Lakeland University Blog

LUJ faculty member authors second book

LUJ faculty member authors second book

Blog

LUJ faculty member authors second book

Patrick Parr, a faculty member for Lakeland University-Japan’s English for Academic Purposes (EAP) program, has authored a new book entitled “One Week in America: The 1968 Notre Dame Literary Festival and a Changing Nation.”

The non-fiction work is a day-to-day narrative of the 1968 Notre Dame Sophomore Literary Festival, which occurred during one chaotic week when college students, talented authors and presidential candidates grappled with major national events.

Parr used archive centers, newspaper microfilm and original interviews with over 20 Notre Dame graduates to write “One Week in America.” He also incorporated into the story never-before-published letters from festival attendees (and some of the century’s biggest authors) Joseph Heller, Ralph Ellison, Kurt Vonnegut, Wright Morris and Norman Mailer. They are among the major players in this story, along with Martin Luther King Jr., Lyndon B. Johnson and William F. Buckley Jr.

Parr is also the author of “The Seminarian: Martin Luther King Jr. Comes of Age,” and a history columnist for Japan Today. Other work has appeared in The Atlantic, Politico, American History Magazine and the Boston Globe. In 2014, he was awarded an Artist Trust Fellowship for his literary career.


Learn more at his website www.patrickparr.com.

“One Week in America” is published by Chicago Review Press. Those interested can order a copy at the publisher’s website, or at Amazon.