The Author of "Outcasts United," Warren St. John

     When i waited in my seat in the Lyman Hall Auditorium, I wondered what to expect out of the author of "Outcasts United". It turns out he's a very interesting person who ironically tells good stories. My favorite was about how he came across writing this book.
     He told us he was at a convention in Atlanta Georgia like tonights, he was speaking to some teachers and students about his previous book. He mentioned he was intrigued by sports and especially their fans. One man from the convention invited him out to dinner. while eating Mr. St. John asked the man what he did for a living. The man replied, he worked with the International Rescue Committee. Warren quickly turned the dinner into an interview about this job. The man mentioned a soccer team of refugees in Clarkston coached by an interesting coach. He thought he could make a quality newspaper article about it. But after discovering the soccer team and their story an article quickly became a novel.
     I liked hearing this story because it is often something I wonder about books. What made this guy want to write this?
     The last story he told which I found really interesting was about something a refugee from Sudan told him. St. John asked the boy what he remembered most about arriving to the United States. The boy remembered most, besides from being scared of the escalators, walking down the sidewalk in Atlanta and not one person saying anything to him. This is because in his town in Sudan, if any stranger entered the town, the stranger would be quickly bombarded by everyone. They would all be curious about where the stranger was from, what it was like where he was from, and why he was traveling. The Sudan refugee believed the Atlanta people were ungrateful this way.

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