- Campaign: Macon Bank honors late VP with scholarship gifts
- Catamount Mail for students goes live this fall
- Shuttle bus to serve off-campus housing
- WCU's improvement plan will benefit region and campus, Chancellor says
- Catamount Football to host annual Meet the Cats event Aug. 22
- Alum Tony White to bring DNA technology experts to campus
- "Alice" star Linda Lavin to open performing arts series Sept. 8
- Asheville city workers earn fellowships to study at WCU
- Nursing professor receives state award
- Star power leads to WCU radio series, special prize for Valley Ballyhoo
Western Carolina University freshmen have not started classes, but they already have their first reading assignment – “The World Made Straight,” an award-winning novel by WCU faculty member Ron Rash (pictured above).
Students were given copies and asked to read the book as part of the Freshman Reading Program. Before they discuss and write about the book in their fall coursework, they will hear the author speak at Freshman Convocation. The formal welcoming event will be held at 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 19, in Ramsey Regional Activity Center.
“I want to share with them something they won’t get in the novel – how my family’s personal history played a role in wanting to write this book,” said Rash, the John and Dorothy Parris Distinguished Professor of Appalachian Culture at WCU.
“The World Made Straight” introduces readers to a 17-year-old boy who, through a series of events ranging from discovering a grove of marijuana to getting caught in a bear trap, forges a friendship with a disgraced schoolteacher. Together they study Civil War documents and begin to see connections from a violent massacre of the past to their still-divided community.
“My family has very deep roots in the Appalachians and was involved in the Civil War massacre that is part of the story,” said Rash. “What I hope our students take away is a sense of the importance of learning and knowing history – how we learn from it or don’t learn from it. I hope they will take on a more complex view of the Appalachian region.”
The book won one of the Young Adult Library Services Association’s 2007 Alex Awards, which honor the nation’s top 10 books for teenage readers.
A university committee selects books for the WCU Freshman Reading Program based on criteria including appeal to recent high school graduates, relevance to Western, diversity and effectiveness as a teaching tool. Selections in the program’s nine years include “Teacher Man,” by Frank McCourt; “Interpreter of Maladies” by Pulitzer Prize-winning Indian author Jhumpa Lahir; and “In Mind In Country: From Mount Kenya to Tenewi Island,” a journal by then-WCU student Worth Allen. The 2004 reading program selection, “One Foot in Eden,” also was by Rash.