Pulitzer Prize Winner Thomas French to Speak at Raker Lecuture at Muhlenberg College
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Thomas French will speak at Muhlenberg College on Tuesday, October 4, 2011 at 7:30 p.m. in Egner Memorial Chapel as a part of the Conrad W. Raker Lecture Series, co-sponsored by the College and Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network.Monday, September 26, 2011 09:58 AM
His talk is entitled “Storytelling.”
French has specialized as a narrative project reporter, writing book-length stories published one chapter at a time, for the majority of the past two decades. He worked at the St. Petersburg Times in Florida from the time he graduated from the Indiana University School of Journalism in 1980 through 2008, when he accepted an offer to join the faculty of his alma mater. He currently teaches narrative journalism and story mechanics.
French’s fact-filled but extremely readable work contributed to redefining narrative journalism in the ‘80s and ‘90s. He won the Pulitzer Prize in Featured Writing in 1998 for his piece “Angels & Demons,” a series that reported of the murder of an Ohio woman and her two teenage daughters while they were vacationing in Tampa. Other projects, which were later published as books include A Cry in the Night, which detailed another murder case, South of Heaven, which recounted a year at Largo High School in Florida and, most recently, Zoo Story, which told of life behind the scenes at Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo. It has been said that French’s work has set the standard for a generation of reporters. In addition to his position at IU, French also teaches classes at the Poynter Institute, where he is a Writing Fellow, and at Goucher College. He continues to lead reporting and writing workshops across the country and the world.
The Conrad W. Raker Lecture Series was established by the Board of Trustees at Good Shepherd in honor of the anniversary of the ordination of The Reverend Dr. Conrad W. Raker, son of the founder of Good Shepherd, as a Lutheran pastor. Raker, a Muhlenberg alumnus, was an administrator at Good Shepherd until 1980. He served as administrator emeritus and was an active member in the Good Shepherd family until shortly before his death in 2002.
