International Reporting to be Lecture Topic

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Veteran New York Times reporter Howard French will talk about international reporting when he delivers the next Crain Lecture Monday, April 14, at Northwestern University.

Part of the popular, admission-free lecture series presented by Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism, French's talk is titled "A View of the World: The Life and Career of a Foreign Correspondent in Changing Times." Open to the public, it will take place at 4 p.m. in the McCormick Tribune Center Forum, 1870 Campus Drive, Evanston campus.

French, who has worked for 22 years at The New York Times, has reported from six continents. New York Times' Shanghai bureau chief since 2003, he has served as chief of the Times' Central American and Caribbean bureau, the West and Central Africa bureau and Tokyo bureau.

Fluent in French, Japanese and Chinese, French is author of "A Continent for the Taking: The Tragedy and Hope of Africa" (Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), which won the American Library Association Black Caucus Award for Best Nonfiction.

French began his journalism career writing about Africa for the Washington Post, Africa News, Economist and other publications. His 1997 coverage on the fall of Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaire/Congo earned him the Overseas Press Club of America's award for best newspaper interpretation of foreign affairs and a Pulitzer Prize nomination.

An accomplished photographer, French helped pioneer video reportage from the field for The New York Times.

Medill's Crain Lecture Series is named in honor of magazine publishers Gertrude and G.D. Crain Jr. For further information about upcoming lectures, call (847) 491-5401 or visit http://www.medill.northwestern.edu/.