FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Joe Pagetta
(615) 259-9325, x211 / jpagetta@wnpt.net
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE — John Siegenthaler sits down with two-time Pulitzer-prize-winning legend of American letters John Updike for an edition of the long-running Nashville Public Television series A Word on Words on NPT-Channel 8, December 17, 2006 at 10:30 a.m.
The interview coincided with Updike being in Nashville to receive the Nashville Public Library Literary Award. Seigenthaler and Updike discussed the author’s career and new novel Terrorist during a weekend that included Updike honored with the Library’s Literary Award at a black-tie fundraising gala at the main library and appearance in front of an audience of 800 persons in the library’s conference center. The interview is a chance for those who missed Updike’s appearances in Nashville to catch an interview with one of the masters of American literature.
The episode of A Word on Words is a byproduct of the opportunity Nashville Public Library’s three-year-old Literary Award affords the Middle Tennessee community. By honoring authors David Halberstam and David McCullough, which it did in 2004 and 2005, respectively, and Updike in 2006, Nashville has been privy to otherwise rare visits from literary giants.
“This interview represents how one great education institution can benefit from and serve another, and together bring such a valuable opportunity to the community,” said Beth Curley, President and CEO of Nashville Public Television.
Seigenthaler, who also interviewed Updike during the Friday night patron’s dinner portion of the author’s weekend in Nashville, added “I was greatly honored to serve as a catalyst interviewer for NPT and for Nashville Public Library during John Updike’s award-winning visit to Nashville.”
A Word on Words, one of NPT’s signature programs, has been celebrating authors, literature and ideas for more than three decades. The show is hosted by renowned journalist, writer and First Amendment advocate John Seigenthaler, who regularly evokes from his guests fresh evidence that “invariably, there is more to be discerned from an author’s words than what he puts on paper.” The show is also available as a podcast via http://www.wnpt.net/wow or through iTunes.
John Updike has received countless awards and honors including two Pulitzer Prizes for Rabbit is Rich and Rabbit at Rest. At age 32, he became the youngest person ever elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters. He is among a very small group of notables who have been honored with both the National Medal of Art and the National Medal for the Humanities. John Updike was born and raised in Pennsylvania until going to Harvard University where he graduated summa cum laude. He has lived most of his adult life in Massachusetts, in the same corner of New England where so much of his fiction is set.
For photos or more information, please contact Joe Pagetta at (615) 259-9325 or jpagetta@wnpt.net.
Nashville Public Television is available free and over the air to nearly 2.2 million people throughout the Middle Tennessee and southern Kentucky viewing area, and is watched by more than 600,000 households every week. Through television and interactive media, NPT provides high quality educational, cultural and civic experiences that address issues and concerns of the people of the Nashville region, and which thereby help improve the lives of those we serve.
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