Readers Guild

Becoming an engaged reader requires commitment and intellectual curiosity, but the rewards are great.

The IAM Readers Guild is designed to allow readers to interact with others in their own community as well as the wider IAM global community, and to learn a “deeper empathy” through experiencing great writing that wrestles with big ideas in many cultural contexts.

Each month, groups around the world will meet to discuss the book of the month, beginning with a list of questions that will be sent to all groups and welcoming spontaneous discussions as they arise. A member of each group will take notes and blog a brief summary of the group discussion after the meeting, allowing all the readers a wider experience of the book.

Interested in hosting or attending a group in your area? Contact readersguild@internationalartsmovement.org.

“Deeply engaged reading leads to perceptual awakening, stimulation of the core of the intuitive and experiential . . . What reading and writing can teach us is a deeper empathy that leads us to desire the best for others who are entirely different from us, and to long to communicate with them.”

- Makoto Fujimura, “Refractions #26: The Epistle of Van Gogh”

Local IAM Readers Guild Groups

Following is the most up-to-date list of local IAM Readers Guild groups. If you are interested in connecting with one of these groups, please let us know. You may also participate individually by reading the book and working through the discussion materials, which will be posted here each month, and sharing your feedback with us for the IAM Readers Guild web site.

United States Groups:
Endicott/Central NY; Charlottesville, VA; Holland, MI; Indianapolis, IN; Madison, WI; Nashville; New York City; Oklahoma City; South-Central NJ; Austin, TX; Keene, NH

International Groups:
Illesheim, Germany

Readers Guild Blog

See all posts from this blog.

IAM Readers Guild Podcast

Commentary on the Readers Guild books

See all episodes from this podcast.

2010 IAM Readers Guild Selections

January: Silence – Shusaku Endo
Buy the Book - Download the Discussion Guide

February: The Supper of the Lamb – Robert Farrar Capon
Buy the Book - Download the Discussion Guide

March: The Violent Bear It Away – Flannery O’Connor
Buy the Book - Download the Discussion Guide

April: Hannah Coulter – Wendell Berry
Buy the Book - Download the Discussion Guide

May: Till We Have Faces – C.S. Lewis
Buy the Book - Download the Discussion Guide 

June: Things Fall Apart – Chinua Achebe
Buy the Book - Download the Discussion Guide 

July: Dark Water – Robert Clark
Buy the Book - Download the Discussion Guide

August: Unaccustomed Earth – Jhumpa Lahiri
Buy the Book - Download the Discussion Guide

September: Gilead – Marilynne Robinson
Buy the Book - Download the Discussion Guide

October: Shop Class as Soulcraft – Matthew B. Crawford
Buy the Book - Download the Discussion Guide (Coming soon!)

November: Invisible Cities – Italo Calvino
Buy the Book - Download the Discussion Guide (Coming soon!)

December: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek – Annie Dillard
Buy the Book - Download the Discussion Guide (Coming soon!)

Readers Guild Dates

Here are the next four events - click "all events" link for all upcoming dates, including all regional Readers Guild meetings!

See all events in this calendar.