Joe W. Morgan Lecture by Janet Reitman of Rolling Stone

International writer Janet Reitman will present the annual Knox College Joe W. Morgan Memorial Lecture called, "Writing Against the Pack: A Rolling Stone Reporter's Secret for Finding the Story Inside the Story," at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 15, in Kresge Hall, Ford Center for the Fine Arts, Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

A contributing editor at Rolling Stone magazine, Reitman will discuss the process that she and her editors use to craft story ideas. She specializes in writing investigative pieces and news features.

She has covered the war in Iraq for Rolling Stone, and she has reported on other conflicts in Sierra Leone, Sudan, Zimbabwe and Haiti. Reitman also has written pieces appearing in GQ, Men's Journal, Los Angeles Times Magazine, Marie Claire, ESPN -- The Magazine, The Washington Post, and other publications.

In 2007, Reitman was a finalist for a National Magazine Award for her year-long investigative report on the Church of Scientology. The award is presented by the American Society of Magazine Editors. Her story was included in the compilation, Best American Magazine Writing of 2007, and she has expanded it into a book slated for release in fall 2010.

Her recent work includes "The Mayor of Hell," a 2009 article that profiled the top elected official in the tiny, blighted steel town of Braddock, Pennsylvania. She also wrote "Sex & Scandal at Duke," a 2006 look at the social culture at Duke University published shortly after members of the school's lacrosse team were accused of rape. Those accusations eventually were dropped.

Reitman graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and earned a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University. She has been a journalist for more than 20 years.

"She tries to figure out what would be a unique story," said Distinguished Professor of Journalism Marilyn Webb, who chairs the Knox College journalism program. Webb and Reitman worked together twice, when Webb was features editor at Woman's Day magazine and then when she became editor-in-chief of Psychology Today.

The Joe W. Morgan Memorial Lecture at Knox College is sponsored in part by the Joe W. Morgan Memorial Fund, created to support educational activities of the college's journalism program.

Ann Lee Morgan, a 1962 Knox graduate, established the fund in honor of her father, a 1934 Knox graduate and longtime editor with United Press International. During his four-decade career, Joe Morgan covered stories including the trial of Alger Hiss, the death of Joseph Stalin, the launching of Sputnik, the first manned space flight and the assassination of Robert Kennedy.

Founded in 1837, Knox is a national liberal arts college in Galesburg, Illinois, with students from 47 states and 48 countries. Knox's "Old Main" is a National Historic Landmark and the only building remaining from the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates.