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‘How the Word is Passed’ chosen as UW–Madison’s 2022-23 Go Big Read book

April 6, 2022

There are the stories of our past that we all know and celebrate. And then there are the stories that we do not talk about and often do not know.

Clint Smith’s “How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America” illustrates how some of our country’s most essential stories are hidden in plain view and how much we can gain from listening to them. The book is the 2022-23 Go Big Read selection.

A staff writer at The Atlantic, Clint Smith’s essays, poems and scholarly writing have been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, Poetry Magazine, The Paris Review, the Harvard Educational Review and other publications. CARLETTA GIRMA

In his narrative nonfiction debut, Smith visits eight sites, including his hometown of New Orleans; Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello; New York City; and Angola Prison, using archival research as well as interviews to dig deep into the past and offer an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in shaping our nation’s collective history and memory.

Read the full article here.