Briefly Noted

Pitt to Hold Spring 2010 Career Fair for Students

The University of Pittsburgh Office of Student Employment and Placement Assistance (SEPA) will host a Spring 2010 Career Fair from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Feb. 10 and 11 in the William Pitt Union. More than 150 employers are expected during the two-day period.

“The employers attending the fair are offering excellent positions for our students,” said Cheryl S. Finlay, SEPA director. “This is an excellent opportunity for our students to network with potential employers.”

The first day of the fair will be for technical majors, which include students majoring in engineering and computer and information sciences. The second day is for nontechnical majors, which include students majoring in business, the arts, health, and sciences.

For more information, call 412-383-4473.

—Patricia Lomando White

Birkerts, Newton to Discuss Technology’s Impact On Publishing Industry

The impact of future technologies on the publishing industry will be the focus of a discussion with essayist Sven Birkerts and blogger Maud Newton.

Titled “The Future of the Book,” the event will be held at 8:30 p.m. Feb. 11 in the Frick Fine Arts Auditorium. It is part of the Pittsburgh Contemporary Writers Series 2009-10 season.

The event will be moderated by Pitt creative writing professor Cathy Day, author of the short- story collection The Circus In Winter (Harcourt, 2004) and the memoir Comeback Season: How I Learned to Play the Game of Love (Free Press, 2008).

The discussion between Birkerts and Newton will be partially based on Birkerts’ critically acclaimed book The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age (Faber and Faber, 1994).

Birkerts is the Contemporary Writers Series 2009-10 William Block Sr. Writer; past honorees include Paul Muldoon, Philip Gourevitch, and Richard Ford. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Birkerts has amassed numerous honors, including the Spielvogel-Diamonstein Award from PEN for the 1990 Best Book of Essays, and the 1985 Citation for Excellence in Reviewing from the National Book Critics Circle.

Newton, who began blogging in 2002, focuses her writing on books, culture, and politics. She has been featured on NPR and in The New York Times and Boston Globe, among other publications. Her essays and works of fiction have appeared in such literary magazines as Granta, Swink, and Pindeldyboz.

The 2009-10 Pittsburgh Contemporary Writers Series season is sponsored by Pitt’s Writing Program, Book Center, University Library System, and University of Pittsburgh Press.

All events in the Writers Series are free and open to the public. For more information, contact Jeff Oaks at oaks@pitt.edu or visit www.english.pitt.edu.

—Anthony M. Moore

Pitt, Global Links Collecting Crutches, Walkers, Wheelchairs for Haiti

Amputations and other devastating injuries resulting from Haiti’s Jan. 12 earthquake have created an enormous need for mobility-assist devices, and the University of Pittsburgh and Global Links are teaming up to collect crutches, canes, walkers, and wheelchairs to aid the victims.

Mobility-assist devices can be dropped off on Wednesday and Thursday, Feb. 24 and 25,

9 a.m.-7 p.m. at the Fifth Avenue entrance to the Graduate School of Public Health’s (GSPH) Parran Hall.

GSPH faculty, staff, and student volunteers will aid in the collection campaign, titled “Have a Heart for Haiti: Put Your Unused Crutches, Canes, Walkers and Wheels Chairs to Work Today!” The items will be shipped to Haiti by Global Links, a Pittsburgh-based international relief and development organization.

“This is a way that so many of us, regardless of our skills or financial resources, can relieve the suffering of those injured by the earthquake,” said Steve Zupcic, assistant director of Pitt’s Office of Community Relations.

For more information, contact Zupcic at 412-624-7709 or stz@pitt.edu.

—John Fedele