‘Behind the Beautiful Forevers’ author to visit BGSU

BOWLING GREEN, O.—Pulitzer-Prize winner Katherine Boo, author of “Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity,” will visit Bowing Green State University Feb. 23 for a talk and book signing. The event is free and open to the public.

Boo will discuss her nonfiction work, which takes readers into the hidden world of Annawadi, a makeshift settlement in the shadow of luxury hotels near Mumbai’s international airport. The talk starts at 7:30 p.m. in the Lenhart Grand Ballroom of the Bowen-Thompson Student Union. Following the presentation, Boo will take questions from the audience and sign books.

From November 2007, when Boo first walked into Annawadi, until March 2011, when she completed her reporting, she documented the experiences of residents with written notes, video recordings, audiotapes, photographs and thousands of public records.

Boo has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 2003, focusing on issues of poverty, opportunity, social and economic policy, and education. Before joining The New Yorker, she was a writer and editor at the Washington Post, working on the Outlook and Investigative staffs.

“Behind the Beautiful Forevers” is this year’s Common Read at BGSU.