PCAL Calendar

FREE ADMISSION; WKU student "swipeable" event

Denise Kiernan is the New York Times bestselling author of The Girls of Atomic City (Touchstone/ Simon & Schuster), the true story of young women living in a secret government city during World War II while unknowingly working on the first atomic bomb. Kiernan has been working as a writer for nearly 20 years. Her work has been published in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Village Voice, Ms. Magazine, Reader's Digest, Discover and many more publications. She has also worked in television, serving as head writer for ABC's "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire"  during its Emmy award-winning first season and has produced for media outlets such as ESPN and MSNBC. She has authored several popular history titles including Signing Their Lives Away, Signing Their Rights Away, and Stuff Every American Should Know. Her most recent book, The Girls of Atomic City, is a New York Times, Los Angeles Times and NPR Bestseller, and was named as one of Amazon's Top 100 Best Books of 2013. She has been a featured guest on NPR's "Weekend Edition," PBS NewsHour, MSNBC Morning Joe and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

In one of her most popular talks, Kiernan takes audiences back in time and into a top-secret world where young women and men lived and worked surrounded by spies and secrecy, forbidden to speak of their work, even to each other, as the United States worked to face the challenges of World War II and the Manhattan Project raced to harness nuclear power. A lively and engaging speaker, Kiernan enthralls audiences with this story of adventure, intrigue, sacrifice and controversy. There will be a pre-lecture reception at Mass Media and Technology Hall atrium and gallery where more than 50 historic photographs of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Japan days after the bombs were dropped will be on display.

The event is sponsored by WKU's Potter College, the History Department and the School of Journalism & Broadcasting.