Book in Common

Community Read Challenge 1

Join the Book in Common Community Read Challenge and read Clint Smith’s How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America in preparation for the author’s visit to campus on April 11.

By March 25
  1. Get your copy of How the Word is Passed and read the “Prologue,” “Monticello Plantation,” and “Whitney Plantation” chapters (pages 3–84).
  2. Register for the Book Discussion Group and attend the first discussion on March 25 from noon–1 p.m. in the Arts and Humanities Building, Room 227.
  3. Look at discussion questions and additional resources for the “Prologue,” “Monticello Plantation,” and “Whitney Plantation” chapters.
  4. Get your ticket for the Book in Common conversation with Clint Smith, April 11, 7:30 p.m. at Laxson Auditorium (tickets $25, free for Butte College and Chico State students)
  5. For extra credit watch “Crash Course Black American History” by Clint Smith (Course Preview: Episode #1: Transatlantic Slave Trade and Episode #2: Slavery in the American Colonies.)

Clint Smith is the author of the #1 New York Times bestsellerHow the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction, the Hillman Prize for Book Journalism, the Stowe Prize, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and selected by the New York Times as one of the 10 Best Books of 2021. Clint Smith has also written two books of poetry, both nominated as finalists for an NAACP Image Award—the New York Times bestselling collection Above Ground and Counting Descent, which won the 2017 Literary Award for Best Poetry Book from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. Smith is a staff writer at The Atlantic.