UT Tyler Office of Marketing and Communications

Best-Selling Author Nicholas Sparks to Speak at UT Tyler

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February 3, 2015

Media Contact:  Hannah Buchanan
Editor/Writer–Strategic Communications & Media Relations
Marketing and Communications
The University of Texas at Tyler
903.539.7196 (cell)

January 30, 2015

Media Contact: Beverley Golden
Executive Director
Marketing and Communications
The University of Texas at Tyler
903.566.7303 or 903.330.0495 (cell)

Author of 17 critically-acclaimed books, Nicholas Sparks, will be the next speaker at The University of Texas at Tyler R. Don Cowan Fine and Performing Arts Center, Susan Thomae-Morphew, Cowan Center executive director, announced.

Sponsored by Louis and Peaches Owen, Sparks is the second speaker of the UT Tyler Distinguished Lecture Series. He will speak at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 5.

Post-lecture reception sponsor is Austin Bank. Reception tickets are $35 and guests are invited to bring their favorite Nicholas Sparks book to be signed. Limit one book per guest.

Media sponsors for the lecture are KYTX CBS 19, KTBB Radio and Suddenlink.

Lecture tickets are $37, $27 and $22 and can be purchased at the UT Tyler Cowan Center box office by calling 903.566.7424 or online at www.cowancenter.org. Box office hours are 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

A student seminar for high school, college and university students will be 4:30 – 5 p.m. Feb. 5 in the UT Tyler Braithwaite Recital Hall, which is located on the west side of the Cowan Center. There will be limited first come, first-served seating, and no tickets are necessary.

“We are pleased to host Nicholas Sparks, who is known worldwide for his best-selling books,” Thomae-Morphew said. “He will engage the audience with his unique voice and charm and that wonderful way of telling a story that we all know and love.”

In 1994, rejected from both publishers and law schools, Sparks was a job-jumping salesman who wrote in the evenings.

In early 1995, and against all odds, his manuscript was discovered in the slush pile, and by October, Warner Books paid $1 million for an unknown story about a notebook. The rest is history.

Now with almost 80 million copies of his books in print, literary sensation Sparks is the author of 17 New York Times best-selling books.

His latest book, The Longest Ride, was released in September 2013. The film version, which is expected to hit theaters this year, will star Scott Eastwood, son of actor/director Clint Eastwood.

Books by Sparks that have made it to the silver screen are The Notebook, Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember, Nights in Rodanthe, Dear John, The Last Song, The Lucky One, Safe Haven and The Best of Me.

One of the 15 campuses of the UT System, UT Tyler features excellence in teaching, research, artistic performance and community service. More than 80 undergraduate and graduate degrees are available at UT Tyler, which has an enrollment of more than 8,000 high-ability students. UT Tyler offers courses at its campuses in Tyler, Longview and Palestine as well as a location in Houston.