Date: Tuesday, April 25
Time: 7 p.m.
Location: UNLV Student Union Ballroom
Details: Free and open to the public. Q&A session will follow the reading.
National Book Award Finalist Dan Chaon will read selections of his work in the UNLV Student Union Ballroom April 25 at 7 p.m. Chaon is the author of a prize-winning collection of stories "Among the Missing," the novel "You Remind Me of Me," and a second book of stories, "Fitting Ends."
Chaon is appearing in Las Vegas with the "Just Voices" program, an innovative community partnership co-sponsored by UNLV that brings prize-winning writers into area high schools and to the UNLV campus for discussions about social justice. Chaon's book of stories, "Fitting Ends," has been selected by the program for its focus on issues of high relevance to the teaching of justice and tolerance in the American family.
Books by Chaon, and other "Just Voices" authors, Gerda Wesiman Klein and Ana Castillo, have been approved by the Clark County School District and purchased by the sponsors so that more than 800 students can share in an innovative reading experience centered on themes of social justice. The readings culminate in classroom visits and meetings with the authors.
The "Just Voices" project also runs a class for teachers through UNLV's Department of English and the Southern Nevada Regional Development Program. The class provides Clark County high school teachers involved in "Just Voices" an opportunity for in-depth study of the writers' works, along with one-on-one time with the authors in preparation for in-class visits. The classes are in part also sponsored by the Dean's Office of the Lied Library at UNLV. Now in its third year of implementation as a community partnership in Las Vegas, "Just Voices" is fast becoming known as one of the most innovative writers-in-the-schools literary activism teaching projects in the nation.
"Just Voices" and the public readings at UNLV are sponsored by Nevada P.I.E., the Department of English at UNLV, Educational Outreach at UNLV, the Clark County School District, the Governor's Advisory Council on Education Relating to the Holocaust, and by generous donations from Fontainebleau Resorts and the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Family Foundation.
For more information, please contact the UNLV English Department at 895-3533.
