New York Times bestselling author and journalist Ace Atkins will deliver the Graduate School’s New Horizons Lecture on Thursday, April 2, at 2 p.m. in Auburn University’s Foy Hall Ballroom. The event is free and open to the public.
Ace Atkins
Atkins’ lecture, “From Notebook to New York Times Bestseller: The Journey of a Novelist,” will chronicle his rise from working as a newspaper reporter in Florida to being one of the top crime novelists in the industry.
“Ace’s story is undoubtedly one of hard work, determination and success,” Graduate School Dean George Flowers said. “We look forward to hearing more about Ace’s journey and the shining example it provides for Auburn students.”
Atkins was a defensive end on the Auburn football team in the early ’90s and graduated in 1994 with a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from the College of Liberal Arts. He got his start in journalism by doing freelance sports reporting for the St. Petersburg Times before landing a job on the crime beat for The Tampa Tribune. While in Tampa, Atkins was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for a series of stories on an unsolved murder from the 1950s.
An aspiring novelist since his college days, Atkins published his first novel, “Crossroad Blues,” in 1998 and then left the newspaper industry to become a full-time novelist in 2001. Throughout his writing career, Atkins has authored 17 novels, including the forthcoming “The Redeemers” and “Robert B. Parker’s Kickback.” He continues to write essays and investigative stories for several national magazines, such as Outside and Garden & Gun.
Now in its seventh year, the New Horizons Lecture is sponsored annually by the Auburn University Graduate School. The lecture series aims to promote the exchange of ideas among students, faculty and the greater Auburn community through interaction with engaging speakers whose ideas and deeds have inspired or influenced others.
Last modified: December 19, 2016
