Nova Ren Suma, author of Salem College’s 2015 Signature First-Year Read, The Walls Around Us, will speak on campus on Tuesday, September 8, 2015.

Suma, who is also the author of Dani Noir, Fade Out, Imaginary Girls, and 17 & Gone, will share insight about her novel, which all new first-year students read over the summer as part of the Salem Signature Program.

Associate Professor of History Dr. Daniel Prosterman, who also directs the Salem Signature General Education Program, helps to finalize the selection each year. 

“We are thrilled to have Nova Ren Suma visit campus for the 2015 Signature First-Year Read,” he says. “The Walls Around Us focuses on a variety of critical issues facing our students in the twenty-first century: social justice, privilege, power, guilt, innocence, and the pressures young women encounter in our society. The author explores these topics in a fascinating literary style that is both compelling and thought-provoking.”

The Walls Around Us was named the top Kids’ Indie Next Pick for spring 2015 and a Best Young Adult Book of the Month for March 2015 on Amazon. It was a Spring Selection by the Junior Library Guild this year, a Most Anticipated Book of 2015 on iBooks, and a top pick on The Kids' Next List on Kobo this spring.

A book sale and signing will follow the talk, which will be held at 7:30 pm in Shirley Recital Hall in the Elberson Fine Arts Center. This event is free and open to the public.

Suma’s The Walls Around Us follows Salem’s recent reading selections of Heidi Durrow (The Girl Who Fell From the Sky), Ayana Mathis (The Twelve Tribes of Hattie), Jesmyn Ward (Salvage the Bones), and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Purple Hibiscus).