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Author and Pulitzer
Prize Winner Anna Quindlen to Address Graduating Class
Anna Quindlen,
the Newsweek columnist, best-selling author, and winner
of the Pulitzer Prize for commentary, will give the 2005 commencement
speech at Barnard, her alma mater, on Tuesday afternoon, May
17.
Throughout a career that has made her one of the most widely
admired writers in the country, Quindlen has played an active
role as a Barnard alumna for the past two decades. A 1974
graduate of Barnard, she has been a trustee since 1983 and
is now chair of the Barnard Board of Trustees.
In her
newest book, Being Perfect (Random House, April 2005)
she shares wisdom about "the perfection trap," the
price it extracts, and the key to becoming free of it. In
the book, Quindlen sets forth her view that when success looks
good to the world but doesn't feel good in an individual's
heart, it really isn't success at all.
Quindlen
writes "The Last Word" column in Newsweek,
and is the author of four best-selling novels, Object Lessons,
One True Thing, Black and Blue, and Blessings.
She won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1992 as a columnist
for The New York Times. A selection of her essays were
published as books, Thinking Out Loud and Living
Out Loud. She has also written a book for the Library
of Contemporary Thought, How Reading Changed My Life;
and two children's books, The Tree That Came to Stay
and Happily Ever After.
During
the commencement ceremony, Barnard President Judith R. Shapiro
will present the Barnard Medal of Excellence to economist
Amartya Sen, a Nobel Prize winner, and to Carla Hayden, president
in 2004 of the American Library Association. Sen has been
a strong advocate in his writings for empowering women through
education and economic support as the key to reversing poverty
in the development world. Hayden, who has led Baltimore and
Chicago library systems, was named Librarian of the Year by
Library Journal (1995). She has been a strong critic
of the U.S.A. Patriot Act and its provisions that allow the
FBI to access individual's private records, such as medical
and library records, without an individual's knowledge or
consent.
The colorful
outdoor commencement ceremony starts at 2:30 p.m. on the Barnard
campus on Broadway at West 117th Street in New York City as
580 members of the Class of 2005 receive bachelor's degrees.
They will complete four years of study in fields from architecture
and economics to neuroscience and urban studies with the majority
concentrated in four fields: economics, English, political
science and psychology.
Information
for parents, students and others about commencement may be
viewed at this link: http://www.barnard.edu/commencement/index.html
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