This past weekend was the Dahlonega Literary Festival and the New Directions Conference. During this weekend many talented authors and publishers came to Dahlonega to speak and share their experience. One of these authors was Sonya Huber, who wrote Opa Nobody, Cover Me: A Health Insurance Memoir, and The Backwards Research Guide for Writers, is published in many esteemed journals, and is an assistant professor of English at Fairfield University in Farfield, Connecticut. Last Thursday, November 10, Huber spoke on the North Georgia Campus at the Gloria Shott Auditorium, which was busting at the seams with eager students and readers wanting to know more about her and her book.
I arrived about fifteen minutes early to find the auditorium already filling up. I figured that some more students would come filing in over the next couple minutes, and that the auditorium would end up being about half full. I assumed that most of the students there were in attendance because of extra credit points promised to them by their teachers. I was entirely mistaken.
Students started to pour through the doors eagerly awaiting Huber’s discussion. Some of them had even brought their own copies of Opa Nobody and shyly made their way up to Huber to get her signature. Even when Huber began her speech people were still trying to make it through the doors which were blocked by other on-lookers.
Once Huber started to talk, however, it was easy to see why she had such an eager and attentive audience. As she spoke about her book it became apparent that she revealed much of herself in it. She was real and transparent with her readers and audience which made it easy to connect with her.
She spoke of her grandfather who had lived in Germany before, during, and after the Nazi regime. Her grandfather was part of an anti-Nazi socialist movement in Germany, and he also held a position in a political office. This put him and his family at high risk during very dangerous times. Her main focus through-out the book, however, was her grandfather’s balance between his political and social life and his private life with his family. She also tried to discover through the book what her relationship with her grandfather looked like even though he had already passed away.
Opa Nobody is a deeply personal memoir taking shape from a very personal author. There is no question that Huber will continue to grow in success and will continue to touch lives. Look out for her new projects about Buddhism, substance abuse, and social class. This is definitely an author you will want to keep an eye on.