Story, those of you who have not been here before its where the 20s in the 60s and 70s were the ukrainian socialist club. The owner actually dennis, in fact he was a defender and is now surrounded in a transition apparently. So were going to introduce someone who does not need an introduction but it fits. We have something really extravaganza, we have opera, discussions, bellydancing, down the bank if you notice a lady with a typewriter, you can go up and say anything and shall write one for you. Lets stop with the conversations and please welcome paul theroux as we celebrate his 51st book apparently,. There are 31 novels, 19 troubled books and one criticism. The wall street journal actually says 56. But anyway he just celebrated his new book on the plain of snakes. And in any case [inaudible] can you hear me. Can you hear me, did you hear the joke. [laughter] thank you very much for being here. I have never been here before to this particular place, it is delightful. I know tony so this should be fun. We can guarantee it. Normally when we do this tragically in the groups but theres always interesting in the highlevel books. What was it that makes you go where the explosion of crazy then expert is going to be donald trump. I was working on a novel and was trump talking about the border, it reminded me of something that had happened, i wrote a book called deep south, a road trip around the south of the neck and they went to mexico, and for the first time at, i had been to mexico a number of times but never gone or walked across the board. Except maybe long ago in tijuana. But in this occasion, it was 2012, 2011 2012. And i saw, how many have been a new balance arizona . Okay not too many. Go there sometime, it is more dramatic than other places on the border. You will park your car outside of a drugstore indicate remember the name of the street and the street is down the hill and then theres a fence and had formally been from a Landing Strip during the gulf war. They repurpose them for offense. Its 30 feet high, you cannot see through its a big rusty fence. As far as you can see in both directions and going up or down the hill, you know who crystal is, it looks like that, i really amazing. So the crystal sense that you cannot think engines either rested at that time there was a turnstile in the door so i was with another good and nice and what are we doing he said go through so shows his drivers license and he went to the fence and stepped into mexico and on the other side there was music playing in dentist a lot of people went to the dentist of the teeth white. But walking down the street through the door i was in another country. I have traveled in 1963 and i never seen anything like it. Ive never seen a board with a giant fence and i had never seen a border we just open the door and walk there in your there. Its a most amazing world we live in an dramatic experience. And on the same visit i went to a korma door, kitchen and admit migrants at the kicked out. Thats another story. But i kept that in my mind which is when they talk about the border i say a been to the border, ive seen the fence you walk through it and its different on the other side another country and this experience of walking across the border into another culture is a rare and wonderful experience. I crossed every border china, russia, brazil, venezuela, name it into canada, into italy, name a country, this is totally different so trump was talking about mexicans and rapists and murderers and bringing drugs in trouble. And i thought, what are the reasons for travel to destroy stereotypes. And to show life as it should be and to show the human side and human face of another country. So i thought we know trump is wrong but because i have totes fun with the retreat because im sure all of you have taken a road trip at one time or another, its not like taking the train or bus, you wake up and you have your froot loops in a styrofoam bowl and put groups in the milk on the froot loops in the motel and then again the car and hit the road and drive. I thought that the ultimate freedom. The other thing people said dont do it and dont do it is a motivator. Dont try to mexico or you will die. And i thought i like that, thats a challenge. I can meet that challenge. Even if they say it is bad, theres something to write about. Its great the food is great, the people are friendly and its wonderful, its like home, thats a place i dont want to go but if they say its difficult you might die and you need a vehicle importation permit and all of these challenges motivated me, what if something goes wrong, all right about it writers have the last words. So well take a road trip just like i did in the south, i could go anywhere in my car and there is a tradition to mexico and on the road there in the car driving around to go to mexico city. I also thought the border has two sites. So if i drive along the border i could go back and forth drivein or go out or driving a walker crossed and i could see the whole border so ultimately went up and down the border 2000 miles this way, 2000 not way and then went deep into mexico and ended up there were very welcoming. It was such fun and so illuminating and so antitrump. But what were clarifying instead of saying is a joke. You see immigrants posting on other immigrants. All of the wives are two of them and anyways are immigrants and he sang the rubbish. That is a long version, all of those were motivating in the excitement of the anticipation of destroying the stereotypes and also the challenge, meaning cops and the police in the spirit of america. The first time happen was a mexico city and i have to pay bribes but the first time happen the guy was on a motorcycle and he said follow me and i said what the problem and he said its about your license plate and is there some way we can solve this he said no, i said how and he said 300. Youre joking, whats your name. Antonio. [speaking in foreign language] you know what i do to you, i believe you up and he took his motorcycle people are going by and he screaming at me. You have the gun and the mace he said show me the wallet and he took everything out of the wallet which is 200. In the next one was 300 and that cost me, my total and bribes was 11 or 1200 altogether and that such rich. [laughter] last time i was in bali the guy said your passport is going to run out and i said so and he said in order to get a visa you have to get three months on your passport and i said isnt there some way to resolve that. [laughter] and he said what do you do for a living and i sit and retire, i dont do anything and he said what did you do and i said i was a geography teacher. [laughter] so i gave him 20, i gave the cop 20. But in volley he said you have to do better than that. So i got 100 i think it was 120 and he said im going to put you on the next plane and i said that would be very inconvenient because my wife just went through customs and he said i dont care this is indonesia. Paradise of people dancing and flowers in their hair so i said heres 120 and if f put me on the next plane, i dont care. Anyway long story, he came back and said okay i gave him the visa. But then they said how much did you give him and he said what happened and i said you know happen and he said how much did you give him and i said 100 and he said you are lucky, you are so lucky. He said there was a chinese guy here last week and it cost him 900 and i said what does a guy do for a living and he said energy, a ceo and i said im not a ceo im a retired geography teacher. So if anyone asked abroad what you do for living just say im a freelancer. [laughter] but dont let that color your idea of mexico, its driving anywhere. Problematic. I had problems in texas. [laughter] in mexico city you decided to hold the wor woodshop. That was the same one i was going and my friend said you have another reality. What i did was, i recommend this to you where you go to a place and do something pro bono, your very own important person in your going to a place or people are important in your observing. I thought i need friends, i need allies and need to understand the culture. I volunteered to hold a master class in writing for nothing. I said i will not charge you anything and i dont want to be paid anything. But lets have lunch, improve my spanish and by the way i have my car and in the trunk i have two big boxes of books of mine in spanish that were in my basement but i dont know what to do with them. Theyre all books in spanish. So i handed them out, i gave him a ways and handed them out. And because in any country you need to earn respect and one way of earning respect, you dont take something away, you bring something there and i brought myself and two weeks of studying and reading the essays and stories and so forth, so that worked and it was away of earning respect, mexican respect to the matter will happen but if you have a friend in mexico, you have a true friend and everyone is respectful and much more respectful to older people then americans are. Old people in the states are treated like they dont really exist, the worthless, they dont spend money, they dont go to the movies and marketing is aimed at the 18 35, they will buy stuff, they will buy music and a retired person will not by an album or justin bieber, so this marketing attitude has filtered down and made older people on important, they do not matter. Mexico does not matter their marketing impulse does not affect them. And its an older gringo, i got respect and then a teacher and i realized i like being a teacher the last teaching job i had was in singapore, i was talking to cheryl who wrote a book in singapore and i left there in 1971 so i was a little rusty. [laughter] but i was in hawaii for 30 years and nobody has asked me that and ive never been to the university. Because they were interested i am too but i realized teaching is fun, its really wonderful and was responsive students it is just great. What were they like . Half of them were published novelist and another problem mexican writing is not translated so mexican writing is an immense amount and its wonderful writing so you know who carlos is, but most mexican writers were published in mexico and one is called guadalupe in ontraffic and wonderful writersn guadalupe is in prizewinning and spain so they were accomplished writer i have them all right and were gonna drop bilingual based on class. I had not taught at all, teaching is exhausting too, are you a teacher . No im not. [laughter] so its very timeconsuming and exhausting but not as exhausting as studying. I think of ground students, studying is really critiquing in the language. Anyways they would go to mexico, hundreds of books, name a writer and he or she has probably been to mexico, name a writer they have all gone there and generally mocked mexicans, huxley criticized and english person reviewing the sunset. What a disgusting sunset you have. So the mexicans had a shady little sunset. And he was there in the 30s when he was president and his book is full of i hate mexicans i hate mexican food, hit this country and hate these people he wrote a novel but her trouble book i hated. [laughter] i didnt realize you had a book in singapore. And this is a trouble book. I have had something where you should not mention this i was in the peace corps and it was called it became malawi when i was there it became independent. I wrote several novels and malawi but more to the point the Mosquito Coast was banned in south africa in 1981 and 82 here when they had a white supremacist government. So there was beyond and the coast is a harmless book but its racial angle and other race getting along ben mondello got out of prison and this was in 91 or 92, i got a phone call from an editor Penguin Books and he said we just had a substantial order for the Mosquito Coast for 200,000 copies and i said holy crap, really i dont know wire said holy crap but i did. [laughter] and he said and i said what the story he said its been chosen by the new government in south africa as a set book and that was in the early 90s, so if you know anyone who is at school and south africa from 93 to 97, they have read the Mosquito Coast. [laughter] so ive met people and they said your name looks familiar oe read your book in school but had been banned so whats more satisfying your book is beyond and then you sell 200,000 copies, its wonderful. Its going to be an apple movie book. Apple is making movies to do no, so the Mosquito Coast will be a ten part tv. When you make a movie and youre on tv and you meet so many people that respect you. [laughter] you on tv, my nephew is going to be in it his name is justin hes married to jennifer. [laughter] and is going to be in so were all happy about that. And when the tv show is on i will get major points. [applause] peoplesoft did you make under meet her son ford i met robert frost and nobody cares about that. Did you intend to me or was that your plan in 1994 when it became official january 1, 1994 and apparition appeared in a man on a horse followed by a lot of other mass men and women came and rode to town on that day. They were living in the jungle for 11 years. This took al castro a couple of months and amounts. These are serious revolutionary living and learning the language in the jungle. Serious guys. No one has ever seen his face in the mask. In the class they said what would you like and i said introduce me too people i want to see i want to go to the main chapel the trouble of holy death shes a skeleton, youve heard of her. Go to any home of a drug trafficker and there will be a portrait or image on the wall. She is the saint for people who are lawless and outside the law, hopeless pork and people dont have a clue. The chapel is a growing faith. To worship holy death. I said i want to go they said it might be dangerous and i said you asked, they said you can read about it in the book and i said i would like to meet and one guy said i know him, my father was his mentor and i arrange is provided you do some prepared when he said speak at an event, a secret event. And i said will lie, yes sure ill do it. [laughter] yeah sure wome win. He said in april. Anything we dont know his movements i guarantees there. But to make a long story short i went with the threeday event they came out of the jungle and wore masks it was a secret location and i talked about the border and you go where theres a quarter a Million People one high school and those people are making seatbelts for you and headphones and all this junk and they said its great its great. Actually there exploited underpaid workers and i talked about that high go to the average village they were Clinic School and a possible court, they dont kill civilians, everybody else kills civilians. They only engaged the mexican army. They never killed civilians. And you find the 5000 people in the uk were killed by the protestants. The putting bombs and buses and they never did that. I admire the most post modern humane revolutionaries and as luck would have it i made a friend and also bribing how do you get there, i said i drove and he was there and i give them a hug and again, my talk and we chatted, it was a wonderful experience. People go to mexico to have a mojito in cancun something i dont do but that sealer mexico and then theres the mexico of this tradition of revolution and social concern in antigovernment. They hate their government as much as we hate trump. They dont even talk about trump because they feel as if the government has let them down. So i ended up and driving around it was wonderful. Im going to wrap it up for questions in a minute. But the 51 books, can you give us a clue of you reaching is it a religious thing customer. I started off, i was a premed student and i cannot afford medical school and i was afraid i was going to be drafted to the army, i drafte graduating 1953 i joined the peace corps and went to africa, before i was a mere animal before i went to africa if i had ryan oneill jesse jackson, martha stewart, cheney, bob dylan, mike bloomberg, is there any link there that you see . Were all the same age. Imagine cheney in a car driving up and down you cannot do it. Martha stewart, im the same age as bob dylan, sometimes magazines send you Business Class but you love to go coach, i cannot go coach im too old to fly from honolulu to madagascar. Imagine cheney or bob dylan. [laughter] but that is a fact, i collect people who are born people who graduated from high school in 1959, thats when i graduated. Mike bloomberg was in my high school, i was in boy scouts with him. And bob dylan and 62 i saw him in Harvard Square in the top 47 anyway 41. [inaudible] thats okay but thats the name i would collect, hes a year older. But look at cheney, his monstrosity, hes a zombie. [laughter] he looks like he is from a Cohen Brothers movie with tubes coming out. And ryan oneill, is he still alive . But we cannot talk about, and then in mexico i met a guy who was my age, we lived to the same. See music, same disruption in the vietnam war. And when i meet someone my age i am thrilled because we sell the same world, my writing habits, this is related to that, i joined the school and i had something to write about, i published a book when i was in africa, a novel came out and 67. How long ago was that, 52 years ago before any of you were born, and then i applied i went to singapore and applied for guggenheim fellowship. And i did not get it. So i had to work very hard, i started a review book and was working on a book in england and then i met a guy and he said i know a guy called gordon ray, i said i dont have any money, im an angry wife and two kids in it and got no money. Im just working and then i published four novels, three novels and a book. He said youre in for guggenheim and i did not get it and when they reject me they spelled my name wrong is anything worse than that. [laughter] so it turned out in a way i always felt i have to make a living as a writer and i cannot turn anything down. Someone says write a book about a favorite piece of luggage, okay or short story about christmas, great. A childrens book, fine, no one suggested a travel book they were all based on ideas i had, i want to go to china, pacific, write a book about albania or whatever, no went over said the print so basically the necessities of making a living forced me to get up every morning and write something. I never had a day off, i never had a graduate student, typist or secretary or grant i applied for them, and i wouldve gladly had them but i never got them. So in a way my living i made a living by writing in the necessity of raising a family sending the kids to school and living my life that i have to produce the books every year. And i never turned anyone down. Any reasonable offer i was okay. And i had a lucky break, and 72 i left singapore and lived in england and i saw the movie in when you sell a movie is sometimes happens again. But it was my idea and i sold the options Eleanor Perry made a film called david and lisa in the 60s before your time and she had a book that was going to be a movie so the optioning of books which became movies and others not became an annuity and always making money by renewing their options on the books. Then i wrote a book and it was successful and you dont make a ton of money writing a book you probably make more money with a guggenheim but not getting any help or financial help made me focus every day and focus on finishing a book so i never left anything undone. So thats how it happened. I never had any interest in writing is curious to know who george is, hes my hero, he wrote hundreds of books a couple hundred novels. Im interested when writer stop writing but honestly but he is a prolific and i feel very strongly that the more you write the more capable you are a writing and if you cannot write probably you have nothing to say, someone told me theres a guy called hes a hispanic writer and teaches at mit he wrote one book. Do you know who i mean . Hispanic i so he wrote one book, and emily wrote one book. Fine. But general diaz give a talk and he was tormented. Hes been working on a book and he cannot finish a book he cannot even start the book he does not know where hes going with the book and this person said its amazing this guy is a guy, he has money and he has a gig, hes hispanic people love them and he wrote one book successful in his tormented he cannot write the book. Maybe has nothing to write, maybe he does not have an idea or want to write another book or does not how to do it its a judgment you write a book and that does not mean you will write another book. But if you dont have an idea, no matter how much money you get you will not write the book. Its having something to write helps. And i come from a large talkative family where storytelling was an activity so i never found it difficult and never had writers block. And im not complaining, im just saying i dont think you need money to write or guggenheim or i proved it. What you need is friends, sympathetic editor, and agent, someone who believes in you and it probably will not be your family, maybe what you should do, people say am trained to write a book and i said where are you living in they say my mothers basement, i said move, leave, go to brazil, go to abu dhabi, they were just ask you questions, what are you doing down there, the meatloaf is ready. , im writing mom. What about the meatloaf. Leave. What the site is what are you going to write, who will publish it. Get away from your family and having a friend or spouse or lover in somebody who believes in you. That helps but especially going away helps me in the recommended. When i have trouble writing i say go to india, go get a job somewhere. Get a job and be a teacher but go someone else and make a living and youll find maybe itll happen. When you ill repeat the question because Everybody Knows were being recorded by cspan so they need to be able to hear everything. My question is in the increment of publishing today and you saying what you really want to say, my Favorite Book [inaudible] how is it important versus writing what you want to write. [inaudible] editing has changed over the last 50 years. Publishing has become much more about business and when i started in the 60s it was not a business it was a lot of guys saying that is interesting, what about the editing and they said will send it straight to the print. [laughter] but the marketing of it, the business which is sensible, that took over so i understood your question slightly differently which is the project tree of writing, lately ive been reading nathaniel, have you read him . The day of the locus. He also wrote a book called this lonely heart. Two masterpieces in the road to other books one called a cool million in the dream life, he died when he was 37 years old and he died near the Mexican Border and when i was in high school and college, i read Nathaniel West and lately ive been rereading i read the date of the locus, have any of you read this . Let me tell you something, do yourself a favor and read this book, its a best book ever written about hollywood and los angeles and its a true surrealistic in which you can come believe in some extravagant things, its a Great American novel in this lonely heart is about a man who writes a vice and is never named you though is called the lonely heart. So west was jewish and he was changing his name and his brotherinlaw nash mack when i wrote my first book it was deeply influenced by my reading of Nathaniel West. Im interested that a couple people read it, god bless you for reading it. These schools are such crop. There is a court of American Literature that is so great but so neglected. In mark twains travel books were never studied and he was a new yorker. And he deeply influenced me. My early work was influenced of the 1930s and 40s and he was taught all of it is great. Fitzgerald died at the age of 41 years old and all his books were out in print. So the books i read in high school using the library affected me and i took her question to be that. These were books and they were defiant books and funny books. And i did not realize at the time when they were First Published they do not sell very well. Anyway my work was that and then went to africa and as i said away from my family and away from the United States with the perspective of the war going on in africa which affected me a lot and i had something to write about, i had a big subject i was in africa when big events are taken place. I could write about that and put myself in the position. The same with joseph conrad. [inaudible] [inaudible] i would say im not an angry person but one piece of advice i would give to anyone whos having trouble writing and see things as they are and see the world as it actually is by being unsparing ive made a lot of enemies and ive had a lot of bad reviews, and cranky. [laughter] im not irrational, im easy to get along with. You cannot be in an rational traveler, people will kill you. [laughter] you had to be fairly continual. We regularly took the bus to washington to the white house as a nuclear testing, the war on vietnam was beginning around in 63, who went to the white house and 63. Kennedy. And later they were picking johnson. Whos picketing the white house now youre the biggest hole in the white house and where are the people hammering on the fence, none of them. Kennedy is responsible in vietnam, heres a guy. Plausible in all of that. But people are protesting that and the democrats and the white house, i cant be in an angry student, and mine angry student, no im indignant of why the opposition, and we know who trumpeters but why are the democrats so into factual and why can we not beat them at the polls and why could they not completely hammer away. Now there hammering away a little bit. Why are they sympathetic. There is a lineup and abate the world missing. What are they doing their yapping and pulling each other down and insulting each other they should go after trauma or do something. I am disappointed that there is not more social and the students are not throwing things at trump and making his life miserable which is what we did. Johnson did not run for second term because he so unnerved, he was unnerved by people picketing the white house. And johnson was a good guy and passing civil rights of a solution but he was unnerved that the vietnam war was going on and people were protesting in big numbers. He said i had enough and he went back to texas. So you need to be defiant and rebel and do what writer should do. From a position of strength present a disturbing provision as the world it is. Then things change, if you dont do that nothing will change you just say okay ill take my grandma by house and a freezer but will get a guggenheim and thatll be fun. [laughter] but you dont need money to write. You just need defiance and spirit. [applause] [inaudible] me as a legal immigrant in this country, how being a rebel [inaudible] [inaudible conversations] here is the big subject, one of the problems is some of you have students and children who are students but the trouble with the university life, English Department have failed to promote real literature in aid of diversity or correctness because of a title or Something Like that, but if everyone knows that thats a snowflake. But also students and parents are customers that the marketing aspect of university and colleges is so intense to get an education you are burning something in your customer and student and at the end it is going to happen, he needs a job he will get it because you paid this money in a never thought of myself as a client, i thought it was a student in a listening to the teacher when i thought ive not bought anything i just paid for the education but i never felt that the university owed me a job, i have to find my own work and if i can find a hero find in central africa. Its a real problem that the customer aspect and for the money is in fact in the fact that you learn a great deal going to another country and being small but people are so concerned about getting a job and i were gonna buy house and will we do and when will we have children. You have one life, if you have children send them away. [laughter] tell them to go make a living somewhere else, go to india, vietnam, brazil, go away join the peace corps, be a teacher, just go do something. The process of individuation is finding out you in the process, become who you are. Go away find a way from your community and your village and family and by no fewer than what your life should be. And i suppose of becoming, its amazing how the individual somehow the imperative of living a life is so important to people that they forget theres a big world out there and they think maybe ill go there on a honeymoon period. The mexicans and people and communities all over mexico bring those canadians americans germans, living. Thats a different story im talking about the other people. When talking about discretion about its to do with something to do with the way we are looking at ourselves and the world and not encouraged. Although we picketed the white house kennedy in his much quoted inaugural speech said, among other things, there are doctors graduating today from american universities who should consider going to ghana to work in hospitals in ghana. Can you imagine trump saying that . Or even obama saying that . Or even mitt romney or anyone saying that. Which is you got a great education, why not go to another country and be a teacher or bring your expertise there whatever it is Computer Programming are our dentist, go somewhere and bring that expertise. No one says that, no one thinks that. You want to change the lives of the people you are among. You are not going to make people in that country healthier but you will be different for it. Thats my advice to young people and also someone who wants to be a writer, thats how you become a writer is being uprooted from your circumstances. And then you see the world in a new way. I know you will be signing books. One last question then we will get you signing books and a im sorry to ramble. Forgive me. [laughter] [inaudible] [inaudible question] if youre a 20yearold in hong kong today, what would your daily life be like . I would be doing what they are doing. What they are doing is amazing its because of social media. They are all linked up. What they are doing, they are getting very little encouragement for it. Look at tim cook comes from alabama. You know who tim cook is. Billionaire. Make stuff in china. Hes lifted millions of chinese out of poverty. He said he was going to give some money, were my book about deep south. I thought alabama is defunding schools. Tim cook was to give them some money. I thought, give them some work. They dont need guggenheim, they dont need fulbright, what they need is work. People in the south are willing to work. So what is apple doing in the face of homophobia, persecution of the shinhey are just making stuff. They dont give a aone way or another. They say, you want us to move this app . Why . They are americans. They are supposed to believe in democracy and freedom. They are interested in money. And money. The idea that they will use their fortune to uplift poor people in america is both. Thats utter bull. So what i do . Id be indignant about that. The fact that so Many Americans are just going along with the chinese line of suppression. Suppressing free speech, putting clamps on the press and persecuting minorities like other ethnic minorities in china. You might be interested to know you mentioned two books, when they were published they got very bad reviews. Hes grumpy, he doesnt believe abchina is reforming. Paul thoreau doesnt seem to realize these people are really trying to modernize china. They worked. When i was in china 1986 and 87. They were doing what they were doing to the people in hong kong now. There was a Democracy Movement in 86 and 87 and they were being persecuted. That was before abwhat would i be doing . Hooking up at them. Theres an element of, do you know a poem called rather fire by louis mcnees . When our brother fire was having its dog day running the london streets we said give the dog a bone. Its about the blitz in london. Your assignment tonight is looked on the internet, louis mcnees, brother fire. Its about the blitz and the excitement of defiance. Not only the structure but how exciting it is. And give the dog a bone. So brother fire, we can relate to this because this is the world being turned upside down. Its not tragic, its wild, its exciting, something is changing. The world is on fire. So brother fire. I can tell you, as a student activist, its not all hail, fire, its terrible, theres an element of abits activity. You are with a group of people. You are part of this protest movement. It can be very vitalizing. To be a protester. I dont know whether you noticed this about the protesters but not saying they are having a good time but the other book you have to read for your homework is proud and power. By elias canetti. Its about the movements of crowds and what crowds, the power that crowd of people, the power that protesters have. He talks about the hunting pack the group and then the crowd that builds in. Crowds and power by elias canetti. You cant download it, you have to buy it. Louis mcnees, brother fire. Brother fire is about abthe blitz was terrible we thought we were going to die. Mcnees said, you know the poem, mcnees was a friend of wh arden. Is this aspect of writing of protests which has an exciting element. I mentioned the upper teeth said you could be protesting at nafta and the government there but there is something exciting about that too. That excitement people need to share that and its shareable through social media. So there you go. On that note, paul is going to sign books, you can buy the books over there, paul will sign them. There will be dancing on a mexican theme. Please give a abthank you so much. [applause] thank you. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] you notice a lady in a typewriter she is writing haiku is you can pick a theme she will write from a haiku. [applause] [inaudible background conversations] [inaudible background conversations] next on booktv hugh seaburg professor david kirp outlined his ideas on how colleges and universities can reduce the achievement gap and increase the number of graduates. Later, nikki haley recounts her time as u. S. Ambassador to the United Nations in the trump administration. Followed by author and journalist abomni nazi war criminals who secretly emigrated to the United States following world war ii. That all starts now, check your Program Guide for more information. Good evening everyone and welcome to the latest edition of the coop author series. Tonight we are very pleased to have with us david kirp, who will be talking about his book the College Dropout scandal. Which is published earlier this year. David kirp is a professor at the university of california berkeley. Where he teaches public policy. In addition, the