Previous ReadMOre Selections

Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell (2007)

Messages From My Father by Calvin Trillin (2006)

Betsey Brown by Ntozake Shange (2005)

Mississippi Solo by Eddy L. Harris (2004)

Enemy Women by Paulette Jiles (2003)

Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston (2002)

 
Kathleen Nigro portrait

Kathleen Butterly Nigro has been instrumental to the success of the ReadMOre enterprise, having authored the discussion guides from 2002 through 2007. Here is a 2006 biographical statement she wrote in connection with her appointment that year to the first full-time teaching position in Gender Studies at the University of Missouri-St. Louis:

Although I am a native New Yorker, my educational studies have encouraged me to expand those horizons.  I completed my undergraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, my Master’s degree at Barry University in Miami, Florida, and my Ph.D. at Saint Louis University (I also hold a Graduate Certificate in University Teaching Skills from SLU). Despite completing my dissertation on an extensive study of women and nature writing, I felt that I had not fully investigated the topic of gender studies, which really had not yet become a focus of academic study.  In 1997, I came to the University of Missouri-St. Louis to complete a Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies. 

Several other involvements and positions have qualified me for the interdisciplinary nature of this academic field.  I am the president of the Kate Chopin Society, a national organization dedicated to increasing public appreciation and awareness of the work of this noted native St. Louis writer.  In addition, as Lewis and Clark project coordinator for the Missouri Humanities Council, I managed a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to bring programs to rural towns in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska.  Every one of the programs used a sign-language interpreter.  Every town had at least one program presented by a member of the tribe that was in the region when Lewis and Clark went through that area.  I strove to include women, African American, and Native American presenters as much as I could so that the public could see that the story of America has many perspectives, even when it might not be complimentary to our American “heroes".