Kao Kalia Yang (photo provided)
Kao Kalia Yang (photo provided)
"Over the past few years, I could not fail to see an America that was questioning its long history of refugee resettlement, an America that seeks to define itself by casting its vulnerable immigrants and incoming refugees to the margins of society. Greater than my fear of what I could not do was a growing need to convey the refugee lives around me, to show our shared understanding of war and hunger for peace, our vulnerabilities and strengths, and to offer our powerful truths to a country I love."
鈥 Kao Kalia Yang, Somewhere in the Unknown World: A Collective Refugee Memoir
By Lydia Fasteland 鈥12, MLIS鈥17 and Lizzy Tegeler, for the
The St. Kate鈥檚 is an interdisciplinary common read program for and by the St. Kate鈥檚 community. Each year, a committee of students, staff, faculty, and community members select a book written by a BIPOC author for the campus to read together. Campus communities are invited to interact with the text through discussion, course integration, programming, and working with community partners to take action against systemic oppression facing communities of color. The vision is to come together as a community through reading, celebrating, and centering the stories of BIPOC authors while exploring the full complexity of identity and experience.
One Read was founded in 2016 by St. Kate鈥檚 alumna and former librarian Amy Mars MLIS鈥12 in response to the murder of Philando Castile. The 铿乺st selection was A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota, edited by Sun Yung Shin, which features the essay 鈥淒ark Trees in the Landscape of Love鈥 by Hmong-American Minnesota author Kao Kalia Yang. In this tenth year of the One Read for Racial Justice, the committee is excited to announce that another text by Yang, Somewhere in the Unknown World: A Collective Refugee Memoir, has been chosen for the 2026鈥27 academic year.
In Somewhere in the Unknown World, Yang shares the stories of refugees from all over the world who now make their home in Minnesota. Her lyrical writing style captures a diversity of personal experiences, all of which emphasize that leaving home and starting anew is never easy. The One Read committee chose this collective memoir for its ability to re铿俥ct the refugee experience on our campus, in our state, and in the country at large, which feels exceptionally important at our tumultuous present moment.
Currently, the program is co-chaired by St. Kate鈥檚 staff members Lizzy Tegeler and Lydia Fasteland 鈥12, MLIS鈥17, with gratitude to all who have served on this committee over the years. Previous One Read texts include , Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Y. Davis, Dream Country by Shannon Gibney, Girl Gone Missing by Marcie Rendon, Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen by Jose Antonio Vargas, The Stars and the Blackness Between Them by Junauda Petrus, and Our Stories Carried Us Here: A Graphic Novel Anthology, published by Green Card Voices and featuring a narrative short story by a St. Kate鈥檚 alum.
Everyone is invited to read along 鈥 stay tuned for One Read programming throughout 2026鈥27: