Featured | Arts and SciencesJanuary 25, 2022

ReadThis! Slate Kicks Off with Killers of the Flower Moon

Written By: Rachel Rodemann Putman

The University of Arkansas – Fort Smith will host a kickoff event for the 2022 ReadThis! community literacy program, Wednesday, Jan. 26, at 5:30 p.m. in room 122 of the Boreham Library. The event will also be streamed via Zoom (event no longer in session). 

The spring kickoff will introduce this year’s novel is Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, the best-selling true crime tale by famed New Yorker staff writer David Grann. Following the introduction, UAFS professor Tom Wing will present a talk about Osage history in Fort Smith.

“While all of the books in our ReadThis! series have been good, Killers of the Flower Moon has been especially gripping,” said Dr. Ann-Gee Lee, professor of English, composition and rhetoric at UAFS. “Even students who don't typically like to read have enjoyed the experience and can see the importance of research in action. We all gain a greater awareness of historical injustices that happened, and close to home." 

Killers of the Flower Moon chronicles the real-life murder mystery that surrounded the 1920s killings of oil-rich members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma – and the chilling conspiracies that drove them. The Boreham Library at UAFS has created a comprehensive LibGuides page with information about the book, the author and the historical context in which the novel is set.

Those interested in the book’s writing may be especially interested in two sessions with author David Grann on Monday, March 14. He will speak at 1:30 in the Windgate theater to members of the UAFS community, and at 6 p.m. at the Campus Center to the general public.

A $5,000 grant  from the Arkansas Humanities Council allowed ReadThis! to buy books for concurrent English Composition students at UAFS and Composition students at UA Rich Mountain.

The program began in 2010 with the hometown novel True Grit, and in the years since has featured a plethora of works aimed at creating shared understandings of unique viewpoints, bringing the campus – and the community together through literature.

These events are open to the public:

 

Thursday, Feb 10, 1 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.

Lecture: Forensic Techniques with Mock Crime Scene

Don Balch, instructor in the Criminal Justice program

101 Baldor Building, 5100 Kinkead Ave.

 

Saturday, Feb. 12, 4 p.m.

Book Discussion

Literacy Council, 300 S. 11th St.

 

Saturday, Feb. 19, 2 p.m.

Book Discussion

Bookish at the Bakery District, 70 S. Seventh St.

 

Saturday, Feb. 26, 3 p.m.

Film Screening: Osage Murders

Dan Bigbee, Jr., and Lily Shangreaux, producers

107 Windgate Art and Design, 5210 Kinkead Ave.

 

Saturday, March 5, 4 p.m.

Book Discussion

Literacy Council, 300 S. 11th St.

 

Saturday, March 12, 2 p.m.

Book Discussion

Bookish at the Bakery District, 70 S. Seventh St.

 

Monday, March 14, 1:30 p.m.

Craft Talk

David Grann

107 Windgate Art and Design, 5210 Kinkead Ave.

 

Monday, March 14, 6 p.m.

An Evening with David Grann

Reynolds Room, Campus Center, 800 N. 50th St. 

 

Monday, April 4, 5:30 p.m.

Mural Reveal

Writing Center, Kinkead Avenue

 

Wednesday, April 6, noon

Panel: Native American Representation in Area Museums

122 Library, 813 N. Waldron Ave.

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• Read This
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