NYS Writer Institute presents: Tracy Kidder in conversation with WAMC's Joe Donahue

Tracy Kidder, "a master of the nonfiction narrative" (Baltimore Sun), presents his new book Rough Sleepers (2023), the story of Dr. Jim O'Connell, a graduate of Harvard Medical School, who invented an unprecedented “community of care” for Boston's unhoused population. The author of classic works of nonfiction, including Mountains Beyond Mountains (2003), and The Soul of a New Machine (1981), Kidder spent five years following Dr. O’Connell and his colleagues as they navigated the city streets at night, working with thousands of unhoused patients. This magnificent, deeply researched, and inspiring book explores how one doctor has changed countless lives by facing one of American society’s most shameful problems, instead of looking away. Abraham Verghese said, “I couldn’t put Rough Sleepers down. I am left in awe of the human spirit and inspired to do better.” An NPR "Book of the Year." About the author: Following his graduation from Harvard in 1967, Tracy Kidder served as a U.S. First Lieutenant in Vietname. He graduated from the University of Iowa with an MFA in 1974. He has won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Award, and many other literary prizes. Advance praise for Rough Sleepers: “What does it mean, in our time of inequality, to care for the vulnerable in ways that strengthen the better angels of our common humanity? Tracy Kidder’s book, and the work of Dr. Jim O’Connell, connect us to unforgettable individuals, who allow us to get closer to the suffering that is only one part of what we need to see." —Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, author of Random Family “The nightmare of homelessness can seem both overwhelming and slightly abstract to the safely housed. That abstraction vanishes in the pages of Rough Sleepers. Tracy Kidder has reported the hell out of important stories before, but never more finely and relentlessly. The Sisyphean work of Dr. Jim O’Connell and his team, the embattled humanity of their patients living on the cold streets of Boston—it’s a story full of hard questions, a story with many heroes.” --William Finnegan, author of Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life Tracy Kidder in conversation with WAMC's Joe Donahue 7 p.m. Friday, March 20 Page Hall, UAlbany Downtown Campus 135 Western Avenue, Albany NY 12203 More information at https://www.nyswritersinstitute.org/tracykidder

Event Links

Website: https://go.evvnt.com/2244477-0

Read More

View Less