UD Launches Reading Initiative, Partners with Local Schools

UD READS

Building a Reading Community

"We are extremely excited about bringing this literacy initiative to the greater Dallas community,” said Dean of University Libraries and Research Cherie Hohertz of the new community reading initiative UD Reads.

The novel chosen for the first UD Reads is 2015 Pulitzer winner All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr. During the course of the 2018-19 academic year, UD will sponsor a series of lectures, art exhibits, panel discussions and other activities in association with the program, culminating in Anthony Doerr’s visit to campus as the 2019 Eugene McDermott lecturer.

While in town, Doerr will host a creative writing symposium, a luncheon talk (streamed live with spring Romers) on his book Four Seasons in Rome, a public lecture on “creative failure,” and the 2019 McDermott Lecture.

As a component of UD Reads, students in the Diocese of Dallas, Irving ISD and select charter schools will read the novel as part of the 10th-grade curriculum. UD’s Education Department will provide programming and support to these local schools. “With over 30 schools participating, more than 2,000 middle and high school students will have the opportunity to read the novel and interact with UD through the McDermott Lecture and other campus programming,” said Hohertz.

The McDermott Lecture will be held March 5, 2019, at the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas.

Reserve your tickets at udallas.edu/ McDermott.