Almost every student on campus has come in contact with the Common Read program, a UI initiative designed to engage new students and faculty in a unified intellectual activity, at least once throughout their academic career.
While the nature of these texts have varied since the program first began, this year”s ISEM 101 students will find the required reading is anything but common.
Diane Kelly-Riley, UI professor and director of writing, said the 2015 Common Read differs from those chosen in the past.
“This year”s Common Read is different on two accounts,” Kelly-Riley said. “The first is that this is the first time a work of fiction has been chosen and the second is that this is the first Common Read written by an Idahoan.”
The novel, “All the Light We Cannot See” was written by Idaho native Anthony Doerr and won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Kelly-Riley said the Common Read Committee”s choice of fiction as this year”s required reading for incoming students demonstrates the ways in which the university values the arts.
“This work of fiction is a piece of art,” Kelly-Riley said. “Choosing this book as the Common Read reinforces the value of the arts as a worthy intellectual endeavor.”
Kelly-Riley, who co-authored the nomination for the novel with the UI Director of General Education, Kenton Bird, said she was delighted when their nomination was chosen by the Common Read committee.
“We felt like it had a lot of applicability to our students because it follows the lives of these people on the verge of being adults,” Kelly-Riley said. “There are elements of marine life, folk lore, science, technology, all set in France and Germany … it”s a great narrative that has something for everyone.”
Doerr”s work, which is set in Europe during World War II, parallels the stories of a blind girl living in an occupied France and a German orphan whose penchant for mechanics places him among the Nazi elite.
Although the novel was only published a little over a year ago, “All the Light We Cannot See” has already had a strong impact on the Moscow community.
Blaine Eckles, UI dean of students, said he was in awe of the passionate response he saw from students at a speech given by Doerr during his visit to Moscow on Monday, Sept. 14.
“I was absolutely blown away by his presentation,” Eckles said. “But I was also in awe of all of the strong questions that the students were asking.”
During his visit, Doerr held a book signing event and spoke to a number of different ISEM classes about his writing process.
Doerr said one of his main goals in his writing is to explore the whole spectrum of life.
“You can write about what you know on a fundamental level, like love and loss and persecution, but the character doesn”t have to be you,” Doerr said. “I got into writing because I wanted to enter other lives and places and cultures.”
While Doerr gave a wide range of advice to many aspiring writers during his visit, he reminded every student not to forget the significant impact literature can have.
“Writing is using black marks on a white page,” Doerr said. “To think these marks can transport people to another place or make a statement or impact someone”s life … that”s incredible.”
Corrin Bond can be reached at [email protected]