One Book/One New Paltz selects post 9/11 novel, The Submission, for community read. Author to appear at SUNY New Paltz

NEW PALTZ – One Book/One New Paltz at the State University of New York at New Paltz announces the selection of the novel, The Submission by Amy Waldman as the 2012 community read. A series of events and conversations based on Waldman’s novel are scheduled throughout November both on campus and in the community.

Amy Waldman

One Book One New Paltz will kick off its November program with a lecture by Amy Waldman hosted by the SUNY New Paltz Distinguished Speaker Series on Thursday, Nov. 1, 7:30 p.m. in Lecture Center 100. A book signing and reception will follow the event. For tickets and information, please call 845-257-3880 or visit www.newpaltz.edu/speakerseries. Tickets may also be purchased at the Parker Theatre Box Office, Oct. 1-19, Monday – Friday 11:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. and on the night of the program. SUNY New Paltz students are free with school ID and tickets are on a first come-first serve basis on the night of the program. Presenting sponsors are Campus Auxiliary Services and Sodexo.

Other events include a performed reading by the Mohonk Mountain Company on Nov. 16 at 8 p.m. at the Unison Arts Center, community discussions, academic panels and lectures, and a film screening. Most events are free and open to the public.

The Submission, Amy Waldman’s debut novel, imagines a post-9/11 competition for the design of a memorial at ground zero where the winner, selected by a blind jury, turns out to be an American-born Muslim. Reactions from the jury, the public, and the victims’ families are complex and emotional. It was selected as The New York Times Notable Book for 2011 and named finalist for the Hemingway/Foundation/PEN First Fiction Award.

Founded in 2008, New Paltz’ Distinguished Speaker Series aims to connect community members, alumni, friends, faculty, staff, students and their families with accomplished authors, policy makers and leaders, scientists, media experts, business people and other luminaries. The Series hosts speakers twice every academic year.

Associate Vice President for Regional Engagement Gerald Benjamin, director of the Center for Research, Regional Education & Outreach, founded One Book/One New Paltz in 2005 as a way to bridge the “town and gown” dichotomy through the unifying influence of reading. It was a natural synergy between the two communities because of the college being a home of learning, scholarship, and reading; similarly, the New Paltz community is invested in the reading experience through public libraries, leisure reading, and fostering literacy in their children.

The full One Book/One New Paltz schedule can be found at www.onebookonenewpaltz.org.