SUMMER READING PROGRAMThe Summer Reading Program is an opportunity for incoming students to participate in a shared intellectual conversation with the IWU community; to express ideas about a common text that many IWU students, faculty, and staff are reading; and to respond respectfully to ideas others bring to the discussion. IWU is committed to the Summer Reading Program because reading, as well as reflecting, discussing, and writing critically are central to the mission of our liberal arts college. The First-Year Advisory Board, in coordination with the University's Speakers Committee, has selected Pulitzer Prize Winner for Fiction Interpreter of Maladies (1999) by Jhumpa Lahiri for the 2011 Summer Reading Program. The author's commitment to diversity within her short stories is consistent with our University's mission and is certain to stimulate a rich discussion. Students are expected to purchase and read Interpreter of Maladies over the summer of 2011, as well as complete the guided reading questions. Written responses should be brought to the Wednesday, August 17 small group discussions during Turning Titan: New Student Orientation. About the book: Maladies both accurately diagnosed and misinterpreted, matters both temporary and life changing, relationships in flux and unshakeable, unexpected blessings and calamities, and the powers of survival - these are among the themes of Jhumpa Lahiri's extraordinary, Pulitzer Prize-winning debut of short stores. Traveling from India to New England and back again, Lahiri charts the emotional voyages of characters seeking love beyond the barriers of nations, cultures, religions, and generations. Imbued with the sensual details of both Indian and American cultures, they also speak with universal eloquence and compassion to everyone who has ever felt like an outsider. --From Houghton Mifflin Company About the author:
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Jhumpa Lahiri was born in 1967 in London, England, and raised in Rhode Island. Her debut collection, Interpreter of Maladies, won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It was translated into twenty-nine languages and became a bestseller both in the United State and abroad. In addition to the Pulitzer, it received the PEN/Hemingway Award, the New Yorker Debut of the Year award, an American Academy of Arts and Letters Addison Metcalf Award, and a nomination for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Lahiri was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2002. She lives in New York with her husband and son.