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On Sept. 24, Hua Hsu, author of the New York Times bestselling memoir Stay True, visited �Ա���Ƶ as a part of both the Living Writers program and the Community Read. Stay True, which won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Memoir and the 2022 National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography, follows Hsu, the son of Taiwanese immigrants, as he makes an unlikely friend, Ken, whose life is cut short by a senseless crime.

“It’s a relatable book for any stage of college student as it follows the ebbing and flowing of stress, relationships, finding one’s place, and growing into yourself over the course of years,” August Haston ’27 said. “Having now read it three times, once as a first-year, once before going abroad and most recently at the beginning of my senior year, I’ve been latching onto smaller details as my own college journey has become more specific.”

For Hsu, the most unexpected part of sharing such a personal experience with a massive audience is that people relate in such deep, thoughtful ways.

“It was really something I did purely for myself,” Hsu explained. “I thought I was writing a book about how unrelatable I was,” Hsu said. “I guess I was mistaken, and I wasn’t actually as unique as I thought I was.”

As a first-year college student, Hsu valued belonging and wanted to prove that there were people out there just like him. Over time, he realized that it was boring to be the same as everyone else — that being around people with different thoughts makes life interesting, and it makes you learn.

Hsu noted that college also evoked feelings of maturity that were a rite of passage.

“There are certain milestones, and I think I figured like, ‘Oh, well, when I graduate college, then I’ll be a capital A adult,’” Hsu said. “But much like many things, it’s not real. It’s like generations. It’s all just sort of this construct that we labor under. So I do feel grown up in the sense that the memories in the book, as I was writing them, I felt like I was just hanging out with me and Ken.”

The Living Writers program, also offered as a for-credit course, has brought bestselling authors to �Ա���Ƶ since 1980, exposing a new generation of readers and writers to the craft. The Community Reads program is the first opportunity for new students to engage with the practice of the liberal arts.