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ECU’s digital book club for students, faculty, staff, and anyone else who wants to join!
How does this work? Where do I get the book?
You don’t need to find a physical copy!
We know that students are busy, and its difficult to find time to read for fun- so, we’ve taken out the heavy lifting. This spring’s Campus Reads will be a collection of poems and short stories from the Harlem Renaissance, many of which only became public domain in the past year or so.
If you fall behind, don’t worry! The stories will still be in your email waiting for you when you have more free time!
Now that you are subscribed, you don’t need to worry about missing any part of the fun! If you’re not a fan of email, you can also find the story sections here on substack or linked @Joynerlibrary on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
This book club format is inspired by Matt Kirkland’s Dracula Daily: a project that sends out sections of the novel Dracula as a newsletter on the day that the book states the events occur every year from May- November.
What are we reading?
The Harlem Renaissance was an artistic and cultural movement in the 1920s and 1930s. The literary aspect of the movement focused on highlighting Black culture and counteracting stereotypes through poems, short stories, and novels. Authors such as Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston shared their works in anthologies, magazines, books, and live performances.
We will be reading a wide selection of poetry from various authors and a few of the short stories that are in public domain.
When are we starting?
The first poem will be sent out in mid-February and emails will go out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday through the end of March.
Why are these stories so old?
We are advantage of the public domain status (meaning copyright has expired) of older stories so that there is no cost to reading and so we have the freedom to break the story into smaller sections and include some archival photos to go along with it.
Because these writings are so old some of their language is outdated and some of the speeches talk about hard topics. See the top of every email for a brief message about themes and language that may be upsetting.
Can’t wait to start reading?
Here are some other digital book clubs with a similar format that you can check out!
Letters from Watson (Sherlock Holmes stories)
Citations
The ghost icon was created by Ben Cunningham from the noun project
To find out more about the company that provides the tech for this newsletter, visit Substack.com.
