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News Release
February 2, 2007
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author Tracy Kidder to Speak at Boise
State as Part of Common Reading Program
Tracy Kidder, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, will speak at 7 p.m. Feb. 28 in
the Student Union Special Events Center at Boise State University. The event is
free and open to the public and tickets are not required. Limited seating is
available on a first-come, first-served basis. Free parking will be available in
the Liberal Arts lot adjacent to the Special Events Center.
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| Tracy Kidder
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Freshmen at Boise State have been reading Kidder’s book “Mountains Beyond
Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World” as part
of the Common Reading Program. The students received their books before the
start of the academic year, and the university has developed events around the
book and is using it as a teaching tool.
“Mountains Beyond Mountains” focuses on Farmer, one of the founders of the group
Partners in Health. Farmer works with the poorest of the world’s poor to cure
infectious diseases in places such as Haiti, Peru, Cuba and Russia. Kidder met
Farmer while reporting in Haiti and spent countless hours with the doctor, his
friends and co-workers. The result of his work with Farmer has been called “a
skilled and graceful explanation of the soul of an astonishing human being” by
Kirkus Reviews.
Kidder, originally from New York City, attended Harvard College. He served in
Vietnam from 1967 to 1969 and was awarded a Bronze Star. After returning from
the war, he attended the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, earning an MFA.
While in Iowa he met Dan Wakefield, a contributing editor at the Atlantic
Monthly, and began a long-term relationship with the magazine. Kidder has also
written for other publications, including The New Yorker, and is the author of
“The Soul of a New Machine,” for which he won the Pulitzer Prize and a National
Book Award, “House,” “Among Schoolchildren,” “Old Friends,” and “Hometown.”
For more information about the Common Reading Program or about Kidder’s lecture,
visit
www.boisestate.edu/commonreading.
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Contact: Rob Dennis, Orientation, (208) 426-1679,
rdennis@boisestate.edu
Media Contact: Julie Hahn, University Communications, (208) 426-5540,
juliehahn@boisestate.edu
We’re proud to be the home of the undefeated, Fiesta Bowl-champion Broncos,
the national champion student speech and debate team, and the 12th-ranked public
engineering program in the country.
The Office of Communications and Marketing
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Boise State University
1910 University Drive -
Boise Idaho 83725-1030
Located in Capitol Village, 2225 W. University Drive
208-426-1577
(fax)208-426-4001
email
communications@boisestate.edu
Last reviewed on
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
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