J.D. Vance Coming to Campus Monday
Speaking engagement by author is free and open to the public
Anticipation for Monday's visit by New York Times best-selling author J.D. Vance has reached a crescendo.
Brent Kaneft can feel it. The chair of the Christ School English Department also has an appreciation for the months of planning that went into getting such a highly-sought after guest through the Godwin-Hauser Visiting Writer Program.
Vance's talk is free and open to the public, beginning at 7:30 p.m. in Mebane Field House (the Greenies' gym for basketball).
The book "Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis" allowed Vance to reach the top of the New York Times Best Seller list twice.
In it, Vance writes about Appalachian values that were cultivated by his family and others in rural Kentucky. Vance goes on to relate these values to social issues in his hometown of Middletown, Ohio, which is a little over 400 miles from Christ School. Vance's depictions of the struggles that blue-collar white Americans face in Appalachia and the Rust Belt are what hit home with many readers, including Kaneft and Headmaster Paul Krieger.
"Paul and I both realized what an important voice J.D. Vance has in political, social, and cultural issues when we identified him as a possible speaker last year," Kaneft said. "We were moved by the story. The narrative really got to us. So many things in the book speak to the mission for the school. If (Vance) doesn't have his grandmother, his success is not possible, and that resonates with a lot of leaders and parents here. He really brings to the forefront that poverty is a major issue among all Americans and that is consistent with Father (Kirk) Brown's work."
"Hillbilly Ellegy" propelled Vance into the national political discussion, especially after pundits were unable to explain Donald Trump's win in the 2016 Presidential Election. Vance has appeared on all the major news networks – Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, and CNBC – and made speaking engagements across the country.
The Godwin-Hauser Visiting Writer Program has brought two other New York Times best-selling authors to campus in the past – Ron Rash and Wiley Cash – as well as U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins. The program was made possible through an endowment seeded by Col. William Hauser '50 and author Gail Godwin.
