OSHR 1210 - What the Book Jacket Does Not Tell You: Four Internationally Renowned, Local Authors

This course is offered through the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at Colorado State University. You must be a member of Osher to enroll in this course.

Join with four acclaimed authors giving the back story of their books. They live right here in Fort Collins, but all are writers of national and international fame, using their knowledge of Cambodia, Iraq, Mexico and Sierra Leone to tell of fascinating, timely, real-life experiences.

These authors are a treasure in our midst, and now we have an opportunity to meet them and hear them speak.
Each individual author will present during his or her own session, one each for four sessions. During the fifth session, all will gather for a panel discussion of the issues and writing of their novels. We hope you will read their books ahead of time!

- Kari Grossman is the award -winning author of Bones That Float which is a compelling story of Cambodia that Grossman became personally involved with when she and her husband adopted their first child. Bones is told through two friends who were eyewitnesses to the horrors of the Khmer Rouge regime. Thousands of copies have been sold, 25% of the proceeds have supported the Grady Grossman school in Cambodia named after their son. The school educates 500 students through sixth grade.
Ms. Grossman is a also former wildlife photographer and adventurer who also contributed to the Discovery Channel Online. Her current adventures include raising her two adopted children from Cambodia and India.

- D. J. Murphy’s A Thousand Veils pulls the reader through the thriller of Fatima Shihabi, an Iraqi female journalist who wants to escape the horrors of Saddam Hussein after 9-11. Simply put, both main characters, Fatima and the American Charles redeem each other in their quest to triumph over evil. This complex story is a natural for Murphy to write as he is a retired international corporation lawyer representing large multinational companies and working pro-bono public to assist refugees seeking asylum from political or religious persecution. He has lived this fictionalized story.

- Laura Resau won the Colorado Book Award for her first novel, What the Moon Saw. Her second book, The Red Glass is being recognized at the Library of Congress in
D. C. on October 4. The Americas Award is sponsored by the National Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs. Red Glass was also awarded 2008 International Reading Association Award for Young Adult Fiction presented in Atlanta. Both novels are set in Mexico. By the time you read about American teen Clara Luna’s discovery of her grandparents in the mountains of southern Mexico (in What the Moon Saw) and then American Sophie’s journey with her family to return a refugee to his home village (in Red Glass), you will be so enchanted with the characters you won’t want the stories to end. Some have said Resau’s What the Moon Saw will be designated a classic. Resau lived in the Mixtec region of Oaxaca, Mexico for two years as an English teacher and anthropologist. She and her husband have adopted a Guatemalan son.

- Greg Campbell is known to the community as Editor of Fort Collins Now. But did you also know that he authored Blood Diamonds which was adapted into a movie and well received in theaters for its exposure of the West African diamond horrors perpetrated in Sierra Leone. These "blood diamonds" are smuggled out of West Africa and sold to legitimate diamond merchants in London, Antwerp and New York, often with the complicity of the international diamond industry. The movie was highly rated and so is the book it is based upon. Campbell, an award winning journalist also "lived his book" when he interviewed survivors and observed efforts, often bumbling, by the UN to stabilize Sierra Leona after its bloody civil war of 1991-2001. He is currently the editor of Ft. Collins Now.

Course Coordinator: Nancy Hansford is a local author of two books, (Fort Collins Highlights and Northern Colorado Ghost Stories). She writes a Local Authors column appearing the second Sunday of each month in The Coloradoan.

Recommended Readings:

Campbell, G. (2004). Blood Diamonds: Tracing the Deadly Path of the World’s Most Precious Stones. Basic Books.

Grossman, K. (2007). Bones That Float: A Story of Adopting Cambodia. Wild Haven Press.

Murphy. D.J. (2008). A Thousand Veils. Lulu.com

Resau, L. (2007). Red Glass. Delacorte Books for Young Readers.

Resau, L. (2008). What the Moon Saw. Yearling.

Noncredit courses do not produce academic credit nor appear on a Colorado State University academic transcript.

Instructors

Nancy Hansford

Nancy Hansford is a local author of two books, (Fort Collins Highlights and Northern Colorado Ghost Stories). She writes a local authors column appearing the second Sunday of each month in The Coloradoan.

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