Bill Bryson, best selling author ofNotes from a Small Island, A Walk in the Woods, I'm a Stranger Here Myselfand, most recently,In a Sunburned Country, will present a lecture titled "Notes from a Travel Writer" at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday (March 1) in Slayter Auditorium. Bryson's son, David, a senior at Denison, will introduce him at the convocation. This lecture is free and open to the public.

On the Friday following his convocation Bryson will visit an Honors seminar on The Literature of Exploration and Travel and also attend an Honors Program "musings" lunch at which he will discuss his newest book,In a Sunburned Country. Bryson is also scheduled to speak at the Thurber House in Columbus on Friday, a sold-out event.

Reviewers have found in Bryson's works comedy akin to that of Chaucer, Twain, Thurber, Dave Berry and Garrison Keillor. Along with four New York Times best sellers, he has also written several books on language, among themMother TongueandMade in America. His next project will be a "biography" of the Earth: a description of how Earth came to be and the manner in which it functions. Bryson describes his motivation for this project as a means of confronting "how embarassingly ignorant I am about these things."

Associate Professor of English Dennis Read remarks "Bill Bryson has a sizeable fan club among Denison students and faculty. When I use one of his books as a text in a course, I can expect that at least several students already will have read it on their own. Two years ago, when Bill Bryson brought his son to Denison to start the year, he noticed a student in the bookstore buying hisA Walk in the Woodsfor a course I was teaching. He couldn't resist telling the student he was the book's author. The student, he said, gave him a look of disbelief."

In 1999, Bryson received the National Libraries Association Readers' Choice Award for nonfiction and the New England Book Award for nonfiction. In 1996, he was named Author of the Year at the British Book Awards. He has also been honored by the English and Welsh tourist boards for his writings about Britain and has been nominated twice for James Beard Foundation awards. In a 1999 survey, he was named the most popular author in Britain.

He has written forNational Geographic, Outside, Conde Nast Traveler, Travel & Leisure, Bon Appetit, Sports Illustrated,theNew York Times Magazineand many other publications throughout the English-speaking world.

Bryson currently lives in Hanover, New Hampshire, with his English wife and four children. He describes himself as "a good father and a nice guy."

About Denison:

Denison University, founded in 1831, is an independent, residential liberal arts institution located in Granville, Ohio. A highly selective college enrolling 2,100 full-time undergraduate students from all 50 states and dozens of foreign countries, Denison is a place where innovative faculty and motivated students collaborate in rigorous scholarship, civic engagement and the cultivation of independent thinking.

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