in the auditorium of The Hotel at Auburn University and Dixon Conference Center.

Kurlansky started out in New York as a playwright. He won the 1972 Earplay award for best radio play of the year. From 1976 to 1991 he worked as a foreign correspondent for The International Herald Tribune, The Chicago Tribune, The Miami Herald, and The Philadelphia Inquirer. Based in Paris and then Mexico, he reported on Europe, West Africa, Southeast Asia, Central America, Latin America, and the Caribbean. His articles have appeared in a wide variety of newspapers and magazines, including New York Times Sunday Magazine, Audubon Magazine, Food & Wine, Gourmet, Bon Apetit, and Parade. His 19 books range between fiction, nonfiction, and children's books and include Cod (Walker, 1997), Salt (Walker, 2002), and What? (Bloomsbury, 2011). His many awards include the 2006 Bon Apetit Magazine Food Writer of the Year, 1999 James Beard Award for Food Writing, ALA Notable Book Award, and The New York Public Library Best Books of the Year Award. Four of his works have been New York Times bestsellers.

The Auburn Writers Conference is sponsored by the Auburn University College of Liberal Arts’ Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities and Department of English, in partnership with the College of Education’s Truman Pierce Institute. This year’s theme, “Myth, Memory, and the Haunted Muse,” considers the ways that writers use the idea of "the haunted" in their work—either literally or figuratively, as in the memories, histories, people, and places that haunt, and hence propel, characters.

This lecture is part of the College of Liberal Arts’ Arts & Humanities Month. Visit www.clacelebrates.org for a list of upcoming events. Special funding provided by Auburn Connects!, Auburn University’s common book program.

For more information, please visit our conference website, follow the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities on Twitter or join us on Facebook for updates.