SUMMARY
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UCSB Arts & Lectures presents Erik Larson in conversation with Pico Iyer
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Erik Larson’s saga of the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893, Devil in the White City, was a finalist for the National Book Award and remained on the New York Times bestseller lists for more than six years
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No One Goes Alone, Larsons’s first work of fiction, was released exclusively on audiobook in September 2021
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Larson’s book The Splendid and the Vile was a New York Times Notable Book of 2020
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Pico Iyer has published 15 books on subjects ranging from the Dalai Lama to globalism to Islamic mysticism; and regularly writes for Time, The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, the Financial Times and more than 250 other periodicals worldwide
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This presentation is part of the 2021-2022 CREATING HOPE programming initiative
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Wednesday, March 2nd / 7:30 p.m. Pacific / Campbell Hall
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$25 – $35: General Public / $10 for UCSB Students (Current student ID required)
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Health & Safety: Proof of full vaccination is required for all attendees. Proof of booster vaccination will be required for all eligible attendees beginning February 4, 2022. Masks are required indoors at all times. N95, KN95, KF94 or FFP2 face masks are strongly recommended. Regardless of the mask type, it is only effective if it is worn over your mouth and nose. Visit https://artsandlectures.ucsb.edu/SeasonFAQs/ for updates and further details.
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Tickets/Info: (805) 893-3535, www.ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu
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This event includes an at-home viewing option (live stream only; no replay).
Santa Barbara — UCSB Arts & Lectures presents New York Times bestselling authorErik Larson in conversation with Pico Iyer on Wednesday, March 2nd at 7:30 p.m. Pacific at Campbell Hall. This presentation is part of the 2021-2022 CREATING HOPE programming initiative.
Erik Larson is a wizard of narrative non-fiction whose many bestsellers include Thunderstruck, Dead Wake, Isaac’s Storm and National Book Award-nominee Devil in the White City, which remained on the New York Times bestseller lists for a combined total of over six years. The Splendid and the Vile, his biography of Winston Churchill’s first year as prime minister, is a New York Times Notable Book of 2020 and a Kirkus Best Book of 2020. Larson’s first foray into fiction, the audio-only No One Goes Alone, is a suspenseful ghost story underpinned with actual people and events.
ABOUT ERIK LARSON
“A master at writing true tales as riveting as fiction.” People
Erik Larson is the author of eight books, six of which became New York Times bestsellers. His latest books, The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz andDead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, both hit no. 1 on the list soon after launch. His saga of the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893, The Devil in the White City, was a finalist for the National Book Award and won an Edgar Award for fact-crime writing; it lingered on various Times bestseller lists for the better part of a decade. Hulu plans to adapt the book for a limited TV series, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese as executive producers. Larson’s In the Garden of Beasts, about how America’s first ambassador to Nazi Germany and his daughter experienced the rising terror of Hitler’s rule, has been optioned by Tom Hanks for development as a feature film.
Larson’s first venture into fiction, No One Goes Alone (2021) is an otherworldly tale of intrigue and the impossible that marshals his trademark approach to nonfiction to create something new: a ghost story thoroughly grounded in history. Pioneering psychologist William James leads an expedition to a remote isle in search of answers after a family inexplicably vanishes. Was the cause rooted in the physical world… or were there forces more paranormal and sinister at work? Available only as an audiobook, because as Erik says, “ghost stories are best told aloud.”
Larson’s first book of narrative nonfiction, Isaac’s Storm, about the giant hurricane that destroyed Galveston, Texas, in 1900, won the American Meteorology Society’s prestigious Louis J. Battan Author’s Award. The Washington Post called it the “Jaws of hurricane yarns.” Larson is particularly pleased to have won the Chicago Public Library Foundation’s 2016 Carl Sandburg Literary Award for Non-Fiction.
He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied Russian history, language and culture; he received a masters in journalism from Columbia University. After a brief stint at the Bucks County Courier Times, Larson became a staff writer for The Wall Street Journal and later a contributing writer for Time Magazine. His magazine stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s and other publications.
ABOUT PICO IYER
Pico Iyer was born in Oxford, England in 1957. He won a King’s Scholarship to Eton and then a Demyship to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was awarded a Congratulatory Double First with the highest marks of any English Literature student in the university. In 1980 he became a teaching fellow at Harvard, where he received a second master’s degree, and in subsequent years he has received an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters.
Since 1982 he has been a full-time writer, publishing 15 books, translated into 23 languages, on subjects ranging from the Dalai Lama to globalism, from the Cuban Revolution to Islamic mysticism. They include such long-running sellers as Video Night in Kathmandu,The Lady and the Monk, The Global Soul, The Open Road and The Art of Stillness. He has also written the introductions to more than 70 other books, as well as liner and program notes, a screenplay for Miramax and a libretto. At the same time he has been writing up to 100 articles a year for Time, The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, the Financial Times and more than 250 other periodicals worldwide.
His four talks for TED have received more than 10 million views so far. Since 1992 Iyer has spent much of his time at a Benedictine hermitage in Big Sur, California and most of the rest in suburban Japan.
See A&L’s full 2022 lineup here
This is a moment that calls for Optimism, Resilience, Courage and Vision.
Santa Barbara needs Hope, and Arts & Lectures is uniquely positioned to respond.
A&L’s 2021-2022 CREATING HOPE programming initiative has already inspired our community with presentations by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, chef Jose? Andre?s and author Anne Lamott. We will continue to inspire, through shared experiences with thought leaders, creative problem solvers and arts visionaries who will guide us forward. CREATING HOPE programs strengthen human connection, promote emotional well-being, joy and compassion, and envision positive change. Learn more about the CREATING HOPE: https://artsandlectures.ucsb.edu/CreatingHope.aspx
ABOUT UCSB ARTS & LECTURES
Founded in 1959, UCSB Arts & Lectures (A&L) is the largest and most influential arts and lectures organization between Los Angeles and San Francisco. A&L annually presents more than a hundred public events, from critically acclaimed concerts and dance performances by world-renowned artists to talks by groundbreaking authors and film series at UCSB and Santa Barbara-area venues. With a mission to “educate, entertain and inspire,” A&L also oversees an outreach program that brings visiting artists and speakers into local classrooms and other venues for master classes, open rehearsals, discussions and more, serving K-12 students, college students and the general public.
Erik Larson is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures.
This presentation is part of the 2021-2022 CREATING HOPE programming initiative.
$25 – $35: General Public / $10 for UCSB Students (Current student ID required)
For tickets and more information, call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535 or visit www.ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu.
Speaking with Pico Series Sponsors: Dori Pierson Carter & Chris Carter, Siri & Bob Marshall, and Laura & Kevin O’Connor
Presented in association with the UCSB Writing Program and the Santa Barbara Public Library
Special Thanks:
UCSB Arts & Lectures gratefully acknowledges our Community Partners the Natalie Orfalea Foundation & Lou Buglioli for their generous support of the 2021-2022 season.
