A group of eminent journalists and writers convened by Pete Hamill will discuss the career of Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper columnist, non-fiction author and novelist Jimmy Breslin at New York University on Monday, December 7, 2009.
A group of eminent journalists and writers convened by Pete Hamill will discuss the career of Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper columnist, non-fiction author and novelist Jimmy Breslin at New York University on Monday, December 7, 2009.
The event will take place at 7:00 p.m. at the Kimmel Center for University Life, 60 Washington Square South, 4th Floor. It is co-sponsored by Glucksman Ireland House-the Center for Irish and Irish-American Studies at New York University-and the NYU Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute.
For tickets please visit Ireland House on the web..
Among the participants: Dan Barry, columnist, The New York Times; Gail Collins, columnist, The Times; Jim Dwyer, columnist, The Times; Mary Ann Giordano, editor, The Times; Carl Hiassen, novelist, columnist, The Miami Herald; Mike Lupica, novelist, columnist, N.Y. Daily News; Stephen G. Murphy, defense attorney; Mike ONeill, former editor, Daily News; Sam Roberts, urban affairs correspondent, The Times and former city editor, Daily News.
A matchless New York voice, the citys steadiest and most accurate chronicler (Tom Robbins, The Village Voice, March 19, 2002), Breslin was born in Queens, N.Y., in 1929. He started as a copy boy at 15 at the Long Island Press and worked there as a reporter covering fires, crime and sports. In the late 1950s he became a sports columnist at the New York Journal-American and in 1963 he published his first book, Cant Anybody Here Play This Game? The Improbable Saga of the New York Mets First Year. Breslin wrote his first city-side column for the New York Herald-Tribune from 1963 to 1966. He was at The Daily News from 1976 to 1988 and received the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Commentary at the paper in 1986. He then joined Newsday and stayed from 1988 until his retirement as a columnist in 2004. Pioneering in style and in focus, his columns were peopled with the prominent, the shady, and those struggling with poverty and crime. He also reported from Northern Ireland, Vietnam, and other places well beyond New York. His first novel, The Gang that Couldnt Shoot Straight, was published in 1970 and was made into a successful film. His most recent book The Good Rat: A True Story, was published in 2008. In all, he has published seven novels and 10 works of non-fiction.
Pete Hamill, journalist, essayist and novelist, is a member of the Glucksman Ireland House Advisory Board and is Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at the NYU Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. He began his career at The New York Post in 1960 and, in addition to working as a columnist, has held the position of editor-in-chief at The Post and at The New York Daily News. He was a contributing writer at the Saturday Evening Post, New York magazine and Esquire for over two decades. Hamill is the author of several books, including Downtown: My Manhattan, Diego Rivera, and A Drinking Life. His 10 novels include bestsellers Snow in August and Forever. His most recent novel is North River and he has just finished writing his 11th novel. He and Breslin have been friends for over 40 years.
Media coverage is invited. Contact Robert.polner@nyu.edu or 212.998.2337.