Best-selling author of "Into the Beautiful North" gives lecture at UW-Whitewater

November 18, 2014

A 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist for nonfiction and member of the Latino Literary Hall of Fame will give a free public lecture at UW-Whitewater titled "Into the Beautiful North."

Luis Urrea will speak at 7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 1, at Young Auditorium. His speech is a part of the Contemporary Issues Lecture Series sponsored by the College of Letters and Sciences.

Urrea is an acclaimed author, using his multi-culture life experiences to explore greater themes of love, loss and triumph.

A national best-seller, "Into the Beautiful North" earned a Citation of Excellence from the American Library Association's Rainbow Project and was chosen by many cities and colleges for One Book community read programs.

"Urrea's work is being read across many classes in advance of his visit to UW-Whitewater," said Susan Johnson, assistant dean for student success in the College of Letters and Sciences and coordinator of the lecture series. "What's exciting about this is that students will be able to engage with an author whose material they are studying in their classes. When we have done this in the past, students have appreciated this opportunity and enjoyed interacting with highly acclaimed authors."

Urrea attended the University of California at San Diego, graduating with a degree in writing. He went on to complete his graduate studies at the University of Colorado-Boulder.

He taught expository writing and fiction workshops at Harvard University and is currently a professor of creative writing at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Urrea is the third speaker in the 2014-15 lecture series at UW-Whitewater. For more information on upcoming lectures, visit this link.

-- Written by Jonathan Fera