[CW-Grad] UCR MFA Alum holding a Book Drive for his South Central Los Angeles High Shool

[Ky-Phong Tran]

Dear UCR MFA family,


This is Ky-Phong Tran, MFA Fiction 2008, and I'm trying to raise books for
a library at the high school I teach creative writing at in south central
LA.

If you can help, please do.  My students are dying to read cool books.


Thank you so much,

Ky-Phong




11 DAYS LEFT!  Have you changed someone’s life today?  Send a book today
and you will!


*“Change-A-Life/Birthday Book Drive”*



WHAT:  For my 37th birthday, I don’t want a gift.  I’d like people to send
a beloved used or new book to my students at Burton Academy in south
central Los Angeles, where we have lots of cool stuff but sadly NO SCHOOL
LIBRARY.  My students DON’T know Hemingway, Faulkner, Achebe, Salinger,
O’Connor, Roy, and Marquez and that is NOT RIGHT.



WHO:  My name is Ky-Phong Paul Tran and I’m a writer and creative writing
teacher at Burton Academy.   Also, my students are clamoring for books,
desperate to “get away” for a bit.



WHEN:  Please send a book by September 6, 2012, my 37th birthday



WHERE:   Mr. Tran, Burton Academy 10101 South Broadway, Los Angeles, CA
90003



WHY:  Cause you’re cool and ALL kids deserve books!



HOW:  Walk around your house, find a book that changed your life, and mail
it OR go online and send a book.  This will take about $5 or less and 10
minutes of your time. Promise.



UPDATES:

1.     I’m going to name the library after my mom who passed away in
2009.  It’ll
be known as the Yen Thi Tran Memorial Library, after the woman who read to
me all the time, whenever I asked/demanded, even after long days at work.

2.     Joy Liu of Swash Designs will design a special “Yen Thi Tran
Memorial Library” sticker that will go inside the books.

3.     Books have already been sent from friends of friends (amazing people
I don’t even know) from Australia and the Midwest, so yes, I am expecting a
lot from my friends J

4.     In just 3 days, 11 students have checked out books from my small
class library (more than all of last year!) So far:  *The Catcher in the Rye
*, two *The God of Small Things*, one *The Great Gatsby*, one *The Things
They Carried*, one *The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven*, and
even a DVD of Casablanca!



BONUS:

“Literary readers are more than twice as likely as nonreaders to vote, to
volunteer, and to be active participants of the communities in which they
live. They are more likely to be healthy, to be hired, to create art, and
to achieve both academic and economic success. Reading encourages and
develops empathy and emotional sophistication, logical thinking, clear
expression of ideas, and the ability to comprehend complex and opposing
thought systems. Reading opens minds and changes lives.”  --Narrative
Magazine
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