Blue Ridge Literacy To Adopt Roanoke Valley Reads 

Roanoke readsBlue Ridge Literacy (BRL) will adopt Roanoke Valley Reads (RVR).  BRL, whose mission is to support achievement of life goals by providing opportunities to strengthen literacy skills to area adults, will take over the operation of the project immediately.

 “The project has outgrown its ‘kitchen table’ roots and needs a larger umbrella under which to grow and thrive.  This is a clear mission match, and will allow Roanoke Valley Reads to continue as a community building project which highlights the value of reading.” says long time RVR volunteer Meg Carter.  Roanoke Valley Reads is a community-wide reading project, bringing citizens of the Roanoke Valley together through the reading of a common book. This year will mark the sixth project offered to area residents.

The 2016 book is The Submission, by Amy Waldman.  Events focusing on the book will take place in October 2016, culminating with an evening with the author on October 27th at Jefferson Center.  The Submission was the runner up selection to Beth Macy’s Factory Man, which was the RVR selection last year.  The selection process was done by a dedicated group of volunteers who read and rated numerous books.

Blue Ridge Literacy is the largest provider of adult literacy services in the region. BRL was founded 31 years ago, and serves over 400 adults a year through 1:1 tutoring and classes. “We’re very excited,” said Russ Merritt, BRL Executive Director. “The Roanoke Valley Reads program has given thousands of persons throughout the region the wonderful opportunity to come together in conversation, in learning from one another and in building bridges of appreciation and understanding through shared literature.  It is a natural fit for Blue Ridge Literacy, with our focus on supporting the achievement of life goals through literacy, to take over leadership of RVR, and to do all we can to help the program reach even more people.”

Blue Ridge Literacy intends to largely follow the previous models of RVR for the first year. As in past years, local organizations, book clubs, and any interested community members are encouraged to get involved through reading and discussing the book and hosting thematic events. For information about getting involved as a sponsor or volunteer, please contact Portia Boggs at [email protected].

About The Submission: A jury gathers in Manhattan to select a memorial for the victims of a devastating terrorist attack. Their fraught deliberations complete, the jurors open the envelope containing the anonymous winner’s name—and discover he is an American Muslim. Instantly they are cast into roiling debate about the claims of grief, the ambiguities of art, and the meaning of Islam. Their conflicted response is only a preamble to the country’s.

The memorial’s designer is an enigmatic, ambitious architect named Mohammad “Mo” Khan. His fiercest defender on the jury is its sole member who lost a loved one in the attack, the self-possessed and mediagenic Claire Burwell. But when the news of his selection leaks to the press, she finds herself under pressure from outraged victim advocates and in collision with hungry journalists, wary activists, opportunistic politicians, fellow jurors, and Khan himself—as unknowable as he is gifted. In the fight for both advantage and their ideals, all will bring the emotional weight of their own histories to bear on the urgent question of how to remember, and understand, and learn, and grow from, a national tragedy.

In this deeply humane novel, the breadth of Amy Waldman’s cast of characters is matched by her startling ability to conjure their perspectives. A striking portrait of a fractured city and nation striving to make itself whole, The Submission is a piercing and resonant novel.

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