Description:Evan Smith, CEO and Editor in Chief of the Texas Tribune, will host Journalist and Author Robert Draper, as part of the 2009-2010 Perspectives Series. Draper will discuss his upcoming book on Obama and race. As well, he will weigh in the the battle for the Texas Governorship.

Robert Draper is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine as well as a correspondent and contributor for GQ and National Geographic. From 1991 until 1997 he was a staff writer for Texas Monthly. He is the author of several books, including Dead Certain: The Presidency of George W. Bush, a chronicle of the Bush Administration from 2001 to 2007. He has also written Rolling Stone Magazine: The Uncensored History and a novel, Hadrian’s Wall.

A University of Texas graduate, Draper worked at The Daily Texan and The Austin Chronicle. Mr. Draper lives in Washington D.C and is currently at work on a narrative of the past 40 years in race relations from King's assassination to Obama's election, which the Simon & Schuster imprint Free Press will publish in 2012.