Feb 14, 2020

Paul Wieland, retired full-time lecturer and current adjunct instructor in the Jandoli School of Communication, will introduce his latest book in a talk at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 5, at Olean Public Library.

“Taro Lives: Confessions of a Sports Hoaxer” (RPSS Publishing, 2019), traces the author’s career through his early days in the news business, where he pulled his first gags. Along the way he invents a Japanese hockey player named Taro Tsujimoto, soon a legend in the National Hockey League.

The imaginary player sets Wieland off on the pursuit of hoaxes for two decades, resulting in some of the strangest news announcements and sports television ever presented. 

Wieland is also the author of two nonfiction sports books, “And Then Perreault said to Rico” (Triumph, 2008) and “The Father… the Son…and the Sweet Sixteen” (Brown Hill, 2012); and a novel, "Arenaland" (2017), a satirical look at the sports business. Another book, ”Chasing Nigel,” a memoir of a life fishing, awaits publication.