Department of English to Host Bestselling Author Jeff Sharlet

Sep. 12, 2011

FLORENCE, Ala. – The Department of English at the University of North Alabama will host its fall Writers' Series with nationally bestselling author Jeff Sharlet Sept. 15 at 11 a.m. in the GUC Performance Center.

Sharlet, whose 2008 novel "The Family" spent 26 weeks on the New York Times nonfiction list, is a Mellon assistant professor of English at Dartmouth and contributing editor to Harper's Magazine and Rolling Stone. His newest work "Sweet Heaven When I Die" was published in 2011 and received positive reviews from critics at the Washington Post, Boston Globe and Oregonian.

From 2003-2009, he worked as a research scholar at New York University's Center for Religion and Media and has been a featured speaker at Yale, Princeton and Columbia universities. Sharlet has also worked as a journalist for The New Republic, Washington Post, Salon, Chronicle of Higher Education, Oxford American and Columbia Journalism Review.

Sharlet, who will discuss the art of writing and his career as a writer, is a regular guest on National Public Radio’s "Fresh Air" and MSNBC's "Rachel Maddow Show." He has also made appearances on the "Bill Maher Show," "Daily Show," NBC Nightly News, CNN, NPR and BBC.

The Writer's Series, which began in 1984 as the UNA Writers' Conference, will be a free event for the UNA student body, faculty, staff, community and area schools. For more information about the event, contact Pam Kingsbury at 256-765-4890 or the English Department at 256-765-4238.