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Warren St. John

Warren St. John is a feature writer for The New York Times and best-selling author of Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer: A Road Trip into the Heart of Fan Mania (2004). Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer was named one of Sports Illustrated’s best books of the year, and ranked number one on The Chronicle of Higher Education’s list of the best books ever written about collegiate athletics. Outcasts United: A Refugee Team, an American Town is his latest book based on an acclaimed series of front-page stories in The New York Times, which was released to rave reviews in early 2009.

St. John has written for The New Yorker, Slate, Wired and The New York Observer, in addition to his work in The New York Times. He has appeared on The Today Show, National Public Radio, MSNBC, CNN and other outlets to discuss his experience reporting on the town and team in Outcasts United. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, St. John attended The Altamont School. He studied English literature at Columbia College in New York City, where he now lives with his wife and daughter.

Clarkston, Georgia, was a typical southern town until it was designated a refugee settlement center in the 1990s, becoming the first American home for scores of families in flight from the world’s war zones—from Liberia and Sudan to Iraq and Afghanistan. Suddenly Clarkston’s streets were filled with women wearing the hijab, the smells of cumin and curry, and kids of all colors playing soccer in any open space they could find—the last thanks to Luma Mufleh, an American-educated Jordanian woman who started a youth soccer team to unify Clarkston’s refugee children. With unsentimental compassion and grueling training sessions, and defying some local resistance, Mufleh lead her players through an unforgettable season. In return, from the kids and their grateful loved ones, she receives “a family of 120.”

Set against the backdrop of a fading American town struggling to accommodate its new arrivals, Outcasts United is the stunning real-life story of an inspiring group of refugees and a woman who, with tough love and fiery determination, changes an entire community for the better.

Outcasts United is the 2010 One Maryland One Book, a program of the Maryland Center for the Book at the Maryland Humanities Council.

www.outcastsunited.com

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