April 3, 2008
Contact: Bob Adams
(425) 564-3081
badams@bcc.ctc.edu
Award-winning author recounts
human, environmental lessons of
America’s worst natural catastrophe – so far
BELLEVUE -- Timothy Egan, author of the National Book Award winner, The Worst Hard Times: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl, will discuss that human and environmental catastrophe in a free, public lecture at Bellevue Community College on April 23.
Eagan's book is this year's selection for BCC Reads!, a program that promotes creativity and interdisciplinary learning at the college by selecting one book to be a focus of as many classes, lectures and performances as possible across the campus each year.
The free, public event begins at 5:30 p.m. with a reception for the author and the college's BCC Reads! Scholarship Winners - students who have paralleled Egan's study by doing their own research on the impact of environmental disasters on culture, society and the natural world.
Egan's lecture begins at 7 p.m. in BCC's Carlson Theatre, to be followed by a book-signing in the theatre lobby.
Called "a flat-out masterpiece of historical reportage" by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, The Worst Hard Time captures the heroism and terror of the decade-long Dust Bowl disaster, a time when the simplest thing in life - breathing - was a hazard. The book documents the power of human perseverance in the face of wretched conditions and serves as a powerful cautionary tale about the dangers of trifling with nature.
A Pulitzer Prize-winning national enterprise reporter for the New York Times, and now a resident of Seattle, Egan also provides comment for the "Letter from America" feature on BBC radio.
Other books by Egan include The Good Rain (a Pacific Northwest Booksellers Book Award winner and regional bestseller for over a decade) and Lasso the Wind, winner of the Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award.
BCC Reads! is a project of the college's Center for Liberal Arts, which enriches the educational experience through programs that expand civic engagement and multicultural and interdisciplinary learning. Among other programs, the Center hosts an International Scholar-in-Residence on campus each year, involves community civic scholars in campus life through its Fellows program and presents civic speakers and events through its Hands-On Democracy series.
Information on the Center for Liberal Arts' activities is available on-line at www.bellevuecollege.edu\liberalarts.
Egan's presentation at BCC is sponsored by the Center for Liberal Arts along with BCC's Library Media Center and Student Programs office.