Karissa Vacker, author portrait

Karissa Vacker

Karissa Vacker received her BFA in theater from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, before performing lead roles in regional theaters across the country, including the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Geva Theatre Center (NY), and PCPA Theatrefest (CA). Karissa resides in Los Angeles and is working in film and television, with appearances on How I Met Your Mother, Castle, Chuck, 90210, Days of Our Lives, and the film Someone Marry Barry.

What Students Will Be Reading: Campus Common Reading Roundup, 2025-26

With the fall semester in full swing, colleges and universities around the country have announced their Common Reading books for the upcoming 2025-26 academic year. We’ve compiled a list of over 284 programs and their title selections from publicly available sources, which you can download here: First-Year Reading 2025-26. We will continue to update this

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2026 Catalog for First-Year & Common Reading

We are delighted to present our new First-Year & Common Reading Catalog for 2026! From award-winning fiction, poetry, memoir, and biography to new books about the environment, current events, history, public health, science, social justice, student success, and technology, the titles presented in our common reading catalog will have students not only eagerly flipping through

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