Just came across an interesting event coming up tonight that involves our neighbors across the street, Commerce High School, and noted journalist and novelist, Buzz Bissinger. At 6:15 pm, at the U/Mass Student Union (Cape Cod Lounge), the Pulitzer Prize-winning author will speak on “The Art of Non-Fiction Storytelling.” If you get there at 6:15 you'll be in time for the book-signing reception.

Bissinger was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1987 for investigative reporting for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and he is also the author of Friday Night Lights, later made into a movie (Billy Bob Thornton?). But what's the connection to Commerce High School?

Well, the journalism program at U/Mass Amherst gave 30 copies of Friday Night Lights to an English class at Commerce, and today, thirty Commerce students from Brian Duffey’s English class will be bused to U/Mass Amherst for the Bissinger talk. Also, U/Mass faculty member Nick McBride teaches a community journalism class where U/Mass and Commerce students work together once a week.

Admission is free and the public is welcome!