Author and former child soldier visits GVSU

Ishmael Beah, the author of "A Long Way Gone," will speak at Grand Valley on April 1. The College of Interdisciplinary Studies and University Libraries have selected Beah's book as the fourth annual Community Reading Project book. Beah will speak at 4 p.m. in 2250 Kirkhof Center.

Beah was born in Sierra Leone in 1980.  In “A Long Way Gone,” he tells the story of how he fled attacking rebels at the age of 12 and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By 13, he'd been picked up by the government army and was forced into service as a child soldier. At 16, he was removed from fighting by UNICEF, and through the help of the staff at his rehabilitation center, he learned how to forgive himself, to regain his humanity, and, finally, to heal.

Beah moved to the United States in 1998 and finished his last two years of high school at the United Nations International School in New York. In 2004 he graduated from Oberlin College with a B.A. in political science. He is a member of the Human Rights Watch Children’s Rights Division Advisory Committee and has spoken before the United Nations, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Center for Emerging Threats and Opportunities (CETO) at the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, and many other NGO panels on children affected by the war. His work has appeared in VespertinePress and LIT magazine. He lives in New York City.

Time Magazine wrote that “A Long Way Gone” is “a breathtaking and unself-pitying account of how a gentle spirit survives a childhood from which all innocence has suddenly been sucked out." 

The intent of Community Reading Project is to promote diversity, inclusion, insight and understanding through dialogue and events surrounding relevant themes in the book. For more information, visit www.gvsu.edu/cois/crp .  Parents and families are encouraged to be part of the 2009 GVSU Community Reading Project, along with students, faculty and staff.