April 22, 2011, Greencastle, Ind. — Jennifer Egan, who will appear at DePauw University Wednesday to read from her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, A Visit from the Goon Squad, has been named by TIME magazine as one of its 100 most influential people in the world. The 2011 TIME 100 also includes Joe Scarborough, co-host of MSNBC's Morning Joe, who was featured at DePauw Discourse on September 24, 2010.
In the May 2 issue, which hits newsstands today, the list also includes Justin Bieber, U.S. Reps. Michele Bachmann and Gabrielle Giffords, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, first lady Michelle Obama and the soon-to-be-married Prince William and Kate Middleton. "They are artists and activists,
reformers and researchers, heads of state and captains of industry," notes the magazine. "Their ideas spark dialogue and dissent and sometimes even revolution."
"There is, apparently, no story that Jennifer Egan can't tell," Curtis Sittenfeld writes in TIME. "Her five books of fiction range from an achingly gorgeous coming-of-age novel (The Invisible Circus) to a gothic tale of betrayal (The Keep) to a multidecade kaleidoscopic depiction of the music business (A Visit from the Goon Squad, this year's Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction). Uniting disparate settings and characters is Egan's ferocious intelligence; she writes with the clarity and sharpness of a pane of glass. For the past 15 years, she has also brought her distinctive lucidity to journalism, writing pieces about subjects such as gay teenagers and homeless families. No matter what the topic is, I know if Egan wrote the article, I'll want to read it."
Of Scarborough, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg writes, "On every issue, Joe speaks his mind without fear or favor, because he puts his country before his party. He served for seven years as a Republican Congressman from Florida, but he is a patriot before he is a politician or a 
pundit. That independence is what makes Joe Scarborough such a valuable voice in American politics. And it's what makes Morning Joe such a successful show. (That, and of course the real star of the show, Mika Brzezinski.)"
Access the complete list at the magazine's website.
Jennifer Egan's April 27 reading at DePauw comes nine days after she won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. She is also the recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. Her Greencastle appearance, sponsored by the James and Marilou Kelly Writers Series, will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Meharry Hall of historic East College and is free and open to the public. It was also noted in Tuesday's Indianapolis Star.