MSJC ESL Instructor Authors Book: America鈥檚 Youngest Ambassador
6/1/2023
黑料不打烊 (MSJC) is pleased to announce that a member of the college鈥檚 faculty will be releasing her first book. Lena Nelson, English as a Second Language instructor in MSJC鈥檚 Adult Education department authored a comprehensive story of the late Samantha Smith, a fifth grader in Manchester, Maine.
Nelson has spent the past seventeen years researching and documenting the story of Samantha Smith and creating , the online archive of news articles and videos about this young girl鈥檚 experiences.
The book delves deep into the life of Samantha Smith, who in 1982, amidst the nuclear paranoia that engulfed the U.S. and the Soviet Union, wrote a letter to the Kremlin asking Yury Andropov, the Soviet leader, if he was going to start a war. When Pravda, the largest Soviet newspaper,鈥痯ublished Samantha鈥檚 letter鈥攁nd she received an unprecedented invitation to visit the Soviet Union 鈥攈er family embarked on a historic journey that helped transform the hearts and minds of two nations on a collision course.鈥�
Juxtaposing Samantha鈥檚 narrative with that of her own childhood in the Soviet Union in the 1980s, Nelson explored the consequences of government propaganda on both sides of the ocean and reveals how Samantha Smith鈥檚 journey in the summer of 1983 helped melt the hearts of the Soviets and thaw the ice of the Cold War.
Nelson met and worked closely with Samantha鈥檚 mother and media including as鈥�,鈥�, and鈥�,鈥�. In 2013, Nelson had the opportunity to 鈥痜or the 30th鈥痑nniversary of Samantha鈥檚 trip to the Soviet Union. In 2017 her manuscript was nominated for the Allegra Johnson Prize in Memoir Writing.
The depth and breadth of Nelson鈥檚 research is truly remarkable. As a distinguished member of the MSJC faculty, she consistently inspires students in the ESL program and colleagues. This book is a testament to her passion and intellectual rigor.
will be released on June 1 with Down East Books, imprint of Globe Pequot, trade division of Rowman and Littlefield.
Lena Nelson, English as a Second Language instructor in MSJC鈥檚 Adult Education department, authors her first book titled,