Pulitzer Prize Winner Tracy Kidder Reads Oct. 1

By Michelle Hines, University Relations

Contact: (336) 334-5371

Posted 9-21-09

GREENSBORO — Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Tracy Kidder visits UNCG Thursday, Oct. 1, to read from his latest nonfiction book, “Strength in What Remains.”

The reading, made possible by a donation from Craig and Christina Nova, begins at 8 p.m. in the Faculty Center on College Avenue. Part of the MFA Writing Program’s Fall 2009 Distinguished Visiting Writers Series, the reading is free and open to the public. A booksigning will follow.

In “Strength,” Kidder tells the true story of Deo, who grew up in the mountains of Burundi, Africa, and survived a civil war and genocide before seeking a new life in America. In New York City Deo lived homeless in Central Park before finding his way to Columbia University. But Deo’s story really begins with his decision to return to his native country to offer his help.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award, Kidder’s “The Soul of a New Machine” was a nonfiction bestseller on its publication in 1981. In it, Kidder recounts the feverish efforts of a team of Data General researchers to create a new 32-bit superminicomputer.

Kidder graduated from Harvard and studied at the University of Iowa. In addition to the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award, he has won the National Book Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Award, and many other literary prizes.

The author of “Mountains Beyond Mountains,” “My Detachment,” “Home Town,” “Old Friends,” “Among Schoolchildren” and “House,” Kidder lives in Massachusetts and Maine.

For more information, contact Terry Kennedy at (336) 334-5459 or terry_kennedy@uncg.edu.