Tickets available to hear Rick Bragg and Tony Barnhart at

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Date: January 11, 2010 Contact: Maiben Beard, 334-844-4903, [email protected] Tickets available to hear Rick Bragg and Tony Barnhart at “Becoming Alabama” symposium Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Bragg and Tony “Mr. College Football” Barnhart will speak at Auburn University on January 21-22, 2011. Rick Bragg is the dinner speaker on Friday, January 21, at 6 p.m. Tony Barnhart will give the luncheon address on Saturday, January 22, at noon. Both programs will take place at the Hotel at Auburn and Dixon Conference Center. Tickets to the Bragg program are $50; lunch with Barnhart is $30. Reservations may be made online at www.auburn.edu/cah or by calling 334-844-4946. After growing up in the community of Possum Trot near Jacksonville, Alabama, Bragg worked at several newspapers before joining the New York Times in 1994. He covered murders and unrest in Haiti, then wrote about the Oklahoma City bombing, the Jonesboro killings, the Susan Smith trial and more as a national correspondent based in Atlanta. He currently teaches at the University of Alabama's journalism program in its College of Communications. His most recent book is The Most They Ever Had, set in Jacksonville and described as a brilliant evocation of the “hardscrabble lives of those who lived and died by an American cotton mill.” th

Barnhart’s talk is entitled “College Football Is Not a Game. It Is a Way of Life.” Now in his 34 season as a reporter for television, radio and the internet, Barnhart can be heard on “The Tony Barnhart Show” (CBS) and is a regular commentator on “College Football Today” (CBS). His “Talkin’ Football” airs weekly on CSS. The 1999 Georgia Sports Writer of the Year, Barnhart was the 2009 recipient of the Bert McGrane Award, which represents the Football Writers Association of America wing of the College Football Hall of Fame. A reporter for the Atlanta JournalConstitution for 24 years, he continues to write a daily college football blog, “Mr. College Football,” on ajc.com. Both speakers are part of the Auburn University College of Liberal Arts two-day public symposium, “Becoming Alabama: Who, What, When, Where and Why.” Focusing on how the press has recorded, reported and shaped Alabama politics, culture and opinion, “Becoming Alabama” will also feature popular columnist Rheta Grimsley Johnson, NPR’s Debbie Elliott and faculty and students from the College of Liberal Arts’ Department of Communication and Journalism. The conference is open to the public. For additional information and a list of presenters, visit www.auburn.edu/cah or call 334-844-4946. Students may register at no cost. ###