Event

hosted by: DICK POLMAN

MICHAEL VITEZ is a human interest writer at the Philadelphia Inquirer, where he has been a reporter for 30 years. Vitez has covered a wide variety of assignments, including presidential campaigns, health reform, the World Series, slaughter and elections in Haiti, and even the quest to grow the first 1,000-pound pumpkin. In recent years, he has concentrated on medical narratives. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism in 1997 for a series of stories titled "Final Choices," for which he followed five people as they approached the ends of their lives, and wrote powerful, intimate narratives about the decisions they made and the choices they faced. Vitez has also written two books. Rocky Stories: Tales of Love, Hope and Happiness at America’s Most Famous Steps (with photographer Tom Gralish) is a collection of interviews and photographs of people from all over the nation and the world who came to run those steps like Sylvester Stallone in the Academy Award winning film, Rocky. The Road Back chronicles the story of Matt Miller, a 20-year-old University of Virginia student athlete who survived a horrific bike accident.