University Selects 'Leave Only Footprints' as 2025 Common Read
Author Conor Knighton to speak at freshman convocation
OXFORD, Miss. – When Conor Knighton took off on a journey to visit each of the United States' 63 national parks, he was looking for adventure. What he found was a new perspective.
That perspective is what he hopes to share with University of Mississippi students.
Knighton is the author of "Leave Only Footprints: My Acadia-to-Zion Journey Through Every National Park" (Crown/Penguin Random House, 2020), which was chosen as the university's 2025 Common Reading Experience.
"In 'Leave Only Footprints,' Conor Knighton invites readers to embark on a journey through America's national parks while reflecting on personal growth and discovery," Chancellor Glenn Boyce said. "This book embodies what our Common Reading Experience aims to provide – a meaningful foundation for discussion, connection and inspiration."
Each year, the Common Reading Experience committee reviews book suggestions from around campus to select the work that each incoming student receives before they arrive in the fall. The author also gives a keynote address at freshman convocation.
"'Leave Only Footprints' is a carefully constructed novel that chronicles the author's journey as he explores and discovers the environment and our national parks while navigating his own personal life crisis," said Natasha Jeter, assistant vice chancellor for wellness and student success.
"His journey through the parks impacts his perspective and forever changes him for the better."
Knighton is a correspondent for "CBS News Sunday Morning" and creator and producer of "On the Trail," a CBS series on national parks.
He authored the New York Times bestseller as a behind-the-scenes look at his year spent visiting the nation's most beautiful spots for "On the Trail." Outside magazine named the work one of the best books of the year.
Every Ole Miss freshman and transfer student will get a copy of the book over the summer, and many first-year experience and writing courses will use it in class.
"It is my hope that 'Leave Only Footprints' will inspire our incoming students as they embark upon their own collegiate journeys and, like the author, be positively changed by their University of Mississippi reading experience," Jeter said.
Top: Conor Knighton is the author of 'Leave Only Footprints: My Acadia-to-Zion Journey Through Every National Park,' the university's 2025 Common Reading Experience book. Knighton is scheduled to speak this fall at freshman convocation. Submitted photo