Last modified: Tuesday, August 24, 2010
IU Journalism lecture series to feature Gay Talese, Lara Logan and Thomas Friedman
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Aug. 24, 2010
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A writer who set the bar for a new narrative tradition, a broadcaster who has reported from the frontlines of conflict and a columnist whose work has garnered three Pulitzer Prizes will visit Bloomington this fall as guests of the IU School of Journalism's fall Speaker Series.
Author Gay Talese, CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan and author and New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman will give free lectures to the public in this series launched four years ago to give students and area residents the opportunity to meet with some of the top media professionals in the country.
Talese will speak on Wednesday, Sept. 15 and Logan will speak on Tuesday, Oct. 12, and their presentations will begin at 7 p.m. at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, 114 E. Kirkwood Ave. Friedman will speak on Thursday, Nov. 4 at the IU Auditorium, 1211 E. Seventh St. All the lectures are free and open to the public.
Since its inception in the fall of 2006, the IU School of Journalism Speaker Series has brought to campus highly regarded journalists and authors including Ken Auletta, Anna Quindlen, Steve Kroft, Nina Totenberg, Elizabeth Gilbert, Lisa Ling, Frank DeFord, David Halberstam and Christopher Hitchens.
Gay Talese
From his first sportswriting assignment at age 15 to his upcoming book on marriage, 78-year-old Talese has spent a lifetime writing on topics as varied as sports and sports icons, the sexual revolution, life in New York, the Mafia and the construction of New York's Verrazano-Narrows bridge.
Along the way, the prolific author has left his mark, launching what became known as The New Journalism with his iconic piece on singer Frank Sinatra published in a 1966 issue of Esquire. The narrative storytelling, rich in description, set forth a new style of reporting.
His many best-sellers include Unto the Sons, Honor Thy Father, Thy Neighbor's Wife, A Writer's Life, The Kingdom and the Power, The Bridge, and The Gay Talese Reader. The Silent Season of a Hero: The Sports Writing of Gay Talese will be published in September. He has written for publications such as The New York Times, Esquire, Harper's and The New Yorker, and also contributes to blogs such as the Daily Beast.
Lara Logan
As CBS News chief foreign correspondent, Logan has reported from war zones all over the world, making her mark on broadcast news with her coverage of Iraq both before and after U.S. troops moved into the country.
In addition to her duties on "60 Minutes," Logan regularly contributes to other CBS news shows, reporting from the frontlines of Afghanistan and Iraq, interviewing political and military leaders in the Mideast, and exposing the abuse of special needs Iraqi orphans, among many other stories.
In 2005, while reporting on a battle on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border for "60 Minutes II," Logan nearly became the news when a U.S. military vehicle in which she was riding hit a mine. The explosion seriously wounded two soldiers; she escaped with minor injuries.
Logan received an Emmy Award, an Overseas Press Club Award and an RTNDA/Edward R. Murrow Award for "Ramadi: On the Front Line," a 2006 report on American troops under fire in Ramadi, Iraq. Logan and the CBS team produced the piece while embedded with a U.S. military unit. She also has received five American Women in Radio and Television Gracie Awards.
Thomas L. Friedman
A Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Friedman has reported on global trade, the Mideast and the environment in his books and in his columns for The New York Times. Throughout his career, he has blended his economics background, his work as a foreign correspondent and his fascination with the Mideast as he has evolved as a journalist and author.
In 1979, UPI dispatched him to Beirut to cover the civil war. A few years later, he joined The New York Times staff, working as a financial reporter and, later, as bureau chief in Beirut, where he wrote about conflict in the Mideast. As a reporter covering the State Department, he witnessed the collapse of the Soviet Union and fall of the Berlin wall.
By 1995, he began writing columns on foreign affairs, but insisted on traveling in order to support his opinions with reporting. After 9/11, he wrote on war, terrorism and global societies. Friedman turned his attention to environmental issues as he reflected on the interconnections in global economies and governments.
Friedman won Pulitzers for his international reporting from Lebanon (1983) and Israel (1988), and for distinguished commentary (2002). His books include the award-winning best-sellers Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution and How It Can Renew America (and the most recent "2.0" version) and The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century.
His appearance is in conjunction with IU's Themester and the College of Arts and Sciences, Union Board, Kelley School of Business, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Office of the Provost and Center for the Study of Global Change. Lara Logan's appearance was arranged through Gotham Artists, LLC.
For more on the School of Journalism Speaker Series and to read about more than 20 other top journalists who have been guests of the program, visit the school's website at https://journalism.indiana.edu/journalism-experiences/speakerseries/.
