Garrison Keillor, Author, Humorist and Host of "A Prairie Home Companion" radio show to perform at UB on Jan. 24

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The Center for the Arts at the University at Buffalo will present Garrison Keillor at 8 p.m. on Jan. 24 in the Mainstage Theatre, located at the Center for the Arts on the UB North (Amherst) Campus. This event is sponsored by Geico Insurance.

Keillor was born in 1942 in Anoka, Minn., and began his radio career as a freshman at the University of Minnesota, from which he graduated in 1966. He went to work for Minnesota Public Radio in 1969, and on July 6, 1974, he hosted the first broadcast of "A Prairie Home Companion" in St. Paul. The show ended in 1987, resumed in 1989 in New York as "The American Radio Company," returned to Minnesota, and in 1993 resumed the name "A Prairie Home Companion." Each week 2.6 million listeners now hear the show on more than 450 public radio stations.

Keillor hosts a daily five-minute radio program, "The Writer's Almanac," is a frequent contributor to Time magazine and writes a biweekly column of advice to the lovelorn for Salon, the online magazine. He is the author of 12 books, including Lake Wobegon Days (1985), The Book of Guys (1993), The Old Man Who Loved Cheese (1996), Wobegon Boy (1997); Me: By Jimmy "Big Boy" Valente as Told to Garrison Keillor (1999), Love Me (2003) and 2004's HomeGrown Democrat.

Keillor has received numerous awards, including, a Grammy Award for his recording of Lake Wobegon Days. He also has received two ACE Awards for cable television, and a George Foster Peabody Award. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and recently was presented with a National Humanities Medal by the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 1994, he was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame at Chicago's Museum of Broadcast Communications.

With Philip Brunelle, he has performed with many orchestras, including the Chicago, Milwaukee, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Dallas, and National symphonies. He has appeared at Wolf Trap, Carnegie Hall and other major concert halls as a member of The Hopeful Gospel Quartet, and he has performed on his own in one-man shows across the country and on tour broadcasts of "A Prairie Home Companion."

A book signing will follow the presentation.

Tickets for Garrison Keillor are $33. Tickets are available from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday in the Center for the Arts Box Office and all Ticketmaster locations, including Kaufmann's. To charge tickets call 852-5000; in Canada, call 1-416-870-8000. For group sales, call 645-6771.For more information call 645-ARTS. The Center for the Arts is a Ticketfast location.