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NYT author
to speak at
Pomfret School
POMFRET — Pomfret School will present Jessica Bruder as this year’s Schwartz Visiting Fellow. Bruder is best known for her book "Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century, " which was adapted into an award-winning film starring Frances McDormand. The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2020.
At 7 p.m. Jan. 27 Bruder will deliver a public lecture in Hard Auditorium on the Pomfret School campus. A book signing and reception will follow. This event is free and open to the public. Registration is not required.
“Jessica Bruder is known for really getting to know the people and places she writes about,” said Library Director and Schwartz Visiting Fellow Chair Beth Jacquet. “With Pomfret’s emphasis on teaching empathy and experiential learning, we are excited to welcome her to the Hilltop to share her process and expertise with our students and the community.”
To research Nomadland, Bruder spent months living in a camper van (which she named Halen) documenting itinerant Americans who hit the road, traveling from job to job, carving out a place in a precarious economy. The project spanned three years, and Bruder drove more than 15,000 miles from coast to coast, and from Mexico to the Canadian border.
In addition to Nomadland, Bruder is the author of Burning Book: A Visual History of Burning Man and co-authored Snowden’s Box: Trust in the Age of Surveillance. She has contributed to the New York Times for over a decade and has written cover features for The Atlantic, WIRED, and New York Magazine. Bruder teaches journalism at Columbia University.
Since 1989, world-renowned experts have visited Pomfret School under the auspices of the Schwartz Visiting Fellow Program. This speaker series is the result of the vision and generosity of Michael Schwartz ’66 and Eric Schwartz ’69. Past fellows include animal science professor Temple Grandin; author Bill Bryson; human rights activist Madame Jehan Sadat; historian David McCullough; and journalist, author, and national security analyst Peter Bergen.
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