Author Mark Kurlansky to Speak at Pitt Oct. 5

PITTSBURGH—Mark Kurlansky, nonfiction author and journalist, will speak about his work at the University of Pittsburgh at 8:30 p.m. Oct. 5 in the Frick Fine Arts Auditorium, Room 125, 650 Schenley Dr., Oakland. Part of the Pittsburgh Contemporary Writers Series, this event is free and open to the public. 

Kurlansky is the author of a number of bestselling books, including Salt (Penguin, 2002), Cod (Vintage, 1997), and 1968 (Random House Trade, 2003), which earned him an American Library Association Notable Book Award. 

The Eastern Stars (Riverhead Books, 2010), Kurlansky’s latest book, is a portrait of a small, impoverished area in the Dominican Republic that has produced 79 major league baseball players. In the book, Kurlansky examines the history, culture, and impact of baseball on this struggling Carribbean town. 

A native of Hartford, Conn., Kurlansky received a BA degree in theater in 1970 from Butler University in Indianapolis, Ind. He began his career in New York City to work as a playwright and a playwright-in-residence at Brooklyn College. As a journalist, he has worked as a foreign correspondent for the International Herald Tribune, the Chicago Tribune, the Miami Herald, the Philadelphia Inquirer, where he has been based in Paris and Mexico. His articles also have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and Time magazine. 

The 2010-11 Pittsburgh Contemporary Writers Series season is sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh Book Center and the University of Pittsburgh Press. For more information, call 412-624-6508 or visit www.creativewriting.pitt.edu. 

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