NEWS

Photo Note: To download a photo of Trillin, see end of release.

By DEE REID
UNC College of Arts and Sciences

CHAPEL HILL -- Calvin Trillin, the acclaimed writer, humorist and commentator on American culture and cuisine, will be the Morgan Writer-in-Residence at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in mid-March.

Trillin will discuss his work in a free public reading March 19 at 7:30 p.m. in the Carroll Hall auditorium. He also will meet with creative writing and English classes and with local high school students.

Trillin, whose essays and columns have appeared in Time magazine, the New Yorker and The Nation, has written many books. His latest, the novel "Tepper Isn’t Going Out" (Random House, 2002), is a humorous tale of the urban quest for an open parking space.

Trillin wrote the best-selling memoirs "Remembering Denny" (1993) and "Messages from My Father" (1996), as well as "Family Man" (1988), his humorous take on raising children.

A native of Kansas City, Mo., Trillin graduated from Yale University in 1957. After a stint in the Army, he became a reporter for Time magazine.

In 1963, he joined the New Yorker. In 15 years there, he produced a highly praised series of articles from diverse locations across the country, which appeared in the magazine under the title "U.S. Journal." A collection of those stories, about murders in the hinterlands, was published in 1984 as "Killings."

Trillin was a columnist for The Nation from 1978 to 1985. His syndicated work from that period was collected in five books: "Uncivil Liberties" (1982), "With All Disrespect" (1985), "If You Can't Say Something Nice" (1988), "Enough's Enough" (1990) and "Too Soon To Tell" (1995).

He also wrote three books about his culinary adventures: "American Fried," "Alice, Let's Eat" and "Third Helpings." Those were compiled in 1994 into a single volume, "The Tummy Trilogy."

Trillin returned to Time magazine as a columnist in 1996, and, since 1990, he has written a weekly piece of comic verse for The Nation. He won an Audie Award from the Audio Publishers Association in 1996 for the best humorous audio tape for a recording of some of his essays. He has presented two one-man shows in New York, both of which were critically acclaimed sell-outs.

Trillin's visit to Carolina is sponsored by the English department and the Morgan Writer-in-Residence Program, established in 1993 by alumni Allen and Musette Morgan of Memphis, Tenn., to bring writers of distinction to campus. Previous Morgan Writers have included Tobias Wolff, John Edgar Wideman, Russell Banks, Robert Pinsky, Rita Dove, Annie Dillard and Shelby Foote.

For more information, call (919) 962-4283.

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Photo url: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/visitng/trillin_calvin020403.jpg

Contact: Dee Reid, (919) 843-6339.