Francisco Cantú, author of “The Line Becomes A River: Dispatches from the Border,” will be on campus to provide insights about the terror and tragedy of the migrants who risk and lose their lives attempting to cross the border as part of the 2021 Hardesty Festival of Ideas Tuesday, Nov. 16, at 7 p.m., in the Mountainlair Ballrooms.
Cantú, whose book was chosen as the WVU Campus Read book for the 2021-22 academic year, will be available to sign copies of his book which can also be purchased at the event.
This event is co-sponsored by the WVU Humanities Center and the WVU Campus Read.
Cantú is a writer, translator and winner of the 2018 Los Angeles Times Book Prize and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in nonfiction. A former Fulbright fellow, he is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize, a Whiting Award and an Art for Justice fellowship.
His writing and translations have been featured in The New Yorker, Best American Essays, Harper’s and Guernica, as well as on This American Life. A lifelong resident of the Southwest, he now lives in Tucson, where he coordinates the Field Studies in Writing Program at the University of Arizona.
Complimentary e-tickets are required and are available on Eventbrite.
Created in 1995 by President Emeritus David C. Hardesty, Jr., the Hardesty Festival of Ideas is a speaker series inspired by Hardesty’s time as the WVU’s student body president. The festival aims to bring diverse and dynamic public figures and thought leaders to engage with the campus community and spark dialogue about important issues in modern society.