Bill Bryson Visits

Best-selling author Bill Bryson visited College Library on Monday, November 17, for a Q&A pre-program moderated by students from the School of Library & Information Studies and sponsored by the Distinguished Lecture Series on campus. Mr. Bryson, who was speaking at the Memorial Union later that day, entertained the audience of fifty students and staff with anecdotes about writing, gardening, the difference between writing memoirs and more research-intensive works, and how he accidentally broke the key to the city of Des Moines. He admitted a love of academic libraries, particularly the Bill Bryson Library at the University of Durham.

The second half of the program was devoted to audience questions during which Mr. Bryson was invited on a canoe trip to the Boundary Waters and asked to name his favorite letter – he went with the cursive “J.”  After the Q&A, he stayed for another thirty minutes signing books and chatting with audience members.

The SLIS moderators were Mary Kate Kwasnik, Emily Swenson, and Eric Ely, who presented Mr. Bryson with a red-and-white scarf. More photos of the pre-program can be found in our Flickr album devoted to programs at the library.

College Library was pleased to host this event by one of our favorite authors.