January 29, 2003

GLOBAL HEALTH EXPERT, THE HOURS AUTHOR BOTH TO SPEAK AT BOISE STATE

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A prize-winning journalist who is one of America�s premier experts on global health care and emerging infectious diseases, and the author of a Pulitzer-prize winning novel that is now a major motion picture, will speak in 2003 at Boise State University as part of the university�s Distinguished Lecture Series.

Laurie Garrett, the only writer to have won all three of her industry�s top awards � the Peabody, the Polk (twice) and the Pulitzer � will speak on "Betrayal of Trust" on April 17. Michael Cunningham, author of The Hours, will speak on "Wrestling with a Genius: My Life and Virginia Woolf's" on Oct. 9.

Both lectures begin at 7 p.m. in the Student Union Jordan Ballroom and are free to the public.

"Boise State is pleased to bring to campus two such outstanding writers, each offering a thoughtful and thought-provoking response to important contemporary issues," said Helen Lojek, an English professor and chair of the Distinguished Lecture Series Committee. "Garrett and Cunningham will continue the lecture series tradition of bringing unique and timely perspectives to the community."

Garrett, a medical and science writer for Newsday, is the author of The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance and Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health. A longtime journalist, Garrett has also contributed chapters to books that have chronicled the AIDS epidemic and the emergence of infectious diseases in the world.

Cunningham was awarded both the Pulitzer prize and the PEN/Faulkner award for The Hours, a homage to Virginia Woolf�s groundbreaking novel Mrs. Dalloway. The movie is now a major motion picture starring Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman and Julianne Moore. Cunningham�s other novels include A Home at the End of the World and Flesh and Blood. He was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1993, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 1988 and a Michener Fellowship from the University of Iowa in 1982.

The Distinguished Lecture Series brings to campus speakers who have had a significant impact in politics, the arts or the sciences. The most recent speaker was former president of Poland and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Lech Walesa.

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Helen Lojek

English

426-1328

Janelle Brown

communications and marketing

426-1790

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