Launched in 2005, Great World Texts in Wisconsin connects high school teachers and students across the state with scholars at UW-Madison through the shared project of reading and discussing a classic piece of world literature.
What is Great World Texts in Wisconsin?
Drawing from world literature throughout the ages, the program’s selection of texts reflects a capacious understanding of the idea
of the “literary classic.” In previous years, we have collaborated with high schools on texts associated with mid–twentieth
century Colombia, ancient Greece, and contemporary India.
The program provides schools with complimentary copies of the text and includes a colloquium during which participating teachers work with UW-Madison faculty members on interpreting and understanding the text, extensive supporting curriculum materials, and a stipend to participate in the Great World Texts Annual Student Conference during which students from all participating schools come together to share their creative responses to the text and hear from distinguished speakers, often including the text’s author or contemporary representative. Now in its twentieth year, Great World Texts has reached tens of thousands of students and teachers in dozens of school districts throughout the state of Wisconsin.
Death of the Author in Wisconsin
During the 2025-2026 Great World Texts in Wisconsin program, high school teachers and students throughout the state will read Nnedi Okorafor’s latest novel, Death of the Author, a masterpiece of metafiction that is surprisingly funny, deeply poignant, and endlessly discussable. Death of the Author is at once the tale of a woman on the margins risking everything to be heard and a testament to the power of storytelling to shape the world as we know it.
Disabled, disinclined to marry, and more interested in writing than a lucrative career in medicine or law, Zelu has always felt like the outcast of her large Nigerian family. Then her life is upended when, in the middle of her sister’s lavish Caribbean wedding, she’s unceremoniously fired from her university job and, to add insult to injury, her novel is rejected by yet another publisher. With her career and dreams crushed in one fell swoop, she decides to write something just for herself. What comes out is nothing like the quiet, literary novels that have so far peppered her unremarkable career. It’s a far-future epic where androids and AI wage war in the grown-over ruins of human civilization. She calls it Rusted Robots.
When Zelu finds the courage to share her strange novel, she does not realize she is about to embark on a life-altering journey—one that will catapult her into literary stardom, but also perhaps obliterate everything her book was meant to be. From Chicago to Lagos to the far reaches of space, Zelu’s novel will change the future not only for humanity, but for the robots who come next.
Participating in Great World Texts in Wisconsin
Teachers participating in Great World Texts will receive a curricular guide for Death of the Author and a classroom set of texts for their school’s permanent collection. The curriculum guide contains contextual and lecture materials, suggested readings, close reading and discussion activities, handouts, and suggestions for student projects. This curricular guide is designed to make the text accessible for a range of learners and grade levels and is customizable to meet the needs of a wide range of classrooms and students.
Participating teachers from across the state of Wisconsin also attend a virtual educator colloquium, to be held in August 2025, which will feature lectures by campus faculty, guidelines for the conference, and community building exercises between educators.
Educators will bring their students to UW-Madison for a full-day conference on Tuesday, April 7, 2026, where students will present projects created in response to the novel, engage with other students from across the state, and meet author Nnedi Okorafor in person. All participating educators received a stipend to fund their school’s participation in Great World Texts. These funds are most often used to offset the costs of substitute teachers and bus travel to Madison for the student conference.
Participating teachers from across the state of Wisconsin also attend a virtual educator colloquium, to be held on Monday, August 19, 2024, which will feature lectures by campus faculty, guidelines for the conference, and community building exercises between educators.
Educators will bring their students to UW-Madison for a full-day conference on Tuesday, April 15, 2025, where students will present projects created in response to the novel, engage with other students from across the state, and meet author Cho Nam-joo in person. All participating educators received a stipend to fund their school’s participation in Great World Texts. These funds are most often used to offset the costs of substitute teachers and travel to Madison for the student conference.
If you have questions, please contact Assistant Director, Public Humanities Programs, Danielle Weindling at greattexts@humanities.wisc.edu.
