April 26, 2005 

MEDIA CONTACT:
Eric Solomon: (202) 994-3087; solomone@gwu.edu

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER AND GELBER BOOK PRIZE WINNER
STEVE COLL TO DISCUSS HIS BOOK GHOST WARS AT
GW'S ELLIOTT SCHOOL
MAY 5

EVENT:  

Steve Coll, associate editor at The Washington Post, will discuss his award-winning book Ghost Wars and the Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001. Coll received the Lionel Gelber Prize in March and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction in April.

WHEN: 

Thursday, May 5, 2005
6 - 7:30 p.m.

WHERE: 

The George Washington University
The Elliott School of International Affairs
Lindner Family Commons
1957 E St., N.W., Room 602
Washington, D.C. (Foggy Bottom-GWU Metro, Blue and Orange lines)

COST:  

This event is free and open to the public.

BACKGROUND:

Steve Coll's new book Ghost Wars describes "the conflicts between U.S. covert action and public policy over two decades, which culminated in the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001." The Gelber Jury proclaims: "Coll has written an important and impressively detached narrative about the unforeseen consequences of a clandestine, far-away war. It lays bare the complex bureaucratic, political, and human calculations and disputes that led Washington from a proxy triumph over the Soviet Union to the calamity of the World Trade Center." The Gelber Prize was founded in 1989 by Canadian diplomat Lionel Gelber. The award honors the excellence of those who think and write about the local and global forces of change in international relations.

This is Coll's second Pulitzer. He won the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism. He served as Washington Post's South Asia bureau chief from 1989 to 1992, was managing editor from 1998 to 2005, and was named associate editor of The Washington Post earlier this year. Other books by Coll include Taking of Getty Oil (1988) and On the Grand Trunk Road (1995).

For a complete calendar of events at GW's Elliott School,
visit www.gwu.edu/~elliott/news/calendar.
For more news about GW, visit the GW News Center at www.gwnewscenter.org.

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