Luncheon Programs
Wednesday Luncheon, Noon - 1:45 PM in the Grand Ballroom
Michael Norman
Exploring Haunted America
Author, educator and playwright Michael Norman is an Illinois native who now lives and works in River Falls, Wis. A professor emeritus of journalism at the University of Wisconsin – River Falls, Norman created with his late co-author Beth Scott the best-selling Haunted America series of true ghost tales from the United States and Canada. His newest book, Haunted Homeland, was published in the fall of 2006 by Forge Books/Tom Doherty Associates. Haunted Homeland takes readers on a coast-to-coast ghost trip with over 100 ghost stories from 30 states and Canada – from a legendary haunted Russian castle in Sitka, Alaska to the multiple ghosts in a crumbling Mississippi mansion. Illinois readers will come across legendary phantom hitchhikers in downstate Mount Vernon and Lebanon, and discover how one of the most notorious Chicago murder trials included the ghostly presence of the female victim, killed in a most hideous manner by her philandering husband.
Norman and Scott began their collaboration with Haunted Wisconsin (Trails Media) in 1980 (rev. ed., 2001), and continued on with Haunted Heartland, (Warner Books) named in 1987 as one of the outstanding books for young adults by the University of Iowa. Following Beth Scott’s death in 1994, Norman finished work the pair had begun on Haunted America and Historic Haunted America (both Tor/Forge Books). More recently, in 2002, Tor/Forge Books published Norman’s Haunted Heritage and now in 2006 Haunted Homeland.
All the books in the Haunted America series remain in print. He is at work on a collection of Minnesota ghost stories to be published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press/Borealis Books.
Thursday Luncheon, Noon - 1:45 PM in the Grand Ballroom
Emily Auerbach, English Professor, UW-Madison
The UW Odyssey Project: Transforming Lives Through the Humanities
Emily Auerbach is a Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Project Director of "The Courage to Write" series of radio documentaries on women writers. She has received numerous teaching and arts awards from the University of Wisconsin and broadcasting awards for "The Courage to Write" series.
Emily Auerbach reaches not only undergraduates through her campus classes on 19th-century literature but also hundreds of thousands of nontraditional students through lectures at public libraries, Elderhostels, prisons, retirement centers, schools, and service clubs. Over 4,000 people attended "Jane Austen in the 21st Century," a 40-event festival she directed for the UW Center for the Humanities (see http://www.humanities.wisc.edu). This festival was honored with the 2001 Governor's Award in the Humanities.
One new outreach course she directs is called the Odyssey Project, a free humanities course for low-income adults. She also serves as co-host of "University of the Air," a one-hour program broadcast statewide on Wisconsin Public Radio, Sundays 4-5 pm, featuring interviews with faculty in a variety of disciplines (see http://www.wpr.org for University of the Air broadcast schedule).
Odyssey Project Website: http://www.odyssey.wisc.edu/Pages/about.htm
Support the Odyssey Project: http://www.odyssey.wisc.edu/Pages/donation.htm
In addition to the support generated by the site above (care of the UW Foundation), the University League has established a special Odyssey account to assist with unexpected expenses--basic living expenses and student emergencies. To contribute to this fund, please make checks payable to the University League Odyssey Fund and mail to:
Odyssey Project
628 Lowell Center
610 Langdon Street
Madison, WI 53703
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