UCSB Reads 2020 is over. To suggest a title for future UCSB Reads, email your suggestion to UCSBReads@library.ucsb.edu.
COVID-19 UPDATE:
Although all scheduled programs for UCSB Reads 2020, including Elizabeth Rush's May 4 visit to campus are cancelled, Elizabeth Rush will meet with us virtually on Wednesday, April 22 at 4pm.
In addition, all current UCSB students, staff, and faculty have access to an online version of Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore for your classes and online book discussions. If you are off campus you will first need to log in to access the Library's electronic resources. Start here and select the EPUB full text link at left. Sections of the book can be downloaded and the pdf added to GauchoSpace. Click here for other ways to access the book. Please email ucsbreads@library.ucsb.edu with questions. For other ways to access Rising, please click here.
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January 2020
To the UCSB and Santa Barbara Communities:
The UC Santa Barbara Library and the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor are pleased to announce the selection of the UCSB Reads 2020 book: Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore, a work of creative nonfiction by Elizabeth Rush. Rising combines rigorous reporting and lyrical storytelling to depict the impact of sea level rise in the United States.
Since 2007, UCSB Reads has brought the campus and Santa Barbara communities together to read a common book that explores important issues of our time. An advisory committee made up of faculty, staff, and students selected Rising for this year’s book, noting the power and relevance of its stories about the people and communities most at risk from sea level rise. Rush demonstrates how race, class, national origin, and income levels further exacerbate vulnerability to rising seas.
Describing Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore as “the book on climate change and sea levels that was missing,” the Chicago Tribune writes: “Rush travels from vanishing shorelines in New England to hurting fishing communities to retracting islands and, with empathy and elegance, conveys what it means to lose a world in slow motion. Picture the working-class empathy of Studs Terkel paired with the heartbreak of a poet.” Pacific Standard calls the book “a revelation.”
In 2018, Rising was selected as a winner of the National Outdoor Book Award, was named a top ten book by the Chicago Tribune, and was called a Best Book by the Guardian, NPR’s Science Friday, Publisher’s Weekly, and Library Journal. Rising was also a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction.
Rush is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Metcalf Institute Climate Change Adaptation Fellowship, the Science in Society Award, the Howard Foundation Fellowship, and a grant from the Society for Environmental Journalism. Rush teaches creative nonfiction at Brown University.
During the winter and spring quarters, faculty and students will read Rising in classes, and the UCSB Library will sponsor panel discussions, film screenings, exhibitions, and other events to explore the book’s themes. On May 4, 2020, we will welcome Elizabeth Rush for a free lecture in UCSB’s Campbell Hall, to which the campus and community are invited.
We are grateful for the generous support of our many sponsors. For details about UCSB Reads events, sponsors, and more, go to www.library.ucsb.edu/ucsbreads2020.
Thank you for reading, teaching, and learning along with us. #UCSBReads2020
UCSBReads2020