Mat Johnson, creative writing professor at the University of Houston and author of graphic novels “Dark Rain” and “Incognegro,” will be coming to Southeastern on Thursday, Oct. 25 as a part of the Common Read program.
During his visit he will host a student panel, two Q&A sessions, a reading and will also take part in a session on performing civil disobedience, all taking place on Thursday.
“It’s an essential part of the Common Read program that the students not only get to read the novels but talk with the authors who wrote them.  We find that the students are very interested in talking with the writer and learning more about the Common Read and how and why the author went about writing the novel or story or graphic novel that is the Common Read,” said Dr. David Hanson, department head of the department of English.
From 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. in the Student Union Theater, there will be a student panel where students will share presentations with Johnson.
From 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m., Johnson will hold a Q&A session in the Student Union Theater.
From 2 to 3:15 p.m. in the Lecture Hall, Room 1022 in the Teacher Education Center, Johnson will be a part of a session entitled, “Performing Civil Disobedience.” Johnson, along with Dr. Jayetta Slawson, associate professor and Dr. Michelle Brown, assistant professor, will look at civil disobedience as a performance act in which actors fight for social change.  This will include discussion of the Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court case.
From 7 to 8 p.m., Johnson will conduct a reading and Q&A, with a book signing and reception following.
As a part of the Common Read program, a committee from the Department of English selects a common read that is both interesting and of high literary quality. Later in the semester, the author of the common read will come to the university to talk to the students.
“Students had expressed interest in studying graphic novels. We looked at graphic novels that would be particularly interesting to students in this region, and then we found that Mat Johnson had produced the graphic novel ‘Dark Rain’ about Katrina. We thought that would be a graphic novel that many students would have special interest in,” said Hanson.
Many English classes participate in the Common Read program. A lot of classes read Johnson’s “Dark Rain” and “Incognegro,” another graphic novel about a light-skinned African American journalist investigating lynching in the 1930s. Some upper level classes are even teaching on Johnson’s novel “Pym,” a modern day sequel to Edgar Allan Poe’s only novel, “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket.”
The common read activities are not restricted to students in classes that participate in the program.
“We encourage as many people as possible to get exposure to the author’s work, whether they read it in class or not,” said Hanson. “It’s a good way for anyone to discover the author’s work. Of course, the audience has a better experience if they come to the events with some exposure to the common read, but even then, anyone will have a good experience, particularly in the evening events.”