Skip to main content
Appalachian Today
News and events at Appalachian State University
  • For the media
  • COVID updates
  • Contact
  • Events
  • Webcams
  • Podcasts
  • In the Media
  • Grants
  • Speakers
  • All Posts
  • Topics
  • Accolades
  • Alumni
  • Arts and Humanities
  • Athletics
  • Awards and Honors
  • Community Engagement
  • Diversity
  • Events
  • Faculty and Staff
  • Gifts and Grants
  • Global
  • Health and Wellness
  • Publications
  • Research
  • Safety
  • Scholarships
  • Students
  • Sustainability
☰ Menu
  • Events
  • Webcams
  • Podcasts
  • In the Media
  • Grants
  • Speakers
  • All Posts
  • Topics
  • For the media
  • COVID updates
  • Contact

App State Common Reading Program announces ‘Belonging’ as 2021–22 book selection

View larger image
View larger image

Pictured at left is Nora Krug, award-winning author of “Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home” — the 2021–22 book selection of Appalachian State University’s Common Reading Program. The book’s front cover is pictured at right. Photo of Krug by Nin Subin. Photo of cover courtesy of Simon & Schuster

View larger image

Nora Krug, award-winning author of “Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home” — the 2021–22 book selection of Appalachian State University’s Common Reading Program. Photo by Nin Subin

“Nora Krug’s poignant graphic memoir reminds us that identity cannot be confined to a single time, place, culture or family. More than a record or document, ‘Belonging’ is — for all its readers — an invitation to continue searching and learning.”

Dr. Don Presnell, director of Appalachian’s Common Reading Program

Edited by Jessica Stump
Posted April 9, 2021 at 4:02 p.m.

BOONE, N.C. — Appalachian State University’s Common Reading Program has named Nora Krug’s award-winning graphic memoir “Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home” as its 2021–22 book selection for the university’s incoming class of first-year and transfer students.

“Nora Krug’s poignant graphic memoir reminds us that identity cannot be confined to a single time, place, culture or family. More than a record or document, ‘Belonging’ is — for all its readers — an invitation to continue searching and learning.”

Dr. Don Presnell, director of Appalachian’s Common Reading Program

The selection of a graphic novel marks a first in the program’s history, according to Dr. Don Presnell, director of the Common Reading Program, a unit within University College.

For the past 24 years, the Common Reading Program Committee has selected a book for incoming first-year and transfer students to read together in order to jump-start intellectual engagement both inside and outside the classroom. Students will receive an e-book copy of “Belonging” during their orientation sessions.

“Nora Krug’s poignant graphic memoir reminds us that identity cannot be confined to a single time, place, culture or family. Regardless of our backgrounds and present circumstances, all of us are continually exploring who we are, where we are from and where we are going,” Presnell said. “More than a record or document, ‘Belonging’ is — for all its readers — an invitation to continue searching and learning.”

The story and themes of “Belonging” should be especially meaningful for first-year students, Presnell said, whose entry into higher education will begin a new chapter in their own personal and educational journeys.

The Common Reading Program selection is a required component of App State’s First Year Seminar courses, but Presnell encouraged colleges, departments and faculty across the university “to integrate the book into their curricula and disciplines so that all App State students can participate in and share a common reading and intellectual experience.”

Krug is scheduled to visit App State as part of a series of yearlong virtual events surrounding the Common Reading Program experience, beginning in mid-September. Details will be made available as they become finalized.

Krug, whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian and Le Monde diplomatique, is the recipient of fellowships from the Maurice Sendak Foundation, Fulbright Program, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation.

She is an associate professor at Parsons School of Design in New York and lives in Brooklyn with her family.

Visit App State’s Common Reading Program website for updates and to learn more about the program.

Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home
Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home

By Nora Krug
2019

Nora Krug was born decades after the fall of the Nazi regime, but the Second World War cast a long shadow over her childhood and youth in the city of Karlsruhe, Germany. Yet she knew little about her own family’s involvement; though all four grandparents lived through the war, they never spoke of it.

After twelve years in the US, Krug realizes that living abroad has only intensified her need to ask the questions she didn’t dare to as a child. Returning to Germany, she visits archives, conducts research, and interviews family members, uncovering in the process the stories of her maternal grandfather, a driving teacher in Karlsruhe during the war, and her father’s brother Franz-Karl, who died as a teenage SS soldier. In this extraordinary quest, “Krug erases the boundaries between comics, scrapbooking, and collage as she endeavors to make sense of 20th-century history, the Holocaust, her German heritage, and her family's place in it all” (The Boston Globe). A highly inventive, “thoughtful, engrossing” (Minneapolis Star-Tribune) graphic memoir, Belonging “packs the power of Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home and David Small’s Stitches” (NPR.org).

Available from Simon & Schuster

What do you think?

Share your feedback on this story.

Common Reading Program
Common Reading Program

Since 1997, incoming first-year students at Appalachian have been asked to read a book as part of their orientation to the University. By participating in the Common Reading Program, students establish a common experience with other new students that helps develop a sense of community and introduce them to a part of the academic life they are beginning at Appalachian. This program is an exciting facet of the first year experience at Appalachian.

Learn more
See previous Common Reading Program selections
App State’s Common Reading Program announces ‘Rising’ as 2020–21 book selection
App State’s Common Reading Program announces ‘Rising’ as 2020–21 book selection
Feb. 7, 2020

“Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore” by Elizabeth Rush “guides readers through some of the places where (climate) change has been most dramatic.” All incoming first-year and transfer students at Appalachian will receive a copy of the book during their Summer Orientation session.

Read the story

About the Common Reading Program at Appalachian

Since 1997, incoming first-year students at Appalachian State University have been asked to read a book as part of their orientation to the university. By participating in the Common Reading Program, students establish a common experience with other new students that will help develop a sense of community with their new environment and introduce them to a part of the academic life they are beginning at Appalachian. This program is an exciting facet in Appalachian's orientation of new students to life on campus. Learn more at https://commonreading.appstate.edu/about.

About University College

Formed in 2007, University College consists of the university’s general education program, faculty and student support, and co-curricular programming and support – all designed to support the work of students both inside and outside the classroom. All students at Appalachian begin their education in University College and benefit from its programs until they graduate. Learn more at https://universitycollege.appstate.edu.

About Appalachian State University

As the premier public undergraduate institution in the Southeast, Appalachian State University prepares students to lead purposeful lives as global citizens who understand and engage their responsibilities in creating a sustainable future for all. The Appalachian Experience promotes a spirit of inclusion that brings people together in inspiring ways to acquire and create knowledge, to grow holistically, to act with passion and determination, and to embrace diversity and difference. Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Appalachian is one of 17 campuses in the University of North Carolina System. Appalachian enrolls nearly 21,000 students, has a low student-to-faculty ratio and offers more than 150 undergraduate and graduate majors.

“Nora Krug’s poignant graphic memoir reminds us that identity cannot be confined to a single time, place, culture or family. More than a record or document, ‘Belonging’ is — for all its readers — an invitation to continue searching and learning.”

Dr. Don Presnell, director of Appalachian’s Common Reading Program

Common Reading Program
Common Reading Program

Since 1997, incoming first-year students at Appalachian have been asked to read a book as part of their orientation to the University. By participating in the Common Reading Program, students establish a common experience with other new students that helps develop a sense of community and introduce them to a part of the academic life they are beginning at Appalachian. This program is an exciting facet of the first year experience at Appalachian.

Learn more
See previous Common Reading Program selections
App State’s Common Reading Program announces ‘Rising’ as 2020–21 book selection
App State’s Common Reading Program announces ‘Rising’ as 2020–21 book selection
Feb. 7, 2020

“Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore” by Elizabeth Rush “guides readers through some of the places where (climate) change has been most dramatic.” All incoming first-year and transfer students at Appalachian will receive a copy of the book during their Summer Orientation session.

Read the story

What do you think?

Share your feedback on this story.

Share

Topics

  • Arts and Humanities
  • Community Engagement
  • Students

What do you think?

Share your feedback on this story.

Archives

Appalachian Today is an online publication of Appalachian State University. This website consolidates university news, feature stories, events, photo galleries, videos and podcasts.

The migration of materials from other sites is still incomplete, so if you cannot find what you're looking for here, please refer to the following sources:

  • Additional feature stories may be found at Appalachian Magazine
  • Podcasts may be found at Appalachian Magazine
  • Photo galleries and videos published prior to Jan. 1, 2015 may be found at Appalachian Magazine
  • A university-wide Google Calendar may be found at Events at Appalachian

Share

Topics

  • Arts and Humanities
  • Community Engagement
  • Students

Other Recent Posts

  • Campus emergency siren test to be conducted <span style="white-space: nowrap;">April 5</span>
    Campus emergency siren test to be conducted April 5
  • Troy Johnson named vice chancellor of enrollment management at App State
    Troy Johnson named vice chancellor of enrollment management at App State
  • From waste to wear: App State alumna develops sustainable pigments for fashion, printing industries
    From waste to wear: App State alumna develops sustainable pigments for fashion, printing industries
  • <span style="color: #bc8801;">Appalachian Outdoorosity:</span> Dressing for the Cold (Part 2)
    Appalachian Outdoorosity: Dressing for the Cold (Part 2)
  • Appalachian Journal marks 50 years of spotlighting Appalachia
    Appalachian Journal marks 50 years of spotlighting Appalachia
  • Honoring women’s leadership and history at App State
    Honoring women’s leadership and history at App State
  • Lumbee tribal flag now hangs in App State’s student union, honoring the Lumbee people and their history
    Lumbee tribal flag now hangs in App State’s student union, honoring the Lumbee people and their history
  • Fact check: Mushrooms share more DNA with humans than plants [faculty featured]
    Fact check: Mushrooms share more DNA with humans than plants [faculty featured]
    USA Today
  • Since 1958, App State's Southern Appalachian plant collection has aided research, teaching and conservation
    Since 1958, App State's Southern Appalachian plant collection has aided research, teaching and conservation
  • <span style="color: #bc8801;">SoundAffect:</span> Daniel E. Dawes, JD on how to overcome deep-rooted challenges in the American health care system
    SoundAffect: Daniel E. Dawes, JD on how to overcome deep-rooted challenges in the American health care system
  • App State Office of Diversity brings monthly read-alouds to lab schools
    App State Office of Diversity brings monthly read-alouds to lab schools
  • 5 award-winning authors to visit App State for spring 2023 Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series
    5 award-winning authors to visit App State for spring 2023 Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series

Archives

Appalachian Today is an online publication of Appalachian State University. This website consolidates university news, feature stories, events, photo galleries, videos and podcasts.

The migration of materials from other sites is still incomplete, so if you cannot find what you're looking for here, please refer to the following sources:

  • Additional feature stories may be found at Appalachian Magazine
  • Podcasts may be found at Appalachian Magazine
  • Photo galleries and videos published prior to Jan. 1, 2015 may be found at Appalachian Magazine
  • A university-wide Google Calendar may be found at Events at Appalachian
  • Events
  • Videos
  • Galleries
  • In the Media
  • Grants
  • Speakers
  • All Posts
  • Topics
  • For the media
  • COVID updates
  • Contact

App State

Copyright 2023 Appalachian State University. All rights reserved.

University Communications
ASU Box 32153
Boone, NC 28608
828-262-6156
ucomm@appstate.edu

Abouts

Disclaimer | EO Policy | Accessibility | Website manager: montaldipa (beltmr) .. | Website Feedback

Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram LinkedIn Snapchat