Adventures in Books: Fulbright Sri Lanka

Hey friends & family! With this fundraising page, I invite you to be a part of my upcoming year of teaching in Sri Lanka. I was recently awarded a Fulbright grant that will support me in teaching literature (mostly contemporary) & academic writing at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, located just outside Colombo "“ Sri Lanka's capital "“ from October 2012 to July 2013. I am SO thrilled for this opportunity, and I have every intention of passing on my love of literature and writing to the college students I'll be teaching.

While my Fulbright grant does provide me some funds to buy teaching materials, I need your help to provide copies of the books I will be teaching to my students. The library at the university I will be teaching at offers few works by contemporary American authors in particular, and the works I'll be teaching are not easy to find elsewhere in Sri Lanka. So, unless I want my students to all share one or two copies - or, worse, photocopy books ten times over -  I need to provide books for them!

My goal is to raise $1,500, which will buy about 150 books for my year of teaching. Since I will be teaching two different semesters, half of these books will be used my first semester, and half during my second. I don't yet know the exact size of my classes, so I'm not sure yet if the books will be given to my students or will be donated to the university library once used in class. But I want to come prepared with books literally falling out of my arms, and I will ensure that they are put to good use!

I will be shipping books for my first semester in late September to ensure they get to Sri Lanka by the time I begin teaching. The second batch of books will be shipped to me while in Sri Lanka, likely early next spring. 

I am almost done writing my first semester syllabus, and works I anticipate teaching include: 

- The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger

- Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri

- The Giver, Lois Lowry

- Zeitoun, Dave Eggers 

- Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston

- The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald

- Love Marriage, V. V. Ganeshananthan

- 1984, George Orwell 

- The Help, Kathyrn Stockett

- poetry by Billy Collins

- something by Joan Didion because she's amazing

- various collections of short stories by TBD authors 

Suggestions for amazing short story collections AND for works to teach my second semester are welcomed!

All donations will be deposited into a separate checking account I have created solely for this initiative. I will keep all donors updated on the status of the books both on this webpage and on my personal blog, cabinetsofwonder.wordpress.com. I'll be posting to my blog throughout my time in Sri Lanka, so feel free to follow me there!

Please email me at [email redacted] if you have any questions, or if you'd prefer to make a donation by sending a check. I can't thank you enough for your support "“ let's buy some books!!