Southern author Rick Bragg will be MSU Libraries' special guest for an evening of Southern sweets as the Libraries continue their annual dessert theater.
Bragg, recipient of the 2009 Harper Lee Award for Alabama's Distinguished Writer of the Year, will be here Tuesday, April 21, for a book signing and lecture. The evening begins at 6:30 in the John Grisham Room of Mitchell Memorial Library.
MSU's Jennifer Blackbourn will provide musical entertainment to begin the evening as guests enjoy a variety of desserts created by MSU chef Bob Abear.
Bragg, author of the critically acclaimed and best-selling All Over but the Shoutin' and a Pulitzer Prize-winning national correspondent for the New York Times, said he learned to tell stories by listening to the masters, the people of the foothills of the Appalachians who talked of the sadness, poverty, kindness, hope, anger, and joy of their everyday lives.
Shoutin', his first novel, was a New York Times notable book of the year, won several awards and was selected as one of the best books of the year by several organizations and reader groups.
Bragg was born in Alabama, grew up there, and worked at several newspapers before joining the New York Times in 1994, where he still works as a roving correspondent based in New Orleans. His additional work includes the novels Ava's Man and The Prince of Frogtown, his latest novel now in paperback. Bragg is a two-time recipient of the prestigious American Society of Newspaper Editors Distinguished Writing Award and has been honored with more than 50 writing awards in his 20-year career. In 1992, he was awarded a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University and has taught writing in colleges and in newspaper newsrooms.
For more information and to reserve tickets for the evening's event for $10, contact Lyle Tate at 662-325-2559. Tickets also will be available at the door.