Speakers

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – As celebrated author Louise Erdrich read from her story The Red Convertible Thursday night at Illinois Wesleyan University, her voice rose and dipped with the humor and emotion infused in the tale of a Native American mother and daughter, and carried the audience at Westbrook Auditorium along with each word.

“What if, just as sure as we are pulled toward Earth and destined to go down into it at last, we are also at the same rate pulled toward heaven. No wonder we are stretched top to bottom, pulled at both ends of our being. No wonder the soul cannot decide where to wedge itself,” read Erdrich, who called The Red Convertible a “love story about middle age and the difference between generations.”

Part of the eighth annual Ames/Milner Visiting Author Program – a joint venture between The Ames Library at Illinois Wesleyan University and Milner Library at Illinois State University – Erdrich’s Thursday evening reading was followed by a question and answer session, and an autograph session at The Ames Library.

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University will welcome esteemed author Louise Erdrich on Thursday, Oct. 22 at 7:30 p.m. in Presser Hall (1201 N. Park St., Bloomington). She will speak as part of the eighth annual Ames/Milner Visiting Author Program, a joint venture between The Ames Library at Illinois Wesleyan University and Milner Library at Illinois State University.

Following is the schedule of the Ames/Milner Visiting Author program:

• 3 p.m. – 4 p.m.: Presentation followed by a question and answer session at Milner Library (201 N. School St., Normal), Illinois State University

• 7:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.: Presentation in Westbrook Auditorium at Presser Hall (1210 N. Park St., Bloomington), Illinois Wesleyan University. A book signing will follow in the John Wesley Powell Rotunda on the entry level of The Ames Library (#1 Ames Plaza, Bloomington), Illinois Wesleyan University.

The author of 12 novels, as well as volumes of poetry, children’s books, and a memoir on early motherhood, Erdrich is a prolific writer who has been compared to renowned American authors such as William Faulkner.

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Actor Kevin Dunn, alumnus of the Illinois Wesleyan class of 1977, will be on hand for a special screening of his film Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen on Thursday, Oct. 8 at 7 p.m. in the Hansen Student Center (300 Beecher St., Bloomington) as a part of this year’s Homecoming festivities.

Following the film, Dunn and his mentor, Illinois Wesleyan Professor Emeritus of Theatre John Ficca, will host a Q&A session. The event is free and open to the public. The movie is rated PG-13.

Dunn has appeared in more than 80 movies and television roles. Along with his role as the affable father to Shia LeBeouf in the Transformers movies, he has been seen as the speech writer with a crisis of conscience in Dave (1993) with Kevin Klein, and as a foil for Charlie Sheen in the spoof Hot Shots! (1991). He did battle in the blockbuster Godzilla (1998) as the straight-laced Colonel Hicks and has given dramatic turns in such movies as The Black Dahlia (2006) and Lions for Lambs (2007) with Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep. His career on the small screen has been equally illustrious, making appearances on popular shows such as Samantha Who?, Seinfeld, LOST, Law & Order and Boston Legal.

In May of 2008, Dunn received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from Illinois Wesleyan, and delivered the speech at Commencement. During his talk, “Into Your Waiting Hands,” Dunn said he has great hope for students of this generation. “[You have] developed an unquenchable thirst for disparate points of view, and different sources of information, and this search to find the truth has created an audible rumble across this nation,” he said.

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Humanitarian Greg Mortenson Addresses President’s Convocation

September 9, 2009

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Education is more than a way to better an individual, it is a path to peace, said humanitarian Greg Mortenson in his address at the President’s Convocation at Illinois Wesleyan University on Wednesday.

Hear excerpts: Clip 1 | Clip 2

Mortenson is the executive director of the Central Asia Institute (CAI), which works to provide education and promote literacy for girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan. According to Mortenson, many people ask if his work building schools and training teachers is about combating terrorism and the Taliban, but he answers that his mission is peace. “Promoting terrorism is really about fear, but promoting peace is based in hope. And the real enemy that we all face is ignorance. Ignorance breeds hatred.”

Since 1996, Mortenson and the CAI have constructed more than 400 schools in impoverished rural areas. He detailed his work in the New York Times bestselling book Three Cups of Tea. The book, which has sold 3 million copies and has been published in 34 countries, was chosen for the 2009 Summer Reading Program for all incoming Illinois Wesleyan first-year students to read and discuss.

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Greg Mortenson, the co-author and subject of the No. 1 New York Times bestselling book Three Cups of Tea, and founder and executive director of the Central Asia Institute, will speak at the President’s Convocation at Illinois Wesleyan University at 11 a.m. Wednesday, September 9, in Westbrook Auditorium of Presser Hall.

The annual Convocation ceremony is focused on the campus community as it celebrates the start of the academic year. The general public is invited to view the Convocation via remote from Hansen Student Center (300 E. Beecher St., Bloomington).

Mortenson’s book about his efforts to build schools for children in poverty-stricken areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan, which has sold 3 million copies and been published in 34 countries, was chosen for the 2009 Summer Reading Program for Illinois Wesleyan first-year students. Co-authored by journalist David Oliver Relin, Three Cups of Tea was named a Time Magazine Asia Book of The Year, won the Kiriyama Prize Nonfiction Award, and has spent 120 weeks on the bestseller list since its release in 2007.

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