We at the College are so excited to be awarding the Hepburn Medal to Patti Smith in February, 2013, and we wanted to share our excitement with our entire community, not just those who are lucky enough to attend the on-campus events. We also want to celebrate Patti Smith and her accomplishments in music, art, and writing, and invite everyone to participate in the celebration.

The Director of the Hepburn Center, Professor of English Katherine Rowe, and I envisioned an online “book club” in which fans of Patti Smith could get together virtually to share their enthusiasm. We also thought a public reading and discussion of Smith’s memoir would be a great way for those who don’t know much about Patti Smith to get to know our medalist, and perhaps become fans.

We wanted to have a few voices on the blog that could get the conversation started, so we recruited a faculty member, a student, and a staff member to serve as regular bloggers. (Please see the bios page for more about our core bloggers.) We created a reading schedule and comment guidelines, in the hopes that anyone who was interested could read along with our regular bloggers and engage in thoughtful discussions in the comments sections of posts.

Our bloggers are big fans and excited about Patti Smith and participating in this blog. And as much as I look forward to reading what our bloggers have to say about Just Kids, I am just as excited to see how the conversations and discussions in the comments sections develop and evolve.

A round of posts devoted to each section by the core bloggers will appear every other Thursday. The first round of posts will be published on Thursday, Nov. 29. Comments will remain open throughout the fall and spring semesters, so you can join the conversation at any time. More information about the schedule, comments, and bloggers can be found using the links at the top of every page.

Welcome to the Patti Smith Just Kids Book Club Blog! Hope to see you in the comments!