Award-winning Science Journalist Visits UW |
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Jan. 23, 2007 -- The University of Wyoming Creative Writing Program will host award-winning science journalist David Quammen, Wednesday, Jan. 31-Thursday Feb. 1, as part of its visiting writer series.
The Bozeman, Mont., writer will present a public lecture, "Charles Darwin: The Secret Life of a Conservative Revolutionary," at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the College of Agriculture auditorium. A question and answer period and book signing will follow.
Thursday, Feb. 1, Quammen will participate in a colloquium discussion on science and writing at 11 a.m. in the Wyoming Union West Ballroom. Jeff Lockwood, professor in the UW Department of Philosophy, will moderate the free, public event.
Quammen's latest book, "The Reluctant Mr. Darwin," sketches a portrait of the naturalist drawn from his personal letters and his secret 'transmutation' notebooks. His lecture will explore the thinking process that led Darwin to his great discovery, the theory of natural selection, and the tensions that made him reluctant, for 20 years, to publish it.
"After 150 years, Darwin is very much the man who won't go away -- still fresh, still central, and still controversial," Quammen says. "What most people don't realize is that Darwin was a very cautious man burdened with a very radical idea."
One of the most prominent writers on science and nature, Quammen has served as editor of Outside Magazine for 15 years. His non-fiction books, including "The Flight of the Iguana," "The Song of the Dodo," "The Boilerplate Rhino" and "Monster of God," are considered modern classics of scientific journalism.
Quammen was given the national Magazine Award three times. He also has received awards from the New York Public Library, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Lannan Foundation.
His visit is sponsored by UW's Haub School and Ruckelshaus Institute of Environment and Natural Resources, the Program in Ecology, departments of Anthropology, Zoology and Physiology, and Molecular Biology, and the Graduate School. Additional support was provided by a Wyoming Humanities Council grant.
Posted on Tuesday, January 23, 2007
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