September 10, 2002
Contact: George Yatchisin
(805) 893-3494
e-mail: yatchisin-g@ sa.ucsb.edu

Perfect Storm author Sebastian Junger
reads from his latest collection, Fire,
at UCSB Corwin Pavilion

Summary Facts:

• Sebastian Junger
• An Afternoon with the Author
• Best-selling author of The Perfect Storm
• Frequent Afghanistan correspondent for ABC News, Vanity Fair and National Geographic
• Wednesday, October 9
• 4 pm / UCSB Corwin Pavilion
• General public $6, UCSB students $5
• Tickets/Information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at 893-3535

Author of The Perfect Storm Sebastian Junger, one of our most adventurous and perceptive writers, will read from his work on Wednesday, October 9 at 4 pm in UCSB Corwin Pavilion. This afternoon with the author will focus on his essays from the recently re-issued collection Fire (Perennial), a riveting collection of literary journalism. These starkly memorable evocations of extreme events from around the globe cover the murderous diamond trade in Sierra Leone, the cataclysmic Storm King Mountain Fire in Colorado and the forensics of genocide in Kosovo. This edition of the book features a new essay on the fall of Kabul, a companion piece to Junger’s interview with Ahmad Shah Massoud, the guerilla leader of the Northern Alliance who was slain just two days before September 11. Junger’s expertise and experience reporting on Afghanistan make him an invaluable resource on the war-torn region. Into the Forbidden Zone, the documentary on his experiences in Afghanistan, garnered rave reviews and was regularly aired on the National Geographic Channel. The New York Times praises his work, claiming Junger “is at his best creating a mood and sense of place through small details set down in Hemingwayesque prose.”

Sebastian Junger grew up in suburban Massachusetts, not far from the town of Gloucester, the fishing port depicted in The Perfect Storm that was home to the Andrea Gail and its crew. He graduated from Wesleyan University with a degree in cultural anthropology in 1984 and for many years worked as a high climber and trimmer for tree removal companies. After a chainsaw injury, he decided to focus on freelance journalism; his work has appeared in such magazines as Outside, Men’s Journal, Harper’s and The New York Times Magazine. Drawn to stories of adventure, Junger has delivered radio reports from the war in Bosnia, covered smokejumpers in Idaho’s wilderness wildfires, and written about the smallest border town in Texas. He currently lives in New York City and on Cape Cod.

While writing The Perfect Storm, Junger developed tremendous respect for the fishermen of Gloucester, Massachusetts. With the success of the book, he wanted to give their children the kinds of opportunities he experienced growing up, so he established The Perfect Storm Foundation. The Foundation provides educational and cultural opportunities to young people whose parents make their living in the commercial fishing industry and in working maritime communities.

In an interview Junger described his goals as follows: “As a journalist writing for national publications in the United States that reach a wide audience, I feel that I am in a unique position to shine a spotlight on certain situations and get people to pay attention...I have the power to upset people, in other words.” Newsday sees him achieving his aims, claiming, “Where Junger excels is in his unflinching exploration of man’s viciousness to man. He has an attraction for what bureaucrats and military commanders like to call ‘hot zones,’ places where to even set foot is to jeopardize your health.”

This reading by Sebastian Junger is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and the UCSB Bookstore and sponsored by KEYT 1250 Radio. Courtesy of the UCSB Bookstore, books by Sebastian Junger will be available for purchase and signing.

For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.

Editor: For photos, please call
George Yatchisin at (805) 893-3494.