Pulitzer finalist coming to town
Nicholas Carr, a 2011 Pulitzer Prize finalist in the general nonfiction category for his book “The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains,” is coming to Kalispell.
Carr is the featured keynote speaker for the Northwest Montana Reading Council’s Back to School Literacy Conference.
The keynote speech will be from 8:30 to 10:25 a.m. Wednesday in Flathead High School auditorium and is free and open to the public. Copies of “The Shallows” will be available for purchase. A book-signing session and question-and-answer session is also planned.
His well-known essay, “Is Google Making Us Stupid: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains,” published by “The Atlantic” in 2008, previewed some of the issues covered in “The Shallows.”
Carr is known for his thought-provoking articles about the effects of technology on individuals and culture. His writing is published regularly in The Atlantic, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, The Guardian, The New Republic and MIT Technology Review.
Carr’s essay “The Great Forgetting,” which appeared in the November 2013 edition of The Atlantic, previews the topic of his newest book “The Glass Cage: Automation and Us,” slated for release in September.
“The Great Forgetting” considers the effects of transferring our work, transportation and much of our decision-making to computer technology. The essay appeared in the November 2013 issue of The Atlantic.
Carr’s keynote speech is part of an all-day professional development opportunity for area educators. Cost to attend the full-day conference is $50 and includes lunch.
Participants will have about seven workshop sessions from which to chose. The conference will be from 8:15 a.m. to 3:15 p.m.
Currently there are 225 registered participants and conference planner Sue Brown expects that number will increase to more than 300. Brown said this might be attributed to Carr’s keynote speech. She said many teachers around the valley have read “The Shallows” in book study groups.
For more information, or to register for the full-day conference email Michele Paine at painem@sd5.k12.mt.us.