Pullman, Wash.—The Washington State University Common Reading Program and the Visiting Writers Series (VWS) will co-sponsor a reading by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and author Natalie Diaz at 6:00 p.m. Wed., Feb. 9 via YouTube Live.

The event is open to the public and free of charge. A question-and-answer session will follow the virtual reading.

Diaz’s poem, “American Arithmetic,” is featured in this year’s common reading book, Tales of Two Americas: Stories of Inequality in a Divided Nation. The book is used in dozens of classes for first-year and other students.

“We are pleased to co-sponsor with the Visiting Writers Series the poet’s address to WSU students, faculty, staff, and community guests,” said Karen Weathermon, Common Reading director.

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PULLMAN, Wash.—Washington State University alumnus and award-winning writer, director, producer, and educator Ted Tremper will discuss socio-political comedy when he returns virtually to WSU as the guest presenter for the Common Reading Program at 5 p.m. Oct. 27.

Visit the Common Reading website to register to attend the online presentation and to submit questions to Tremper.

Among the Seattle-area native’s many credits is his year-long assignment as field producer for The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, a weeknight Comedy Central TV series built around the host’s commentary on daily headlines.

Noah is the author of this year’s common reading book being used in dozens of freshman and other classes, Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood.

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PULLMAN, Wash.—Dreamer, University of Idaho Law School graduate, and Seattle immigration attorney Luis Cortes Romero will present “This Case is My Story: The Supreme Court Argument to Preserve DACA” at 7 p.m. Mon. March 2 in the CUB Junior Ballroom. Hosted by the Common Reading Program at Washington State University, the program is open to the public at no charge.

Since March 2018, Cortes Romero has been a managing partner at Immigrant Advocacy and Litigation Center, PLLC, in Kent, Wash. and since 2012 an executive board member of the DREAM Bar Association. This past November, he was one of six attorneys at the table in front of the U.S. Supreme Court arguing to continue protection against deportation of people brought to the U.S. as children.

“A lot is at stake for me individually,” he told a CNN reporter days before the court date. “I will be looking at nine individuals who will ultimately decide whether my clients will be deported—and me with them.”

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PULLMAN, Wash.—Bimbisar Irom, assistant professor of communication at Washington State University, will present at 5 p.m. Mon., Sept. 23 in Todd Hall 216 a lecture titled, “Through Western Eyes: Humanitarian Communication and the Rohingya Refugee Crisis.” The event is hosted by the Common Reading Program and is free and open to the public.

Irom’s talk focuses on Western media coverage of the ongoing Rohingya refugee crisis that originated in Myanmar and has now spilled over into the neighboring countries of Bangladesh, India, Thailand, and Malaysia.

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