Utah State University 2018 Common Literature Experience Announced
Daniel James Brown, author of "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics."
Now in its sixteenth year, the Utah State University Common Literature Experience invites campus and community members to join incoming students in reading The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, by Daniel James Brown. All are invited to attend the author’s literature convocation Thursday, Aug. 23, at 9 a.m., at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.
Each year, Utah State University sponsors a Common Literature Experience to bring students, faculty, staff and Cache Valley community members together in reading a common book. Approximately 2,500 new students taking the University Connections course read the book during the summer and complete a reflective assignment prior to the beginning of the class. They also attend the literature convocation, held the Thursday before university classes begin.
This year’s literature committee reviewed many excellent nominations and selected The Boys in the Boat, the story of nine working-class boys who pulled together and shocked the world by capturing gold in front of Adolf Hitler in the 1936 Olympics. Brown’s book is a gripping story of how a group of individuals conquered pain, hardship and challenges to bring together a singularly dedicated team that rose to success in a world that was headed for crisis. The book is about what it means to dare to greatness as Olympic oarsmen, but also very much about what it means to be human.
Author Daniel James Brown is this year’s convocation speaker. Brown grew up in the San Francisco Bay area and attended the University of California at Berkeley. He taught writing at San Jose State University and Stanford before becoming a technical writer and editor, first in Silicon Valley and later at Microsoft. He now writes narrative nonfiction books full time. His primary interest as a writer is in bringing compelling historical events to life as vividly and accurately as he can.
The convocation is open to the public and will be broadcast live on USU’s Aggiecast system at http://aggiecast.usu.edu.
The Boys in the Boat is available in the USU Campus Store. For more information about the Common Literature Experience, please contact Lisa Simmons at 435-797-1125.
Related Link:
Literature Experience Website
Contact: Lisa Hancock, 435-797-1125, lisa.hancock@usu.edu
"The Boys in the Boat" book cover.
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