Megan Whalen Turner – Author of Instead of Three Wishes: Magical Short Stories and The Thief, The Queen of Attolia and The King of Attolia

Anne Ursu – Author of Spilling Clarence and The Disapparation of James

Joseph White, Ph.D. – Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy, Chair of the Department of Political Science, and the Director of the Center for Policy Studies at Case Western Reserve University

Friday April 18, 2008
12:30-1:30 p.m.
Crawford Hall – Room 9
Inamori Center
Case Western Reserve University

As someone once said, “politics ain’t beanbag.” It can be a dirty game, and one excuse is that the ends justify the means, so ordinary morality does not apply.

But is that view justified? One way to think about this conflict is to step outside the explicitly political realm, and see how it is viewed in fiction for a variety of audiences. So this discussion will feature a political scientist, Joe White, and two accomplished novelists.

Megan Whalen Turner (http://home.att.net/~mwturner/) writes both short stories and novels for young adults. The Thief won a Newberry Honor award, and was followed by two other works in a trilogy.

Anne Ursu ( http://www.anneursu.com/ ) is the author of both two widely praised books for adults and two books of a trilogy, The Cronus Chronicles, for younger readers. We will begin by looking at popular works of fantasy aimed at younger readers, such as the Harry Potter series and The Lord of the Rings, but where we will end, nobody knows.

The Friday Lunch is a brown-bag event open to all.  Cookies and some beverages are provided

The remainder of this e-mail reports what we know about the schedule for the rest of the semester. We will be sending out announcements each week. If you would prefer not to receive the announcements, please inform Dr. Andrew Lucker, Associate Director of the Center for Policy Studies, by e-mail (andrew.lucker@case.edu).

About Our Guests

Megan Whalen Turner writes fiction for young adults. She took her BA with honors in English language and literature from the University of Chicago in 1987. Her first book, Instead Of Three Wishes, is a collection of seven stories. Her next three books form a series: The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, and The King of Attolia. All are published by HarperCollins.

Anne Ursu is the author of the novels Spilling Clarence and The Disapparation of James. Both books were Booksense 76 picks. Spilling Clarence was awarded a Minnesota Book Award, selected for Barnes and Noble’s Discover Great New Writers program, and nominated for a Bay Area Book Reviewers Award. Anne has written on theater and the arts in Minneapolis and Portland, ME, and her work has recently appeared in Glamour magazine. The books in her trilogy for children, The Cronus Chronicles will be published in 2006, 2007, and 2008.

Professor White came to Case in 2000 as Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for Policy Studies, and became Department Chair in 2003. He came to Cleveland from New Orleans, where he was Associate Professor of Health Systems Management in the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at Tulane University. Previously he was a Research Associate and then Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.. He received his A.B. from the University of Chicago and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Friday Lunch and Other Public Affairs Upcoming Topics and Speakers:

April 25: TBA

The Friday Lunch discussions are held on the lower (ground) level of Crawford Hall.  Visitors with mobility issues may find it easiest to take advantage of special arrangements we have made.  On most Fridays, a few parking spaces in the V.I.P. lot in between Crawford Hall and Amasa Stone Chapel are held for participants in the lunch discussion.

Visitors then can avoid walking up the hill to the first floor of Crawford by entering the building on the ground level, through the garage area under the building.  The further door on the left in that garage will be left unlocked during the period before the Friday lunch.  On occasion, parking will be unavailable because of other university events.

For more information about these and other Center for Policy Studies programs, please see http://policy.case.edu.