Rex Nelson, popular columnist with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and writer of Rex Nelson's Southern Fried blog, will present "The Arkansas Paradox" at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 19, at the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.

Nelson has reported on and been involved with Arkansas business and politics and the Republican Party for nearly 40 years. In this talk he will give perspectives on the current political climate in Arkansas and discuss the opportunities and challenges that may lie ahead and how they could affect Arkansas' economy and culture.

Nelson is one of the most high-profile writers and speakers in the state. As senior editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, he writes three columns a week and essays for the cover of the newspaper's Sunday Perspective section. He's the author of three books: the first full-length biography of Hillary Rodham Clinton, a biography of Arkansas educator Ben Elrod and a collection of essays on Arkansas. Nelson is the author of a popular blog known as Rex Nelson's Southern Fried, hosts the Southern Fried podcast and makes regular television and radio appearances.

Nelson served for almost a decade as the policy and communications director for Gov. Mike Huckabee and then served for four years in the administration of President George W. Bush as one of the president's two appointees to the Delta Regional Authority. Nelson has been inducted into the Arkansas Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame. In 2016, Gov. Asa Hutchinson and the Arkansas Rural Development Commission named Nelson as its Rural Advocate of the Year for the state of Arkansas.

The Pryor Center is located at 1 E. Center St., Suite 120. The event is free and open to the public, and parking is available on the Fayetteville Square.

If you are unable to attend, please look for a recording of the presentation the following week on the Pryor Center Presents web page.

Upcoming Pryor Center Presents

Nov. 16 - "Better Living by Their Own Bootstraps" presented by Dr. Cherisse Jones-Branch

Dec. (Date TBD) - "Arkansas News History: Exploring the KATV Collection #4" with Randy Dixon and Kyle Kellams

About the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History: The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History is an oral history program with the mission to document the history of Arkansas through the collection of spoken memories and visual records, preserve the collection in perpetuity, and connect Arkansans and the world to the collection through the Internet, TV broadcasts, educational programs, and other means. The Pryor Center records audio and video interviews about Arkansas history and culture, collects other organizations' recordings, organizes these recordings into an archive, and provides public access to the archive, primarily through the website at pryorcenter.uark.edu. The Pryor Center is the state's only oral and visual history program with a statewide, seventy-five county mission to collect, preserve, and share audio and moving image recordings of Arkansas history.

About the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences: The Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences is the largest and most academically diverse unit on campus with three schools, 16 departments and 43 academic programs and research centers. The college provides the majority of the core curriculum for all University of Arkansas students.

About the University of Arkansas: As Arkansas' flagship institution, the U of A provides an internationally competitive education in more than 200 academic programs. Founded in 1871, the U of A contributes more than $2.2 billion to Arkansas' economy through the teaching of new knowledge and skills, entrepreneurship and job development, discovery through research and creative activity while also providing training for professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the U of A among the few U.S. colleges and universities with the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the U of A among the top public universities in the nation. See how the U of A works to build a better world at Arkansas Research News.