Monday at 6 p.m., UI Nonfiction Writing Program faculty member John D’Agata spent five minutes ordering pizza for his night class before rushing to the airport to pick up literary legend John McPhee.
McPhee will read and take part in a conversation with Michael Silverblatt, the host of KCRW’s nationally syndicated radio program “Bookworm,” at 7 p.m. today at the Englert Theatre, 221 E. Washington St. Admission is free with a ticket, which are available at the Englert Box Office.
His prolific career includes 29 books, numerous articles for Time magazine and The New Yorker, a Pulitzer Prize, an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, and two National Book Award nominations.
He was educated at Princeton University and the University of Cambridge. He began his writing career at Time magazine, which led to his long-standing position at The New Yorker. His first book, titled A Sense of Where You Are (1965), profiled a year in the life of the Princeton University basketball player Bill Bradley.
The UI Nonfiction Writing Program also sponsored the appearance of Michael Silverblatt, the host the enormously popular radio program “Bookworm,” to converse with McPhee. Silverblatt has interviewed master writers — from Denis Johnson to Junot Díaz to Walter Mosley. Instead of using notes, he enters an interview with his personal knowledge of the writers and their work and creates dialogue rather than Q&A. His interview archive includes close to 1,000 programs from over the years. In order to prepare for McPhee, Silverblatt read every book in McPhee’s catalogue.
The event is cosponsored by six departments in the UI. D’Agata, who spearheaded the campaign to bring McPhee beginning three years ago, believes it is a tribute to the writer that so many departments are interested in hearing him speak. At 78, McPhee only gives one reading a year, which is why D’Agata emphasizes the significance of the event.
“Most writers would agree he is one of the most important living writers in the United States,” D’Agata said. “Iowa Nonfiction isn’t always viewed as the sexiest program, especially when you have the poetry and creative-writing workshops. This is an attempt to remind the community that there are extraordinary and exciting events going on in the nonfiction writing community.”
The majority of McPhee’s writing considers topics that are personal and sometimes obscure. His most recent book, Uncommon Carriers, explores the work of those in freight transportation. Riley Hanick, a Prairie Lights Books employee, believes it is hard to brand McPhee as typical nonfiction.
“It seems he has a book that fits in every category,” Hanick said. “He seems like someone who can make anything interesting. Each of his books seem like arguments about how unbelievably complicated and rich the world is and how much you can dig into it.”
McPhee often spends years interacting with the subjects of his many books, allowing for the depth of understanding and detail so prevalent in his work.
“He is credited with long-form narrative nonfiction,” D’Agata said. “At the time, there were other journalists doing similar things, Gonzo journalists. McPhee took a different approach, made it his own. His books provide the most potent sense of what is unfolding before our eyes. The books are very effective.”
In addition to his writing career, McPhee teaches a writing seminar at Princeton. His students include Pulitzer Prize winners, editors at major news publications, and foreign news correspondents.
“It’s wonderful,” D’Agata said. “I don’t think there is another U.S. city that celebrates literature the way we do.”