Author Takes Part in Montclair Book Program

Award-winning and best-selling author Luis Alberto Urrea was to visit campus in September to discuss The Devil’s Highway, this year’s Montclair Book.

The Devil’s Highway, the true story of 26 men who risked everything to cross into Arizona through the brutal Sonoran Desert, draws a stark image of the dangers would-be immigrants face in their gamble for a better life.  

As part of the Montclair Book program, which began in 2011 as a means of offering students a shared reading experience, all incoming first-year students are assigned the same book prior to the start of school. In the fall, they work with the text in their first-year writing courses and through activities such as an essay contest and guest speakers. The University is one of several requiring incoming freshmen to read The Devil’s Highway.