The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga has officially announced Outcasts United by Warren St. John as their title selection for the university’s 2012 Freshmen Year Reading Experience. After receiving more than 50 entries in favor of choosing Outcasts United, this book will now be read throughout the entire UTC campus and among all incoming Freshmen students.
“I love this book! I’m really enthusiastic about it and I hope you will be, too,” said Dr. Sara Jorgensen, Assistant Professor, African and World History, serves as chair of the FYRE committee. “This is not a feel-good book, but it is an inspiring book. It will make people think about a lot of important issues.”
To read the university’s full announcement of this selection, click here. Also be sure to check out UTC’s unveiling video posted here!
Video from the Eighth Annual Random House First-Year Experience Author Luncheon event is now up on YouTube. We hope you enjoy them and share them with your colleagues!
You may visit our YouTube page to browse all of the videos. For your convenience, we’ve also listed the links to the individual author talks (in speaking order) and the Author Q+A below:
We’re very excited and proud to share this week’s cover of TIME Magazine featuring Wes Moore, author of The Other Wes Moore. Wes is featured as one of the five heroic veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq who have created ambitious projects back home.
In his book, Wes sets out to answer a profound question of how the influence of just a select few individuals can alter the path of an entire life. In alternating narratives that take readers from heart-wrenching losses to moments of surprising redemption, The Other Wes Moore tells the story of a generation of boys trying to find their way in a hostile world. It has been adopted as common reading text in over a dozen universities and schools across the country.
Be sure to check out “The New Greatest Generation” issue of TIME Magazine on stands this week. Catch up on how young war veterans like Wes are redefining leadership.
Want to check out what happened behind the scenes of the cover shoot? Click here to watch the video!
Sixteen years ago, a series of events and discoveries relating to her father’s past led Louise Steinman, author of The Souvenier: A Daughter Discovers Her Father’s War, to the doorsteps of Suibara, Japan. Steinman traveled to Suibara in 1995 to return a Japanese flag she had found among her father’s belongings inscribed to a young man named Yoshio Shimizu, fifty years after his death on a battlefield in Luzon.
In Steinman’s thoughtful and moving blog post entitled Thoughts Towards Japan, she recalls the day in April when she returned the flag to the Shimizu family and “in the middle of that beautiful ceremony in Suibara, the room began to clatter and shake. . . . An earthquake. When it was over, we cautiously smiled at one another. There. We’d been through something together.” No one expected that sixteen years later, the devastation of an enormous earthquake and tsunami would sweep Japan as it has this past month.
Steinman’s book, The Souvenir, recounts her discovery of the story behind her father’s life during his service in the Pacific War after her parents’ death, and her travels to Japan to determine the identity of Yoshio Shimizu and the origins of the flag. Read Steinman’s blog: crookedmirror.wordpress.com to discover her unlikely connection to Japan and how that has effected her thoughts on the country’s current devastation.
Steinman was a featured speaker at the 2009 First Year Experience Random House Luncheon. Click here to watch Part 1 and Part 2 of her speech on the inspiration and motivation behind her book. The Souvenir was selected as the 2006 Silicon Valley Readings for over 15 cities and also chosen by Penn State for its 2003 Freshman Year Reading Program.
Author Thomas Mullen’s book, The Last Town on Earth, was adopted last year as common reading for all incoming freshmen at Montana State University – Billings. Mullen had hoped that his book, which deals with important topics such as morality, making difficult choices, overcoming fear of the unknown, and hope for a better future, would relate fittingly to the lives of undergraduate students who face similar challenges – what he hadn’t imagined was that his story would find even more common-ground with the women incarcerated at Passages, a correctional institution just one mile from the MSUB campus.
Two instructors from MSUB offered a course in 2010 that included a Service Learning Project – students of the course would examine The Last Town on Earth in a joint book club with Passages residents. The main theme of “community” within both the novel as well as the book club begged the question from each woman, “what is community?”.
The learning and friendship that developed between the students and the residents of Passages, all stemming from discussion of Mullen’s The Last Town on Earth, was largely captured on camera by a small film crew that was making a documentary for an MSUB communications class – and it’s one that’s worth checking out: http://www.spotlightads.com/Demos/msub_passages.html
The project also included a visit to Passages by Mullen himself, where he met and spoke with the women of the correctional institution back in December of last year. To hear Mullen’s own account of his experience discussing The Last Town on Earth with Passages residents, check out his blog post on “My First Prison Book Club.”
So much chance and inspiration sprung out of what first started as a First Year Experience reading choice in snowy Billings, Montana, and grew into an entirely different and unforeseen community experience in a women’s prison. Just goes to show that the message of one book can cross borders in the most unexpected and terrific ways.
Earlier in October, Outcasts United by Warren St. John was unveiled as the Common Reading Program book selection for the 2011-12 year.
Becky Burleigh, head coach of the University of Florida’s women’s soccer team, spoke at the event on why she loves Outcasts United. Watch this video to hear why Burleigh feels this title will not only bring the UF campus community together but will also be a great common reading selection for students of all backgrounds.
Author Rebecca Skloot sits down to discuss the inspiration, impact, and process that went into The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
This new book trailer serves as a sneak peak into what we have to look forward to at next weekend’s First Year Experience Conference in Atlanta, GA where Rebecca Skloot is a featured speaker.
Looking for new and exciting ways to get the word out about your common reading selection?
Take a page out of SMU’s book.
To inform students about their 2010 Common Reading book, Zeitoun by Dave Eggers, Southern Methodist University produced a video including an introduction to the book’s topic, feedback from other students who have read the book, and a welcome message to incoming first-year students from returning seniors.
View other SMU video for the 2009 Common Reading book, Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama featuring students, here, and director of First-Year Writing and Common Reading coordinator, Diana Grumbles, here.
With all the recent news about Outcasts United: An American Town, a Refugee Team, and One Woman’s Quest to Make a Difference,it is easy for us to explain to you all the reasons why the book, by New York Times journalist Warren St. John, will resonate with your students.
But how about hearing it from the author himself?
We’ve previously brought you video from Mr. St. John’s talk at our recent Sixth Annual Author Luncheon at the First-Year Experience Conference in Denver, Colorado. In a new video he once again addresses the impact this story can have on ever-diversifiying college campuses. The video also features video of the town of Clarkston, Georgia where the story of the Fugees is set, as well as footage of the Fugees and their coach.
Outcasts United’s impact is farther reaching by the day. In a recent e-mail to Random House Academic, Warren St. John updated us on his itinerary. He will be appearing at the Virginia Festival of the Book in Charlottesville, VA on Tuesday, March 23rd and will be taking part in an event hosted by the International Rescue Committee. From there, Mr. St. John will be heading to Atlanta for Roswell Reads, the common reading program run by the Roswell Public Library, just outside the city.
Want Warren St. John to come to your school or library? E-mail rhacademic@randomhouse.com for more information!
Wrapping up the afternoon at the Sixth Annual First-Year Experience Author Luncheon last month in Denver, Colorado was the dynamic Bill Strickland, author of Make the Impossible Possible: One Man’s Crusade to Inspire Others to Dream Bigger and Achieve the Extraordinary.
Over the past thirty years, the MacArthur Fellowship “genius” award winner has been transforming the lives of thousands of people through the creation of Manchester Bidwell, a jobs training center and community arts program. Working with corporations, community leaders, and schools, he and his staff strive to give disadvantaged kids and adults the opportunities and tools they need to envision and built a better, brighter future.
During his talk, Mr. Strickland showed the audience images of the Manchester Bidwell Center, its students, and their work. Images, video, and other resources may be found on his website.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga has officially announced Outcasts United by Warren St. John as their title selection for the university’s 2012 Freshmen Year Reading Experience. After receiving more than 50 entries in favor of choosing Outcasts United, this book will now be read throughout the entire UTC campus and among all incoming Freshmen students.
commonreads.wordpress.com 