Sweet Briar’s office of co-curricular life and the campus wellness committee are sponsoring “everyBODY is beautiful week” March 26 through 30. A lecture and book signing by the author of “Body Story” at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 29, will be a featured event.

Courtesy Ohio University PressThe lecture, which is free and open to the public, will be held in the EB Room, in the lower level of Dew Residence Hall. The book also will be available for purchase.

“Body Story” is Julia Knowlton De Pree’s account of a nearly 20-year struggle with anorexia. She writes that her illness began at age 13 and stayed with her even as she went to college, married and became a mother.

In a review published in Booklist by the American Library Association, Donna Chavez writes, “In poetically lean prose, she harks back to the mid-western, middle-class childhood that set the stage for developing emotional issues around food, body image, and sexuality. … Moreover, De Pree says that no one ever challenged the popular notion that a woman’s appearance was an index of her worth.”

The ALA named De Pree’s memoir outstanding title in its category in 2004.

A Publishers Weekly review on Amazon.com notes that the book is “less graphic than other anorexic autobiographies. … She focuses on her feelings, rather than chronicling her diet and exercise, which should help her work resonate with both readers familiar with anorexia and those helping anorexics.”

De Pree — who, since the book was published, has begun using her maiden name, Knowlton — is an associate professor of French and chairs the department of modern foreign languages and literatures at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Ga. “Body Story” is her second book.

The memoir is a perfect fit for “everyBODY is beautiful week,” which focuses on body image and learning to accept and love the genes we were born with, said Kelly Kraft-Meyer, associate dean of co-curricular life at Sweet Briar.

The weeklong schedule of speakers, movies and other programs is part of an ongoing wellness program for students. A schedule of events is available online.

For more information, please contact Kelly Kraft-Meyer at kraft_meyer@sbc.edu or 381-6134.

— By Jennifer McManamay, SBC staff writer