Pulitzer Prize Winner Connie Schultz to Visit JSU
02/28/2012
Ms. Schultz will speak at 1:30 p.m. on the 11th floor of the Houston Cole Library. The lecture is free and open to the general public.
While in Jacksonville, Ms. Schultz will also meet with aspiring student journalists and other communication majors to talk about the current state of the news media.
Ms. Schultz won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for columns that judges praised for providing “a voice for the underdog and the underprivileged.” Also in 2005, Schultz won the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award for Commentary and the National Headliner Award for Commentary.
She was a 2003 Pulitzer Prize finalist in feature writing for her series, “The Burden of Innocence,” which chronicled the ordeal of Michael Green, who was imprisoned for 13 years for a rape he did not commit. The week after her series ran, the real rapist turned himself in after reading her stories. The series won the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Social Justice Reporting, the National Headliner Award’s Best of Show and journalism awards from Harvard and Columbia universities.
In 2004, Schultz won the Batten Medal, which honors “a body of journalistic work that reflects compassion, courage, humanity and a deep concern for the underdog.”
Schultz is also a fellow with the Vietnam Reporting Project. Her 2011 series, “Unfinished Business,” explored the long-term impact of Agent Orange in the U.S., and in Vietnam. Recently, the series won the Associated Press Managing Editors Journalism Excellence Award in International Perspective.
Schultz is the author of two books published by Random House: “Life Happens – And Other Unavoidable Truths,” a collection of essays, and “…and His Lovely Wife,” a memoir about her husband Sherrod Brown’s successful 2006 race for the U.S. Senate.
Her newspaper column is nationally syndicated by Creators Syndicate, and she is a regular essayist for Parade Magazine. Her column appears regularly in The Anniston Star.
The Ayers Lecture Series began at JSU in 1988 and honors Harry M. and Edel Y. Ayers, both of whom were publishers of The Anniston Star.
About the photo: Connie Schultz (courtesy)