Leonard Bird BS’63 PhD’69 recently published Folding Paper Cranes: An Atomic Memoir (University of Utah Press, April 22, 2005) 

Description on the U of U Press Web site:

Between 1951 and 1962 the Atomic Energy Commission triggered some one hundred atmospheric detonations of nuclear weapons at the Nevada Test Site. U.S. military troops who participated in these tests were exposed to high doses of radiation; among them was a young Marine named Leonard Bird. In Folding Paper Cranes Bird juxtaposes his devastating experience of those atomic exercises with three visits over his lifetime—one in the 1950s before his Nevada assignment, one in 1981, and one in the early 1990s—to the International Park for World Peace in Hiroshima.

Among the monuments to tragedy and hope in Hiroshima’s Peace Park stands a statue of Sadako Sasaki holding a crane in her outstretched arms. Sadako was two years old when the atomic bomb was dropped on her city; she was diagnosed with leukemia 10 years later. According to popular Japanese belief, folding a thousand paper cranes brings good fortune. Sadako spent the last months of her young life folding hundreds of paper cranes. She folded 644 before she died.

As he journeys from the Geiger counters, radioactive dust, and mushroom clouds of the Nevada desert to the bronze and ivory memorials for the dead in Japan, Bird—himself a survivor of radiation-induced cancer—seeks to make peace with his past and with a future shadowed by nuclear proliferation. His paper cranes are the poetry and prose of this haunting memoir.

Bird’s deeply moving and compelling memoir takes an important place in a body of work bearing witness to generations of the terrible reality of nuclear testing and the use of nuclear weapons.

—Mary Dickson, director of creative services at KUED Channel 7 and author of the essays “Downwinders All” and “Living and Dying with Fallout.”

With a lovely combination of prose and poetry, Leonard Bird bears witness to the terrible nuclear crimes committed by the United States government against innocent citizens in the name of ‘national security.’ . . . Bird gives us a deeply personal view . . . always with beautiful writing and with a generosity of spirit that lifts the reader’s heart.

—Leslie Marmon Silko, author of Almanac of the Dead and Ceremony

Leonard Bird is professor emeritus of English at Fort Lewis College. His wife, the artist Jane Leonard, created the monoprint illustrations for the book. They live in Durango, Colorado.

Beyond the Gateway: Immigrants in a Changing America, edited by Elzbieta M. Gozdziak and Susan F. Martin and published by Lexington Books, 2005.

When Utah was settled, 90 percent of its immigrants were Anglo-Europeans and new converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. By the year 2000, 90 percent of immigrants coming into the Beehive State were Latinos and Catholic. Because of this dramatic shift, Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of International Migration now classifies Utah as one of the new “gateway” states for those leaving other countries to enter the United States to live.

University of Utah researcher Armando Solorzano is a contributor to Beyond the Gateway: Immigrants in a Changing America, a new book that shares best practices and services and ways to accommodate immigrants coming into these “gateway” states, which also include Georgia, Nebraska, North Carolina, Minnesota, Arkansas, and Virginia. In his work as an associate professor in the U’s Department of Family and Consumer Studies and in the Ethic Studies Program, Solorzano examines the experiences of Latino immigrants coming to Utah.

Read the full press release on the University of Utah News & Public Relations Web site.

The Adventures of Newton & U, authored by Matt George BS'94 (Mass Communications), with illustrations by artist Mike Bohman, was unveiled in early June at a special gala honoring former Utah Governor Olene Walker PhD'87 and her commitment to children’s literacy. The 28-page, soft-cover children's book introduces readers to higher education and the University of Utah.

The book is dedicated to Walker, who, while governor of the Beehive State, urged adults via public service announcements to read to a child for 20 minutes a day. As Utah’s first woman governor, Walker emphasized education. During her 13 months of service, she was fond of saying, “Students learn to read from kindergarten through third grade. After third grade, they read to learn. We need to ensure each student can read or they will not succeed.”

The Adventures of Newton & U was commissioned by the U’s College of Education. David J. Sperry, dean of the college, explains, “Proceeds from the sale of the book will benefit the new Olene Walker Reading and Literacy Legacy Fund, which will provide scholarship opportunities for Utah K-3 teachers to obtain a Level 1 Reading Endorsement, fulfilling one of Walker’s wishes that Utah have more teachers trained as reading specialists.”

The book’s main character—Newton—is introduced to many parts of the University of Utah: athletics, and Swoop, the U’s red-tailed hawk mascot; the Utah Museum of Natural History; the residence halls; the University Hospital; and the College of Education.

The book, also written to appeal to adults who are passionate about the U, will be sold at the University Bookstore, at athletic events at Rice-Eccles Stadium and the Jon M. Huntsman Center, and online at http://www.ubs.utah.edu. A Spanish version of the book will be released in the coming year.

As part of outreach efforts by the College of Education, Suzan Young, an advocate for literacy and wife of University of Utah President Michael K. Young, will be helping to promote The Adventures of Newton & U by reading to groups of school children in the community. University coaches and athletes will also be making appearances in the community to promote literacy and higher education.

In addition to the U’s College of Education, partners for the book include the University Hospitals & Clinics, U Athletics, the Utah Museum of Natural History, and the Office of the President.

University of Utah News & Public Relations