2016 Kirn Book Award winners

Amanda Schar, a sophomore from Aurora, Ill., and Kathryn Gorzek, a junior from Rockford, Ill., are the winners of the 2016 Michael E. Kirn Book Award at Augustana.

The annual award provides up to $1,000 to a student who exhibits the qualities of curiosity and a love of the printed word that would lead towards the development of a personal library.

Applicants submit a one-page list of approximately 25 fiction and/or non-fiction books they would like to own, with a brief paragraph indicating why they have chosen those books.

All students are invited to submit applications, but they indicate an interest in/appreciation of one or more of the disciplines that meant the most to Dr. Kirn: anthropology, classics, history, philosophy, political science and sociology.

Schar is majoring in psychology and Scandinavian Studies, and Gorzek is majoring in English and art history.

Dr. Michael E. Kirn (1944-2008) was a political theorist who worked for Augustana for 27 years. An avid reader, he owned an extensive personal library of fiction and non-fiction books. He created of books he wanted to read based on reviews in The New York Book Review and the Sunday New York Times Book Review. He believed that a liberally educated person needed to read both broadly and in-depth. The award was established in his memory by his family.