‘Fast Food Nation’ author to speak at UVa-Wise

Investigative journalist and best-selling author Eric Schlosser will speak at The University of Virginia’s College at Wise on Nov. 13 as part of the Chancellor’s Lecture Series.

Schlosser will speak about his international bestseller “Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal” during a 7:30 p.m. lecture in the Chapel of All Faiths. A book signing will follow in the C. Bascom Slemp Student Center. The event is free and open to the public.

Schlosser’s “Fast Food Nation” is a survey of the fast food culture of the United States and beyond, moving from its history and the teenagers who run restaurants to dangerous meatpacking plants. The book has been translated into more than 20 languages and reached number one on The Chronicle of Higher Education’s list of “What They’re Reading on College Campuses.” The book also remained on the New York Times bestseller list for more than two years.

A film version of Schlosser’s novel was viewed at Cannes Film Festival and was released in theaters in 2006. Schlosser co-wrote the movie with Richard Linklater. Greg Kinnear, Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette star in the film.

Schlosser graduated from Princeton University with a degree in American history and from Oxford University with a graduate degree in British imperial history. Since 1996, Schlosser has been a correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly. His work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, The Nation and The New Yorker.

In 2003, Schlosser published another bestseller with “Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market.” The book was inspired by his 1994 Atlantic Monthly research on pornography, illegal immigration and the war on drugs, for which he won a National Magazine Award for reporting. His 1995 Atlantic Monthly article “In the Strawberry Fields” received a Sidney Hillman Foundation Award.

Schlosser’s latest work, “Chew On This: Everything You Don’t Want to Know About Fast Food,” is an exposé aimed at young adults. It topped the New York Times bestseller list in May 2006. He is currently writing a book concerning the American prison system.

Schlosser’s books are available at the UVa-Wise bookstore.

For more information, contact the Office of College Relations at 276-328-0130.

Posted November 5, 2007