Tommy Orange

As much as our community already loved Tommy Orange’s books, he truly captured everyone’s hearts last night. What a tremendously kind & generous soul—brilliant, thoughtful, humble, wise, compassionate, fearless, funny… the list of compliments I heard from the audience goes on and on. Can’t wait to follow every step of his career—I know I’m not alone! Please extend my heartfelt gratitude to Tommy for giving of himself so generously to our audience. Such a gem!

Incredible on so many levels! The feedback I heard about Tommy included the following: honest, insightful, kind, funny, zero ego, real. Tommy was a delight during the patron party, his talk/Q&A, and the book signing.

It was a terrific program and [Tommy] got great audience reaction and questions.

Tommy was incredibly engaging and generous. His ability to employ humor and empathy while talking about the book, his writing process and his life made for a very engaging event.

I thought Tommy did a great job connecting with the audience and it was a great experience since many of our teachers use his book in their classroom.

Truly an honor, Tommy! Thank you so much. Filled my heart today, this was awesome. I loved his statement about “spending time reading the stories of people that are different from you.” I really appreciated the thoughtful questions and conversation surrounding Mr Orange’s writing and liked how they brought it around to what can we as audience members could do personally to affect change at the end.

Tommy was an amazing speaker– so thoughtful, hilarious, and very gracious with our interlocutor and audience. The audience was super engaged and very excited to listen to him share and meet him at the book signing.

Tommy was so thoughtful, funny, kind and gracious with the patrons and students. Many people really felt a personal/emotional connection to the book, especially many of our Native American community members here, and he was just so kind and lovely to every single person in our book signing line and audience.

We loved having Tommy here to speak! The students thought the experience was awesome, especially getting to engage in the Q&A. I’ve had students tell me they were “blown away” that it happened!

Tommy was a great speaker. He educated our audience not only on his experience but what we can do to be better allies.

The event was amazing! We had no doubt Tommy would be an amazing speaker, and he delivered to each and every audience member. He was really great with connecting to people in a down-to-earth way, no matter who approached him. Whether speaking to a crowd or conversing one-on-one, he’s been nothing but delightful.

Tommy Orange gave a wonderful compelling reading. It was very exciting for the audience that he read new work. Feedback from the event was overwhelmingly positive.

Everyone that I spoke with after the event was over the moon with the event and discussion. They loved Tommy’s onstage presence—and adored the brief basketball quips, which were so down to earth—and his overall thoughtfulness.

During the event, some of our partners verbalized how impressed they were with Tommy’s responses to questions. He was wise, validating, and relatable.

Tommy was very well received by our attendees. He was generous, personable and of course, brilliant.

Tommy’s visit to Elon in all regards was splendid. He is a kind and generous man who so easily shares heartfelt responses. He was totally at ease and consistently present. He spoke with interest and respect to everyone from students to the President of the university. Tommy is a creative genius who made an important impression on Elon during our MLK commemoration. Thank you to you and everyone at PRHSB and please share my sincerest thanks with Tommy.

[Tommy Orange’s] presentation was incredible, and I wish we could have kept him on stage all evening to talk about his book and experiences. It was incredibly impactful for the students that met him, and our tribal liaison, who is also their teacher, was so grateful for the time the kids got to spend with him. Reflecting about this visit in its totality has me getting a bit teary-eyed this morning. The audience Q&A session was inspiring and there were tears.  I’ve been working on the Reads for a decade, and this is my favorite program we have ever done, and I think the most impactful as well. Please extend our gratitude to Mr. Orange for an exceptional visit.

The event went so well, and Tommy is just wonderful–kind, generous with his knowledge and experience, and so personable! Thanks to you and to him for a great day!

[Tommy] was THE BEST to work with. Just a perfect guest. He signed EVERY book and autograph. Wonderful!

We felt that Tommy Orange’s visit was incredibly expansive and all of us — both students and faculty — appreciated and learned so much from his gracious, accomplished, and honest presence. This was the perfect event to draw us back together in person so thoughtfully, and we remain grateful.

Our evening program was fantastic! Tommy was wonderful, he is so interesting and thoughtful in his responses discussing his work. I know everyone was enjoying the conversation, I could have listened to him all evening – our hour went way too quickly.

“The evening was an unqualified success! Tommy’s authenticity and candor shone through in his conversation with Anton Treuer. Their intimacy and rapport lent itself well to Zoom – a perfect pair for this format! We’ve already received rave reviews from the crowd about the relevancy and timeliness of the ideas shared. This was a talk we needed ‘now more than ever,’ according to many of our loyal followers. Please share our warm wishes and thanks to Tommy. He has been a long-awaited guest for our audience and his captivating performance did not disappoint.”

It will take a while for us to come down from the high of Tommy’s visit to UM. It was truly spectacular, start to finish. Tommy was such a generous and kind speaker, authentic in his presentation and willing to talk to everyone and meet them where they were. We are already hearing glowing reviews from the students, and the community members who showed up in mass numbers were thrilled, as well. There was a very large Native community population at each event, and, as one community member (Yup’ik) said, ‘I am so grateful for Tommy giving voice/humor/love to the expansive modern Native experience. I only cried three times.’ We could not be happier with how yesterday went. Tommy Orange is always, always welcome at the University of Montana. Thank you for all your work so that our community could experience time with him.

Tommy was phenomenal. What a gem! His talk was incredibly well received by our audience—so honest and heartfelt, as well as funny and profound. And he was just amazing with the high school students who “get” him as much as he “gets” them. Lots of learning happening on all fronts. It was truly an honor.

Tommy was a delight– very kind, thoughtful, and easy to talk to. Students and faculty raved about him… He offered great advice and insights and was just a pleasure to talk to all day long.

Tommy’s visit was a great success! I have spoken with all kinds of folks this past few days – students, faculty and community members – and it is clear that he was all that we expected and more. People found him to be thoughtful, approachable, gracious and patient. He was just really terrific.

I just wanted to share what a success Tommy’s visit was and to say thank you. He is a wonderful human and we so enjoyed having him here.

Tommy was gracious, engaged, articulate and our students loved him. It was a pleasure to get to know him and share time with this deep thinker. It was a fantastic community experience (many of us live such sheltered lives of privilege).

Tommy’s talk was well received, and I’ve heard feedback from many people that the conversation was informative and engaging. Tommy’s answers for the Q&A part of the talk were inspiring. He handled questions with such grace and really modeled the type of discourse we hope for on our campus. During the book signing he was patient and accommodating, even answering a few more questions as people passed by. I really couldn’t have asked for a better experience. I’m truly happy that Tommy was able to share this time with us and I know that everyone here enjoyed the evening!

I have had an opportunity to meet many successful and award-winning authors over the years and Tommy just stands out among them. He is so warm, welcoming, thoughtful, and patient. He dutifully signed every last book and cheerfully posed for photos with anyone who wanted one, and spoke thoughtfully and openly about the book and his experiences. We really, really, enjoyed hosting him.

The event went fabulously and our community loved him. There was quite a bit of audience laughter which I always think is a good sign! We had prioritized our local Tribal Nations for the meet-and-greet and it was lovely to see so many Native folks who maybe hadn’t seen themselves represented in literature before just being so happy to talk to him. Many people came up to me after the event to thank me for have Tommy and to express how much they enjoyed the event.

Tommy was wonderful! Tommy was engaging, informative, and really connected with students. I appreciated the time he put into being present with our community. Would highly recommend him!

[The event with Tommy] went really well and he was a total sweetheart. He was very gracious with everyone he met: gave each person his full attention. And during the big keynote everyone was impressed with how genuine and down to earth he was–no pretension at all. Thanks for everything you did to make this possible!

Tommy was amazing and wonderful to work with. We were grateful for the opportunity to connect and share in community with him. Our participants loved him!

Tommy’s events went very well! I loved being able to meet him and get to know him a bit; he’s so humble and down to earth, which of course is not always the case with authors who have gotten catapulted into such recent fame like Tommy has! His conversation on stage was great; the audience loved how honest and real he was. And his visit to the school was fantastic too!

The Tommy Orange event went wonderfully and was really well received. On a personal note, Tommy was such a pleasure to work with. He’s such a warm, approachable, and down-to-earth person who creates an inclusive and welcoming environment. He’s a tremendous human being or, as I’ve been describing him, ‘just a good dude.’

I heard yesterday and today how madly enthused our students were and ready to discuss both his work and him today in class.  One quotation:  ‘He’s my hero.’ He was gracious, friendly, and so kind to our students—who mostly do not arrive at events like this expecting to be treated with the respect and attention Tommy paid them.

We absolutely loved having Tommy at Inly. He was extremely well received. He was thought provoking, honest and authentic. Truly very warm and real. Everyone wished the event could have lasted longer!

[The event] was perfect.  Tommy was so authentic and amazing – everything really just felt familiar and comfortable. We’re all in awe of his work, and it was perfect for both students and faculty (and administrators). We wish Tommy the absolute best and hope he can return. On a personal note, it was really an honor to meet him and hear more of his story.