Date: Apr 23, 2010

Hofstra College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Presents A Reading and Book Signing by Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author John McPhee For His New Collection of Essays, "Silk Parachute"

Saturday, April 24, 2010, 11 a.m.; Leo A. Guthart Cultural Center Theater, South Campus

Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY … Hofstra College and Liberal Arts and Sciences will present a reading and book signing by Pulitzer Prize-winning author John McPhee on Saturday, April 24, at 11 a.m. This event commemorates the publication of McPhee’s new book, Silk Parachute, which will be available for purchase. Admission to the reading is free. Location is the Guthart Cultural Center Theater, located on the first floor of the Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library on Hofstra’s South Campus. For more information call (516) 463-6819.

John McPhee has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1965. He is the author of 28 books, all published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Encounters with the Archdruid and The Curve of Binding Energy were nominated for National Book Awards, and Annals of the Former World was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1999.

Silk Parachute is a wondrous new book of McPhee’s prose pieces. The brief essay “Silk Parachute,” which first appeared in The New Yorker a decade ago, has become McPhee’s most anthologized piece of writing. In the nine other essays in this book, McPhee, with his characteristic humor and intensity, comments on a range of topics from lacrosse, long-exposure view-camera photography, and the weird foods he has been served in the course of his reportorial travels, to a U.S. Open golf championship and a season in Europe “on the chalk,” from the downs and sea cliffs of England to the Maas Valley in the Netherlands and the Champagne country of northern France. Every piece – regardless of the theme – contains a personal aspect in which McPhee suggests why he was attracted to write about the subject, and each opens like a silk parachute, lofted skyward and suddenly blossoming with color and form.

For more information on other literary events at Hofstra visit hofstra.edu/culture or hofstra.edu/gwgr (Hofstra’s Great Writer’s, Great Readings Series).

Directions to the Guthart Theater - The Guthart Cultural Center Theater is located on the first floor of the Axinn Library, the only 11 story building located on the south side of Hofstra's campus.

Meadowbrook Parkway to exit M4 West (Hempstead Turnpike). Hofstra is less than a mile to the west.

On Hempstead Turnpike, turn right at traffic light before second pedestrian bridge onto North Campus. At second STOP sign, bear left and park. Walk into the Mack Student Center and continue straight ahead. Cross over pedestrian bridge (Unispan) to the base of the Axinn Library. Leo A. Guthart Cultural Center Theater is on the left.