High Plains Literature Project

by Michelle Webb, High Plains Student Representative

For those of you who attended Dr. Azar Nafisi’s speech in St. Louis, you are well aware of this disheartening message: literature is slowly dying. Of course, we, as English lovers, hold onto literature for dear life. We come to it when we need it most and cannot imagine a world without books. As Dr. Nafisi pointed out, libraries are closing. People are reading less. Literature is not what it once was. And we can do something about it. 

The Project
The Literature Project is a response to this problem. As the High Plains Region, we cover a large geographical area, and we have the power to truly make a difference. So what is The Literature Project? Well, it’s a simple solution with powerful results. 

The Literature Project is simple. Start a book club. That seems easy enough, right? There is a small catch, but one you will find rewarding. Start a book club in a literature-deprived environment. Book clubs are wonderful tools of spreading our love for literature, but so often, we partake in them with people who already love and have access to reading. The Literature Project will reach out to those who don’t typically read. Start up a book club at a local women’s shelter. Go to a school and get the students who “don’t like to read” on board. Contact a disability center and get books flowing there. Bring a classic into an assisted living center and have senior citizens engage in discussion over it. You can reach out in numerous areas; just pick a crowd that doesn’t usually have access to (or desire for) books, and get them reading! 

Think about this. At my university alone, we have 22 members in the Rho Psi Chapter. If each of us begins a book club, and each book club consists of four readers, we can get 88 people to begin reading and discussing literature. There are 49 universities in the High Plains Region; I’m sure you can do the math. Imagine how many people will be delving into the worlds of our most treasured stories—and all because you started a book club with people who don’t customarily read. 

Our Goal
For the 2010-2011 year, our goal is for each chapter to start and maintain at least four book clubs. Get the ideas flowing over the summer and be ready to spread the beauty of literature come the fall semester. Feel free to brainstorm on our new blog site for The Literature Project (http://sigmataudeltahp.blogspot.com/) and report your progress. Please keep us updated and let us know what you’re thinking. This blog will serve as a way for us to encourage and support one another as we begin this exciting project. 

Get the Ball Rolling!
I encourage you all to start up a book club over the summer. Whether you go home or remain on campus, start your book club, and let us know how it goes. Report your progress to our blog site. What book/short story/poem did you read? With whom? How did it go? Do you have suggestions for the next time? We would love to know how it’s going, so keep us posted. 

To comment on the blog site, simply visit the site and add comments as your chapter members post their progress. You can click on “comments” below the last posted comment and add one of your own. There is an option under the comment-posting area that says, “Comment as.” Please type in your name (it can be your first name only if you prefer), your chapter, and your university. We all would like to see who you are and where you’re from. 

You can also become a follower of this blog site to keep up on what’s happening with The Literature Project in the High Plains Region. 

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to shoot me an email at sigmatd.hp@gmail.com. I would love to help you get started. May literature prevail!

Regent's Challenge Grant for the Literature Project

by Gloria J. Hochstein, High Plains Regent

I LOVE High Plains Student Representative Michelle’s Webb’s Literature Project idea to encourage Sigma Tau Delta members to start book clubs with people who are not accustomed to reading for pleasure.  I love it so much that, as High Plains Regent, I am offering Regent’s Challenge Grants to Sigma Tau Delta members who are starting such reading groups.  I will send $100 to buy books and supplies to up to 10 chapters to start a book club.

All you have to do to apply for a Regent’s Challenge Grant is to send me a letter/email telling me your name, your chapter, and your plans for the book club.  Please include the following:

• where the book discussion(s) will be held
• when the book discussion(s) will be held
• who the novice readers are
• how you know they are novice readers
• what book you are going to read and discuss first.

Your challenge is to find the novice readers and get them interested, and you need to find the time and place for the book discussions, and you need to select a book that will get them reading.  If you can do all that and show me that you have at least 4 novice readers involved, I will send you money to buy books (or reimburse you for books already purchased).  There are no restrictions on age group or what books are being read.  Think about finding potential readers at senior centers, YMCAs, YWCAs, Boys and Girls clubs, local organizations for recent immigrants, English language classes for adults, arcades, malls—wherever people who might not be regular readers hang out.

Judith Ortiz Cofer's prose includes The Line of the Sun, The Meaning of Consuelo, and Call Me María.

Li-Young Lee is the author of books of poetry: Behind My Eyes Book of My Nights, Rose, The City in Which I Love You, and a memoir entitled The Winged Seed: A Remembrance.