UT Tyler Presents P.J. O'Rourke

January 13, 2012

UT Tyler Office of Marketing and Communications

Political Satirist P.J. O’Rourke to Speak at UT Tyler Cowan Center

January 13, 2012

Media Contact:  Hannah Buchanan
Editor/Writer–Strategic Communications & Media Relations
Marketing and Communications
The University of Texas at Tyler
903.539.7196 (cell)

January 10, 2012

Media Contact: Beverley Golden
Director
Marketing and Communications
The University of Texas at Tyler
903.566.7303 or 903.330.0495 (cell)

The University of Texas at Tyler R. Don Cowan Fine and Performing Arts Center will host renowned columnist P.J. O’Rourke, Susan Thomae-Morphew, executive director, announced.

The Abegg Willis and Associates Lecture will begin at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 19 in the Cowan Center’s Vaughn Auditorium.

Media sponsors are Suddenlink, CBS 19 and KTBB. Barbara Shtofman is the sponsor of the post-lecture reception.

Tickets are $37, $32, $27, $22 and $17. Post-lecture reception tickets are $25.

Tickets can be purchased online at www.cowancenter.org, by phone at 903.566.7424 or at the box office. Box office hours are 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and one hour prior to the lecture.

Both Time and The Wall Street Journal have called O’Rourke ‘the funniest writer in America.’ With more than a million words of trenchant journalism under his byline, he has more citations in The Penguin Dictionary of Humorous Quotations than any other living writer.

A renowned correspondent covering politics, culture and current events, O’Rourke has written for such diverse publications as The Weekly Standard,Forbes, Automobile and Rolling Stone.

A best-selling author, his writing has earned him a reputation as a modern-day Will Rogers.

Patrick Jake O'Rourke was born in Toledo, Ohio, and attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and graduate school at Johns Hopkins where he was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow. After receiving an M.A. in English, he worked at small newspapers in Baltimore and New York.

In the early 1970s, O’Rourke joined The National Lampoon where he became the editor-in-chief and created, along with Doug Kenney, the now classic 1964 High School Yearbook Parody. In the 1980s, he decided the real world was funnier than anything National Lampoon's writers could invent, so he became a roving reporter covering crises and conflicts around the world.

O’Rourke proves himself to be a savvy guide to national and world affairs. His razor sharp insights never fail to inform and entertain.

One of the 15 campuses of the UT System, UT Tyler offers excellence in teaching, research, artistic performance and community service. More than 80 undergraduate and graduate degrees are available at UT Tyler, which has an enrollment of almost 7,000 high-ability students at its campuses in Tyler, Longview and Palestine.