News Release
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist to visit Wilmington University
On March 22, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Barbara Walsh will be coming to Wilmington University, holding both a writing workshop and a book reading. During the writing workshop, which will be held from 3:00-4:30 p.m., Barbara will talk to attendees about “Sticking With It: How to Keep Writing When You Don’t Feel Like It.” She will talk about working on her memoir, August Gale: A Father and Daughter’s Journey into the Storm; her children’s book, Sammy in the Sky, which was illustrated by painter Jamie Wyeth; and her riveting career in journalism as a crime reporter.
The book reading will be held in the evening from 6:00-8:30 p.m., during which time Barbara will read from her memoir and children’s book. Both events will be held in the library café and are open to the public.
Barbara Walsh grew up in the New England town of Pelham, New Hampshire. After graduating from the University of New Hampshire, and receiving an “F” in a writing class for turning a paper in late, Barbara escaped to Ireland, avoiding her fear of deadlines and working as a photographer for a weekly newspaper in Galway. After picking grapes in France and traveling throughout Europe, she returned home where she worked as a reporter for her hometown’s weekly newspaper.
Over the next 25 years, Barbara worked at four daily newspapers in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Florida. At these papers, she reported on topics such as drug shootings and murders to mentally ill children who could not get the help they needed and kids living in rural poverty in unheated trailers without electricity or running water. In Massachusetts, Barbara was the journalist that broke the story of Willie Horton Jr. and Massachusetts’ flawed furlough program, which cost Dukakis the 1988 election.
For more information on these exciting events, please contact Nicole Karam at (302)356-6984 or nicole.m.karam@wilmu.edu.
