Photo courtesy of Larry D. Moore CC BY-SA 3.0
Students were left puzzled when Mr. Sherman Alexie, author of the summer reading book Flight, did not visit Choate last fall. However, his visit was simply postponed to the spring term, because of medical issues that suddenly prevented him traveling significantly. Mr. Alexie will now visit Choate on April 19.
The delay did not seem to have any effect on Mr. Alexie’s enthusiasm about visiting Choate. “He was eager to reschedule,” said Ms. Ellen Devine, Head of the English Department. “We thought that Sherman Alexie coming some time in the year was better than Sherman Alexie not coming at all.”
Some, however, were concerned about the time gap between when the students had read the book — over the summer of 2016 — and when they will be asked to revisit it, however informally, this spring. “I haven’t read Flight in a while, so I have mostly forgotten about it,” said Andrew Berzolla ’20. “If he came in the fall, I would have probably remembered more of it.”
The English Department acknowledges the possibility that Flight may not be as fresh in students’ memories in the spring, which is why they normally try to get the author to come in September or October. But Ms. Devine still has a positive outlook on Mr. Alexie’s visit. “He’s a very dynamic speaker,” she said. “He’s spoken for people who have never read any of his books. He’s capable of making different people think about a lot of things.”
The timing might even be beneficial to some students enrolled in English 200 or 300, who may be revisiting Flight this spring before Mr. Alexie’s visit. For those classes, Flight will not only be fresh in their memories, but they will also have deeper understanding of the text when the time comes to interact with him.
Having the whole school read one book over the summer, and then to have them see the author in person, can prove valuable to students in more than one way. Students will be able to experience contemporary writing as well as benefiting from an advantage contemporary works have over older ones — the fact that the author is still alive. “When you read literature in English class, it is common for a lot of the literature to have been written by people who are no longer alive. A lot of our English curriculum is focused on literature that has been written in the past,” said Ms. Devine.
She continued, “We want to make sure that there are opportunities for all our students to encounter contemporary literature. And you experience contemporary literature in English class in a very different way than when you get to meet the person who wrote the book. We thought that was a very valuable experience.”
Ms. Devine then provided an example of the difference between studying contemporary literature and literature written centuries ago: “When we read Shakespeare, we don’t get to ask Shakespeare if Hamlet’s father’s ghost is real or a figment of his imagination. It’s a different way to engage with literature.”
Since 2014, Choate has dedicated special programs to the summer reading book authors, who, in addition to speaking in front of the entire school about their books, answered questions and engaged in one-on-one conversations with students. Choate inaugurated this approach to summer reading in 2014, when Ms. Julie Otsuka, the author of When the Emperor Was Divine, visit campus. Ms. Emily St. John Mandel, who wrote the dystopian novel Station Eleven, came the following year.
In order to decide which contemporary book and, in turn, who the incoming speaker is, Choate has a Summer Reading Committee which reviews several different titles in the middle of the year. “They are always looking for authors who are contemporary writers, alive, producing work now, so that they can come to school and talk about their life and work as a writer,” said Ms. Devine. After carefully selecting the one work per year that the entire student body will read, the School contacts the author through his or her agent in order to arrange the visit.
“We wanted the fact that everyone does summer reading to contribute to some sense of a common experience. Choate’s so amazing in its diverse curricular offerings and the chances to do very different things, so there aren’t always a ton of common experiences,” said Ms. Devine. “But summer reading is a common experience, and we thought it would be great for the students to have encountered the same text and then all get to hear from the author.”
Besides the special program planned in April, Mr. Alexie will meet with students in the Creative Writing Capstone and Intensive Creative Writing classes. He will also be holding a book signing in the Andrew Mellon Library.
“He’s a big deal. He’s a very famous author. People at this School have been studying his texts for a long time before we made it a summer reading text. I think it’s really great that we are able to bring someone who has been a mainstay of our curriculum to our school,” said Ms. Devine. She concluded, “I think that he’s going to be wonderful.”
