News Release

Journalist and author Joe Klein
to deliver Weatherspoon Lecture

CHAPEL HILL - Joe Klein, senior writer for Time magazine and author of the best-selling novel "Primary Colors," will give a free public lecture at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Jan. 22.

The 5:30 p.m. lecture at Kenan-Flagler Business School's Koury Auditorium is the annual Weatherspoon Lecture and kicks off the spring season of the school's Dean Speaker Series. The lecture will be followed by a reception for all attendees, and free parking will be available in the business school parking deck. To reserve a spot at the lecture, call (919) 843-7787 or e-mail kfbsrsvp@unc.edu.

Klein, a former Washington correspondent for The New Yorker, writes the weekly column "In the Arena" for Time and covers national and international affairs from Washington to Europe and the Middle East. In 2004 and 2005, he won National Headliner Awards for his work at Time. He won the same award in 1994 for his Newsweek column, "Public Lives."

Klein appears frequently on NBC's "Meet the Press" and MSNBC's "The Chris Matthews Show." A veteran of eight presidential campaigns, he was a regular contributor to "Paula Zahn Now" on CNN, providing political analysis during the last presidential campaign. He has been a consultant for CBS News, a Washington bureau chief at Rolling Stone and a political columnist for New York Magazine, where he won a Washington Monthly Journalism Award for a cover story on race. His articles have appeared in The New Republic, The New York Times, Life and The Washington Post. He is a former Guggenheim Fellow and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

As "Anonymous," Klein wrote "Primary Colors," inspired by the 1992 presidential race. With 3 million copies in print, "Primary Colors" was on The New York Times best-seller list for 25 consecutive weeks. It was adapted into a film starring John Travolta and Emma Thompson. His follow-up novel, "The Running Mate" (2000), was a behind-the-scenes look at contemporary politics. Klein's nonfiction books are "The Natural: The Misunderstood Presidency of Bill Clinton" (2002), "Woody Guthrie: A Life" (1999), and "Payback: Five Marines After Vietnam" (1984). His latest book is "Politics Lost: How American Democracy Was Trivialized By People Who Think You're Stupid" ( 2006).

The Weatherspoon Lecture was created with a generous gift from longtime university and Kenan-Flagler supporters Van and Kay Weatherspoon. The series provides lectures by outstanding visiting scholars and world leaders from the fields of politics, education, business and government. The purpose of the Weatherspoon Lecture is to enrich the professional lives of members of the UNC Kenan-Flagler community and provoke interesting discussion and debate.

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Kenan-Flagler Business School contact: Allison Reid, (919) 962-8951, allison_reid@unc.edu
News Services contacts: Lisa Katz, (919) 962-2093, lisa_katz@unc.edu