The 2006 Stuyvesant keynote commencement speech written by comedian Conan O’Brien is featured in “The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2007″ ($14), edited by author Dave Eggers and published October 10, 2007.
O’Brien, of “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” was the commencement speaker at the graduation ceremony for the Class of 2006. His speech has been uploaded onto YouTube, where it has received thousands of hits.
Part of the “Best American” book series, this book is a compilation of short stories, essays, comics and other works from the year 2007. Eggers is the editor of McSweeney’s, a literary magazine, and the founder of 826 Valencia, a San Francisco youth writing center. Every year, he and a group of high school students from the San Francisco bay area scour literary magazines for the best writing of the year. Singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens wrote the foreword. The “nonrequired” part of the book’s title comes from the fact that the high school student panel reads everything not because it is required of them but because they enjoy reading good writing.
This year’s “nonrequired” reading includes more screenplays and television scripts than in previous editions.