HANCEVILLE, Ala. – Wallace State Community College will welcome New York Times best-selling author Shelby Van Pelt on Thursday, Sept. 24, at 9:30 a.m. in the Bailey Center Auditorium.
Van Pelt is the author of “Remarkably Bright Creatures,” Wallace State’s Common Read selection for the 2026-2027 academic year. The novel has sold more than 4 million copies and was adapted into a Netflix film starring Academy Award winner Sally Field, which received a 2026 Emmy Award for Outstanding Movie.
The event is free and open to Wallace State students, employees and the community. A question-and-answer session will follow Van Pelt’s presentation.
Through the Common Read program, a selected book is integrated into courses across the college to provide students with a shared academic experience and promote campuswide engagement with literacy and learning.
English instructor Doran Smith said students in English 101 classes are currently reading the novel and will use it as the basis for a literary analysis essay later this semester.
“Parts of the story are told from the perspective of Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus,” Smith said. “These sea creatures have great intelligence, so Marcellus discusses both his own biology and foreign relationships of humans in a cold or clinical manner. His observations of Tova and Cameron (the novel’s human protagonists) are treated with that same diagramming language and analytical mind.”
Smith said that the book could also offer opportunities for discussion in biology, psychology and sociology courses.
Previous Common Read selections include “Big Fish: A Novel of Mythical Proportions,” “The Art of Racing in the Rain,” “The Fault in Our Stars,” “The Small and Mighty,” “The Noticer” and “Callings: The Purpose and Passion of Work.”
