USD to Host Big Read Event Featuring Renowned Author Tim O’Brien

The University of San Diego will host a Big Read event featuring the novel The Things They Carried by renowned author Tim O'Brien and a talk by the author himself.

The book discussion takes place Tuesday, April 24 from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. in the Hahn University Center in room 107. The keynote presentation featuring O'Brien takes place Tuesday, May 1 at 7 p.m. in the Hahn University Center Forum.

The Things They Carried is O'Brien's collection of stories about soldiers in the Vietnam War and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. According to a 2004 National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) survey, Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America, literary reading is in dramatic decline with fewer than half of American adults reading literature. In response, the NEA implemented a program in 2006 designed to restore reading to the center of American culture known as the Big Read. The program provides citizens with the opportunity to read and discuss a single book within their communities.

Both events are free and open to the public. To RSVP, go to www.sandiego.edu/inclusion or call (619) 260-7455.

USD is sponsoring the event with the Black Storytellers of San Diego, Inc.

About the University of San Diego

Strengthened by the Catholic intellectual tradition, we confront humanity’s challenges by fostering peace, working for justice and leading with love. With more than 8,000 students from 75 countries and 44 states, USD is the youngest independent institution on the U.S. News & World Report list of top 100 universities in the United States. USD’s eight academic divisions include the College of Arts and Sciences, the Knauss School of Business, the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering, the School of Law, the School of Leadership and Education Sciences, the Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science, the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, and the Division of Professional and Continuing Education. In 2021, USD was named a “Laudato Si’ University” by the Vatican with a seven-year commitment to address humanity’s urgent challenges by working together to take care of our common home.