Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Kirsti Sandy read excerpts from her book “She Lived, and the Other Girls Died” as the fourth installment of the Keene Is Curious series.
Sandy led her presentation by specifying one of the major topics of her book, which is a collection of nonfiction essays compiled into a chronological memoir.
“I do believe that my book is 100% about access to public education,” Sandy said. “It’s a memoir, but it is about the importance of access for everyone to public education. We are in danger of losing that and it made all the difference to me in my life.”
Sandy said she felt her story could connect with the experiences of many current Keene State students. She added both her parents were first-generation college students and that she was able to attend college only because her father, a veteran who attended college through the GI bill, worked at an undergraduate institution.
“We have a very high percentage here on campus of first-generation college students and Pell-eligible students, and I think that that was something that I know growing up my family could really identify with: The fear of [not] being able to pay for college,” Sandy said.
Sandy read several selections from the book as well as one piece she said was not included but was thematically relevant.
“I would like it to be in [a future edition of the book] because it fits in there, but I wrote it later,” Sandy said.
One of the other major themes Sandy described in the book is making inadvisable decisions.
“I think a lot of students that I know right now are trying to figure out their own way through so many really challenging situations where they feel like an outsider,” Sandy said. “That was something I had to learn myself, and I made some really bad decisions.”
Associate Professor of Film Jiwon Ahn, the organizer of Keene Is Curious, said she had initially felt unsure about reaching out to Sandy for the event.
“We’re not trying to promote higher-ups, that’s far from our intention,” Ahn said. “But her book is so perfect … so I mustered up my courage to ask her, I took several months to ask her, ‘Will you?’ and her answer surprised me because she said, ‘If you don’t mind, because my book has so many things about juvenile delinquency, all sorts of bad behaviors that we may not want to share with students.’”
The poster for the event, which took place on February 14, described it as a combined Valentine’s Day and Women’s History Month celebration.
Professor of Education Darrell Hucks was in attendance and commented on Sandy’s ability to draw readers in without belaboring the details too much.
“I appreciate how you capture movement with the details that you use, but you don’t overwrite the details, [you] leave space for the reader,” Hucks told Sandy. “I think that’s beautiful.”
About a dozen people were in attendance including faculty, staff and community members.
Charlotte King can be contacted at
