Pulitzer Prize finalist Luis Alberto Urrea – best-selling author and professor – is The Bishop’s School 2012 – 2013 Endowed Scholar-in-Residence. At an evening lecture titled “Universal Border: From Tijuana to the World,” on February 26, Urrea will share his story of transformation from his beginnings on a dirt street in Tijuana to Pulitzer Prize finalist. Though recognized as a writer who concentrates on the border regions of the Southwestern United States, Urrea says, “Borders don’t interest me. I’m really in the business of building bridges.” He uses his dual-culture life experiences to explore greater themes of love, loss and triumph.
The author of fourteen books, Luis Urrea has received many prestigious awards. In 2009, he wrote his first-ever mystery short story “Amapola” and won r] Edgar Award. The Devil’s Highway, his 2004 non-fiction, an account of a group of Mexican immigrants lost in the Arizona desert, won the Lannan Literary Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
During his week at Bishop’s, February 25 through March 1, Mr. Urrea will teach middle and upper school classes and meet students and faculty. He will also speak in chapel to the juniors and seniors. Bishop’s middle school students will participate in a creative writing contest, and Urrea will judge their stories. One student will be selected to read his or her 3-minute story—based on the NPR 3-miunute story concept.
Urrea, who attended the University of California at San Diego, earned an undergraduate degree in writing, and did his graduate studies at the University of Colorado-Boulder, is a professor of creative writing at the University of Illinois-Chicago.
Through the generosity of an anonymous Bishop’s family, the Endowed Scholar-in-Residence Program is designed to bring academic leaders in fields of science, arts, humanities, and social sciences to the Bishop’s campus for a period of residency in order to inspire students and faculty alike towards the highest ideals of academic and artistic pursuit.
Notable past Bishop’s scholars include inaugural Scholar-in-Residence and U.S. historian Robert Dallek, Ph.D.; music director Byron Smith and the Spirit Chorale of Los Angeles; artistic director of Ballet Pensacola Richard Steinert; Pulitzer prize-winning playwright, Crimes of the Heart, Beth Henley; mathematician Edward B. Burger, Ph.D.; and translator, journalist Petr Onufer.
The lecture on February 26 is open to the community without charge. The lecture take place at 7:00 p.m. in the Museum of Contemporary Arts San Diego La Jolla campus in the Sherwood Auditorium. To register, please go online at www.bishops.com and click the Endowed Scholar-in-Residence button. Parking is available in the School’s parking structure.