About the Peay Read

After attending The Common Reading Program, a conference session at the 2008 San Francisco, California, First Year Experience national conference, Dr. Dixie Dennis, an Austin Peay State University (APSU) administrator, decided to create a similar reading initiative for APSU students. Following this conference, Dr. Dennis invited faculty from the academic colleges and the library, personnel from new student programs, public relations, the book store, student life and leadership, and an APSU student to form a committee. This committee established The Peay Read to provide a sense of community and to contribute to the academic experiences for APSU 1000 students. Unlike traditional first-year-experience common reading programs, The Peay Read opportunity includes sophomore, junior, and senior students.

The Peay Read was designed with the university vision in mind to “create a collaborative, integrative learning community, instilling in students habits of critical inquiry as they gain knowledge, skills, and values for life and work in a global society.” After reviewing several books, the committee chose The Soloist as the 2011 common reading. Written by Steve Lopez, a journalist working at the LA.Times, The Soloist chronicles his chance encounter with a homeless musician and how writing about it in his columns brought new responsibilities, challenges and joys as he became a part of Nathaniel Ayers’s life.

Through monthly meetings, committee members worked diligently to plan related activities to enhance students’ knowledge, skills, and values as they participate in The Peay Read experience. These activities will culminate in Lopez’s address to the APSU student body and the Clarksville community on September 29, 2011.

In addition to participating in these activities, students will receive tee shirts and book marks with quotations from The Soloist to encourage them to “gain knowledge, skills and values for life and work.” Each year, all first-year students will submit reader-response essays centered on themes in the selected book. This year, student authors of the ten best essays will be invited to a dinner with Lopez, who will be presented a bound copy of the winning essays. At the dinner, each student winner also will receive a bound copy of the essays and will have an opportunity for Lopez to sign their copies of his book. Additional on-campus activities include showing the movie The Soloist, faculty-led book discussions, and service learning projects.

 This year, The Peay Read Committee hopes that after reading The Soloist our students will "forever change the way [they] feel when [they] walk down the street and pass a person who sleeps on the sidewalk" (Bloomberg News).