Editor of The Paris Review, author of two books — A Cold Case and We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families — former New Yorker staff writer and Errol Morris collaborator Philip Gourevitch was the guest of Pitt’s English department yesterday.
First he had lunch with graduate students, including me; then he did a master class, which I attended without speaking (uncharacteristic, believe me); then he was swept off for dinner with faculty; then he read at the Frick Fine Arts lecture hall (pictured); then he signed and got stuck at a reception, at which point it was more than 10 hours since that lunch and we couldn’t talk him into a single post-event cocktail. (“George Saunders did!” failed to convince him).
He was impassioned and smart — no surprise. I’d write what he said, but the master class was off the record, and his Q&A, while excellent, was directed by the somewhat random questions from the audience (one man really, really wanted to talk about Sierra Leone).
Upcoming is the Errol Morris project — Standard Operating Procedure, a film about Abu Ghraib, followed by a book by Morris and Gourevitch, due out in May. Want to get Gourevitch fired up? Ask a question about Abu Ghraib. I mean, he’s articulate about Sierra Leone – but he’s pissed about Iraq.
