Dear Reader, This story is fiction. But it also tells the truth. All stories start with a seed and for me that seed was planted years ago when I first crossed paths with Lord Byron’s epic poem, The Giaour, along with his deeply ingrained Orientalism and sexism. In college, I took a class that centered around

Each year, Penguin Random House Education hosts two scholarship essay contests for high school students: The Signet Classics Essay Contest and the Penguin Classics Essay Contest. The Signet Classics Scholarship Essay Contest, established in 1996, is open to qualifying high school juniors and seniors. In 2018-2019, students were asked to respond to questions about The

Where the Dead Sit Talking by Brandon Hobson explores the themes of loneliness and trauma as a young Native American boy named Sequoyah experiences life in the foster care system. This 2018 National Book Award Finalist is about a broken teenager’s search for his identity and the hardships of being displaced. Sequoyah lives his life with