Alan Weisman

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. ? Alan Weisman, author and professor of journalism at University of Arizona, will speak on Wednesday, Sept. 24, at 4:30 p.m. The lecture is free and open to the public and will take place in The Orchard (Room 103) of the Franklin Environmental Center at Hillcrest, located on College Street (Route 125).

Weisman is a Visiting Reporter for the 2008 Middlebury Fellowships in Environmental Journalism, a program directed by Middlebury College Scholar-in-Residence in Environmental Studies Bill McKibben to help eight early career journalists and two Middlebury College seniors work on reporting and writing stories.

Weisman’s talk, titled “Gaviotas, the World Without Us and the Choices of November,” will explore his writings and how they relate to the environmental issues of the current national elections. He is the author of several books, including the critically acclaimed “The World Without Us” (2007), which considers the effects on the earth of the sudden disappearance of humans - from the deterioration of New York City to the rewilding of many areas, as well as the eons-long survival of polymer plastics. McKibben called it “one of the grandest thought experiments of our time,” and “a tremendous feat of imaginative reporting.” In 2007 the book was named the best nonfiction book of the year by both Time magazine and Entertainment Weekly. It was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and cited by Salon and Mother Jones.

Other works include “An Echo In My Blood” (1999); “Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World” (1998); “La Frontera: The United States Border With Mexico” (1986); and “We, Immortals” (1979).

His reports on Latin America have appeared in Harper’s, The New York Times Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, the Atlantic Monthly, Orion, Audubon, Mother Jones, Discover, Condé Nast Traveler, Resurgence, and several anthologies, including The Best American Science Writing 2006. He is a former Bread Loaf Fellow.

For more information, contact Associate Director of the Program in Environmental Journalism Christopher Shaw at 802-443-5567 or cshaw@middlebury.edu.