TIM OBRIEN JOINS KICK-OFF EVENT FOR A MORE PERFECT UNION AT THE WISCONSIN BOOK FESTIVAL

Tim OBrien, author of the best-selling novel "In the Lake of the Woods", will help the Wisconsin Humanities Council kick off a brand new reading program at a special event on the main stage of the Orpheum Theatre on Sunday, October 26 at 3:45 PM. This event introduces A More Perfect Union: Wisconsin Reads and invites everyone to take part in a lively discussion about political integrity, participatory democracy, and American history.

CONTACT
Jessica Becker at the Wisconsin Humanities Council
jebecker2@wisc.edu
(608) 263-3155

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 16, 2003

TIM OBRIEN JOINS KICK-OFF EVENT FOR
A MORE PERFECT UNION
AT THE WISCONSIN BOOK FESTIVAL

Madison- Tim OBrien, author of the best-selling novel In the Lake of the Woods, will help the Wisconsin Humanities Council kick off a brand new reading program at a special event on the main stage of the Orpheum Theatre on Sunday, October 26 at 3:45 PM. This event introduces A More Perfect Union: Wisconsin Reads and invites everyone to take part in a lively discussion about political integrity, participatory democracy, and American history. Tim OBrien will be joined by Mary Lou Munts, former elected member of the Wisconsin Assembly and activist, John Nichols, political commentator, newspaper editor and author, and Dr. Carol Berkin, professor of American history from Baruch College. Wisconsin Public Radio personalities Jim Fleming, Karl Schmidt, and Norman Gilliland will bring The Feuding Founders" to life in a special presentation of their popular Chapter a Day" anniversary performance.

A More Perfect Union is an election-year initiative to stimulate civic dialogue amongst friends, family, and co-workers about what we want and expect from our political leaders," says A More Perfect Union: Wisconsin Reads coordinator Jessica Becker. We want everyone to feel empowered by this very relevant, timely conversation about political integrity, the nature of political campaigns, and the responsibility of an educated citizenry to critique and understand our governmental ideals."

At the special kick-off event at the Wisconsin Book Festival, book lovers will be invited to read Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation by Joseph Ellis, and will find out about the thought-provoking A More Perfect Union: Wisconsin Reads book discussion series. We chose Founding Brothers as an 'everybody reads book for Wisconsin because it puts a human face on our first politicians," explains Max Harris, Executive Director of the Wisconsin Humanities Council. It is fascinating to consider that, despite their individual flaws and personal disagreements, they managed to develop an experimental system of representative government that has endured and that continues to evolve. The most important decision we all have to make during this election year is whether we put any faith at all in the political system."

Founding Brothers is one of four books in the A More Perfect Union: Wisconsin Reads book discussion series. The other titles include In the Lake of the Woods by Tim OBrien, The Oresteia by Aeschylus translated by Ted Hughes, and The Childrens Story by James Clavell. Information about the A More Perfect Union initiative, descriptions of the books, a discussion guide with questions to consider while reading the books, and a link to an online discussion forum hosted by portalwisconsin.org, can be found online at www.wisconsinhumanities.org.
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ABOUT THE PANELISTS

Tim OBrien
Tim OBrien was born and raised in Minnesota and graduated from Macalester College in 1968. He served in the infantry in Vietnam and subsequently pursued graduate studies in Government at Harvard University. He is the best-selling author of Going After Cacciato, which received the National Book Award in fiction; The Things They Carried, which won Frances Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger and which was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. In the Lake of the Woods received the James Fenimore Cooper Prize from the Society of American Historians and was named best novel of the year by Time magazine. OBrien is also the author of If I Die in a Combat Zone, Northern Lights, The Nuclear Age and Tomcat in Love and has been published in The New Yorker, Esquire, Harpers, The Atlantic and Playboy. He lives in Texas.

Mary Lou Munts
Mary Lou Munts received a Masters degree in economics from the University of Chicago and a law degree from the University of Wisconsin. She served in the Wisconsin Assembly from 1972 to 1984, chairing the Committee on Environmental Resources for eight years and co-chairing the Joint Committee on Finance in her last term in office. Mary Lou Munts was appointed by the Governor as the first woman to serve on the Public Service Commission, where she served as Commissioner from 1985-1991 and Chair from 1986-1987. In her retirement, she has served on the national board of Common Cause and on the board of the Energy Foundation. She currently serves as the co-chair of the Common Cause of Wisconsin, is Chair of the Social Justice Committee of the First Unitarian Society, and is a member of the Appointments Selections Committee, advisory to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

John Nichols
John Nichols is a national political writer for The Nation magazine and associate editor for The Capital Times in Madison. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Washington Times, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and hundreds of other U.S. and foreign newspapers, as well as The Progressive, Utne Reader, In These Times and other magazines. He was been honored by Women In Communications International as the best political columnist daily newspaper in the U.S. and by the Inland Press Association as the best editorial writer in a daily newspaper in the U.S. He has, as well, won seven Milwaukee Press Club awards as the best editorial writer and columnist in the state. Nichols appears regularly on Wisconsin Public Radio and has been a frequent guest on PBS Jim Lehrer Report as well as on news and comment programs on MSNBC, CNBC, CNN and other networks. He is the co-author of two books with Robert W. McChesney, Its the Media, Stupid! (Seven Stories Press, 2000) and Our Media, Not Theirs (Seven Stories Press, 2002). His 2001 book, Jews for Buchanan (New Press), examined the Florida recount of 2000.

Carol Berkin
Carol Berkin has a Ph.D. from Columbia University and is a professor of history at Baruch College, where she served as Associate Provost of the College from 1985-1988 and as Deputy Chair of the PhD Program in History at the City University Graduate Center for the past 7 years. Her first book, Jonathan Sewall: Odyssey of An American Loyalist, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Carol Berkin is the author of Women of America: A History (edited with Mary Beth Norton) and Women, War and Revolution (edited with Clara M. Lovett) First Generations: Women in Colonial America, and Womens Voices/Womens Lives: Documents in Early American History. She has also published two secondary school American History textbooks and a college textbook, Making America. Her most recent book is A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution, published last year by Harcourt. In addition, she has appeared in several television documentary series, including the PBS programs, Liberty! The American Revolution," Benjamin Franklin", New York", and The Scottsboro Boys," and the History Channels History of Sex," The Founding Fathers", and Founding Brothers."

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