About the Journal

Since 2004, each entering freshman class at Brooklyn College has participated in the Freshman Common Reading Project. English department faculty, in collaboration with other faculty, select the text. In past years, students have read Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes, Dave Egger's Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Jonathan Lethem's Disappointment Artist, Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies, and Moustafa Bayoumi's How Does It Feel to Be A Problem?. At registration, students are given copies of the book; at orientation, students meet in small groups with interested faculty from diverse disciplines for what is, in effect, students' first college-level literature discussion, a common intellectual experience that sets the stage for future development. The first two weeks of all freshman composition classes are devoted to discussion, analysis, and writing inspired by the book. A number of college-wide activities follow: the author is invited to address the freshman class; instructors select and submit the best student writing generated from this common reading for possible publication in the collection entitled Telling Our Stories, Sharing Our Lives; towards the end of the semester, students and faculty gather to honor the student authors and listen to their stories.

HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE A PROBLEM?

The Fall 2010 book for the Freshman Common Reading Project was How Does It Feel To Be A Problem? Being Young and Arab in America by Moustafa Bayoumi.

From the many thought provoking and creative responses students submitted, the very best efforts were compiled in the 2010 edition of Telling Our Stories, Sharing Our Lives.