The One Book program engages our college community in a dialogue about a common text that addresses a current issue. Students, faculty and staff share the experience of reading a text and examining its effects upon our community. Faculty who incorporate the text into their curriculum receive copies for their students. Programming is provided throughout the year to continue the discussions that begin in the classrooms of various disciplines. The culminating event happens each spring semester when the college invites the author of the chosen text to visit, interact and speak with our student body. The One Book program promotes literacy in an innovative way and creates interest within a subject that students may be encouraged to pursue and advocate for in the future. The program invites analysis, promotes critical thinking, and encourages positive change.
2026-2027 One Book Selection
Sponsored by the BHCC One Book Program
Bunker Hill Community College’s 2026-2027 One Book selection is Dolen Perkins-Valdez ’s novel Take My Hand.
Dolen Perkins-Valdez is the New York Times bestselling author of Take My Hand (2022). Take My Hand was awarded the 2023 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work–Fiction, the 2023 BCALA Award for Fiction, a finalist for a Goodreads Choice Award, and named a Top 20 Book of the Year by the Editors at Amazon. In 2023, American Bar Association awarded Take My Hand its prestigious Silver Gavel Award, which recognizes "outstanding work that fosters the American public's understanding of law and the legal system."
Dolen is a three-time nominee for a United States Artists Fellowship and is currently Associate Professor in the Literature Department at American University. She lives in Washington, DC with her family.
Synopsis
Montgomery, Alabama, 1973. Fresh out of nursing school, Civil Townsend intends to make a difference, especially in her African American community. At the Montgomery Family Planning Clinic, she hopes to help women shape their destinies, to make their own choices for their lives and bodies.
Upcoming Event
One Book author talk with Dolen Perkins-Valdez
April 22, 2027 | 1 p.m. | Location TBD
Join us for a special One Book author talk with Dolen Perkins-Valdez.