lifelong learning
UW Alumni Book Club
Personal stories, timely topics, transformative fiction… Let’s dig into some amazing books together! All curious readers are welcome at the UW Alumni Book Club. Together, we read a book about every two months. Choose just one or all five — whatever works for you.
“So often we think of reading as a solo activity, but with discussion it improves and elevates the experience.”
—Marilyn Conover Watt, ’76, ’81
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Now Reading:
“The Buffalo Hunter Hunter”
by Stephen Graham Jones
Reading Period: Jan. 2–March 6, 2026
Brace yourself for a gripping historical novel from a master of literary horror! A lecturer at the University of Wyoming comes across the diary that her great-great-grandfather kept in 1912. The entries include a series of interviews with the survivor of a massacre of hundreds of Blackfeet Indians… a survivor who has had an unusually long life, and who may just be out for revenge.
→ One of Time Magazine’s “100 Must-Read Books of 2025!”
Stephen Graham Jones is the NYT bestselling author of more than forty novels, collections, novellas and comic books. He is a professor of English at the University of Colorado Boulder, and an enrolled member of the Blackfeet Tribe of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation of Montana.
“The author goes back in time, digs his feet into history, and spins a spellbinding yarn about one of the bloodiest, most significant parts of this country’s history.”
— NPR
Author Interview:
Author Voices: In Conversation with Stephen Graham Jones
In November 2025, the King County Library System invited Stephen Graham Jones to talk about his writing process. The one-hour conversation was guided by Madrienne White, ’08, ’19, a proud Muckleshoot Tribal member and Academic/Operations Manager at Muckleshoot Tribal College.
Campus Connections:
“Jones reveals the literal horrors of US settlement, and the horrors we continue to grapple with today. Then he imagines how might those horrors manifest themselves, collapsing historical fact with fantastical terror. In the end, he gives us a story where seemingly distant sins of the past might just show up in your living room. Sins, the book suggests, that perhaps we are all implicated in. Sleep with your lights on, Reader.”
— Danica Sterud Miller (Puyallup Tribe of Indians)
Professor of American Indian Studies, UW Tacoma
Co-Director of UW Center of American Indian and Indigenous Studies (CAIIS)
Storytelling as Sovereignty
UW Tacoma professor Danica Miller curated “This Is Native Land,” a new exhibition at the Washington State History Museum. In this interview with UWT, she explores the power of storytelling to explore the past and future through an Indigenous lens.
Monsters, Slashers, Vampires and More
Stephen Graham Jones gets a dose of creative inspiration from horror films, which come in many sub-genres. Grab a bowl of popcorn and see if any of his faves are on your must-view list! (PS: Many of these films are available at University District favorite Scarecrow Video for rent in person or by the Rent By Mail program.)
“Horror, at its best, is about the confrontation of taboos, the breaking of moral fictions, and the revealing of (darker) truths. In moving past our safe places, it gets to freely confront ideas we usually prefer to avoid. Jones’ work gruesomely confronts America’s inner turmoil — where languages, religions, and cultures war against each other.”
— Gavin T. Doyle
Professor, School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences, UW Bothell
Reader Benefits:
Seattle Arts & Lectures
UWAA members and book club participants save 20% on tickets for all events in the Seattle Arts & Lectures 2025/26 season! This includes Stephen Graham Jones‘s talk on March 30, right as we are finishing up his new novel, “The Buffalo Hunter Hunter.” Use the code UWAA20 to save on in-person and online passes.
Barnes & Noble at University Book Store
Seattle-area readers, have you checked out how University Book Store is partnering with Barnes & Noble to expand their General Books department? Book clubbers can save 20% on “The Buffalo Hunter Hunter” when they visit the Barnes & Noble at University Book Store location and mention the UW Alumni Book Club discount at checkout.
UWAA Member Benefits:
University of Washington Press
UWAA members receive 30% off all books ordered online or via phone from a catalog of over 3,000 titles. This includes “Shapes of Native Nonfiction,” a collection of essays by twenty-seven contemporary Native writers (including Stephen Graham Jones!)
Up Next:
“Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth” by Wole Soyinka
Reading Period: March 13–May 15, 2026
Readers’ Choice! A mix of mystery and political satire, this novel takes aim at corruption in modern Nigeria. Two old friends decide to investigate a local cartel that traffics in human body parts. But in a country where religious charlatans and dishonest officials abound, can they trust anyone in their search?
2025-2026 Reading List
Reading Period:
Aug. 1–Oct. 3
Reading Period:
Oct. 10–Dec. 12
Reading Period:
Jan. 2–March 6
Reading Period:
March 13–May 15
Reading Period:
May 22–July 24
2025-2026 Book Club Archives
“Birding to Change the World”
by Trish O’Kane
Trish O’Kane worked for decades as an investigative journalist, boldly visiting war zones and fighting for justice. When she evacuates from Hurricane Katrina and returns to see the devastation of her beloved New Orleans neighborhood, she is shaken to her core — and then turns into an “accidental ornithologist!” This upbeat memoir, chock full of amazing natural history facts, chronicles how birdwatching helped her find courage and community in the face of a rapidly changing world.
Campus Connections: Birding to Change the World
Campus Connections:
Neighborhood Bird Outing: Union Bay
Sun. Sept. 28 | 9–11 a.m.
Center for Urban Horticulture
3501 NE 41st St.
The Union Bay Natural Area, managed by UW Botanic Gardens, is one of the best bird-watching sites in Seattle. Birds Connect Seattle invites us to join their free bird walk — all are welcome!
So you think you want to try birding?
Four members of the UW Retirement Association’s birding group worked together to write this handy birdwatching primer. Learn basic birding ethics and get a review of different field guides. Find in-person events and online resources. Learn the right way to focus your binoculars, and what to look for if you are shopping for a pair of your own!
Get Back to Your (Grass)roots
New to community activism? UW Impact’s Associate Director, Chris Olsen-Phillips, recommends this article on this basics of grassroots organizing. (Visit uwimpact.org to learn more about advocating for the UW and higher education.)
Be a Bird’s Buddy
Fall migration is a big deal for birdwatchers, but it can be a dangerous time for the birds themselves. Conservationist Joshua Morris, ’08, has timeless tips on ways to aid our feathered friends in this 2020 article from UW Magazine.
“The Four Winds”
by Kristin Hannah, ’83
Readers’ Choice! Author (and UW alum) Kristin Hannah, ’83, highlights the struggles of the working poor during the Great Depression in this novel. Elsa is an awkward wallflower who is raising her two children on the family farm. As the Dust Bowl hits, she must choose between weathering the climate catastrophe in Texas or moving her family west to follow rumors of jobs in California.
Campus Connections: The Four Winds
Author Interview:
UW Magazine: Author Kristin Hannah Finds Inspiration in Heartbreak
In this 2019 interview with UW Magazine, Kristin Hannah, ’83, talks about her path to becoming an author and gives us a peek at her writing process. (Hint: it involves yellow legal notepads.) Get to know this immensely popular writer!
Campus Connections:
America’s Great Migrations
Explore interactive maps about the Dust Bowl migration in the late 1930s. Professor James Gregory of the UW Dept. of History assembled this content, and also contributed to the Great Depression in Washington State Project.
UW Libraries Digital Collections
James Patrick Lee was a photographer for the Seattle Engineering Department from 1913 until 1957. His Great Depression photos include images of shantytowns that sprung up in the city in the 1930s. See also these Labor and the New Deal images from the UW Libraries digital collections.
Past UW Alumni Book Club Archives
Curious what books we have read before? Use the links below to access our book club archives, which include recorded events and resource lists.
Share Your Book Ideas!
Have suggestions for upcoming book club titles?
Submit your ideas to our Book Club Suggestion Form.
Check out the books that have already been suggested.
The UW Alumni Book Club is a collaboration between the UWAA, UW Libraries, University Book Store, Seattle Arts & Lectures — and passionate readers like you.
