No. 1 New York Times best selling author featured in Southeastern's ‘Common Read’ program
Friday, March 15, 2019 
by: Tonya Lowentritt
NO. 1 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLING AUTHOR TO VISIT SOUTHEASTERN – Joshua Foer, co-founder of the online guide to the world’s wonders and curiosities, Atlas Obscura, and co-author of the #1 NYT best seller “Atlas Obscura: An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Hidden Wonders,” will visit Southeastern Louisiana University March 25 as part of the university’s Common Read program. All events scheduled that day are free and open to the public.
HAMMOND – Joshua Foer, co-founder of the online guide to the world’s wonders
and curiosities, Atlas Obscura, and co-author of the #1 NYT best seller “Atlas Obscura:
An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Hidden Wonders,” will visit Southeastern Louisiana
University March 25 as part of the university’s Common Read program.
Sponsored by the Department of English, the Southeastern Writing Center, and
the Student Government Association, Common Read provides students and community members
the opportunity to read selected works and then meet a contemporary author. Foer will
meet with students and the public to discuss his first book “Moonwalking with Einstein.”
An international best seller published in 34 languages, the book recounts Foer’s yearlong
quest to improve his memory under the tutelage of top “mental athletes.”
Events that day include student presentations on the author’s work at 9:30 a.m.,
an 11 a.m. question and answer session with the author, and a 6:30 p.m. public reading
by Foer, followed by a book signing and reception. Scheduled in the Student Union
Theatre, the events are free and open to the public.
“For several years now, we’ve sponsored the Common Read program, featuring a
prominent, contemporary author, and it always serves as an exciting experience for
our students,” said David Hanson, head of the Southeastern English Department. “By
meeting and talking with an author who they’re studying in class, students gain a
rare opportunity to see deeply into an author’s life of writing.”
Foer was born in Washington, DC in 1982 and lives in Brookline, MA. His writing
has appeared in “The New Yorker,” “National Geographic,” “Esquire,” “Slate,” “Outside,”
the “New York Times,” and other publications.
For more information, visit english.selu.edu/commonread.
