Author Stephen Alter will read from his new memoir, Becoming a Mountain: Himalayan Journeys in Search of the Sacred and the Sublime (Arcade Publishing, 2015), on Mar. 19 at 5:30 p.m. in Stokes Hall, Room 195S. Alter was raised by American missionary parents in the hill station of Mussoorie, in the foothills of the Himalayas, where he and his wife, Ameeta, now live. Their idyllic existence was brutally interrupted when four armed intruders invaded their house and viciously attacked them, leaving them for dead. Becoming a Mountain is Alter’s account of a series of treks he took in the high Himalayas following his convalescence—to prove that he had healed mentally as well as physically and to re-knit his connection to his homeland. Alter is the author of 15 other works of fiction and nonfiction. He is founding director of the Mussoorie Writers’ Mountain Festival. Sponsor: English Department.