Peter Sís named MacArthur Fellow
Farrar, Straus and Giroux is pleased to announce that internationally acclaimed author/artist Peter Sís has been named a MacArthur Fellow for 2003, an honor bestowed by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. To quote the Foundation's press release, "The MacArthur Fellows Program is designed to emphasize the importance of the creative individual in society. Fellows are selected for the originality and creativity of their work and the potential to do more in the future." Fellows receive $500,000 in monetary support over five years, offering "highly creative people the gift of time and the unfettered opportunity to explore, create, and accomplish."
Peter Sís is the award-winning author and illustrator of more than twenty books, including Tibet Through the Red Box, Starry Messenger: Galileo Galilei, The Three Golden Keys, Madlenka, and Madlenka's Dog. His most recent book, The Tree of Life: Charles Darwin (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / Frances Foster Books / October 2003), is a multilayered, panoramic look at the life of Charles Darwin. In the book, Sís examines the personal, public, and secret lives of this nineteenth-century figure, taking readers on a journey through the life of this icon of modern science and thinking. Featuring detailed and dramatic maps, charts, and a gatefold spread, The Tree of Life brings readers into Darwin's universe, private and public, and envelops them in the visions, ideas, and experiences of a man driven by his ideas and his ideals. Peter Sís will be on tour this November to celebrate the publication of The Tree of Life.
In addition to his prolific career as an author, Peter Sís has contributed more than a thousand drawings to The New York Times Book Review and has illustrated for Time magazine and The Atlantic Monthly. Born in Brno, Czechoslovakia, he attended the Academy of Applied Arts in Prague and the Royal College of Art in London. He immigrated to the United States in 1982. Sís's work has been exhibited at such institutions as the Art Institute of Chicago and the New York Public Library, and he has also designed a mural for the Baltimore/Washington International Airport, a poster for the New York City subway system, and a stage set for the Joffrey Ballet.
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Added 10/12/03
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