On December 8, 2025, the Alpha Pi Eta Chapter of Sigma Tau Delta at the University of Southern Mississippi held a multifaceted event in our campus library in which students created interactive and informational booths that brought our readings of the semester to life in a form of public outreach. Students also performed an original skit written by one of the students, and they interspersed the skit with readings of appropriate excerpts from our class literature. Sigma Tau Delta’s 2026 Common Reader, Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones, was the centerpiece of our event.
The interactive booths focused heavily on environmental issues related to Ward’s novel that included surviving hurricanes, food relief, and pet assistance, to discriminatory housing and relief efforts during Hurricane Katrina. Our campus is directly on the Gulf of Mexico and was heavily damaged by the wind and surge of the hurricane, so our audience sympathizes greatly with Ward’s story, especially during this 20th-year commemoration of the disaster.
The skit performance was written by one of the older student members who experienced Katrina firsthand. The skit centered on the day of Katrina and her attempts to save her pets while negotiating her familial concerns. Other members each dramatized close readings that fit the circumstances. We had a buffet of food for guests as well.
Additionally, in early October, we held a sort of preliminary element of our event by inviting others to participate in a field trip to Delisle, which is the site of Salvage the Bones. Students commuted to the location and saw the marshy area that experienced the deluge of storm aurge and then toured the playground, fields, and cemetery that is depicted in a scene in Ward’s novel. Participants were encouraged to explore the area while considering an array of discussion questions and then write about their experience after reflection.
Damon Franke
Regents’ Common Reader Award Recipient, 2025-2026
Alpha Pi Eta Chapter, Advisor
University of Southern Mississippi, Long Beach, MS
Book Club Kits
Each year, English Honor Societies creates Book Club Kits to help chapters strengthen their bonds and build a sense of community. By reading the same book and engaging with carefully designed activities, chapters can connect in meaningful ways while deepening their ties to the international Society. These kits highlight works by convention and webinar speakers, reframe commonly taught texts through fresh perspectives, and provide thoughtful guides to frequently banned books.
What’s Inside Each Book Club Kit
- Further Reading and Resources: Each kit includes a list of recommended texts and community resources to enrich understanding and inspire further exploration of key themes.
- Discussion Questions: Questions invite participants to actively engage with the text and one another, encouraging lively and meaningful conversations.
- Opportunities for Connection: Prompts guide readers to draw connections between the featured work, other texts in the Book Club Kit collection, and wider literature.
- Literature as Praxis: This section bridges literary study and lived experience, helping readers connect the text to pressing campus- and community-level social justice issues.
Salvage the Bones, by Jesmyn Ward
Jesmyn Ward, born April 1, 1977, in Oakland, CA, is an acclaimed 21st-century writer whose work explores human-animal relationships, environmental crisis, capitalism, Black life in the American South, and the legacies of segregation and slavery. She is the first Black American and woman to win the National Book Award twice (2011, 2017).
Her notable works include Salvage the Bones; Let Us Descend; Sing, Unburied, Sing; The Fire This Time; Mother Swamp; and Where the Line Bleeds.
Salvage the Bones is the 2026 Common Reader. Consider applying for a Regents’ Common Reader Award to fund chapter events featuring Salvage the Bones and plan to attend Ward’s Keynote at the 2026 Convention. See also last year’s Book Club Kit on Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing.
Book Club Kit: Salvage the Bones
Regents’ Common Reader Awards
The Regents’ Common Reader Awards provide an opportunity for individual chapters to organize and host a local event or activity based on the common reader. Chapter members do not need to attend the convention to apply. Contact your Regent and you may receive $100 for your event or activity.
Application Guidelines
Organize and host a local event or activity based on this text and apply for award money after your event. Submit to your Regent via email the Regents Fund Request form as well as the following materials in a single PDF:
- A cover letter, signed by the Chapter Advisor (or sent from the Advisor’s email address), confirming that the activity or event took place
- A narrative, not to exceed 500 words, describing the activity or event
- A list of all participating persons or groups
- Pertinent supplemental materials (event program, flyers, website, social media posts, campus news story, etc.)
The Regents’ Common Reader Award is open to all chapters of Sigma Tau Delta. It is completely separate to convention submissions. The Regents hope this award will be a way for chapters in each region to share a convention-related experience even if they are not able to attend the convention. We hope it will encourage relative, text-based activities and events. And, lastly, we hope it will give space to reflect on the power of language both in our own lives and in the lives of others.
Sigma Tau Delta
Sigma Tau Delta, International English Honor Society, was founded in 1924 at Dakota Wesleyan University. The Society strives to
- Confer distinction for high achievement in English language and literature in undergraduate, graduate, and professional studies;
- Provide, through its local chapters, cultural stimulation on college campuses and promote interest in literature and the English language in surrounding communities;
- Foster all aspects of the discipline of English, including literature, language, and writing;
- Promote exemplary character and good fellowship among its members;
- Exhibit high standards of academic excellence; and
- Serve society by fostering literacy.
With over 900 active chapters located in the United States and abroad, there are more than 1,000 Faculty Advisors, and approximately 9,000 members inducted annually.
Sigma Tau Delta also recognizes the accomplishments of professional writers who have contributed to the fields of language and literature.
