Since the early 1980s, many SRJC English instructors have selected a common text, a work of literary merit (WOLM), for study in English 1A classes. The number of students who study the WOLM is actually much higher, however, because many instructors assign the selected WOLM in other classes, especially English 1B. In the early years, the program consisted of little more than this agreement on a common text, with instructors benefiting by sharing ideas about teaching the particular work. As the years passed, however, the program developed into an exciting and integral part of the 1A curriculum. A constellation of optional adjunct activities also began to revolve around the WOLM, such as the lecture program, library displays, bookmarks, public readings, and special classes for ESL students. In short, the WOLM has become an event. Note: there is no selected WOLM for summer semesters.
With special thanks to the Robert C. Kelley Literary Works Endowment.
WOLM (Fall 2023 and Spring 2024) is funded by a grant from the Santa Rosa Junior College Foundation-Randolph Newman Cultural Enrichment Endowment.
Fall 2023 / Spring 2024 WOLM
The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline
Scheduled Events
How to Survive an Apocalypse: A California Native Story
Thursday, September 28th 5:30-6:30 - 4th Floor Reading Room, Doyle Library
Trelasa Baratta, MA.Ed. (she/her/hers)
Enrolled Tribal Member of Middletown Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians, Education Specialist, Redbud Resource Group
Join us for a reflective discourse centered on themes of survival, assimilation, family, and hope. Trelasa, a Native educator and member of the Lake Miwok/Pomo community, will discuss her own personal connections to "The Marrow Thieves" and offer insight into the importance of Native-authored literature for the future of Indigenous people.
Healing Circles: People Coming Together
Monday, September 11th 11-12:30pm & Monday, October 2nd 11-12:30pm - SAC/ Bertolini 4608
Brijida “Brijit” Alemán, Psychotherapist
Bilingual, Native American & Latina Clinician
Join us in story, sharing your wisdom, listening, and being with one another in process. This Healing Circle is an opportunity to gather, reflect, share authentic personal stories, have them respectfully heard and acknowledged without judgment, condemnation, nor advice.
Indigenous Peoples' Day
Monday, October 9th 11am-3pm - Burbank Outdoor Stage Area
Join us at Indigenous Peoples’ Day Celebration to celebrate Indigenous culture, food, art, and more. We will be tabling, and excited to talk to you about the Work of Literary Merit.
Your Dystopia, My Reality: The Power of Perspective in Imagined Futures
Wednesday, October 25th 1-3pm - Santa Rosa Intercultural Center
Eric Atkinson, Ph.D. (he/him/his)
African American Literature Specialist, English Department, Santa Rosa Junior College
Typically, plot and theme of dystopia expresses and highlights cultural anxieties and is often grounded in “reality” without elements of fantasy or speculation or “what ifs” in order to comment, sometimes indirectly, about society and its fears. But for BIPOC, system oppression and manipulation is already part of the experience. Instead this genre is an opportunity to use story as medicine as they mean to revivify a state of being, to repair a culture, give a sense of place, soothe one’s mental state, and/or give a strength that allows one to persevere and survive.
All Our Relations Reading Group
Thursday, October 19th - 10-11:30am - Zoom link - Meeting ID: 811 8810 1552
Reading Selection: The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline
Thursday, October 26th - 4-5:30pm - Santa Rosa Intercultural Center
Reading Selection: The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline
Tuesday, November 7th - 12-1:30pm - Zoom link - Meeting ID: 863 2136 1063
Reading Selection: Scholarship on The Marrow Thieves by PhD Candidate Melissa Horner (Métis/Anishinaabe), Dr. Joaquin Muñoz (Pascua Yaqui), and Dr. Robert Petrone
Thursday, November 30th - 4-5:30pm - Santa Rosa Intercultural Center
Reading Selection: Deer Woman: An Anthology edited by Elizabeth LaPensée and Weshoyot Alvitre
Mary Churchill, Ph.D. (she/her/they/them)
Humanities & Religious Studies, Santa Rosa Junior College
Erica Tom, Ph.D. (she/her/they/them)
Ethnic Literature Specialist, English Department, Santa Rosa Junior College
Dr. Churchill and Dr. Tom facilitate the All Our Relations Reading Group to provide opportunities for students, faculty, staff, and the public to read texts and join in conversations about issues in Native American Studies, Indigenous Studies, Environmental Studies, and all areas that allow us to explore our connectedness with all our relations. This semester, we are excited to feature the young adult novel The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline (Métis), scholarship on The Marrow Thieves by PhD Candidate Melissa Horner (Métis/Anishinaabe), Dr. Joaquin Muñoz (Pascua Yaqui), and Dr. Robert Petrone, and Deer Woman: Anthology, edited by Elizabeth LaPensée and Weshoyot Alvitre.
Considering Anti-Colonial Futures with Indigenous Education and Youth in the Marrow Thieves
Wednesday, November 1st 12-1pm - Newman Auditorium & Zoom link - Meeting ID: 854 5784 8610
Melissa Horner (Métis/Anishinaabe)
PhD Candidate, Sociology, University of Missouri
Joaquin Muñoz (Pascua Yaqui)
Assistant Professor, Indigenous Education, University of British Columbia
Robert Petrone
Associate Professor, Critical Youth Studies & Literacy Education, University of Missouri
In this talk, three collaborators will explore the confluence of Indigenous culture and education, while critiquing settler colonialism and uplifting Indigenous young adult literature.
Cultural Fire: Restoring Relations
Wednesday, November 15th 11:30am-12:30pm - Santa Rosa Intercultural Center
Chairman Ron W. Goode
The Honorable Ron W. Goode, Chairman of the North Fork Mono Tribe, teaches and speaks internationally on cultural burning. Joined by Dr. Erica Tom and students, this event will explore the power of restoring our relationship to the land, plants, animals, ourselves, and each other.
Work of Literary Merit Archive
Man's Search for Meaning, Victor E. Frankl (1946), Fall 2022, Spring 2023
Interior Chinatown, Charles Yu, Fall 2021, Spring 2022
Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen, Jose Antonio Vargas, Fall 2020, Spring 2021
Walden, Henry David Thoreau, Fall 2019, Spring 2020
Kindred, Octavia Butler, Fall 2018, Spring 2019
1984, George Orwell, Fall 2017, Spring 2018
Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehesi Coates, Fall 2016, Spring 2017
100 Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Spring 2016
The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula LeGuin, Fall 2015
Collected Essays, James Baldwin, Spring 2015
A River Runs Through It, Norman Maclean, Fall 2014
The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz, Spring 2014
The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Fall 2013
Passing, Nella Larsen, Spring 2013
Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Fall 2012
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens, Spring 2012
Reservation Blues, Sherman Alexie, Fall 2011
Into the Forest, Jean Hegland, Spring 2010/2011
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston, Fall 2009/2010
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain, Spring 2008/2009
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen, Fall 2007/Spring 2008
Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko, Fall 2006/Spring 2007
Ibsen's Selected Plays, Henrik Ibsen, Spring 2006
The Lathe of Heaven, Ursula K. Le Guin, Fall 2005
Middle Passage, Charles Johnson, Spring 2005
The Portable Walt Whitman, Walt Whitman, Fall 2004
Go Tell it on the Mountain, James Baldwin, Spring 2004
Howards End, E. M. Forster, Fall 2003
Tracks, Louise Erdrich, Spring 2003
The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck, Fall 2002
The Awakening, Kate Chopin, Spring 2002
The Turn of the Screw, Henry James, Fall 2001
The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien, Spring 2001
Gimpel the Fool, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Fall 2000
Where I'm Calling From, Raymond Carver, Spring 2000
Hard Times, Charles Dickens, Fall 1999
Snow Falling on Cedars, David Guterson, Spring 1999
Teaching a Stone to Talk, Annie Dillard, Fall 1998
The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston, Spring 1998
Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll, Fall 1997
As You Like It, William Shakespeare, Spring 1997
My Antonia, Willa Cather, Fall 1996
Grand Avenue, Greg Sarris, Spring 1996
Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison, Fall 1995
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte, Spring 1995
Beloved, Toni Morrison, Fall 1994
Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko, Spring 1994
The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway, Fall 1993
The Portable Chekhov, Anton Chekhov, Spring 1993
Waiting for the Barbarians, J. M. Coetzee, Fall 1992
Frankenstein, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Spring 1992
Dubliners, James Joyce, Fall 1991
Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison, Spring 1991
Steppenwolf, Hermann Hesse, Fall 1990
One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Spring 1990
The Great Gatsby, Fall 1989
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain, Spring 1989
The Milagro Beanfield War, John Nichols, Fall 1988
The Day of the Locust, Nathanael West, Spring 1988
The Tempest, William Shakespeare, Fall 1987
A Passage to India, E. M. Forster, Spring 1987
To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf, Fall 1986
Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad, Spring 1986
Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert, Fall 1985
A Gathering of Old Men, Ernest J. Gaines Spring 1985
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen, Fall 1984
1984, George Orwell, Spring 1984
The Horse's Mouth, Joyce Cary, Fall 1983
Henderson The Rain King, Saul Bellow, Spring 1983
As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner, Fall 1982
The Mayor of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy, Spring 1982
Candide, Voltaire, Fall 1981