Summer Reading Assignment Explores Life on the Chesapeake Bay

Release date: June 06, 2006

This summer, new students at Goucher College will explore waterman culture and life on the bay with An Island Out of Time: A Memoir of Smith Island in the Chesapeake by journalist and writer Tom Horton. The book is Goucher’s 2006 summer reading assignment for incoming first-year and transfer students.

Selected based on suggestions from faculty, An Island Out of Time will spark discussion among new students, staff, and professors during Goucher’s fall orientation session. Following a daylong discussion of the book and its themes, Horton will deliver a public talk at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, August 29 in Kraushaar Auditorium.

Formerly an environmental columnist for the Baltimore Sun, Horton has written five books about the Chesapeake Bay, including Turning the Tide: Saving the Chesapeake Bay, Water’s Way: Life Along the Chesapeake, and The Great Marsh: An Intimate Journey into a Chesapeake Wetland.

For An Island Out of Time, Horton spent nearly three years living on Smith Island, a small traditional fishing community located in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay. The New York Times Book Review called An Island Out of Time “an eloquent tribute to this tiny enclave of Methodists and orioles, crabs and eight-layer cakes, wild goats and terrapins,” and the Philadelphia Inquirer deemed it “the perfect companion for a seaside vacation.”

Along with a copy of the book, incoming students will receive study guide questions to foster group conversation.

Media Contact
Kristen Pinheiro
Media Relations Director
kristen.pinheiro@goucher.edu
410-337-6316