Every year, the Common Book Writing Contest awards three freshmen for responding to complex and thought-provoking topics, with this year's winners tackling "Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy" by John Bowe.
The top three entries, submitted by Beverley Caesar, freshman in community planning; Kaylee McCormack, sophomore in chemical engineering; and Erin Slay, freshman in public relations, epitomize the connection the Common Book program aims to create between students and thought-provoking works of contemporary literature.
"I just wanted what I submitted to be really raw, kind of like exactly what I felt without being too edited and weighty," Slay said. "I just wrote it kind of like a journal entry almost, like my reaction to what I was reading and kind of that aspect of it, and then went back and made sure I didn't have any terrible grammar mistakes."
"Nobodies" examines the lives of migrant or low-wage immigrant workers living out of the public eye, often unable to survive or leave a low-paying job.
Bowe's book covers migrant fruit pickers in Florida dependent on seasonal orange sales to support their families, textile workers in Southeast Asia trapped in low-paying factory jobs and immigrants in the U.S. illegally contracted for cheap labor, but unable to return home.
Slay's submission was noted for her investigation into the author's own research and sources to better understand the impact these invisible people have on the greater world population.
"[What] we're looking for is that it's clear that the person really read the book and is responding to the themes, even if they never mention the book," said Margaret Marshall, director of University Writing. "She said 'how can this be true' and did more investigating, saw they were really right and then continued with a kind of argument on how this impacted her."
The Common Book Writing Contest is open to all incoming freshmen and has no genre requirements.
Students may submit any sort of essay, poetry, fiction or nonfiction piece, with the only rule being that the author stay consistent to their chosen genre from start to finish.
Marshall said second-place winner McCormack's "Tomato Field Orientation" was a good example of a student who responded to the book's first chapter.
"She wrote it from the point-of-view of a crew boss giving all the rules to a new field worker," Marshall said. "She maintained that voice and used dialect appropriately throughout."
Marshall said McCormack framed her work as a piece of fiction, clearly drawing from aspects found in the book.
She also framed her work off of her own experience living in Florida.
"But again, we like that it's consistent," Marshall said. "If you take on something that's going to be from the point-of-view of the boss, you have to carry that through to the end, and she managed to do that."
Jay Lamar, director of special studies and head of the Common Book committee, said many universities, communities and states do a one-book program, with the idea being to build community.
"It's a shared reading experience that makes people think and talk, and gives them something to share with neighbors and children and colleagues," Lamar said. "Here at Auburn, we understand that it's not, it really has to be bigger than that, and while it may be targeting incoming freshmen, it needs to engage everybody,
Lamar also said if it's a really good book and has a meaningful topic, then "we all ought to be able to find a place in it and that makes it a richer experience."
The contest is currently only open to freshmen attending the University, and there are plans to open a contest for upperclassmen next year.
The Common Book Program continues throughout the year with events where students can connect to "Nobodies" and further the conversation on workers' rights with the Auburn community.
For more information about the contest, visit Auburn.edu/AuburnConnects.
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