If you’ve dropped by a public library in Denver recently and, like more than a thousand other people, were offered an orange and yellow paperback book for free, it wasn’t a fluke.
It’s part of a reading program led by the Denver Public Library that has been reinstated this year after taking a hiatus. The program is called One Book One Denver, and it’s intended to get people out of post-COVID isolation and reading the same book – one that could spark connection and community-building.
Most recently, it was a program for young people, but this year, it’s returned with an adult title: "Stay True," a page-turner of a memoir set in the 1990s by Hua Hsu, who is the son of Taiwanese immigrants and works as a college professor in New York. Now in his late 40s, he spent 20 years working on the book, which was published in 2022 to great acclaim. It won a Pulitzer Prize and was a best-seller.
It takes a microscope to a friendship between Hsu and another Asian student named Ken while they attend college together in Northern California. Hsu is more of an introvert who writes a ‘zine, listens to hip-hop and shops in thrift stores, while Ken is more outgoing, taking dance classes in public and finding ways to befriend a wide swath of people.
The two bond despite outward differences because they both enjoy some of the same things, including underground film Berry Gordy’s "The Last Dragon" and smoking cigarettes on balconies. About two-thirds of the way through, the plot twists when an unexpected act of violence takes Ken away from their friend group.
The library gave out 1,500 copies of that book — 100 of them in Spanish, to the surprise and delight of the author, who declined interviews but provided the library with a statement: “It's so great that this city-wide reading program is back, and I feel honored to be a part of its return. I wrote Stay True for quite personal reasons, not imagining the reception it's gotten over the past few years. Witnessing how it has resonated with strangers has been such an amazing surprise. I hope it's a book that brings people together in discussion and friendship.”
The title was selected with deliberate care, according to Jessie de la Cruz, who coordinated the project as Program Manager for Civic and Literary Initiatives.
When asked what made DPL select "Stay True," she said: “We were going off of some surveys from adults and looking at circulation trends, and we saw that a lot of our adult readers gravitate towards non-fiction.”
Another reason, she said, is that the book touches on things everyone experiences: friendship, loss, grief and coming-of-age.
“I think when I read this book and I came across it, I felt that it had a lot of universal themes that would be applicable to all backgrounds, to all genders, to all identities,” she said. “I think we can all relate to that version of ourselves … that was awkward and clumsy, and trying to figure out who we are, those new friendships that you develop in college on top of trying to understand and grapple with your identity and your independence.”
The program originally began in 2004, with the focus being children’s books for part of the time, and interest seemingly fizzling out, leading to the program’s end a dozen years ago.
Then came a request:
“Last year, the Mayor’s Office approached Denver Public Library about reviving One Book One Denver,” said library spokesperson Alvaro Sauceda Nuñez in an email. “Denver Public Library programs, such as the Silent Pages Society, showed us that adults in Denver are hungry for meaningful, low-pressure ways to engage with books and with each other. OBOD is a response to that need.”
He also noted that research has shown that adult reading for pleasure is in steady decline, especially among younger adults and their internal program showed patrons were hungry for meaningful ways to engage with books and each other without pressure. “In relaunching OBOD, we intend to spark curiosity and engagement—not just among our regular customers, but also among adults who may not see themselves as ‘readers’ right now.”
Community activities
Besides making 20 copies of the book available for free to rent and unlimited copies available to download, the library also came up with suggested conversation questions for use in group discussion sessions. But de la Cruz saw a bigger opportunity to bring the book and the project into a larger context.
She designed some other engagement opportunities at different branches, such as:
- An opportunity to explore storytelling through ‘zine creation – one of Hsu’s passions – on Saturday, Sept. 20, at the Bob Raglan Branch;
- A creative writing workshop during which participants will use objects to tell stories, on Sunday, Sept. 28, at the Ross-University Hills Branch; and
- A chance to make a mix tape, like the ones Hsu and his friend Ken exchanged, on Friday, Sept. 12, at the Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library.
“It was really important that this program didn’t just exist within the library, but how do we activate and bring it out into the city?” said de la Cruz. “How does it spill out of the library into the city streets?”
Expressing books visually
Another way she found to connect people with the book’s themes was to link up with the Colorado Photographic Arts Center, located near the library’s main branch. The center found a way to use photography to express the ideas in the book visually.
Samantha Johnston, curator and executive director of the arts center, put together an exhibit called “What Remains.” It includes photos by three photographers, two from Colorado, whose images “explore complexities of identity, fear, memory, and the solace that can be found through art,” according to the center’s promotional documents.
During a recent visit to the center, Johnston led a tour of the exhibit. “All the work is part of the ‘What Remains’ exhibition, but each artist has their area,” she said, pointing out four walls with the work that will be displayed until the end of the month, by photographers Carl Bower, Dana Stirling and Emily (Billie) Warnock.
Among the most arresting is a photo essay on fear by local photographer Bower, featuring stark images of people looking intensely at the camera, alongside a written answer the subject provided about what they fear.
She said fear is a common theme in Bower’s photos as it is in Hsu’s words. “It's where Hua Hsu speaks to that loss of Ken and also that the fear of ... forgetting those memories of his friend and who he is, and again, all tying differently, but underlying connections into how I curated the work.”
"Stay True" author Hua Hsu will speak on Friday at Denver Public Library’s Central branch, and on Saturday, Lighthouse Writers Workshop is holding an event at the arts center, during which people will look at the exhibit, then use it and Hsu’s book for inspiration for a creative free-writing session.
“Communities form when we listen to and share with one another,” Hsu said in his statement. “I hope reading about my friends and I inspires others to think about the bonds that run through their lives, the everyday stories worth cherishing, and the visions of community they hope to find in the real world.”
