The following programs are ahead for The Great Fenway Park Writers Series. It should be noted that events listed below are events presently scheduled. More events will be added as program opportunities occur. Please scroll down to view all of the event details, or you may use the navigation to access the event details you are looking for.
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Wednesday, February 18, 2009
The Great Fenway Park Writers Series Proudly Presents:
Robert Kuttner
Co-Founder & Co-Editor, The American Prospect
Author of and Speaking on: “Obama’s Challenge: America`s Economic Crisis and the Power of a Transformative Presidency”
Thursday, March 5, 2009
The Great Fenway Park Writers Series Proudly Presents:
Linda Cohn
The Legendary ESPN SportsCenter Anchor
Author of and Speaking on: “Cohn-Head: A No-Holds-Barred Account of Breaking Into the Boys Club"
Thursday, April 9, 2009
The Great Fenway Park Writers Series Proudly Presents:
Dr. Jean Rhodes
UMASS Boston Professor of Psychology and Authorized Biographer of Manny Ramirez
Author of and Speaking on: “Becoming Manny: Inside the Life of Baseball`s Most Enigmatic Slugger”
Friday, May 15, 2009
The Great Fenway Park Writers Series Proudly Presents:
Jim Nantz
The Legendary CBS Sportscaster
Author of and Speaking on: “A Father`s Grace and a Sports Journey Unlike Any Other"
Friday, July 10, 2009
The Great Fenway Park Writers Series Proudly Presents:
Bill Keller
Executive Editor, The New York Times
Author of and Speaking on: “The Tree Shaker: The Story of Nelson Mandela"
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Wednesday, February 18, 2009
The Great Fenway Park Writers Series Proudly Presents:
Robert Kuttner – Co-Founder & Co-Editor, The American Prospect
Author of and Speaking on: “Obama’s Challenge: America`s Economic Crisis and the Power of a Transformative Presidency”
12-Noon Luncheon
The Great Bay Restaurant - Private Dining Room
Hotel Commonwealth – 500 Commonwealth Avenue (Kenmore Station T Stop)
Friends of the Writers Series – $40 (price includes an autographed copy of Mr. Kuttner’s book)
Event Sponsor:
To Register Click Here
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Robert Kuttner – Briefly Biographical
Robert Kuttner is co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect magazine, as well as a Distinguished Senior Fellow of the think tank Demos. He was a longtime columnist for Business Week, and continues to write columns in the Boston Globe.
"The Squandering of America," exploring the political roots of America`s narrowing prosperity and the systemic financial risks facing the U.S. economy, is his seventh book. The book was recently honored with the Sidney Hillman Journalism Award. He has begun work on a new book on trade, equality, efficiency, and the challenge of regulating global capitalism.
Bob`s best-known earlier book is "Everything for Sale: the Virtues and Limits of Markets" (1997). The book received a page one review in the New York Times Book Review. Of it, the late economist Robert Heilbroner wrote, "I have never seen the market system better described, more intelligently appreciated, or more trenchantly criticized than in Everything for Sale."
His previous books on economics and politics include; "The End of Laissez-Faire" (1991); "The Life of the Party" (1987); "The Economic Illusion" (1984); and "Revolt of the Haves" (1980).
His magazine writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine and Book Review, The Atlantic, The New Republic, The New Yorker, Foreign Affairs, Dissent, Columbia Journalism Review, and Harvard Business Review. He has contributed major articles to The New England Journal of Medicine as a national policy correspondent.
His other positions have included national staff writer on the Washington Post, chief investigator of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, and economics editor of The New Republic.
Robert Kuttner was educated at Oberlin, The London School of Economics, and the University of California at Berkeley. He has taught at Brandeis, Boston University, the University of Massachusetts, and Harvard`s Institute of Politics.
For four decades, Bob`s intellectual and political project has been to revive the politics and economics of harnessing capitalism to serve a broad public interest. He has pursued this ideal as a writer, editor, teacher, lecturer, commentator and public official.
The Challenge:
To Be a Transformative President
 Barack Obama approaches the Presidency at a critical moment in American history, facing simultaneous crises of war, the environment, health care, but most especially in the economy. If he is able to rise to the moment, he could join the ranks of a small handful of previous presidents who have been truly transformative, succeeding in fundamentally changing our economy, society, and democracy for the better.
But this will require imaginative and decisive action as Obama takes office, action bolder than he has promised during his campaign, and will be all the more difficult given the undertow of conventional wisdom in Washington and on Wall Street that resists fundamental change. Decades of regressive politics and political gridlock have left America in its most precarious situation since the onset of the Great Depression. The collapse of the housing bubble continues, as does the financial meltdown it triggered; a revival of 1970s style stagflation threatens; incomes continue to lag behind inflation; our household and international debts pile higher; disastrous climate change looms; energy and food prices continue their escalation; and the ranks of un- and under-insured Americans grow as the health insurance system unravels.
Facing their own great challenges, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson rallied the American people to overcome deadlocked politics in order to achieve progressive transformations—abolishing slavery, transcending economic depression, and redeeming the promise of civil rights. In his own way, Ronald Reagan oversaw a grand shift in public attitudes and government direction. Each president used exceptional leadership to change the national mood, and then the national policy.
By appealing to what was most noble in the American spirit, these presidents energized movements for change, and in turn put pressure on themselves and on the Congress to move far beyond what was deemed conceivable. They generated accelerating momentum for far-reaching reforms that proved politically irresistible.
Solutions to our multiple challenges do exist, but they won’t be found in overly cautious or expedient quick fixes. With his exceptional skill at appealing to our better angels, Barack Obama could be the right leader at the right time to re-awaken America to the renewed promise of shared prosperity coupled with responsibility towards future generations and the international community with whom we share the Earth. Invoking America’s greatest leaders, Robert Kuttner explains how Obama must be a transformative president—or a failed one.
Advance Praise
"A manifesto, forceful but fair, by a leading political economist who lays out a bold but solid program if Obama is elected. As current as the morning`s newspaper, this book should be read by all activists-especially Barack Obama."
--James MacGregor Burns, author of Leadership
"Robert Kuttner has incisively captured the political moment, underscored by the deepening economic crisis. Lucidly and passionately, he lays out the hurdles facing an Obama presidency and challenges him to seize the moment and achieve greatness by redeeming the promise of America."
--Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor-in-chief, The Huffington Post
"As Kuttner convincingly argues, a President Barack Obama will have a historic opportunity to radically transform America`s direction -- but only if he rejects the tired "centrist" policies of the past and inspires its citizens to forge new progressive paths. Kuttner systematically lays out the case for why Obama should give full voice to a a robust progressive message at a time when the American people are suffering from years of conservative policy. "Obama`s Challenge" is an enlightening road map for all Americans who hunger for a change in direction and priorities in America, and who hope Obama can be that agent of change."
--Markos Moulitsas, founder, DailyKos.com, author of Taking on the System and co-author of Crashing the Gate
"Bob Kuttner pulls off the all-but-impossible. He hits the high notes with artful precision, lifting expectations and articulating the steps that can make Barack Obama a great president--while setting forth a strong and highly readable call for comprehensive and essential economic change."
--John Sweeney, AFL-CIO President
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Thursday, March 5, 2009
The Great Fenway Park Writers Series Proudly Presents:
Linda Cohn – The Legendary ESPN SportsCenter Anchor
Author of and Speaking on: “Cohn-Head: A No-Holds-Barred Account of Breaking Into the Boys Club"
12-Noon Luncheon
Absolut Clubhouse at Fenway Park (enter off Brookline Avenue)
Friends of The Writers Series, $50
Event Sponsor:
To register for this event please click here.
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Linda Cohn – Briefly Biographical
 Linda Cohn, whose straightforward style and natural humor create an easy rapport with viewers, embraced a variety of new roles as of the summer of 2005. Her expanded assignments include: hosting ESPNEWS’ NFL Blitz (4-7 p.m. ET Sundays during the season); reporting from Detroit for a multiple programs leading up to Super Bowl XL; hosting weekly NASCAR segments Mondays on ESPNEWS during NEXTEL’s “Chase for the Cup;” hosting golf remotes for SportsCenter, including the TOUR Championship; and serving as play-by-play commentator for WNBA games and hosting the league’s All-Star game and Finals on ABC. She continues to anchor select SportsCenter’s including Saturdays during college football season.
Previously as SportsCenter’s “late night” anchor on the 1 a.m. ET program, Cohn was seen throughout the morning as the show is re-aired every weekday from 5 a.m. to noon. Cohn also anchored select 11 p.m. ET shows. Since 2002, Cohn has provided on-site SportsCenter reports from the Men’s Final Four, and since 1998 has provided weekly “Extra Point” commentaries on ESPN Radio.
Since January 2004, Cohn has anchored SportsCenter’s live X (Los Angeles) and Winter X Games (Aspen/Snowmass, Colo.) coverage, presenting highlights and introducing the final competition of events during the 11 p.m. SportsCenter.
She had the honor of co-hosting the first-ever SportsCenter in high definition from ESPN’s new Digital Center on June 7, 2004.
Cohn joined ESPN in 1992 and has successfully balanced working for a 24-hour sports network with spending quality time with her husband and two children.
Known for her versatility, Cohn has hosted ESPN’s Baseball Tonight and National Hockey Night, ESPN2’s NHL 2Night and RPM 2Night and SportsCenter’s NBA All-Star Game coverage. She has also contributed to ESPN’s NFL Draft coverage, Major League Baseball playoff coverage, the ESPYs and Sunday NFL Countdown. During the 1998 season, she was one of three alternating hosts for the NFL on ESPN Radio, the network’s Sunday-long coverage of NFL games. She also provided play-by-play of ESPN and ESPN2’s coverage of the LPGA (1998-99). From 1999 to 2002, Cohn’s column “Linda Cohn’s Hotline” was regularly featured in ESPN The Magazine’s Life Section.
Beginning October 1989, Cohn worked at KIRO-TV in Seattle where she was a weekend sports anchor/reporter. At KIRO, she covered the Seattle Mariners, Seahawks and Supersonics, the Washington Huskies, the NCAA Basketball West Regional in 1991, and the Goodwill Games in 1990. Prior to that, Cohn served as a sports reporter for both SportsChannel America and News 12 on Long Island (May 1988-October 1989).
Cohn`s radio experience is highlighted by her becoming the first full-time female sports anchor on a national radio network (ABC) in 1987. She was a sports anchor for the ABC Radio Network and for WABC TalkRadio from 1987-89. Her work continued as she hosted a call-in show and provided sports updates at WFAN in New York from January-October 1989.
Cohn began her career in sportscasting in Patchogue, N.Y., as a news anchor, writer and sports reporter for WALK-AM/FM in 1981. She continued her work with three other New York radio stations until 1987: WCBS NewsRadio 88 (1984-87); WCBS-FM (1984-87); WGBB-AM (1984-85). In 1985 she began working for WLIG-TV on Long Island as a part-time anchor and reporter. She also worked as anchor, news director and chief correspondent for Long Island News Tonight, a daily television news program (1985-86).
Cohn received a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications from SUNY at Oswego in 1981. As a senior at Newfield (N.Y.) High School, she served as the goalie on the boy`s ice hockey team and in college on the Oswego women’s ice hockey team.
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Thursday, April 9, 2009
The Great Fenway Park Writers Series Proudly Presents:
Dr. Jean E. Rhodes – UMASS Boston Professor of Psychology and Authorized Biographer of Manny Ramirez
Author of and Speaking on: “Becoming Manny: Inside the Life of Baseball`s Most Enigmatic Slugger”
12-Noon Luncheon
Absolut Clubhouse at Fenway Park (enter off Brookline Avenue)
Friends of the Writers Series – $50 (price includes an autographed copy of Dr. Rhodes’s book)
Event Sponsor:
To Register Click Here
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Dr. Jean E. Rhodes – Briefly Biographical
 Dr. Jean Rhodes is considered the world’s leading authority on mentoring. Her interests include mentoring relationships, risk and protective factors in adolescent development, emerging adulthood, preventive interventions, and the bridging of research, practice, and policy.
Her research examines the development of adolescents and young adults with special attention to the role of non-parent adults. She is currently involved in a range of research projects that address the role of both formal and informal mentors in vulnerable groups including children of prisoners, survivors of Hurricane Katrina, community college students, high school dropouts, and low-income children in after-school settings.
Her findings provide ample evidence of the extraordinary potential of mentoring relationships, while also exposing the rarely acknowledged risk for harm that unsuccessful relationships can render. A deeper understanding of these important relationships may lead to interventions and policies that better address the needs of youth.
Professor Rhodes completed her Ph.D. in clinical/community psychology at DePaul University and her clinical internship at the University Of Chicago Pritzker School Of Medicine. She is a Fellow in the American Psychological Association and the Society for Research and Community Action, and a Distinguished Fellow of the William T. Grant Foundation. Dr. Rhodes is also a member of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Transitions to Adulthood and is currently Principal Investigator on grants from the National Science Foundation, the Picower Foundation, and the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation. Professor Rhodes is Chair of the Research and Policy Council of the National Mentoring Partnership.
She is Chair of the Research and Policy Council of the National Mentoring Partnership. She sits on the Board of Directors of the National Mentoring Partnership, and on the Advisory Boards of many mentoring and policy organizations, and serves on the editorial boards of several journals in community and adolescent psychology. Her book, "Stand by me: The risks and rewards of mentoring today`s youth" (Harvard University Press) was recently published in paperback.
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Friday, May 15, 2009
The Great Fenway Park Writers Series Proudly Presents:
Jim Nantz – CBS Sports
The Legendary Former Red Sox General Manager
Author of and Speaking on: “A Father`s Grace and a Sports Journey Unlike Any Other"
12-Noon Luncheon
Absolut Clubhouse at Fenway Park (enter off Brookline Avenue)
Red Sox Nation & BoSox Members, $55
Non-Members, $65
To register for this event please click here.
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Jim Nantz – Briefly Biographical
Jim Nantz has covered virtually every sport for the CBS Television Network since joining it in 1985. This year marks Nantz`s 23rd year covering the NCAA Men`s Division I National Championship. He took over as lead play-by-play announcer for college basketball in 1990. Teamed with Billy Packer, he has called regular-season and NCAA Men`s Basketball Championship games since then. He has called the play-by-play on more network broadcasts of the Final Four and Championship game than any other announcer in the tournament`s history. From 1986 to 1990, he served as host of CBS`s coverage of the NCAA Tournament and Final Four.
Nantz has been the lead play-by-play voice for THE NFL ON CBS since the 2004 season joining lead analyst Phil Simms on the Network`s number one NFL announce team. For six years, he anchored the Network`s NFL pre-game studio show, THE NFL TODAY. Last year, Nantz called play-by-play for Super Bowl XLI and in a 63-day span starting with his call of Super Bowl XLI on Feb. 4, 2007, Nantz became the first commentator in history to broadcast the Super Bowl, NCAA Final Four and the Masters, all in the same year. His extensive credits include serving as host of THE SUPER BOWL TODAY, CBS Sports` Super Bowl XXXV and Super Bowl XXXVIII Pre-Game Show; anchor of CBS` golf coverage, including the Masters and the PGA Championship; lead play-by-play announcer for college basketball, including the Final Four and Championship game; and primetime host of CBS Sports` coverage of the 1998 Olympic Winter Games.
Nantz was named the 2007 National Sportscaster of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. Nantz, Pat Summerall, Chris Schenkel, Ray Scott and John Madden are the only commentators to ever win the award while working at CBS Sports. He previously won the award in 2005 and 1998 and joined Schenkel and Scott as the only CBS broadcasters to win the award more than once. Nantz also was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as the youngest recipient of the Curt Gowdy Media Award in 2002.
For Super Bowl XXXVIII in Houston, Nantz was the Host and Chairman of the first-ever Super Bowl Opening Ceremony and concert spectacular: Super Bowl XXXVIII: A Houston Salute. Nantz created and organized the event with former President George Bush, the chairman of the event. Along with former President Bush, and 41 of Houston`s sports legends, they welcomed the Super Bowl to the city by officially kicking off Super Bowl week.
Nantz began his tenure at CBS Sports as host of the Network`s college football studio show (1985-88). He was lead play-by-play announcer for CBS`s coverage of college football (1989-90) and went on to cover the NFL in 1991. By 1993, he was calling play-by-play for the Network`s second-team coverage of THE NFL ON CBS and all regular-season and post-season broadcasts.
He returned as the lead voice of college football in 1996, calling the National Championship Games for the 1996 and 1997 seasons (Fiesta Bowl; Nebraska vs. Florida and Orange Bowl; Tennessee vs. Nebraska, respectively). In 1997, he returned to the studio to anchor COLLEGE FOOTBALL TODAY. His lead role in college football has included coverage of the Orange, Cotton, Fiesta, Sun, Gator and Blockbuster Bowls. Nantz joined the CBS golf team in 1985. He became the anchor for the Network`s coverage in April 1994 and was partnered with Ken Venturi until June 2002, when Lanny Wadkins assumed the lead analyst`s role. Nantz has hosted CBS Sports` coverage of the Masters since 1988 and the PGA Championship since 1991 and served as anchor of the biennial Presidents Cup in 1994 and 1996. In addition, he had a prominent role in Kevin Costner`s 1996 hit movie Tin Cup. He also handled the play-by-play for regular- and post-season coverage of THE NBA ON CBS from 1986 to 1989.
Nantz`s myriad assignments for CBS Sports include play-by-play at the U.S. Open Tennis Championships for nine years overall, co-hosting the weekend daytime coverage of the 1992 and 1994 Olympic Winter Games and coverage of NCAA track and field, skiing, speed skating, baseball, swimming and diving, gymnastics, the U.S. Olympic Festival and Pan American Games and even polo. He also served as host of the Network`s coverage of the annual Macy`s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1994, 1995, 2000 and 2001.
Nantz was graduated in 1981 with a degree in radio/television from the University of Houston, where he was recruited as a member of the golf team. He received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from his alma mater in May 2001 in recognition of his contributions to his profession and to the university. While a student at Houston, he held a variety of broadcasting jobs, which led to positions at the city`s CBS stations KHOU-TV and KTRH Radio. Before joining CBS Sports, Nantz was an anchor at KSL-TV Salt Lake City, then a CBS affiliate. While at KSL, he also broadcast Utah Jazz basketball games and did play-by-play with former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Steve Young for BYU football games, including the 1984 National Championship year.
Nantz is also an author. His new book, "Always By My Side -- A Father`s Grace and a Sports Journey Unlike Any Other" was released in May 2008. The book offers an inside look at the unprecedented 63 days (from February-April 2007) when Nantz became the first broadcaster to call the Super Bowl, the Final Four and the Masters. Because Nantz was unable to share this voyage with his dad, who was suffering from Alzheimer`s disease, this remarkable journey through America`s premier sporting events was bittersweet. The book tells his personal stories from football, basketball and golf and how he has met people along the way who remind him of the virtues his father instilled in him. The foreword to the book is written by one of his father figures and dear friend, former President George H.W. Bush.
He was born May 17, 1959, in Charlotte, NC, and grew up in Colts Neck, NJ. He and his wife, Lorrie, live in Fairfield County, CT. They have one daughter, Caroline.
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Friday, July 10, 2009
The Great Fenway Park Writers Series Proudly Presents:
Bill Keller – Executive Editor, The New York Times
Author of and Speaking on: “The Tree Shaker: The Story of Nelson Mandela"
12-Noon Luncheon
EMC Club – Fenway Park (enter off Yawkey Way)
Friends of The Writers Series, $50 (autographed copy of Mr. Keller’s book included)
Event Sponsor:
To register for this event please click here.
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Bill Keller – Briefly Biographical
 Bill Keller became executive editor of The New York Times in July 2003. Before that Mr. Keller had been an Op-Ed columnist and senior writer for The New York Times Magazine as well as other areas of the newspaper since September 2001. Previously, he served as managing editor from 1997 until September 2001 after having been the newspaper’s foreign editor from June 1995 until 1997. He was the chief of The Times bureau in Johannesburg from April 1992 until May 1995. (He is the author of “The Tree Shaker: The Story of Nelson Mandela,” published in January, 2008 by Kingfisher.)
Before that Mr. Keller had been a Times correspondent in Moscow from December 1986 until October 1991, the last three years as the newspaper’s bureau chief. He won a Pulitzer Prize in March 1989 for his coverage of the Soviet Union.
Mr. Keller joined The New York Times in April 1984 as a domestic correspondent based in the Washington bureau.
Before coming to The Times, Mr. Keller had been a reporter for The Dallas Times Herald since October 1982. From 1980 until 1982, he was a reporter for the Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report in Washington, covering lobbyists and interest groups. He was a reporter for The Portland Oregonian from July 1970 until March 1979.
Mr. Keller graduated from Pomona College with a B.A. degree in 1970 and completed the Advanced Management Program at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in July 2000. He is currently a member of the board of trustees of Pomona College.
Mr. Keller is married to Emma Gilbey Keller. Ms. Gilbey Keller is a writer and author of, "The Comeback: Seven Stories of Women Who Went from Career to Family and Back Again,” published in September, 2008 by Bloomsbury, as well as a biography of Winnie Mandela. He has three children, Tom, Molly and Alice.
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