How does one recover from a near-death experience? In his memoir, 1974 Boston College graduate Michael J. Hession, M.D., a physician who has cared for critically ill patients for more than 30 years, shares the story of his own near-death experience and his arduous recovery in the hopes of helping others. In Physician Heal Thyself: Nearly Dead and the Journey Back to Health, Dr. Hession details his brush with death from pneumonia, complicated by acute respiratory distress syndrome and then paralysis from the neck down due to Guillain-Barre syndrome. Slowly, he rebuilt his body, both physically and emotionally, with faith, meaning, and purpose playing roles in his recovery. With empathy and practical wisdom, Dr. Hession provides readers with invaluable insights into the complexities of recovery and the human spirit, empowering them to face adversity with courage and grace and offering solace, guidance, and hope.
Nearly dead
Navajo carver Clitso Dedman
Clitso Dedman, Navajo Carver (University of Nebraska Press/Bison Books, 2023) by Boston College Professor Emerita Rebecca Valette is an illustrated biography of master wood carver Clitso Dedman, a remarkable and underrecognized 20th-century artist. A former blacksmith and builder, Dedman took up wood carving at age 60. He created wooden sculptures of the various participants in the Yeibichai dance, which closed the Navajo Nightway ceremony. Dedman’s distinctive and highly regarded work can be found in private collections, galleries, and museums, such as the Navajo Nation Museum at Window Rock, the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, and the Arizona State Museum in Tucson. Valette and her husband Jean-Paul Valette are co-authors of Weaving the Dance: Navajo Yeibichai Textiles (1910–1950) and Navajo Weavings with Ceremonial Themes: A Historical Overview of a Secular Art Form.
Short stories from an alumna
Men Who Walk in Dreams (Guernica Editions, 2024) is a collection of short stories where men and women cling to ambitions, thwarted love, and misguided assumptions, as they dream to reinvent themselves, seek revenge, foresee the future, recapture that which has escaped their grasp, or merely survive. Written by 1971 Boston College graduate Grace Marisa Labozzetta, Men Who Walk in Dreams will take readers from El Salvador to Cape Cod to Antarctica, from a secluded Italian Snake Festival to a packed subway car to a World War II bomber. Her story “The Woman Who Drew on Walls,” from this new short story collection, was a New Millennium Writings Fiction Award Finalist. Labozzetta is the author of three novels (Sometimes It Snows in America, A Day in June, and Stay With Me, Lella,) and two previous works of short fiction (At the Copa and Thieves Never Steal in the Rain). She is a John Gardner Fiction Book Award Finalist and Pushcart Prize nominee. Her novel, A Day in June, was shortlisted for the 2020 Eric Hoffer Grand Prize Award. Read more about Labozzetta in this Q&A from Boston College Magazine.
Broadcast journalist tells her story
Broadcast journalist Judith Bishop, a member of the Newton College of the Sacred Heart Class of 1962, reflects on her career covering political milestones, breaking news, and the arts in the new book,
An innocent man
In a small Missouri town in 1992, the body of 19-year-old Mischelle Lawless was found in her car, stalled on the side of a road. Joshua C. Kezer was arrested and charged for her murder—and spent the next 16 years of his life in prison. In the new book, The Murder of Angela Mischelle Lawless: An Honest Sheriff and the Exoneration of an Innocent Man (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2023), 1969 Boston College alumnus Stephen R. Snodgrass writes about how Kezer was imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit. Snodgrass is an award-winning lawyer who worked to exonerate Kezer and two other men wrongfully convicted of murder. Writing with Kezer, Snodgrass unveils the web of manipulation and corruption that led to Kezer’s conviction. This book has been called “a timely, compassionate work of true crime that calls for better and more equitable justice for all.”
Sublime poetry
Emu Blis, Bums Lie, Blue-ism (Broadstone Books, 2024) is a collection of poetry by 1976 Boston College graduate Michael Brosnan. According to the publisher: “In this profound volume of experimental poetry, Michael Brosnan exhibits exquisite control as he employs (and invents) tools of verse language (far beyond mere ‘odd enjambments’) to interrogate—and deconstruct, literally—the word sublime, in all of its senses. Many sublime companions (real and imaginary) are along for the ride—Mozart, Coltrane, Jimmy Page, Moby-Dick, Dr. Philosophy—while erasures of Wordworth poems frame and intersperse the work (an act of distillation that serves as a model for the book as a whole).” Emu Blis, Bums Lie, Blue-ism was a finalist for a Wandering Aengus Book Award. Brosnan’s previous poetry collections are Adrift and The Sovereignty of the Accidental.
Ecological hospitality
Hosting Earth: Facing the Climate Emergency (Routledge, 2024) is a timely volume in the emerging literature of environmental philosophy. Co-edited by Boston College Charles Seelig Professor of Philosophy Richard Kearney and BC alumni Peter Klapes and Urwa Hameed, the book engages the question of ecological hospitality: What does it mean to be guests of the Earth as well as hosts? While most books on the climate emergency focus on science and politics, the editors say “our volume also invites artists, poets, and philosophers to add new light and depth to this urgent ecological debate.” Hosting Earth features a dialogue with former President of Ireland and climate justice advocate Mary Robinson, drawn from a 2022 conference at Boston College. Read more about the book from BC News.
Posted in Boston College Authors
Tagged climate change, Earth, environment, nature, Philosophy Department
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Early Christianity encyclopedia
The Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity, co-edited by Boston College’s Margaret O’Brien Flatley Professor of Catholic Theology David G. Hunter, focuses on early Christianity from a historical perspective in order to uncover the lasting legacy of the authors and texts. The publication of the six-volume set was the culmination of a 15 years of work. According to the publisher: “Its content is intended to bridge the gap between the fields of New Testament studies and patristics, connecting a number of related fields of study including Judaism, ancient history and philosophy, covering the whole period of early Christianity up to 600 CE. The BEEC addresses a range of traditions, including iconographic, martyrological, ecclesiastical, and Christological traditions, as well as cultic phenomena, such as the veneration of saints.”
The Battle of Sitka
At the turn of the 19th century, Russia was a rising power in North America, with an empire that extended across the Bering Sea, through the Aleutians and Kodiak Island, and down the Alaskan panhandle. The objective was to corner the lucrative North Pacific fur trade and colonize the American coastline all the way to San Francisco Bay. The new book The Last Stand of the Raven Clan (Simon & Schuster/Pegasus Books, 2024) recounts how Imperial Russia’s grand plan was thwarted by the indigenous Tlingit people of southeast Alaska. The Tlingit stance against Russian colonization—during the Battle of Sitka and beyond—was arguably the most successful indigenous resistance against European imperialism in North America. The Last Stand of the Raven Clan co-authors Gerald Easter and Mara Vorhees used Tlingit oral histories and Russian eyewitness accounts to bring this history to life. Easter is a professor of political science at Boston College. He and Vorhees previously collaborated on the book
Posted in Boston College Authors
Tagged Political Science department, Russia, U.S. history
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International intrigue follows James Krieg
The Neighbor from Geneva is the second international thriller written by 1977 Boston College grad F. David Ford. Like his debut novel, The Great Trade, this book features the adventures of former U.S. Department of Justice lawyer James Krieg, who finds himself involved in the world of banking, espionage, and organized crime. Born and raised in Paris, Ford also has lived in Germany, Switzerland, and the United States. An expert in financial crime controls, he spent more than 20 years working for international private banks based in Geneva. Prior to working in the financial industry, Ford was a special legal advisor for the Office of International Affairs, United States Department of Justice, in Washington, D.C. and a U.S. Navy JAG.
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