National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, February 22-28

UM Counseling Services is taking this week to remind the campus about and to encourage awareness of eating disorders. Formed in 2001 out of the merger of several like-minded organizations, the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting individuals and families affected by eating disorders. The goal of NEDA's National Eating Disorders Awareness Week is to educate the public "on the seriousness of eating disorders and to improve... understanding of their causes, triggers and treatments."

Carmichael Library is assisting the Counseling Office's effort by hosting a book display and online bookshelf of materials about these important issues. The display is located on our ground floor and includes materials promoting the theme of this year's Awareness Week, "I Had No Idea..."

Look for staff from our Counseling Services to be out on campus this week, talking with students about their services and handing out literature. Counselors will also be here in Carmichael Hall on Thursday, Febraury 26 from 2:30-4:30 p.m. to greet students.

Please take time to look through Carmichael's collection of books on these important issues. If you don't get the chance to stop by during this special Awareness Week, you can always view our digital bookshelf: Resources on Eating Disorders online.

As always, if you or a friend is struggling with an eating disorder, or another issue that is affecting your well being, please do not hesitate to reach out to Counseling Services by calling (205) 665-6245.

BACHE Visiting Writers' Series: Brian Turner TOMORROW Tuesday Feb. 24

Dear UM students, staff, and faculty:

Please join us for a reading by award-winning poet Brian Turner, our final author in the 2014-15 BACHE Visiting Writers’ Series. Brian will read from his work and hold an audience Q&A starting at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 24 in the J.A. Brown Room at Carmichael Library. After the reading, Brian will sign books, which will be available for sale on site from Eclipse Coffee and Books. We also will have a reception, catered by Eclipse and generously sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences. This event is FREE and open to the public.

About Brian Turner
Brian Turner is a soldier-poet who is the author of two poetry collections, Phantom Noise (2010) and Here, Bullet (2005) which won the 2005 Beatrice Hawley Award, the New York Times “Editor's Choice” selection, the 2006 Pen Center USA "Best in the West" award, and the 2007 Poets Prize, among others. He also has a memoir, My Life as a Foreign Country (2014) that retraces his war experience. Turner served seven years in the US Army, to include one year as an infantry team leader in Iraq with the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. Prior to that, he was deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1999-2000 with the 10th Mountain Division. Turner's poetry has been published in Poetry Daily, The Georgia Review, and other journals, and in the Voices in Wartime Anthology published in conjunction with the feature-length documentary film of the same name. Turner was also featured in Operation Homecoming, a unique documentary that explores the firsthand accounts of American servicemen and women through their own words. He earned an MFA from the University of Oregon and has lived abroad in South Korea. In 2009, Turner was selected as one of fifty United States Artists Fellows.

You can read samples of his poetry and essays on his web page or at the Poetry Foundation.

About the BACHE Visiting Writers’ Series
The Visiting Writers’ Series is one of the cornerstones of BACHE, a partnership among the five four-year colleges and universities in the greater Birmingham area. Each academic year, the BACHE VWS invites three esteemed authors to each of the five campuses as an opportunity for students, faculty, staff, and the community to engage with poets and prose writers of national acclaim.

Check out the web page and Facebook page for more information.