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
- 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.
- 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.
Service Projects
We encourage chapters to consider service projects related to book club conversations. Each kit will provide valuable resources for how to better understand many of the issues addressed in contemporary literature. Chapter members should consider the many ways that these resources may inspire individual or chapter actions. Remember: no project and no action is too small! Volunteering time and skills is also a valuable resource. Hosting open discussions about issues raised in Book Club is a way of serving individuals, groups, and communities. Service through words is an important part of raising awareness.
You might also consult various Literacy Programs and Literacy Councils in your community. Valuable resources can also be found by visiting the websites of some of our Society’s sponsors and partners, including:
- Lambda Literary
- National Council of Teachers of English/National Center for Literacy
Education (NCTE)
Book Club Service Award
Any chapter that completes a service project is eligible for a Book Club Service Award of $200. These awards will be distributed after service projects have been completed by chapters. Chapters can be funded for one project within the award period.
Application Guidelines
Organize and host a service project based on a book club kit and apply for award money after your activity has been completed. Submit to the Service Committee via email (sigmatdapply@niu.edu) with 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 service project and its relation to the Book Club Kit
- A list of all participating persons or groups
- Pertinent supplemental materials (event program, flyers, website, social media posts, campus news story, etc.)
- Contact Information:
- Advisor Name
- Advisor Email
- Chapter/School
- Payee Name
- Payee Mailing Address
However you choose to build your book club experience, don’t forget to share it on social media with English Honor Societies! We love to see all the wonderful things you put your mind to!
2025 – 2026 Book Club Kits
Internment, by Samira Ahmed
Samira Ahmed is the bestselling author of Love, Hate & Other Filters, Internment, Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know, Hollow Fires, the Amira & Hamza middle-grade duology, and a Ms. Marvel comic book mini-series. Her poetry, essays, and short stories have appeared in publications such as The New York Times and in anthologies including Take the Mic, Color Outside the Lines, Vampires Never Get Old, and A Universe of Wishes. Born in Bombay and raised in Batavia, IL, she holds a degree from the University of Chicago and has worked as a high school English teacher, in education nonprofits, and on political campaigns.
Book Club Kit: Internment
Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) was one of the most influential American writers of the 20th century, known for blending science fiction, fantasy, and social commentary. Born in Waukegan, IL, Bradbury grew up during the Great Depression and was largely self-educated, spending countless hours in libraries that would shape his lifelong love of books. His most famous novel, Fahrenheit 451 (1953), imagines a future where books are outlawed and firemen burn them, raising timeless questions about censorship, conformity, and the role of literature in society.
Book Club Kit: Fahrenheit 451
My Mortal Enemy, by Willa Cather
Willa Cather (1873–1947) was a major American novelist celebrated for her vivid portrayals of regional life, particularly the rural landscapes of Nebraska that shaped her childhood. Born in Back Creek Valley, Virginia, she drew deeply on her experiences on the Great Plains to explore themes of identity, resilience, and the bond between people and the land. Her notable works include O Pioneers!, My Ántonia, The Song of the Lark, The Troll Garden, and Death Comes for the Archbishop. Her 1922 novel One of Ours won the Pulitzer Prize, making her one of the first women to receive the award, and she continued writing from New York City until her death, leaving a lasting legacy in American literature.
Book Club Kit: My Mortal Enemy
How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water, by Angie Cruz
Angie Cruz is a novelist and editor. Her most recent novel How Not To Drown in A Glass of Water (2022) was a finalist for the 2024 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, shortlisted for The Aspen Words Literary Prize, winner of the Gold Medal, Latino Book Award/The Isabel Allende Most Inspirational Book Award, longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Literary Prize, and chosen for The New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2022 and The Washington Post 50 Notable Works of Fiction. Her novel, Dominicana,was the inaugural book pick for GMA book club and shortlisted for The Women’s Prize, longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction, a RUSA Notable book, and the winner of the ALA/YALSA Alex Award in fiction.
Angie Cruz was one of the speakers in the 2025 – 2026 English Honor Society Author Talk Webinar series. View her webinar.
Book Club Kit: How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) was an American novelist best known for his vivid portrayal of the Jazz Age and its glittering promise and disillusionment. He rose to fame with This Side of Paradise (1920), which established his enduring focus on ambition, romance, and the elusive American Dream. His major works—including The Great Gatsby, The Beautiful and Damned, and Tender Is the Night—initially struggled to find success amid shifting tastes after the Great Depression, while his personal life was marked by financial strain, alcoholism, and the mental health challenges of his wife, Zelda Sayre. Although he received little recognition during his lifetime, Fitzgerald is now regarded as one of the most important American writers of the 20th century, and his novels are considered enduring literary classics.
Book Club Kit: The Great Gatsby
Lessons in Chemistry, by Bonnie Garmus
Bonnie Garmus is the author of the bestselling debut novel Lessons in Chemistry, a global hit translated into over 40 languages and adapted into an Apple TV+ series starring Brie Larson. The novel earned widespread acclaim for its wit and originality, and won numerous honors including Waterstones Author of the Year and the British Book Awards Author of the Year. Before becoming a novelist, Garmus worked as a copywriter and creative director. Originally from Seattle, she now lives in the UK and is also an avid open-water swimmer and rower.
Book Club Kit: Lessons in Chemistry
Fat Ham, by James Ijames
James Ijames is a Pulitzer Prize–winning and Tony-nominated playwright, director, and educator based in South Philadelphia. His plays have been produced by theaters across the country, including The Public Theater, Steppenwolf, Wilma Theater, and National Black Theatre, and developed by institutions such as PlayPenn, The Lark, and Playwrights Horizons. His acclaimed play Fat Ham earned him the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a 2023 Tony nomination for Best Play. Ijames holds a BA from Morehouse College and an MFA from Temple University, and he is currently an Associate Professor of Theatre at Villanova University.
James Ijames was one of the speakers in the 2025 – 2026 English Honor Society Author Talk Webinar series. View his webinar.
Book Club Kit: Fat Ham
Under the Whispering Door, by TJ Klune
TJ Klune is a #1 New York Times bestselling queer author known for beloved novels such as The House in the Cerulean Sea, Under the Whispering Door, In the Lives of Puppets, the Green Creek series for adults, and the Extraordinaries series for teens. His work—praised for its warmth, found-family themes, and positive queer representation—has garnered major honors including the Lambda Award, the Alex Award and Mythopoeic Scholarship Award, and a Gold Nautilus Book Award. Widely acclaimed by critics, his stories are celebrated as “heart‑swelling,” “tender,” and “wrapped up in a big gay blanket.”
Book Club Kit: Under the Whispering Door
Year of the Mer, by L. D. Lewis
L. D. Lewis is an editor, writer, and literary nonprofit administrator based in Georgia. She is a Locus and Hugo Award-winning project manager, and Shirley Jackson award-nominated writer of speculative fiction. She is a co-founder of FIYAH Literary Magazine, creator of the Ignyte Awards, and former researcher for the LeVar Burton Reads podcast. Her published works include novellas The Dead Withheld (2025) duology and ARuin of Shadows (2018). Her short fiction has appeared in publications such as Neon Hemlock anthologies and Out There Screaming, a black horror anthology edited by Jordan Peele. Year of the Mer is her debut novel.
Book Club Kit: Year of the Mer
World of Wonders, by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Aimee Nezhukumatathil is an acclaimed writer, editor, and professor based in Mississippi. Her first essay collection, World of Wonders (2020), was named Barnes & Noble’s Book of the Year, became a New York Times Bestseller, and was a finalist for the Kirkus Prize in nonfiction. Nezhukumatathil has also published four highly celebrated poetry collections, earning awards such as the Gold Medal from the Independent Publisher Book Awards, the Balcones Prize, the Tupelo Prize, ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year, and the Global Filipino Award.
Aimee Nezhukumatathil was a keynote speaker at the 2026 Convention.
Book Club Kit: World of Wonders
The American Daughters, by Maurice Carlos Ruffin
Maurice Carlos Ruffin is a 21st-century writer and a native of New Orleans. His work focuses on race, identity, inequality, and the complexities of Black life, particularly in the South. He enjoys writing stories that reflect his community, and that discovery led him from a career as a lawyer to that of a writer.
His first novel, We Cast a Shadow, was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and the PEN America Open Book Prize. His second novel, The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You, was a 2023 One Book One New Orleans selection and a New York Times Editor’s Choice. The American Daughters is a National Bestseller. He lives in New Orleans and teaches English at Louisiana State University.
Maurice Carlos Ruffin was a keynote speaker at the 2026 Convention.
Book Club Kit: The American Daughters
Economy Hall: The Hidden History of a Free Black Brotherhood, by Fatima Shaik
Fatima Shaik is a writer and journalist from the Seventh Ward of New Orleans. She is the founder of the Communications Department at Saint Peter’s University and a trustee of PEN America. Her work often focuses on race and culture, especially within Creole communities. She is known for blending historical research with narrative storytelling, helping bring overlooked histories to a wider audience. She spent nearly two decades analyzing and translating rare handwritten records to research and write her novelesque work of nonfiction, Economy Hall: The Hidden History of a Free Black Brotherhood, which won the 2022 American Book Award.
Book Club Kit: Economy Hall: The Hidden History of a Free Black Brotherhood
The Man in the Banana Trees, by Marguerite Sheffer
Marguerite (Maggie) Sheffer is a New Orleans–based writer and Professor of Practice at Tulane University, where she teaches design thinking and speculative fiction as tools for social change. She previously taught English at several Oakland high schools.
Her debut story collection, The Man in the Banana Trees, won the 2024 Iowa Short Fiction Award, judged by Jamil Jan Kochai. It was named a Debutiful Best Debut, an Electric Literature “Most Exciting Debut Collection,” and a finalist for the PEN America/Robert W. Bingham Prize.
Maggie Sheffer opened the 2025 – 2026 English Honor Society Author Talk Webinar series. View her webinar and read about her LitFest presentation at the 2026 Convention.
Book Club Kit: The Man in the Banana Trees
Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck, born in 1902 in Salinas, CA, was an American novelist known for his social novels that depict the realities of life of those in the rural labor economy. Other notable works include The Grapes of Wrath (1939), a novel narrating the lives of Oklahoma farmers who move to California during the Great Depression; Tortilla Flat (1935), a book of short, comedic stories set in Monterey, CA; and East of Eden (1952), a novel tracing the intertwining histories of two families. During his career, he received the 1940 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Grapes of Wrath, the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964. His texts are still widely taught and considered mainstays of American literature.
Book Club Kit: Of Mice and Men
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 read about 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
A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams was a playwright and screenwriter, considered one of the most prolific playwrights of 20th century American drama. Williams was born in Columbus, MS, and moved to New Orleans in 1938, where he wrote his breakout play: The Glass Menagerie (1944). His career later exploded in 1947 with the massive success of A Streetcar Named Desire. Williams’s works often incorporate themes and characters taken from his own life, addressing topics such as homosexuality, domestic abuse, and mental illness.
Tennessee Williams is the Spotlight Author for the 2026 Convention in New Orleans, LA.
Book Club Kit: A Streetcar Named Desire
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin
Gabrielle Zevin is a critically acclaimed author and screenwriter from New York, NY. Her writing focuses on exploring themes of creativity, friendship, collaboration, love, and celebrates the aspect of human connection and identity within the game design industry. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, her tenth novel, spent over a year on the New York Times Best Sellers list and was chosen as the best book of the year by twenty-five publications. Her other books include Elsewhere (2005), The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry (2014), and Young Jane Young (2017). Her work has been translated into over forty different languages. Zevin was also the screenwriter of the film Conversations with Other Women (2005) and received an Independent Spirit Award Nomination for Best First Screenplay.
Gabrielle Zevin was one of the speakers in the 2025 – 2026 English Honor Society Author Talk Webinar series. View her webinar.
Book Club Kit: Tomorrow, and Tomorow, and Tomorrow
Book Club Kit Archive
Cameron Barnett
Clare Beams
Willa Cather
Natalie Diaz
Sherrie Flick
Cynthia Kadohata
Kassia Krone
Diana Khoi Nguyen
Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Billie R. Tadros and Elias Kerr
Jesmyn Ward, Sing, Unburied, Sing
