Please join the DePaul Humanities Center and the Office of the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences for a special event investigating the future of the humanities.

From 8:00 p.m. June 2 until 8:00 p.m. June 3, the DePaul Humanities Center will be hosting “24 Hour George Saunders,” a marathon, public reading of everything that best-selling author and MacArthur “genius grant” winner George Saunders has ever published, culminating in a new lecture by Saunders in the final hour entitled, “Why the Humanities? Why Art?” Celebrity readers include Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, Academy Awardâ nominee Jesse Eisenberg, and a special surprise guest reader in the penultimate hour. Other DePaul faculty and students–as well as Chicago artists, authors, scholars, and celebrities–will also be reading for an hour according to the following schedule:

JUNE 2

1. 8-9pm: Jeff Tweedy
2. 9-10pm: Michael Arndt
3. 10-11pm: Sara Levine
4. 11pm-12am: Joe Gondolfi

JUNE 3

5. 12am-1am: Elizabeth King
6. 1am-2am: Danielle Meijer
7. 2am-3am: Sean Kirkland
8. 3am-4am: Rick Lee
9. 4am-5am: Tristan Fischl
10. 5am-6am: Logan Breitbart
11. 6am-7am: Evan Edwards
12. 7am-8am: Casey Hudetz
13. 8am-9am: Shailja Sharma
14. 9am-10am: Julie Moody-Freeman
15. 10am-11am: Anna Vaughn Clissold
16. 11am-12pm: Maryse Meijer
17. 12pm-1pm: Lindsay Hunter
18. 1pm-2pm: Jesse Eisenberg (via remote from NYC)
19. 2pm-3pm: Kevin Madden
20. 3pm-4pm: Christian TeBordo
21. 4pm-5pm: Adam Levin
22. 5pm-6pm: Lucy Rinehart
23. 6pm-7pm: SPECIAL SURPRISE GUEST READER
24. 7pm-8pm: George Saunders, “Why the Humanities? Why Art?”

Following the 24-hour marathon, The New Yorker will be publishing Saunders’ lecture to us. You will also be able to watch highlights from the marathon as well as all of Saunders’ address on the DePaul Humanities Center’s YouTube channel.

If you are on Twitter, you can follow us @DPU_Hum_Ctr

We are using #24hrsaunders to promote the event.

24 HOUR GEORGE SAUNDERS

WHEN

June 2 at 8 p.m. until June 3 at 8 p.m.

WHERE

DePaul University’s Lincoln Park Campus

Student Center, Room 120

2250 N Sheffield Ave.

This event is free and open to the public. Seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis throughout the 24-hour reading, and capacity will be limited.

WHO

George Saunders is a New York Times bestselling author who is known for his collections of short stories. His works include Congratulations, By the Way, Tenth of December, and CivilWarLand in Bad Decline. Born in Amarillo, Texas, Saunders grew up in the south suburbs of Chicago. He earned a degree in exploration geophysics from the Colorado School of Mines. After spending time as a geophysicist on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, Saunders returned to the United States to pursue a writing career. In 1992, his short story “Offloading for Mrs. Schwartz” became the first of many of his works that would be published in The New Yorker. In 2001, Saunders was selected by Entertainment Weekly as one of the 100 most creative people in entertainment, and by The New Yorker in 2002 as one of the best writers 40 and under. In 2006, he was awarded both a Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur “genius grant” Fellowship. In 2009, he received an Arts and Letters Award in literature (formerly Academy Award) from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Saunders earned a master’s degree from Syracuse University, where he has been teaching in the Master of Fine Arts program since 1996.

More information on George Saunders here.

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GUEST READER BIOS

June 2

• Jeff Tweedy, 8-9 p.m. The singer, songwriter and producer will help open the event. Best known for the bands Wilco and Uncle Tupelo, Tweedy is currently touring with his son Spencer in their band, Tweedy.
• Michael Arndt, 9-10 p.m. Editor of Crain’s Chicago Business, Arndt was previously senior editor and writer at BusinessWeek and business editor at the Chicago Tribune.
• Sara Levine, 10-11 p.m. Levine is the Chicago-based author of numerous essays, the novel Treasure Island!!! and the short story collection Short Dark Oracles. Levine teaches in the writing program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

June 3

• Lindsay Hunter, 12-1 p.m. Hunter is the author of Ugly Girls as well as the collections of short stories Daddy’s and Don’t Kiss Me. She is originally from Florida and currently lives in Chicago.
• Jesse Eisenberg, 1-2 p.m. Eisenberg is an Academy Award-nominated actor who is best known for his starring role as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in the film “The Social Network.” He has also starred in “Zombieland,” “30 Minutes or Less,” and “Now You See Me.” He will be portraying Superman villain Lex Luthor in next year’s “Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice.”
• Kevin Madden, 2-3 p.m. Madden is the Defense Intelligence Agency Chair at the United States Air Force Air University, and a professor at U.S. Air Force Air War College.
• Christian TeBordo, 3-4 p.m. TeBordo is an author and director of the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program at Roosevelt University. His most well-known work is the short story collection The Awful Possibilities, which was nominated as an American Library Association Notable Book and received accolades from Publishers Weekly and Booklist.
• Adam Levin, 4-5 p.m. Levin is an author well known for his short story collection Hot Pink and the novel The Instructions. Levin teaches Creative Writing and Literature at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Questions? Contact Alecia Person, DHC Office Manager, at aperson@depaul.edu.