Bestselling Griz Read Author to Visit UM, Talk ‘Station Eleven’
By Abigail Lauten-Scrivner, UM News Service
MISSOULA – This semester’s incoming class of ÁÔÆæÖØ¿Ú students might recognize a uniquely shared kinship with the characters, themes and ideas explored in the book selected as this year’s Griz Read.
Like the individuals inhabiting the fictional world as told in bestselling author Emily St. John Mandel’s novel “Station Eleven,” many new UM students’ formative years were shaped by a pandemic and the changes it incurred both societally and personally when it spread worldwide in early 2020. They’ve spent the four-plus years since growing into adulthood and discovering who they are in an altered world – much like the novel’s characters.
“The story is about the world after a pandemic, and so there was the feeling that ‘Station Eleven’ would be especially resonant at this time in the world and with this generation of students,” said Davidson Honors College Dean Tim Nichols.
About 400 DHC students are reading the book in the Introduction to Honors course Nichols teaches, which is required for all incoming honors undergraduates. The novel is also being read in UM’s Ways of Knowing course and other classes across campus, as well as book clubs throughout Missoula.
In addition to “Station Eleven” being selected as the Griz Read and used as a teaching tool throughout various UM courses this semester, St. John Mandel will visit campus Tuesday, Oct. 15, for a Q&A with students only at 1 p.m. in the University Center Theater as well as a President’s Lecture Series event at 7 p.m. in the UC Ballroom.
St. John Mandel’s President’s Lecture Series event is free and open to the public. The lecture series provides an opportunity for all to gather, learn and discuss ideas and issues that animate public conversation. Her lecture marks the first of this academic year’s series, with more to follow.
Nichols said faculty were interested in selecting “Station Eleven” as the Griz Read and inviting St. John Mandel to campus for some time not only due to its pertinent themes, but because of the novel’s high acclaim and the author’s distinctive literary voice.
Alternating between fiction and nonfiction, the Griz Read is selected each year by a committee of faculty, staff and students. Everyone across the campus community, but especially new UM students, are encouraged to read the book and participate in all Griz Read events.
The hope is to foster connection between incoming students and the broader Missoula community by creating the shared intellectual experience of reading a thought-provoking story together.
“I think it injects an energy and a really great space for conversation about a compelling text that we can learn from and that people may react to very differently,” Nichols said. “That can help us understand each other, too.”
Beyond its relatability exploring the fallout of a pandemic, Nichols said Griz Read participants and event attendees can find a lot to relate to and consider within the pages of “Station Eleven.”
One of the novel’s central ideas is how to go beyond just surviving in the face of adversity or hardship, but really living. Nichols said he hopes UM students consider that notion while reading the book – how to transcend just getting by and passing to really engage and make meaning of their time at the University.
“The story involves building a new world after the pandemic and starting over and figuring out what matters to us in life, figuring out what we value in communities, figuring out what a functional society should look like,” Nichols said. “From my view, those questions are pretty resonant for students who are starting college in a new place, figuring out who they want to be and how they want to walk in the world, forming new communities, making decisions about their futures.”
St. John Mandel is the bestselling author of numerous other novels, including “The Glass Hotel” and “Sea of Tranquility,” both of which were listed among former President Barack Obama’s favorite books. “Station Eleven” was a finalist for a National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award, and won the 2015 Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Toronto Book Award and the Morning News Tournament of Books. The novel was cited in The New York Times list of the 100 best books of the 21st century. It also was adapted into a limited series for HBO. St. John Mandel also is a staff writer for The Millions.
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Contact: Dave Kuntz, UM director of strategic communications, 406-243-5659, dave.kuntz@umontana.edu.
