New York Times Bestselling Author to Present Fries Lecture at Georgia Southern University

September 15, 2014

Susan Orlean

Georgia Southern University will host Susan Orlean, The New York Times bestselling author and staff writer for the New Yorker, as the 2014 Norman Fries Distinguished Lectureship Series speaker on Tuesday, Sept. 23 at 7 p.m. in the Nessmith-Lane Conference Center, 847 Plant Drive. Her presentation titled “Learning By the Book: A Writer Explores the World of Libraries,” is free and open to the public.

Orlean, who has contributed articles to Vogue, Rolling Stone, Esquire and more has been called “a national treasure,” by the Washington Post and praised as “an exceptional essayist,” by Publisher’s Weekly. She is the author of several books including Saturday Night, a portrait of the varying experience of Saturday night in dozens of communities across the United States, of which Entertainment Weekly concluded, “I can’t think of a better way to spend Saturday night than staying home and reading this book.” She has served as an editor for Best American Essays and Best American Travel Writing, and her journalism has been compiled into two collections: The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup: My Encounters with Extraordinary People and My Kind of Place: Travel Stories from a Woman Who’s Been Everywhere. Orlean’s work has inspired two successful films: “Blue Crush,” the story of young women surfing in Maui, Hawaii and “Adaptation,” the metafilm directed by Spike Jonze. Meryl Streep, who portrayed Orlean in the latter film, was nominated for an Academy Award, as were costars Nicholas Cage and Chris Cooper and writer Charlie Kaufman. Her most recent monograph is a biographical history about the dog actor Rin Tin Tin, where she explores the life and legacy of the iconic German shepherd.

Copies of her books will be on sale in the lobby and she will also autograph books after the lecture.

The Norman Fries Distinguished Lectureship Series began in 2001. It is funded by an endowment in honor of the late Norman Fries, the founder of Claxton Poultry. In his more than 50 years in business, Fries built the company from a one-man operation into one of the largest poultry production plants in the United States. This year’s Fries Lecture is hosted by the Zach S. Henderson Library.