From the Editor

Last spring, a reader alerted me to Suleika Jaouad ’10, pictured on our cover. I had been reading her work on The New York Times blog Well but had not known that she was an alumna. We are proud to bring her work to PAW readers in this issue, along with a story about her life by journalist Sandra Sobieraj Westfall ’89 (page 20).

Our cover photo, as well as other striking images that accompany these articles, shout “cancer,” and Jaouad writes about the time she has spent as a leukemia patient. But within the context of her illness, her essays deal with many other things: navigating that transition time between studenthood and adulthood; enjoying love and family; maintaining friendships; keeping dreams in sight. Reading her work, I thought not of illness, but of strength, liveliness, and great talent. The images did not shout “cancer” any longer. They roared: “writer.”

Jim Farrin ’58

PHOTO: BEVERLY SCHAEFER

Another essayist of unusual talent is represented in this issue: comp-lit doctoral student Matthew Spellberg, who wrote our Perspective column. Spellberg is a faculty member in a classroom not far from Princeton, at the Garden State Correctional Facility. The credit-granting program in which he teaches survives because of Princeton-affiliated volunteers. It is one of two programs led by Princetonians in state prisons: Jim Farrin ’58 is the executive director of the Petey Greene Prisoner Assistance Program, which provides GED preparation and noncredit basic education to inmates. Farrin told PAW in 2010 that Petey Greene gives undergraduate tutors “a tremendous sense of mission. ... You don’t have to go halfway around the world to give back.”