UAA/APU Books of the Year 2015–17: 'Negotiating Identity in America'
by Michelle Saport |
The UAA/APU Books of the Year program announces its 2015-17 theme and books, chosen by the Faculty Steering Committee. Have a good read over the summer, and join the conversation this fall.
Reader's guides, supplemental materials and faculty resources will be posted to the Books of the Year website beginning in August 2015.
Theme: "Negotiating Identity in America" Everyone must "negotiate" and shape their identity as they grow up, age and adapt to fate and circumstance. Together, these books offer timeless and relevant themes of individual and collective identity in America, themes that continue to be important to our communities, state and nation.
Books: The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother By James McBride
The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother explores various aspects of personal identity through stories of the author's mother and of his own experiences growing up in Brooklyn's Red Hook projects. Grappling with his own identity, McBride, as an adult, persuaded his mother to tell her story-of a Rabbi's daughter, born in Poland and raised in the South, who fled to Harlem, married a black man, founded a Baptist church and put twelve children through college. The Color of Water is a tribute to a remarkable and determined mother, and a large, contentious family-and an exploration of the many ways to be an American.
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet By Jamie Ford
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is a historical novel about the Japanese internment during WWII. Set in the Pacific Northwest, it is a story of loyalty-to one's country and to one's culture, traditions and family. It is also a story of the immigrant experience, how politics and war can question and shape one's identity, and the power that individuals have to create their own place in the world.
Faculty Steering Committee Anna Bjartmarsdottir, UAA Rhonda Johnson, UAA Sarah Kirk, UAA Kristen Knudsen, UAA Gina Miller, APU Stephanie Morgan, APU Kimberly Pace, UAA Emily Paul, UAA John Dede, UAA, director Christina Gheen, UAA, coordinator
"UAA/APU Books of the Year 2015–17: 'Negotiating Identity in America'" is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.