Aspiring journalists, authors and other students will have a chance to encounter two well-known media figures through the upcoming installment of the College of Arts and Letters' Signature Lecture Series.

Soledad O’Brien, the host of CNN’s popular documentary series “Black in America” about issues affecting the black community, is one of the featured lecturers. Isabel Wilkerson, best-selling author of “The Warmth of Other Suns,” will also speak. Wilkerson was the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for her profile of a fourth-grader from Chicago’s South Side, and for her stories on the 1993 midwest flood as a reporter for The New York Times.

The College of Arts and Letters will be hosting the lecture series Thursday, Oct. 2 at 7:30 p.m. at the Wharton Center. Wilkerson and O’Brien will also hold a book signing in the lobby after the lecture.

Communications director for the dean’s office in the College of Arts and Letters, Mike Jenkins, said, “these women can offer some input on prominent women's and civil rights, and equality issues.”

The event was planned with hopes that “students gain a better understanding of these issues,” said Jenkins.

MSU faculty, staff and students with a valid MSU ID can receive two free tickets at the Wharton Center box office.