Three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author Rick Atkinson will kick off the University Speakers Series at 7 p.m. Sept. 26 in Tilson Auditorium at Indiana State University.
Atkinson is the author of the Liberation Trilogy, which is a narrative history of the U.S. military's role in the liberation of Europe in World War II. The three books include "An Army at Dawn," "The Day of the Battle" and "The Guns at Last Light." All have been hailed as excellent narratives that feature powerful storytelling about World War II.
Atkinson's other works include "The Long Gray Line," "Crusade," "D-Day" and "In the Company of Soldiers."
Atkinson's many awards include the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for history, the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting and the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for public service, awarded to the Washington Post for a series of investigative articles directed and edited by Atkinson on shootings by the D.C. police department.
Atkinson served as a reporter, foreign correspondent and senior editor for 25 years at the Washington Post. His most recent assignments were covering the 101st Airborne during the invasion of Iraq and writing about roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2007.
Previously, he served as the assistant managing editor for investigations, a position that gave him the responsibility of investigative reporting at the newspaper. Atkinson's journalism career began at the Pittsburg (Kan.) Morning Sun in 1976. In 1977, he moved to the Kansas City Times, before going to the Washington Post in 1983. Among other assignments, he served as the Post's Berlin bureau chief, covering not only Germany and NATO, but also spending considerable time in Somalia and Bosnia.
Born in Munich, Germany, Atkinson is the son of a U.S. Army officer and grew up on military posts. He holds a Master of Arts in English literature from the University of Chicago. He and his wife, Jane C. Atkinson, a researcher and clinician at the National Institutes of Health, live in the District of Columbia. They have two grown children.
Other Speakers Series acts include social media and business expert Erik Qualman on Oct. 12, racing champion Bobby Unser on Nov. 8, former head of employee training at Disney University and international business consultant Doug Lipp on Jan. 31, former U.S. Secretary of Labor under the Clinton administration Alexis Herman on Feb. 22 and president of People Ink Ann Rhoads on March 28.
All events are free and open to the public. For more information on these events, go to www.hulmancenter.org or call 812-237-3770.
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Photo: https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Media-Services/Submitted-Photos/Staff-Uploads/i-KBhVd3m/0/1f2ec679/O/Rick%20Atkinson.jpg -- Rick Atkinson
Media contact: Libby Roerig, director of communications and media relations, Office of Communications and Marketing, Indiana State University, 812-237-3790 or libby.roerig@indstate.edu