Best-selling young adult author Laurie Halse Anderson to speak

Laurie Halse Anderson, author of the young adult best-sellers “Speak” about a sexual assault victim and “Fever 1793” about a yellow fever outbreak in Colonial Philadelphia will speak at Pitt-Bradford as part of Women's History Month activities on campus.

Anderson will speak at 7 p.m. March 31 in the Harriet B. Wick Chapel.

Anderson's works range from modern stories like “Wintergirls,” which tackles anorexia, and “The Impossible Knife of Memory, which is about PTSD, to historical fiction about young heroes fighting disease (“Fever 1793”), slavery (“Chains”) and war (“Forge”).

Prior to her talk, at 5 p.m., Steve Appleby, director of the Eldred World War II Museum, will lead a discussion of topical and historical themes in Anderson's books.

Anderson will also visit three area schools during the day of her visit, St. Bernard Middle School, Fretz Middle School and Bradford Area High School.

“Speak” and “Chains” were National Book Award finalists, and in 2009 she was given the Margaret A. Edwards Award from the Young Adult Library Services Association for “her significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature.”

Although best-known for her young adult novels, Anderson began writing with nonfiction books for younger readers, including “Independent Dames: What You Never Knew about the Women and Girls of the American Revolution” and the Vet Volunteer series.

Anderson is from upstate New York, born in Potsdam and currently living in Mexico, N.Y. She graduated from Onondaga (N.Y.) Community College before earning her bachelor's degree at Georgetown University.

Anderson's visit is co-sponsored by the Pitt Year of the Humanities, the Bradford Area Public Library, the Bradford Area School District and Pitt-Bradford's Division of Management and Education.

For more information on Anderson, visit madwomanintheforest.com.

For disability needs related to the event, contact the Office of Disability Resources at (814)362-7609.