Lees-McRae College’s Opening Convocation ceremony is set for Wednesday, August 29 at 2 p.m. in Hayes Auditorium. This year’s convocation speaker is Erik Reece, author of Lost Mountain: A Year in the Vanishing Wilderness, the 2007 Summer 
Reading Book, and professor of English and writing at the University of Kentucky in Lexington.
On August 29, Reece will be on campus speaking to various freshmen classes before speaking at Convocation, an important part of the academic tradition at Lees-McRae College.
“Each year, Lees-McRae College offers a Summer Reading Program as an introduction to academic life for incoming students. This program also provides a common academic experience for incoming students,” said Nan McAden, Chair of the Division of Student Success.
Lost Mountain is a groundbreaking work of literary nonfiction that describes how radical strip mining for coal in the mountains of Appalachia is destroying the precious natural resources of the ancient mountains and the communities that depend on those resources.
Reece’s book, Lost Mountain, was the winner of the Sierra Club’s David R. Brower Award for Environmental Journalism, and his essay on which the book was based won the Columbia University Journalism School John B. Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Writing.
Reece is described as a spokesman and advocate for protecting the vanishing wilderness in eastern Kentucky. His book is available at the Lees-McRae College bookstore and online at amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com and powells.com.
For additional information regarding Convocation or the 2007 Summer Reading Program, please contact Meghan Wright, Communications Officer, at (828) 898-8729.