Early in April, PEN/Faulkner Award winner and critically acclaimed author Benjamin Alire Sáenz visited our island as part of the Nantucket Book Foundation’s work with Nantucket students and the Nantucket community. This visit was made possible in part with a grant from the Nantucket Fund™.
Mary Haft, co-founder of the Nantucket Book Festival and Vice-President of both the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and the Nantucket Book Foundation, beautifully reported on Ben’s visit in a recent article for Mahon About Town. Mary writes, “The continuing work–and mission–of the Foundation under which the Nantucket Book Festival falls, is to enlarge our world through the power of words. Work that is made possible with the support of generous grants from the Community Foundation for Nantucket…”
The PEN/Faulkner Writers In Schools program ensured that every student in the class had been given the gift of the book being studied, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. A curriculum guide had been created and given to High School English teacher, Elizabeth Reinemo, to serve as a guide in teaching the book. The book was read, studied, discussed, then followed by the visit to the classroom by the author.” Ben and Mary were amazed at the projects and interpretations by Nantucket students.
“Great writing and great books take us on a journey to places known and unknown. Lines and lives blur; there are no boundaries within the pages of a book. Within that world, we are not alone. No one has chartered the human heart, with its shared humanity more than Benjamin Alire Saenz,” writes Mary.
To read the full story, visit
Mahon About Town!
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