News and Events
TOM ZOELLNER TO SPEAK AT EASTERN ON OCTOBER 20
St. Davids, PA, October 9, 2008: On Monday, October 20, Tom Zoellner will speak on the Eastern University St. Davids campus in the Baird Library at 7:30 p.m. Sponsored by Student Development and The Waltonian student newspaper, Zoellner will discuss "The Power of Words" and explore how the use of writing and language impacts the world. The event is free and open to the public. There will be a question and answer session immediately following the presentation.
Zoellner is the co-author of An Ordinary Man (Viking, 2006), the featured book in Eastern’s new, "One University, One Book" program. All students, faculty and staff recently received copies of this book at no cost thanks to the generosity of a friend of Eastern. An Ordinary Man, the autobiography of former hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina, details his struggle during the 1994 Rwanda genocide and his efforts to keep himself, his family, and the 1,268 people he housed in his hotel safe from the massacre.
The “One University, One Book” program will feature many opportunities for students, faculty and staff to discuss the book and its lessons about ethnicity, suffering, heroism and God’s word of hope and spirituality that was evident even in the face of sheer madness. Rusesabagina’s story inspired the movie Hotel Rwanda.
“In my interactions with Tom Zoellner it became evident quickly that he has a heart for social justice that is very similar to that of the Eastern University community, so I asked him to speak to us,” Bettie Ann Brigham, Vice President for Student Development, said. “Tom was quick to say that he could not speak as an expert on what happened in Rwanda or speak for Paul Rusesabagina (the “ordinary man” in the book An Ordinary Man) but he would be happy to speak about how writing passionately and responsibly to tell a significant story to a broad audience is very, very important. Tom’s presence with us will undoubtedly encourage the writers among us to use our talents as tools for social justice in a way that we may have not considered before.”
In addition to An Ordinary Man, Zoellner is the author of The Heartless Stone (St. Martin’s Press, 2006), an investigation into the inner workings of the diamond industry. The Heartless Stone, named a "Best Book of 2006" by Library Journal, was also featured in Time Magazine. He is the author of Homemade Biography: How to Collect, Record, and Tell the Life Story of Someone You Love (St. Martin’s Press, 2007). Zoellner has worked as a contributing editor for Men's Health magazine and as a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle.
For more information about the event, contact the Eastern University Office of Student Development at 610.341.5822. To purchase any of Zoellner’s books, visit www.amazon.com.
