On a sunny day in Berkeley, California, in 1942, a woman sees a sign in a post office window, returns to her house, and matter-of-factly begins to pack her family’s possessions.
Like thousands of other Japanese Americans they have been reclassified, virtually overnight, as enemy aliens and are about to be uprooted from their homes and sent to a dusty internment camp in the Utah desert.
In this lean and devastatingly evocative first novel, Julie Otsuka tells the story of one Japanese American family from five flawlessly realized points of view—the mother receiving the order to evacuate; the daughter on the long train ride to the camp; the son in the desert encampment; the family’s return to their home; and the bitter release of the father after almost four years in captivity. When the Emperor Was Divine is a work of enormous power that makes a shameful episode of our history as immediate as today’s headlines. – www.julieotsuka.com
2019 Common Reader Essay Contest
Open to All First Year Students Westover has titled her book Educated, and much of her education takes place in classrooms, lectures or other university environments — but not all. What other important moments of “education” were described in the book? What friends,...
2018 Common Reader Essay Contest Winners
Eight students were awarded prizes in the 2018 Common Reader Essay Contest, in response to book Lab Girl by Hope Jahren. Here are the winners: First place: Valerie Light, an Honors Program student and Communications Interest major from Marietta, GA Second place: Liam...
2018 Common Reader Essay Contest
Open to All First Year Students On page 29 author Hope Jahren writes: “Science has taught me that everything is more complicated than we first assume, and that being able to derive happiness from discovery is a recipe for a beautiful life.” As you enter...
‘LAB GIRL’ IS THE 2018 FIRST YEAR COMMON READER
Lab Girl, a book written by scientist Hope Jahren, has been selected as the University of Delaware’s 2018 First Year Common Reader. The First Year Common Reader is read by UD’s first year students, providing a unique opportunity for students to engage in a meaningful...
NOVELIST COLSON WHITEHEAD ENGAGES UD AUDIENCE
Novelist Colson Whitehead engages UD audience Begin your intellectual journey
2017 Common Reader Essay Contest Winners
Ten students were awarded prizes in the 2017 Common Reader Essay Contest, in response to book The Underground Railroad by Colsen Whitehead. Here are the winners: First place: Jillian Krol, a nursing major from Rockaway Park, NY Second place: Michael Szczechowski, an...
Colson Whitehead on Campus Tuesday October 3, 2017 at 4:30pm
Colson Whitehead on Campus Tuesday October 3, at 4:30pm. Colson Whitehead will visit the University of Delaware on Tuesday, October 3rd, at 4:30pm in Mitchell Hall. Begin your intellectual journey
The Underground Railroad Wins the Pulitzer Prize
The Underground Railroad Wins the Pulitzer Prize Colson Whitehead's 'Underground Railroad' Is A Literal Train To Freedom Begin your intellectual journey
Colson Whitehead on Campus Tuesday October 3, 2017
Colson Whitehead on Campus Tuesday October 3, 2017 Colson Whitehead will visit the University of Delaware on Tuesday, October 3rd. More details to come… Begin your intellectual journey
Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen (2020)
Jose Antonio Vargas takes audiences deeper into his story, sharing details of his journey to America from the Philippines as a child; his journey through America as an immigration reform activist; and his journey inward as he reconnects with his mother, whom he hadn’t seen in person in over 20 years.
Julie Otsuka
Julie Otsuka is the author of two novels, The Buddha in the Attic, which won the PEN/Faulkner Award, France’s Prix Femina Étranger, and was a finalist for the National Book Award, and When the Emperor Was Divine, which won the Asian American Literary Award and the American Library Association Alex Award. Her work has been translated into more than twenty languages and sold over 600,000 copies. Her short story, ‘Diem Perdidi’, will be included in ‘100 Years of the Best American Short Stories’, which will be published in October 2015. A recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship and an Arts and Letters Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she lives in New York City, where she writes every afternoon in her neighborhood café.
