Local library hosts award-winning writer

Helen Thorpe visits Pikes Peak Library District for conversations on immigration, multiculturalism

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO – Immigration continues to dominate our national conversation in America. One expert on the topic - called "a discerning chronicler of cultural misunderstanding" by the New York Times - will speak in Colorado Springs this week.

Helen Thorpe is an award-winning writer who spent a year in a ‘newcomer’ classroom at Denver’s South High School, a classroom designated for teenage refugees from Africa, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Central America. The result of her research is The Newcomers: Finding Refuge, Friendship, and Hope in America, the adult title for Pikes Peak Library District’s 2018 All Pikes Peak Reads program.

Thorpe is coming to speak at Library 21c in Colorado Springs on Tuesday, Oct. 2 as a part of All Pikes Peak Reads.

“The messages contained within The Newcomers are essential conversation starters for our community, especially right now,” said Amy Rodda, head of adult services for Pikes Peak Library District. “We are thrilled to offer our community the opportunity to take their conversations one step further and discuss these subjects with the author herself.”

The book follows the lives of 22 immigrant teenagers, between 14 and 19 years old, many who have come directly from refugee camps. The New York Times calls it “a reminder that in an era of nativism, some Americans are still breaking down walls and nurturing newcomers, the seeds of the great American experiment.”

The book fits in “perfectly” with the 2018 All Pikes Peak Reads themes of immigration, multiculturalism, diversity, and resiliency, Rodda says.

“We’re trying to lead conversations about prescient issues, and Thorpe’s writing is a great way to do that,” she says.

Thorpe currently lives in Colorado. She immigrated to the United States with her parents at the age of one. Throughout her career, Thorpe has documented the lives of immigrants, refugees, and veterans of foreign conflicts. She has published three different narrative nonfiction titles, including The Newcomers, Just Like Us, and Soldier Girls. Her journalism has appeared in the New York Times and The New Yorker.

Her visit to Colorado Springs will include a presentation and a discussion. The event will begin at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 2 in the Venue at Library 21c, 1175 Chapel Hills Dr. For more information about All Pikes Peak Reads events, visit ppld.org/appr.

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Pikes Peak Library District (PPLD) is a nationally recognized system of public libraries serving a population of more than 623,000 in El Paso County, Colorado. With 14 facilities, online resources, and mobile library service, PPLD responds to the unique needs of individual neighborhoods and the community at large.