Virginia Tech brings Beth Macy, author of 'Factory Man,' to Blacksburg’s Lyric Theatre
Beth Macy, author of The New York Times best-selling book "Factory Man," is coming to Virginia Tech to share her experiences writing the award-winning account of one man’s fight to save his Southwestern Virginia company and town from globalization.
The book, which is being made into an HBO miniseries, has received favorable reviews from critics including The New York Times’ Janet Maslin, who called the nonfiction narrative “an illuminating, deeply patriotic David vs. Goliath book.”
The event, to be held on Monday, Dec. 8, at 5:30 p.m. at The Lyric Theatre, is free and open to the public.
The event is being sponsored by the Pamplin College of Business' Business Leadership Center; the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Diversity Council; the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences Diversity Committee; the Department of Communication; Save our Towns, Outreach and International Affairs; the Society of Professional Journalists, Virginia Tech chapter; and the Women and Minority Artists and Scholar Lecture Series.
Macy, a longtime journalist whose resume includes two decades at the Roanoke Times, specializes in writing about outsiders and underdogs. She has won more than a dozen national journalism awards, including a Nieman Fellowship for Journalism at Harvard in 2010. Among the marginalized groups she has chronicled for newspapers and magazines are Hispanic immigrants, African refugees, caregivers for the elderly, veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder, and displaced factory workers.
"Factory Man" traces the aftereffects of globalization from Southwest Virginia to China. Macy hones in on the outlier story of John Bassett III, who used grit, cunning and sheer will to compete against China — and keep his Galax factory going when almost every other wood-furniture maker in America closed up shop and imported cheaper imports instead. By unveiling shocking truths about American business, "Factory Man" raises a flag for the return of made-in-America products.
Macy has been published in Oprah magazine, Parade, The New York Times, Salon, and Christian Science Monitor.
