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Welcome to Huron1Read!

We are excited to announce that, after a brief hiatus last year, Huron1Read is back! This year, not do we have one traditional book to read (this year, Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson) but also a complimentary music album (The Halluci Nation’s “We Are the Halluci Nation”) to enhance your Huron1Read experience.

What exactly is, Huron1Read?

Huron1Read is a Huron-wide reading program where everyone – students, staff and faculty – come together around a book. Vibrant community conversations ensue through this shared reading experience. Guest speakers, reading groups, and this year, musical guests, all bring to life the narrative and themes explored in Son of a Trickster.

The 2021 Huron1Read Selection

Please allow us to introduce our Huron1Read 2021/22 selections, Son of a Trickster and “We Are the Halluci Nation”.

Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson
Eden Robinson’s Son of a Trickster explores Indigenous identity in the present-day Canadian colonial context combining the tropes of teenage fantasy fiction with Indigenous spirituality and gritty realism. In the midst of public discussion about residential schools and their legacies this is a poignant novel for us to take up and explore.

 

We Are the Halluci Nation by The Halluci Nation (formerly A Tribe Called Red)

Musically, the album consciously fuses a variety of Indigenous musical traditions with hip-hop music. Lyrically it explores questions related to colonialism, racism, Indigenous identity and more.

Photo by Rémi Thériault
Interested yet on where to receive your free copy of the book?

All first-year students will receive a copy of Son of a Trickster as part their O-Week kit. All upper-year students, faculty and staff can pick up free copy of the book at the Library or the Info Centre.

2021 Huron1Read Events

You’re already a member of the Huron community. Now it’s time to participate and meet even more great Huron people! Activities are planned throughout the Fall semester. Keep checking back here as more events get added.

Novel Ideas: A Huron1Read Bi-Weekly Book Club

When: Every other Thursday, 3 p.m., Location TBA

  • Sept. 16 – Chapter 1-6, with Dr. Barry Craig, President, Huron University College
  • Sept. 30 – Chapter 7-13, with Dr. Sara MacDonald, Professor, Global Great Books
  • Oct. 14 – Chapters 14-20 with Matthew Chasmar, HUCSC President
  • Oct. 28 – Chapters 21-28 with Dr. Rachel Melis, Teaching and Learning Librarian
  • Nov. 11 – Chapters 29-34 with Dr. Irene Cheung, Psychology
  • Nov. 25 – Chapters 35-40 with Dr. Geoff Read, Provost and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Science

Register here

Special Events

November 9, 2021
12:30pm – 1:30pm ET (9:30am-10:30am PT)

Eden Robinson: Author Roundtable Discussion

In conversation with HUCSC VP, Student Affairs Urvi Maheshwari, Professor Sara MacDonald, and History Professor Tom Peace

Please register for this virtual event here.

 

November 9, 2021
7:00pm – 8:00pm ET (4:00pm-5:00pm PT)

Eden Robinson’s Son of A Trickster, Author Reading and Q&A

Please register for this virtual event here.

Huron1Read Contest

Contests – and prizes abound! – for being an active Huron1Read participant. The sky is the limit in order to receive ballots. Think creatively and think big picture – maybe you wish to recreate one of the songs from the album, perhaps posting a book review is more your style or, performing a dramatic recitation of your favourite quote. Simply tag your creation #Huron1Read on social media and you will receive entries into the monthly draws.

Of course, don’t forget to attend the planned events in-person! Ballots will be distributed to all attendees.

Prizes that can be yours, include: a subscription to Spotify or Apple Music for a year, tickets to see The Halluci Nation for a concert in London in November, a gift basket including items from Atlosha, a non-profit organization in London that provides community members with Indigenous-led programming or, an Uber Eats gift card.

Perhaps breaking bread with Dr. Barry Craig and Dr. Sara MacDonald is more your style? A dinner at their home is also on offer as one of the prizes to be drawn after the first Book Club Meeting in September. Please note that in order to be entered to win this prize, students need to have read the entire book.

 

Huron1Read Writing and Visual/Narrative Art Contest

The Huron1Read Writing and Visual/Narrative Art Contest lets Huron students showcase their creative abilities while engaging with this year’s selections – Son of a Trickster and We Are The Halluci Nation.

All Huron students are eligible to enter.

Prizes:

Cash prizes will be awarded in the following categories:

  • Best overall submission – $200
  • Best fiction/creative non-fiction – $75
  • Best academic essay – $75
  • Best poem – $75
  • Best visual/narrative art/digital collage – $75
  • Reader’s Choice, as selected by the Huron community – $100

 

Submission Criteria:

All submissions must meet these criteria in order to be eligible:

  • Submissions must connect, whether explicitly or implicitly, to a theme in Eden Robinson’s Son of a Trickster or the concept album We Are The Halluci Nation
  • Submissions of fiction/creative non-fiction (e.g., literary journalism, fact-based storytelling, memoir, etc.), academic essays, poems, visual/narrative art (digital, print, canvas) are welcome
  • Essays, poems, and fiction/creative non-fiction submissions are not to exceed 3000 words
  • Visual/narrative art submissions must fit standard page dimensions (8.5” x 11”), whether digital or print and should not exceed eight pages in total
  • Each student can submit a maximum of three submissions for consideration, whether they are in the same category or different ones
  • Submissions must not be in consideration for publication or award elsewhere, and should not have previously been published or received an award
  • Entrants submitting written pieces must consent to minor revisions (style or grammar) as needed and recommended by the adjudication committee

 

Submission Deadline:

All submissions must be received no later than 4:00 p.m. on Friday, December 3rd, 2021 by emailing Mandy Penney, Coordinator of Writing Services, at ageorg8@huron.uwo.ca

  • Written submissions: Submissions must be received as both a PDF and a Word document
  • Digital art submissions: Submissions must be a standard visual file (PDF or other PC-compatible format) It is the responsibility of the student to ensure that the file is be viewable.
  • Printed visual art submissions or canvas submissions Submit in person to Mandy Penney in the Huron Library. Please email prior to November 30th to set up an appointment for drop off. It is the responsibility of the student submitting to set up an appointment. No last-minute/day-of appointments are guaranteed unless previously set up in writing.

The History of Huron1Read

Huron1Read is a community tradition at Huron. Beginning in 2015, through the generous donation of a Huron alumnus, the program was initially conceived as a way to bring a shared-experience to incoming first-year students. A book was chosen, a copy was given to each first-year student, and discussions – both inside and outside of class – took place. Over the years, the initiative has evolved into a much-anticipated community-wide event.

Every year, there is author participation with direct student interaction.

  • Michael Harris (The End of Absence: Reclaiming What We’ve Lost in a World of Constant Connection) met with first-year students who shared their classroom work with the author, discussing various themes arising from the book.
  • Thomas King (The Truth About Stories) held a the capstone event centered around an open-panel discussion, where students and other audience members could ask King questions about the book directly.
  • Ivan E. Coyote (Gender Failure) gave a candid talk in the Huron Library, and co-author Rae Spoon performed a live set for Huron students, staff, and faculty.
The Books

Huron1Read 2019: Our Homesick Songs by Emma Hooper

Longlisted for the 2019 Scotiabank Giller Prize. 

From the book cover:

Newfoundland, 1992. When all the fish vanish from the waters and the cod industry abruptly collapses, it’s not long before the people begin to disappear from the town of Big Running as well. As residents are forced to leave the island in search of work, ten-year-old Finn Connor suddenly finds himself living in a ghost town. There’s no school, no friends, and whole rows of houses stand abandoned. And then Finn’s parents announce that they too must separate if their family is to survive. But Finn still has his sister, Cora, with whom he counts the dwindling boats on the coast at night, and Mrs. Callaghan, who teaches him the strange and ancient melodies of their native Ireland. That is until his sister disappears, and Finn must find a way of calling home the family and the life he has lost.

Huron1Read 2018: Fifteen Dogs by Andre Alexis

From the jacket cover:

I wonder, said Hermes, what it would be like if animals had human intelligence. I’ll wager a year’s servitude, answered Apollo, that animals – any animal you like – would be even more unhappy than humans are, if they were given human intelligence.

And so it begins: a bet between the gods Hermes and Apollo leads them to grant human consciousness and language to a group of dogs overnighting at a Toronto veterinary clinic. Suddenly capable of more complex thought, the pack is torn between those who resist the new ways of thinking, preferring the old ‘dog’ ways, and those who embrace the change. The gods watch from above as the dogs venture into their newly unfamiliar world, as they become divided among themselves, as each struggles with new thoughts and feelings. Wily Benjy moves from home to home, Prince becomes a poet, and Majnoun forges a relationship with a kind couple that stops even the Fates in their tracks.

Andre Alexis’s contemporary take on the apologue offers an utterly compelling and affecting look at the beauty and perils of human consciousness. By turns meditative and devastating, charming and strange, Fifteen Dogs shows you can teach an old genre new tricks.

Huron1Read 2017 Gender Failure by Rae Spoon & Ivan E. Coyote

From the jacket cover:

Ivan E. Coyote and Rae Spoon are accomplished, award-winning writers, musicians, and performers; they are also both admitted “gender failures.” In their first collaborative book, Ivan and Rae explore and expose their failed attempts at fitting into the gender binary, and how ultimately our expectations and assumptions around traditional gender roles fail us all.

Based on their acclaimed 2012 live show that toured across the United States and in Europe, Gender Failure is a poignant collection of autobiographical essays, lyrics, and images documenting Ivan and Rae’s personal journeys from gender failure to gender enlightenment. Equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking, it’s a book that will touch LGBTQ readers and others, revealing, with candor and insight, that gender comes in more than two sizes.

Huron1Read 2016: The Truth About Stories by Thomas King

Winner of the 2003 Trillium Book Award. From the jacket cover:

“Stories are wondrous things,” award-winning author and scholar, Thomas King declares in his 2003 CBC Massey Lectures. “And they are dangerous.” Beginning with the traditional Native oral story, King weaves his way through literature, history, religion and politics, popular culture and social protest, gracefully elucidating North America’s relationship with its Native peoples. Thomas King is a Professor of English at Guelph University, where he teaches Native Literature and Creating Writing. King published his first novel in 1990, and has since become an award-winning author, presenter, and radio-host.

Huron1Read 2015: The End of Absence by Michael Harris

From the Jacket Cover:

“In this eloquent and thought-provoking book, Michael Harris argues that amid all the changes we’re experiencing, the most interesting is the one that future generations will find hardest to grasp. That is the end of absence – the loss of lack. The daydreaming silences in our lives are filled; the burning solitudes are extinguished. There’s no true ‘free time’ when you carry a smartphone. Today’s rarest commodity is the chance to be alone with your own thoughts”