Author Stephanie Saldaña returns to Scranton to discuss “What We Remember Will Be Saved” at the Ignatian Values in Action Lecture Oct. 10.

“There are always hidden historians among the survivors of war. These are the people who carry the stories of what happened with them when they escape, so that the past can be remembered,” wrote author Stephanie Saldaña in the prologue to her award-winning book “What We Remember Will Be Saved.” “(T)hey carry these stories not in books but through little things. A sapling, a spoon, a scarf, a recipe for eggplants stuffed with walnuts, a prayer in a dying language.”

Saldaña will speak about her book at The University of at the 2024 Ignatian Values in Action Lecture on Thursday, Oct. 10. The event, which is offered free of charge and open to the public, will take place at 7:30 p.m. in the Byron Recreation Complex on campus.

The book was selected for the University’s “Royal Reads” program for the incoming class of 2028. The program encourages all incoming students to read a designated book during the summer and to attend the lecture in order to create a shared experience among the students and expose them to the Ignatian values at the core of the University’s mission. Throughout their first-year students will encounter themes of the “Royals Read” selection repeated in classes, extracurricular opportunities and other special events.

Saldaña’s book, “What We Remember Will Be Saved: A Story of Refugees and the Things They Carry,” narrates the experiences of Syrian and Iraqi refugees through their stories and the belongings they carry.

 “I have met those who save the past simply by speaking it aloud, who write the dead into living by planting a tree. This book is about these historians and the stories they rescue. It is also a chronicle of war and migration told to me by those who managed to stay alive,” wrote Saldaña, who traveled to nine countries to learn the stories of Syrian and Iraqi refugees.

“In time, I began to hear stories: Of a young musician from Homs, Syria, who crossed the sea with his violin wrapped in cellophane. Of Syrian mothers teaching their children recipes for egg-plant jam in the refugee camps of Lebanon. … (T)he small things they salvaged not mere fragments but windows into the histories they were now entrusted with remembering and transmitting to future generations,” wrote Saldaña.

“What We Remember Will Be Saved” was the 2023 Christopher Award Winner and 2024 Excellence in Religion Reporting Award Winner for Nonfiction. A journalist and scholar, Saldaña discussed her book “The Bread of Angels: A Journey to Love and Faith,” at the University’s Ignatian Values in Action Lecture in 2019. The book was selected for the Royals Read program for Scranton’s class of 2023. She also wrote “A Country Between: Making a Home Where Both Sides of Jerusalem Collide,” which was published in 2017.

The Ignatian Values in Action Lecture series is meant to introduce students, and the larger community, to the mission and core values of the University. Since 2012, the annual event has invited individuals to speak on topics related to the tradition of meaningful service inspired by Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits. 

First Year Seminar students at the University are required to attend the Ignatian Values in Action lecture. Students will swipe their ID cards at entrance stations to be counted in attendance. 

For information about the event, call 570-941-7520.