"A virtuoso act of the imagination, one that reminds us of
fiction's deepest ambition — to understand the other."
New York Times Book Review on Lorraine Adams's debut novel, Harbor

THE ASPEN WRITERS' FOUNDATION PRESENTS A MAJOR NEW VOICE IN AMERICAN FICTION
Lorraine Adams Makes Aspen Debut at Winter Words 2006

(February 2, 2006) Aspen, CO … The Aspen Writers' Foundation is pleased to present Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and first-time novelist Lorraine Adams in her Aspen debut at Winter Words on Thursday, February 23. The author will give a reading and talk at the Given Institute. The 9th annual Winter Words author reading series, billed as "Après Ski for the Mind," continues through March.

"It's almost unheard of for us to put a debut author on the Winter Words marquis, our showcase for big literary talent," says Lisa Consiglio, Aspen Writers' Foundation executive director. "Lorraine Adams is a rising star, and audience members will find her to be a major new voice in American fiction."

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
In 2000, the Washington Post assigned Lorraine Adams, one of its reporters, to research a terrorism investigation: the 1999 "Millennium Plot" case in which an Algerian en route to LAX was caught at the Canadian border with a trunk of explosives. Through that assignment, she came to know a number of Algerian refugees who were under FBI surveillance, and soon after publishing the story, she left the Post to write a novel. Out of a sense of urgency she felt after the terrorism attacks of 2001, Adams set out to record the stories of the young Arab Muslim men she had formed relationships with through her investigation.

The result is Harbor, the harrowing story of ripped-from-the-headlines issues (immigrant strife, terrorism, democracy and human rights) told through the journey of one man, Aziz Arkoun, a 24-year-old Muslim refugee who sneaks into the United States by stowing away in a tanker. Publisher's Weekly praised this cautionary tale, a Los Angeles Times First Fiction Award-winner, as a "lucid, psychologically complicated page-turner [that] captures the ambiguities of and raises important questions about the domestic war on terror."

In 1992 Adams won the Pulitzer Prize for her investigative reporting on civil rights violations by Texas law enforcement. In addition to the Post, where she was a staff writer for 11 years, Adams has written stories for the Washington Monthly, Slate, New Republic, and the Wilson Quarterly. She has also appeared on national news networks as a commentator for numerous national stories, including the O.J. Simpson murder trial, the Columbine shootings, and President Clinton's impeachment. Adams was educated at Princeton University and was a graduate fellow at Columbia University, where she received a master's degree in literature. She lives in Washington D.C. and is at work on her second novel.

DETAILS
Winter Words events start at 5:30 pm; doors open at 5 pm. The author will give a reading and talk, followed by a short Q&A session and a book signing. Town Center Booksellers, the official bookseller of Winter Words 2006, will have a selection of books by the author available for purchase at the event.

TICKETS
Tickets are $20 each/$15 for students and educators with school ID. Tickets are available at the Wheeler Opera House (970.920.5770), at the Aspen Writers' Foundation's new online box office at www.aspenwriters.org, and on a space-available basis at the door. Discounted tickets for educators and students are available only through the Aspen Writers' Foundation.

THE ASPEN WRITERS' FOUNDATION
Now celebrating its 30th anniversary, the Aspen Writers’ Foundation, Colorado's oldest nonprofit literary organization, has been bringing readers and writers together since 1976. The organization’s mission is to provide programs that encourage writers in their craft and readers in their appreciation of good literature. More information is available from the Aspen Writers' Foundation at 970.925.3122 and www.aspenwriters.org.

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