Griz Read

The purpose of the Griz Read is to provide new students with a common connection through a thought-provoking book. Each year, a committee of faculty, staff, and students select a book from nominations submitted by the campus community.

All members of the campus community, especially first-year students, are encouraged to read the book and participate in Griz Read events.

We believe that books forge powerful bonds and we are excited to begin the campus discussion this year!

Griz Read 2019

There There Book Cover

Tommy Orange’s shattering novel follows twelve characters from Native communities: all traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow, all connected to each other in ways they may not yet realize. There is Jacquie Red Feather, newly sober and working to make it back to the family she left behind. Dene Oxendene, who is pulling his life back together after his uncle’s death, has come to work at the powwow to honor his memory. Fourteen-year-old Orvil has come to perform traditional dance for the very first time. Together, this chorus of voices tells of the plight of the urban Native American—grappling with a complex and painful history, with an inheritance of beauty and spirituality, with communion and sacrifice and heroism. Hailed as an instant classic, There There is at once poignant and laugh-out-loud funny, utterly contemporary and always unforgettable.

(summary from Penguin Random House)

  • National Bestseller
  • One of The New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year
  • Winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award
  • Winner of the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize
  • Winner of the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize

Griz Read Events

Soup Monday

October 30, 12:30-2 PM, Payne Family Native American Center
  • Join author Tommy Orange for soup and discussion of the novel, There There.
  • This is a free event open to all members of the University of Montana and Missoula College community.

Student Q&A with Tommy Orange

October 30, 2-3 PM, Payne Family Native American Center

  • Students are invited to bring their questions to a discussion with There There author, Tommy Orange.

 Tommy Orange Fireside Chat

October 30, 7:30 PM, UC Ballroom

The Author

Tommy Orange is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel There There, a multi-generational, relentlessly paced story about a side of America few of us have ever seen: the lives of urban Native Americans. There There was one of The New York Times Book Review’s 10 Best Books of the Year, and won the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Orange is a recent graduate from the MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts. He is a 2014 MacDowell Fellow, and a 2016 Writing by Writers Fellow. He is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma. He was born and raised in Oakland, California, and currently lives in Angel’s Camp, California.
Tommy Orange Author Photo (photo credit Elena Seibert)

Launch UM virtual tour.