Self-expression and communication through writing is an invaluable skill in today’s fast-paced, digitally interconnected world. Pen to Purpose, created by Professor Efrat Friedman, demonstrates the real-life application of strong writing skills. The series consists of visits from a wide range of published professionals who engage in interview-style discussions with Professor Friedman. The interviews, open to NSU students and the wider community, focus on how each published work enriched or changed the course of the respective writer’s career. Discussions are followed by a Q&A with the audience.
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Cultivating Writing as a Brand of Professionalism with David Sipress
Efrat Friedman
David Sipress has been a staff cartoonist at The New Yorker since 1998. He has published nearly seven hundred cartoons in the magazine. His cartoons have also appeared in many other publications including: Time, Parade, Playboy, Funny Times, and The Washington Post. David has published eight collections of his cartoons and has lectured widely on his work. What’s So Funny, A Cartoonist’s Memoir is a compelling story about David’s life and the art of cartooning.
Topics covered during the discussion will include: Art as a means of communication; is a picture worth a thousand words? The significance of art in today’s world, and art as a therapeutic means to deal with the past.
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Cultivating Writing as a Brand of Professionalism with Jen Maxfield
Efrat Friedman
A conversation with Jen Maxfield about her new book More After the Break: A Reporter Returns to Ten Unforgettable News Stories. In More After the Break, Maxfield revisits the most memorable stories she has covered during her two-decade career, describing in heart-pounding detail how the events unfolded through eyewitness perspectives and her own.
Jen Maxfield is an Emmy award-winning reporter and anchor who started at NBC New York in 2013. Prior to joining the station, she worked for Eyewitness News (ABC7) In New York City. She launched her journalism career with WIVT-TV (Binghamton, NY) and WIXT-TV (Syracuse, NY). She has reported live from thousands of news events over her twenty-two-year career.
Maxfield is also an Adjunct Professor at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, where she teaches broadcast journalism.
Topics covered during the discussion will include: How strong writing skills correspond to high-level reporting, the different types of writing within the medium, and the change in quality of reporting with news publications downsizing.
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Cultivating Writing as a Brand of Professionalism with Neal Bascomb
Efrat Friedman
A conversation with Neal Bascomb about his latest book Faster; How a Jewish Driver, an American Heiress, and a Legendary Car beat Hitler’s Best. Bascomb is a national award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of multiple non-fiction narratives including: The Escape Artists, Hunting Eichmann, and Red Mutiny. Bascomb’s stories incorporate history, adventure and achievement, and bravery, often times set against the backdrop of war or revolution. His work has been translated into over fifteen languages, featured in several documentaries, and optioned for major film and television projects. Bascomb is also the creator of Work/Craft/Life, a newsletter about the illuminating stories of our lives told through our work/craft. Topics covered during the discussion will include: Faster and its materialization into an action-packed adventure, Bascomb’s literary journey, and the intersectionality of journalism, non-fiction, and fiction.
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Pen to Purpose: Cultivating Writing as a Brand of Professionalism with David Weill, MD
Efrat Friedman
Join us online or in-person for a conversation with David Weill, MD, author of Exhale.
Exhale is the riveting memoir of a top transplant doctor who rode the emotional rollercoaster of saving and losing lives—until it was time to step back and reassess his own life.
Learn more about the author here.
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Pen to Purpose: Cultivating Writing as a Brand of Professionalism with Jai Chakrabarti
Efrat Friedman
Join us for a conversation with Jai Chakrabarti, author of A Play for the End of the World.
Travel with us from the Warsaw Ghetto to Shantiniketan, India to discover how the same play was both a source of comfort during the darkest of hours, and decades later, an act of protest against political injustice.
Learn more about the author at jaichakrabarti.com
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Pen to Purpose: Cultivating Writing as a Brand of Professionalism with Jean Hanff Korelitz
Efrat Friedman
Join us online or in-person for a conversation with Jean Hanff Korelitz, the New York Times bestselling author of the novels The Plot, You Should Have Known (adapted for HBO as "The Undoing" by David E. Kelley and starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant).
Jacob Finch Bonner was once a promising young novelist with a respectably published first book. Today, he's teaching in a third-rate MFA program and struggling to maintain what's left of his self-respect; he hasn't written--let alone published--anything decent in years. When Evan Parker, his most arrogant student, announces he doesn't need Jake's help because the plot of his book in progress is a sure thing, Jake is prepared to dismiss the boast as typical amateur narcissism. But then . . . he hears The Plot.
Learn more about the author here.
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Pen to Purpose: Cultivating Writing as a Brand of Professionalism with Malcolm Mitchell
Efrat Friedman
Please join us online or in-person for a conversation with Malcolm Mitchell, former wide receiver for the New England Patriots and author of the children’s book, The Magician’s Hat and My Very Favorite Book in the Whole Wide World.
Malcolm Mitchell presents the story of a magician who reveals an awe-inspiring treasure from his bag of tricks -- books that make every kid's dream come true! This is not your typical afternoon at the library -- a magician invites kids to reach into his hat to pull out whatever they find when they dig down deep. Soon -- poof! -- each child comes away with something better than they could've imagined -- a book that helps them become whatever they want to be, and makes their dreams come true through pages and words, and the adventures that follow.
Malcolm Mitchell is the rookie who helped the New England Patriots win Super Bowl LI. He's also the founder of an initiative called Read with Malcolm, which introduces book ownership to students, and works to improve literacy in schools. Malcolm's Share the Magic Foundation promotes the benefits of reading to kids in underserved communities.