The Bryan Series

Khaled Hosseini – Oct. 24 (change of date), 2008, 7:30 p.m.
http://www.khaledhosseini.com/

Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, where his father was a diplomat with the Afghan Foreign Ministry and his mother taught high school.

In 1976, the Afghan Foreign Ministry relocated the family to Paris. In 1980, they were ready to return to Kabul, but Afghanistan had witnessed a bloody communist coup and the invasion of the Soviet army. The Hosseinis sought and were granted political asylum in the United States.

He earned a medical degree from the University of California-San Diego’s School of Medicine, completed his residency at Cedars-Sinai Hospital, and was a practicing internist between 1996 and 2004.

In 2001, Hosseini began writing his first novel, The Kite Runner. Published in 2003, it has become an international best-seller. His second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, was published in May 2007.

In 2006, Hosseini was named a goodwill envoy to the United Nations Refugee Agency.

Christiane Amanpour with James Rubin – Nov. 18, 2008, 7:30 p.m.

Amanpour is CNN’s chief international correspondent and is best known for her reporting from war zones and hot spots around the world, ranging from Iraq and Afghanistan to the Balkans to the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast.

Her work is the cornerstone for CNN’s coverage of major international events and includes exclusive interviews Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Yasser Arafat, Tony Blair and Pervez Musharraf among other world leaders.  She has presented a series of highly acclaimed long-form programs including “God’s Warriors” in 2007.

Amanpour has earned two George Foster Peabody Awards and nine Emmy Awards. A native of London who lived in Iran as a child, she graduated summa cum laude from the University of Rhode Island with a bachelor of arts in journalism.

Rubin is married to Amanpour, and he served as assistant secretary of state and chief spokesman for the State Department under Madeleine Albright in the Clinton Administration. Since leaving the State Department, he has been a visiting professor at the London School of Economics and Columbia University, and is a regular commentator for the Financial Times, the BBC and CNN.  He is a graduate of Columbia.

Amanpour and Rubin replaced Tim Russert, who died suddenly on June 13.

Sir Salman Rushdie – Feb. 10, 2009, 7:30 p.m.

Rushdie is author of the international best-sellers Midnight’s Children and The Satanic Verses. The former was recipient of the Man Booker Prize and the latter was deemed sacrilegious by Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini, who issued a fatwa against him in 1989.

Despite that proclamation and the international controversy that followed, Rushdie went on to produce some of his most compelling work, including The Moor’s Last Sigh and The Ground Beneath Her Feet while living under the constant threat of death. His most recent novel, Shalimar the Clown, was an international best-seller and a nominee for both the Man Booker Prize and the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize.

Rushdie, a native of Bombay, India, is also a prolific essayist. Step Across This Line: Collected Non-Fiction, 1992-2002, contains many of his most provocative articles, some of which explore his own reaction to the fatwa, as well as reactions of the media and various governments.

Anthony Bourdain - Feb. 19, 2009, 7:30 p.m.

Anthony Bourdain, chef, author and host of The Travel Channel’s “No Reservations,” will speak about his work and life experiences in a Bryan Series event at the new Durham Performing Arts Center, Feb. 19, 2009, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are now on sale.

Bourdain is the executive chef at New York City’s famed bistro, Les Halles. He is the author of the bestselling memoir Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, which has been translated into more than 28 languages. He travels to the farthest reaches of the globe for his Emmy-nominated cable TV show, now in its fifth season.

The program is not part of the 2008-09 Greensboro subscription package, which is sold out. Questions about this program may be directed to ssulliva@guilford.edu or 336-316-2852.

To order tickets online click here.

Anna Quindlen – April 14, 2009, 7:30 p.m.

http://www.randomhouse.com/rhpg/annaquindlen/

Quindlen, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and best-selling author, writes Newsweek’s popular column “The Last Word.” During the past 30 years, her work has appeared in America’s most influential newspapers and magazines and on fiction and nonfiction best-seller lists.

Her best-selling novels include Rise and Shine, Object Lessons, One True Thing and Black and Blue.

While a columnist for The New York Times, Quindlen became only the third woman in the paper’s history to write a regular column for its influential Op-Ed page when she began the nationally syndicated “Public and Private.” A collection of those columns, Thinking Out Loud, was a national best-seller. In Loud & Clear, a collection of her Newsweek and New York Times columns, she combines commentary on American society and the world at large.

In 1992 Quindlen was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. She is a native of Philadelphia, Pa.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS