ALA Auditorium Speaker Series welcomes eight dynamic authors
Contact: Karee Williams
ALA Conference Services
312-280-3229
kwilliams@ala.org
For Immediate Release
February 12, 2008
ALA Auditorium Speaker Series welcomes eight dynamic authors
(CHICAGO) The American Library Association (ALA) Auditorium Speaker Series will feature eight distinguished speakers. Speakers include Stephen Cannell, Vernon Jordan, Greg Mortenson, Don Borchert, T. Berry Brazelton, Jamie Lee Curtis, Sally Ride and Tam O'Shaughnessy. The series is part of the ALA Annual Conference, held in Anaheim, Calif., from June 26- July 2, 2008.
Stephen Cannell, an emmy award-winning writer/producer and chairman of Cannell studios, will kick off the series on Saturday, June 28 at 8 a.m. Cannell is the bestselling author of 12 novels, including the critically acclaimed Shane Scully series.
In a highly successful career that spans three decades, Cannell has created or co-created more than 40 television shows. His hits include "The Rockford Files," "Greatest American Hero," "The A-Team," "Hunter," "Riptide" and "21 Jump Street."
Saturday's series continues at 10:30 a.m. with
Vernon Jordan, author of "Make it Plain." Jordan's book is a history and an embodiment of black speech. Oral tradition--storytelling, preaching and speechmaking- has been a supporting factor in Black culture. Jordan imbibed this oral tradition as a young man and has given it his own distinctive inflection through a career that has carried him from work on the civil rights front lines to positions of influence at the highest level of business and politics.
Jordan is a senior managing director of Lazard Frères & Co. LLC in New York. Prior to joining Lazard, Jordan was a senior executive partner with the law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, LLP, where he remains senior counsel. He has also served in the National Urban League, Inc.; the United Negro College Fund, Inc.; the Voter Education Project of the Southern Regional Council; the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity; and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Later in the day,
Greg Mortenson will speak at 1:30 p.m. Mortenson is the co-author of New York Times bestseller "Three Cups of Tea," which has been a bestseller for over nine months since its release and was Time Magazine Asia Book of The Year. Mortenson also is the co-founder of Pennies for Peace project, and the non-profit Central Asia Institute (CAI). While visiting a village in Pakistan, Mortenson met a group of children sitting in the dirt writing with sticks in the sand, and made a promise to help them build a school. From that promise, grew a humanitarian campaign, in which Mortenson has dedicated his life to promote education and literacy, especially for girls, in remote, volatile regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
As of 2007, Mortenson has established over 61 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, which provide education to over 25,000 children, including 14,000 girls. He is one of few foreigners who worked extensively for 15 years in the region now considered the frontlines of the War on Terror. Mortenson advocates girls' education as the top priority to promote economic development, peace and prosperity.
On Sunday, June 29 at 8 a.m. author and librarian
Don Borchert, will be the first speaker of the day. In his first book, "Free for All: Oddballs, Geeks, And Gangstas In The Public Library," Borchert reveals why it's necessary for even suburban libraries (like the one in Maplewood, New Jersey) to have lock-downs. His book is a portrait of contemporary America, of day-to-day life in a public library.
Following Borchert at 10:30 a.m., will be
Sally Ride and Tam O'Shaughnessy, co-authors of "You Go, Girl! Girls (and Boys) Can Make a Difference for our Planet." Ride not only believes that girls should reach for the stars - she's done it! In 1983, Ride became the first American woman to travel into space. Since then, she has remained in the limelight as an astronaut, astrophysicist and outspoken advocate for encouraging women in the sciences. Ride will present a program about how our climate is changing and present a convincing case that "you don't have to be a grown up" to make a positive impact on the environment.
O'Shaughnessy is a professor of school psychology and children's science. She has co-authored four award-winning books with Sally Ride. This fall they will publish "Mission: Planet Earth," a detailed scientific look at what's happening to the environment, and the companion book "Mission: Save the Planet," a "how-to" for kids on ways they can make a difference.
Monday's series will open at 8 a.m. with the Association of Library Service to Children's President's Program Featuring
T. Berry Brazelton, MD. Working harder than ever, parents are also more alone than ever. For many, safe backyards, the support of neighbors, relatives, and family traditions, are distant memories.
Based on Brazelton's pioneering infant research, and more than 60 years of listening to parents and children, Brazelton will discuss Touchpoints, a method of understanding and participating in family development. This approach empowers parents to discover their effectiveness as parents, guiding them through their children's predictable crises (Touchpoints) to support their children's self-esteem and readiness to learn and to take on the world.
Later in the day, as part of the Auditorium Speakers Series actor and author
Jamie Lee Curtis will present the keynote address during the Public Library Association President's Program and Awards Presentation at 5 p.m. Curtis is the author of children's books including, "Is There Really a Human Race?," "It's Hard to Be Five, I'm Gonna Like Me," "Where Do Balloons Go?," "Today I Feel Silly and Other Moods That Make My Day," "Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born" and "When I Was Little: A Four-Year-Old's Memoir of Her Youth."
For more information on the ALA Annual Conference and special programs and events, please log on to
www.ala.org/annual.
