UNC Asheville Chooses “Make Your Home Among Strangers” by Jennine Capó Crucet

This summer, UNC Asheville’s new students are reading Jennine Capó Crucet’s novel, Make Your Home Among Strangers, as part of the university’s first-year reading program.

The book’s themes will be part of discussions on campus throughout the fall 2017 semester.

Students and the community will have a chance to engage in-person with Crucet when she delivers a free public lecture at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 31 in UNC Asheville’s Lipinsky Auditorium. Weeks before Crucet arrives on campus, discussions about the book’s themes will begin in small groups led by faculty and staff during new student orientation, and discussion of the novel’s themes will continue during special seminar courses for first-year students.

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Make Your Home Among Strangers tells the story of a first-generation college student – the daughter of Cuban immigrants leaving Miami for an elite, northern university. Published in August 2015, the novel quickly gained acclaim as an Amazon.com Best Book of the month. It also was long-listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, named a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice, and in 2016, won the International Latino Book Award for Best Latino-themed Fiction. Crucet, assistant professor of English and ethnic studies at the University of Nebraska, also has won an O. Henry Award for her short stories.

A book signing will take place after the Aug. 31 talk. For more information, contact Jackie McHargue, at [email protected] or 828.250.2370.

(Prepared by UNC Asheville.)
(Image by UNC Asheville.)