Author and Journalist Philip Gourevitch to Speak at Pitt Feb. 27

PITTSBURGH-Author and journalist Philip Gourevitch, the 2007-08 William Block Sr. Writer, will give a literary reading at 8:30 p.m. Feb. 27 in the Frick Fine Arts Building Auditorium, 650 Schenley Dr., Oakland. This event is part of the Pittsburgh Contemporary Writers Series 2007-08 season.

Gourevitch is the editor of The Paris Review and a longtime staff writer for "The New Yorker." He has reported from Africa, Asia, and Europe for a number of magazines, including "Granta," "Harper's," and "The New York Review of Books." He is perhaps best known for his first book, "We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda" (Picador, 1999), which tells the story of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Gourevitch published his second book, "A Cold Case," (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) in 2001. "A Cold Case" is a police procedural based on the true story of a murder in 1970 New York City. Gourevitch's books have been translated into 10 foreign languages. His work has earned numerous awards and honors, including the National Book Critics Circle Award, "The Los Angeles Times" Book Prize, and the Overseas Press Club Book Award.

A native of New England, Gourevitch earned a bachelor's degree at Cornell University in 1986. Before turning to nonfiction, he received a Masters of Fine Arts degree in fiction from Columbia University.

Gourevitch is the series seventh William Block Sr. Writer, a title created to honor the former "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette" publisher for his support of the Pittsburgh Contemporary Writers Series. Former honorees have included Richard Ford, Michael Ondaatje, and Patrick McCabe.

The Pittsburgh Contemporary Writers Series, which runs through April 2, is cosponsored by Pitt's Book Center, Women's Studies Program, and the University of Pittsburgh Press. All events in the Writers Series are free and open to the public. For more information, contact Jeff Oaks at oaks@pitt.edu.

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