In honor of the U.S. armed forces and in celebration of Women’s History Month, Austin Peay State University will feature a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who penned a book as a letter to her son about his father who was killed overseas.
Dana Canedy, author of the critically acclaimed memoir, “A Journal for Jordan: A Story of Love and Honor,” will be the keynote speaker at 7 p.m., Thursday, March 25 in the Clement Auditorium. The event – sponsored by the Wilbur N. Daniel African American Cultural Center and Student Affairs – is free and open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis.
Following her presentation, Canedy will be available for questions and a book signing. Books are available for purchase in the Ann Ross Bookstore on campus.
“A Journal for Jordan” is the story of her fiancé, the late 1st Sgt. Charles Monroe King, who wrote a 200-page journal for their infant son in case he did not return from the war on Iraq.
On Oct. 14, 2006, King was killed by a roadside bomb when their son, Jordan, was 7 months old. Canedy wrote “A Journal for Jordan” as a letter to her son about his father, as a story of her quest for answers, as a father’s words for his son and as the love story of Canedy and King.
Canedy, a senior editor at The New York Times, has been a journalist for more than 20 years. She has been a business and finance reporter for The Times and was the newspaper’s bureau chief in Florida during the 2000 presidential election recount. She also has been assignment editor for national news at The Times, responsible for overseeing breaking coverage of such stories as Hurricane Katrina. She was part of a team at The Times that won a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting in 2001 for a series on race relations in the U.S.
For more information, call APSU Student Affairs, (931) 221-7341.
