Author Max Brooks. (Creative Commons photo from Gage Skidmore)
Max Brooks, the New York Times best-selling author of World War Z and Zombie Survival Guide, will give a talk at Illinois State University at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 18, in the Brown Ballroom of the Bone Student Center.
The talk, sponsored by the University Program Board, is free and open to the public. A book signing will take place immediately after the event in the Barnes and Noble Bookstore in the Bone Student Center.
Called the “Studs Terkel of zombie journalism,” Brooks was a writer for the comedy sketch show Saturday Night Live before he published Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead in 2003. The book, a fictional parody that covers everything people need to know about surviving the zombie apocalypse, jumped to the New York Times best-seller list, and remains there today. His follow-up book, World War Z, is one of the biggest selling original zombie novels of all time, and will be released as major motion picture starring Brad Pitt this June.
“I think zombies reflect our very real anxieties of these crazy scary times,” said Brooks. “A zombie story gives people a fictional lens to see the real problems of the world.”
The son of Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft, Brooks also worked for the BBC in Great Britain and East Africa. He currently resides in New York City.
Arrangements for the appearance of Max Brooks made through Greater Talent Network, Inc., New York.
