Essayist and journalist John Jeremiah Sullivan will visit campus on Feb. 11 and 12 as part of Hillsdale’s Visiting Writers Series. On Monday, he will read an excerpt from his work. On Tuesday, he will deliver a lecture titled “The Essay and the ‘Mag Piece’: A Double Helix.”
Associate professor of English John Somerville said that Sullivan is the first writer he has brought to Hillsdale who is not a poet or a fiction writer.
“He’s an exceptional essayist, perhaps the finest contemporary American essayist there is,” Somerville said. “It’s a delight to have this opportunity to share with the Hillsdale community the gift of a writer so talented as John Sullivan.”
Sullivan has authored two award-winning books: “Blood Horses: Notes of a Sportswriter’s Son” and “Pulphead: Essays.” Currently, he is the southern editor for The Paris Review and a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine. He teaches part time in the creative writing program at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Since he graduated from the University of the South at Sewanee, Tenn., Sullivan has held positions as a senior editor at Harper’s Magazine and and as a correspondent at GQ Magazine.
Somerville first learned of Sullivan’s work from Daniel Anderson, a former visiting writer. A few years later, visiting writer Mark Richard also recommended Sullivan to visit campus.
“Last summer, I wrote Mark and asked him if he could put in a good word on our behalf and would pass along the contact informaton for Mr. Sullivan, which he did with great enthusiasm,” Somerville said.
Sullivan’s two books are available at the Hillsdale College bookstore. Both the reading and the lecture will take place at 8 p.m. in Dow Center A and B.
snelson1@hillsdale.edu
