Join Us Friday, October 9, at 7 PM, From Lenoir-Rhyne University’s P.E. Monroe Auditorium!
UNC-TV’s NORTH CAROLINA BOOKWATCH PRESENTS ITS FIRST-EVER LIVE AUDIENCE PRODUCTION FEATURING AUTHOR MARISHA PESSL DISCUSSING HER BOOK
SPECIAL TOPICS IN CALAMITY PHYSICS

Marking another first for UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch, D.G. Martin interviews 28-year-old author Marisha Pessl, live—on stage— Friday, October 9, at 7 PM, from Lenoir Rhyne University’s P.E. Monroe Auditorium in Hickory, NC. This special episode of North Carolina Bookwatch featuring a discussion of Pessl’s 2006 novel, Special Topics in Calamity Physics, is scheduled for broadcast, Sunday, December 13, at 5 PM, only on UNC-TV.

The production represents the first time UNC-TV’s local literary series has been shot outside the UNC-TV studios in Research Triangle Park and is part of "In Their Own Words," the Visiting Writer’s Series of Lenoir-Rhyne University. The event is free and open to the public. Reserve seating is available for patrons of the Visiting Writers Series. All other seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information about the Visiting Writers Series at Lenoir-Rhyne University, go to http://visitingwriters.lr.edu or call 828-328-7077.

Featured novelist Marisha Pessl made her literary debut withSpecial Topics in Calamity Physics, which theNew York Timesnamed a Notable Book of the Year and an Editor's Choice, while Timemagazine listed the work as one of Publishing's Next Page Turners. Pessl's novel was also a nominee for a Quill Award and the Borders Original Voices Award, 2006. On occasion, Pessl writes reviews and editorials for theNew York Times.

Special Topics in Calamity Physics features a precocious adolescent, Blue van Meer, and her widowed father, Gareth, a brilliant, charismatic professor. The two travel from college to college, driven by forces only revealed to Blue by the death of Hannah, a popular teacher at her school. The book is filled with literary references as well as illustrations by the author. The story also includes a murder mystery. For more “clues” about this novel, and a look at Pessl’s drawings, go to http://www.calamityphysics.com/main.htm.

Pessl was born in Clarkston, Mich., to Klaus, an Austrian engineer for General Motors, and Anne, an American homemaker. Pessl’s parents divorced when she was 3, and she moved to Asheville, NC, with her mother and sister. Pessl attended the Asheville School, a private, co-educational boarding school, from which she graduated in 1995. She attended Northwestern University for two years before transferring to Barnard College, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in English literature. After college, she worked as a financial consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers, while writing in her free time.

Pessl’s long-awaited second novel, Night Film, a psychological literary thriller about a New York filmmaker looking into an apparent suicide, is scheduled to be published in fall 2010. She is married to Nic Caiano, a hedge fund manager. They live in New York City.

For additional information about series guests and airdates, plus links to North Carolina Bookwatch on Facebook, please visit: www.unctv.org/ncbookwatch.

Funding for North Carolina Bookwatch is provided by UNC-TV members and by Quail Ridge Books and Music, Raleigh’s independent, full service bookstore, bringing readers and writers together since 1984.

North Carolina Bookwatch is part of UNC-TV’s ongoing commitment to produce programs for and about North Carolina. UNC-TV is the statewide 11-station broadcast network of the University of North Carolina. For more information, please visit www.unctv.org/ncbookwatch.

For more information about North Carolina Bookwatch and UNC-TV’s other original productions, please visit our website at www.unctv.org.

—UNC-TV—