Author Visit with Helen Thorpe

6:30 PM - 8:30 PM
Old Town Library
Large Meeting Room Combo

Event Details

The United States is at a political crossroads around questions of immigration, multiculturalism, and America’s role on the global stage. In THE NEWCOMERS: Finding Refuge, Friendship, and Hope in an American Classroom (Scribner; on-sale November 14, 2017), Helen Thorpe’s intensive, year-long reporting puts a human face on these debates—or rather, the faces of 22 newly-arrived teenagers taking a beginner-level English Language Acquisition class at South High School in Denver. The new book has already been named a finalist for the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award. South High School has long been committed to supporting refugee and immigrant students. The teenagers in Mr. Williams’s class--from Syria, Iraq, Burma, Eritrea, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and other war-torn places--have a limited grasp of English and of American culture in general. Still, they are teenagers: irrepressible, passionate, adaptive. There’s Lisbeth from El Salvador, who posts numerous selfies per day on Facebook while pretending to use her phone for translation purposes in class; Mariam, hiding ear buds and a microphone under her long hair so that she can whisper on the phone to her fiancé back in Iraq; and Methusella, a Congolese student who learns English more quickly than anybody else. There is also Mr. Williams, the amazing teacher assigned to Room 142, who shows dedication, patience, and finesse, teaching students to speak basic English with confidence. THE NEWCOMERS tells the story of what happens in their class during the students’ first year in America. Readers learn about the families of the students, and the remarkable, harrowing journeys that have brought them to Denver: war, resettlements overseas, the process of seeking asylum, how badly the students and their families want to “be American.” Together, these stories create an urgent portrait of the real America, and a reminder that American wars overseas inevitably send refugees to our shores. HELEN THORPE was born in London to Irish parents and grew up in New Jersey. She lives in Denver. Her journalism has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Slate, and Harper’s Bazaar. She is the author of Just Like Us, Soldier Girls, and The Newcomers. Book signing and sales after her presentation.
Event Type(s): Special Events
Age Group(s): Adults
Old Firehouse Books