BY SARAH CAVAR '20
On Tuesday, Cristina Henríquez, acclaimed author of Mount Holyoke Common Read “The Book of Unknown Americans,” spoke in Chapin auditorium. Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students Marcella Runell Hall began the evening by asking the waiting audience to consider: “What kind of community do we want to be in together?”
BY CASEY ROEPKE ’21
The beginning of this summer was shaped by the Trump administration’s family separation policy. As photographs of toddlers in cages, recordings of children crying for their parents and statements of utter inaction from elected officials flooded the news cycle, Mount Holyoke students sat down to read this year’s Common Read, “The Book of Unknown Americans.” Within its pages they found solace and its captivating characters and bittersweet moments were made to seem even more important by the real-world events happening in the U.S.
BY DEANNA KALIAN ‘20
“The Director: A Memoir” by Stein is a narrative that begins during her early post-graduate years as she struggled to make her way in New York City. The story, which hit the shelves in January, details the relationship between 22-year-old Stein and a 65-year-old high-profile director.
BY DEANNA KALIAN ’20
“Doing better starts with our very foundation, our relationships and community,” said Marcella Runell Hall, vice president for Student Life and dean of students. Hall spoke to the Mount Holyoke community on April 6 about her book, “UnCommon Bonds: Women Reflect on Race and Friendship.” The book, published earlier this month, is a collection of short stories, reflections and letters about interracial friendships between women.
BY RENN ELKINS ’20
“Circe” follows in the footsteps of “The Song of Achilles,” retelling famous threads of Greek mythology. Miller’s website describes “Circe,” a dramatized biography of the titular witch, as “a triumph of storytelling, an intoxicating epic of family rivalry, palace intrigue, love and loss as well as a celebration of indomitable female strength in a man’s world.”
BY DURE-MAKNOON AHMED ’20
Works of literature do not often go viral, but recently a short story called “Cat Person” by Kristen Roupenian was widely shared and commented on. The story centers around a young college-aged woman who enters a rocky relationship with a considerably older man, and it explores the volatility of 21st century relationships. This theme resonated with a large crowd, as it paralleled the #MeToo movement that spread through social media. Due to its short length, “Cat Person” was able to spread like wildfire and impact thousands of people.
BY BEATA GARRET ’20
“Friendships with Black girls have always saved my life,” Brittney Cooper said, reading an excerpt from her 2018 book, “Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower.” Cooper delivered her BOOM! conference keynote on April 3, and is a writer, public speaker and professor at Rutgers University.
BY ISABEL RODRIGUEZ ’21
Vice President Mike Pence’s worst nightmare takes shape in a story about a male bunny falling in love with another male bunny. Pence is known for being against same-sex marriage — he signed a religious freedom bill as governor of Indiana in 2015, which according to CNN, would allow businesses to turn away same-sex couples “in the name of ‘religious freedom.’”
BY RENN ELKINS ’20
DeLucia, a professor of history at Mount Holyoke, was there to discuss her recently published book, “Memory Lands: King Philip’s War and the Place of Violence in the Northeast.” DeLucia specializes in indigenous history. “Memory Lands” retells the narrative of a 17th century uprising in which the native residents of southern New England fought to expel the English colonial presence that infested their homeland.
BY ISABEL RODRIGUEZ ’21
Poets, Essayists, and Novelists (PEN) held its annual Literary Awards commemoration at New York University on Feb. 20. Since it formed in 1963, the PEN American Literary Awards has honored authors of various genres, including but not limited to fiction, essays, biography, poetry, science writing, sports writing and drama and offers grants and fellowships.
BY DEANNA KALIAN ’20
Ami Campbell greeted each guest as they ambled into the Odyssey Bookshop to hear her talk about her book, “Love Let Go: Radical Generosity for the Real World.” She graduated as an economics and English double major in 1992. Her time at Mount Holyoke, Campbell said, prepared her for the unique task that lay ahead of her.
BY BEATA GARRETT ’20
Hailed as the new “The Handmaid’s Tale,” Leni Zumas’ third dystopian novel “Red Clocks” takes place in a society where abortion is newly criminalized and adoption is restricted to married couples. The novel explores the intersecting lives of four women and the ways in which they navigate society: Ro, the high school teacher and biographer who desperately wants a child; Mattie, her student who finds herself in an unwanted pregnancy; Susan, a housewife trapped in a loveless marriage and Gin, a “mender” who helps those abandoned by the health care system and finds herself on a modern-day witch trial for doing so.
BY RENN ELKINS ’20
For an over a year now, controversial internet personality and former Breitbart writer Milo Yiannopoulos has been engaged in an ongoing legal dispute with publishing company Simon & Schuster. The trouble began when other writers who had contracts with Simon & Schuster spoke out in defiance of the company’s decision to publish Yiannopoulos. Among these protesters was feminist author Roxane Gay, who visited Mount Holyoke to deliver a talk last February, and mentioned that she did not believe she could publish her book in good conscience via Simon & Schuster.
BY DEANNA KALIAN ’21
Fans of George R. R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” series have been waiting impatiently for the release of the sixth and penultimate installment, “The Winds of Winter.” Martin published his most recent book in the series, “A Dance with Dragons,” in the summer of 2011, and fans have been waiting for “The Winds of Winter” ever since.
BY KATE TURNER ’21
Ursula K. Le Guin died at on Jan. 22 with 88 years of life and a full career behind her. Throughout her life, she wrote more than 20 novels, 13 books for children, over 100 short stories and seven lengthy books of critical essays, according to The New York Times. She is remembered for many accomplishments: her multiple Hugo and Nebula awards, her astonishing body of work and her immense talent for creating entire complicated and alien worlds in the span of a single novel.
