via Herald-Whig
By Matt Hopf Herald-Whig
Posted: Mar. 18, 2019 8:00 am
QUINCY — Pulitzer Prize winning author and Hannibal, Mo., native Ron Powers will speak in Quincy next month in support of the Transitions Foundation.
The foundation will host “An Evening with Pultizer Prize Winning Author, Ron Powers” at 8 p.m. April 26 at the Oakley-Lindsay Center, where he will speak about his writing career, as well as the challenges and obligations of exploring family tragedy.
In 2017, Powers released “No One Cares About Crazy People: The Chaos and Heartbreak of Mental Health in America.” It describes the ravages of schizophrenia, which afflicted his two sons and triggered the suicide of his younger son Kevin in 2005. The book offers a critique of the mental health systems in the nation.
“I think it will be an interesting evening for people in our area who know he had grown up in the Hannibal area, as well as people who have an interest in history and his writing about the six men who planted the flag on Iwo Jima and people who have an interest in mental health and the status of mental health services in our country,” said Barb Baker Chapin, director of development at Transitions of Western Illinois.
Powers is the co-author of “Flags of Our Fathers” and “True Compass,” which were both number one New York Times hardcover nonfiction bestsellers. His biography of Mark Twain, “Mark Twain: A Life” also was a New York Times bestseller and a finalist for the 2005 National Book Critics Circle Award.
He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his critical writing about television for the Chicago Sun-Times in 1972. He also won an Emmy Award in 1985 for his commentaries on “CBS News Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt.”
The event is sponsored by The Herald-Whig, WGEM, the Blessing Health System and Knapheide Manufacturing.
All proceeds from the event will support mental health services at Transitions.
Tickets for the event are available at the Quincy Community Theatre Box Office in the Oakley-Lindsay Center, which can be reached at 217-222-3209.
Tickets also can be bought online at 1qct.org, by clicking on “upcoming events.”
A limited number of tickets are available at $75 per person for a meet and greet with Powers from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. The event includes a social hour with hors d’oeuvres, a complimentary copy of “Flags of Our Fathers,” and opportunity to meet Powers during a book signing and preferred seating for Powers’ talk.
Tickets for the talk are $25 for preferred seating and $15 for general admission.
Copies of several of his books will be available for purchase at the event.
