We are very excited to announce that the Lies,
Light, McCarthy Visiting Author for 2012 will be award-winning poet and author, Naomi Shihab Nye.
- Naomi Shihab Nye
The public is invited to a reading:
Thursday, March 29, 2012 at 4:15PM
Cor Unum Center at Stuart
About the Visiting Author Program
The goal of
the Visiting Author Program is to bring world-class authors to Stuart who will
share their knowledge and experiences with the students. Work on the program begins many months prior to the author's visit and culminates with Visiting Author Day.
Naomi Shihab Nye will arrive at Stuart on March 29th and give a
public reading that afternoon in Cor Unum. Her reading will be followed
by a book signing and a private reception in her honor. The next
morning, Ms. Nye will have tea with selected Middle School students, and
then spend time in the Lower School where she will lead a Q& A
discussion with our youngest students. She will enjoy lunch with our
Senior Scholars and the faculty of the English Department. The
afternoon will conclude with a private reading for Upper and Middle School
students.
Bringing the Best Contemporary Authors to Stuart
At Stuart we believe that every student, from the youngest
pre-schooler to a graduating senior, should read and hear the best
contemporary writing of her day. To that end, Stuart’s Visiting Author
Program was created in 2008 to bring the best contemporary writing into
our curriculum.
Every year, the works of our Visiting Authors are
integrated into every class level. In 2009, students encountered the
Pulitzer Prize-winning poetry of Paul Muldoon; in 2010, the fiction of
Jonathan Safran Foer was a particular highlight; and in 2011, students
were honored to read the essays and fiction of Pulitzer Prize winning
novelist, Jhumpa Lahiri. Stuart students are already eagerly preparing
for the 2012 Visiting Author, Naomi Shihab Nye, whose picture books,
poems for girls, essays, fiction, and poetry collections will shape and
inspire English and Language Arts classes this year. The success of the
Visiting Author Program in the Lower and Middle School curricula in
particular is one of our proudest achievements.
Connecting Students through Experience
Senior
students do much of the work. Every year, a select group of seniors, known as "Senior Scholars," visits pre-school - grade 8 classes to engage
students with the work of the Visiting Author. When Jonathan Safran Foer came to visit, a student talked about the motif of a scavenger hunt in his book, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and read some excerpts of the novel to
kindergarten students. She then designed a magical scavenger hunt with
kindergarteners that wove together a narrative. The hunt was followed by
an extremely interesting conversation comparing the work of
understanding a
narrative to the work of a scavenger hunt. These conversations have a profound effect on the way
students think about their own writing and what the role of an ideal reader
should be. To then meet the author
a week or two later, and to ask him or her questions, is to make the
connection even stronger.
Stuart's Language Arts and English faculty works very hard, at grade every level, to embrace and honor the work of a new author, and spend months preparing the students for Visiting Author Day. The result is a truly unique and magical day.
Lies, Light, and McCarthy
The Visiting Author Program was the dream of a beloved alumna,
faculty member, and former English department head, Victoria Flournoy McCarthy '71.
A fund to support the program was established in her honor after her death, and
is named after Stuart’s three former English department heads: Betty Lies, Nancy Light and Victoria
McCarthy.