In a book for children ages 8-11, alumna Elizabeth Wahn NC’66 introduces a new generation to Felisa Rincón de Gautier, the first woman elected as mayor of a capital city in the Americas. Felisa and The Magic Coquí, available in both Spanish and English, tells the true-life story of Felisa Rincón de Gautier in fable form. Born in 1897, Rincón de Gautier served as mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, from 1947 to 1969. She was a popular and charismatic leader who helped raise her siblings after her mother’s death, operated a successful clothing business, advocated for women’s rights, and, as mayor, famously had snow transported to her island for the children to play in. Wahn is also author of the YA novel Lindsey and The Jedgar, a fast-paced fantasy adventure that turns children onto the fun of Shakespeare. In the book, 12-year-old Lindsey jets off to visit a rich old aunt on the tropical Isle of Elsinore. Populated by exotic animals, quirky robots, and spry, poetry-loving oldsters, Elsinore seems like a topsy-turvy paradise until the mysterious Jedgar starts threatening the island. As Lindsey and her pals band together to unlock the mystery, all clues point to Shakespeare who turns out to be—or not to be—the key. A writer and teacher, Wahn is a self-described “Bostorican.” She was born and raised in Boston but every summer visited Puerto Rico, where her grandparents lived. She has traveled to more than 100 countries and currently lives in Italy.
Madame Mayor
Posted in Alumni Authors
Tagged children's book, Puerto Rico, Shakespeare, women's history month
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The political role of journalism
New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie, who has served as a CBS political analyst, will give a talk at Boston College on March 15 at 7 p.m. in Gasson 100. A journalist who covers U.S. politics, public policy, elections, and race, Bouie will present “Defending Democracy? The Political Role of Journalism.” Bouie is a former chief political correspondent for Slate. His writings has been published in the Atlantic, Washington Post, TIME and the New Yorker. His talk is co-sponsored by Boston College’s Lowell Humanities Series, the Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy, and the Journalism Program.
Richard Kearney: a novel and scholarship
Irish philosopher Richard Kearney, who holds the Charles B. Seelig Chair of Philosophy at Boston College, has published a novel titled Salvage (Arrowsmith Press, 2023) that centers on the timeless tension between progress and tradition. A description of the novel from the publisher: “It’s 1939 and young Maeve O’Sullivan and her family are among the last inhabitants of a windswept island off the south coast of Ireland. After her father drowns in a boating accident, Maeve finds herself the last inheritor of the old ways of healing. But the future beckons to Maeve with the arrival of Seamus, a handsome young medical student heading for Dublin. Maeve suddenly finds herself at a crossroads, torn between the pull of the past and the lure of the modern. Must she sacrifice one in order to accommodate the other?”
Kearney’s scholarship on touch, excarnation, embodiment, and hermeneutics is the focus of a recent book of essays with contributions from 13 of his former graduate students. Anacarnation and Returning to the Lived Body with Richard Kearney, edited by Kearney’s former students Brian Treanor and James Taylor, takes up a wide variety of subjects, from nature and non-human animals to the experience of the sacred and the demonic, and from art’s account of touching to the political implications of various types of embodiment. It also includes a new reflection from Kearney, in which he lays out his vision for “anacarnation.”
Understanding denial
Boston College graduate Jared Del Rosso takes a thought-provoking look at the widespread phenomenon of denial in our society in his new book, Denial: How We Hide, Ignore, and Explain Away Problems (NYU Press, 2022). Del Rosso argues that denial is so much a part of our lives that we deny its existence all the time. Drawing on examples from current events, politics, and pop culture, Del Rosso teases out the complexities of denial, from “not noticing” that someone has food stuck in their teeth, to companies that engage in widespread fraud, like Enron and Wells Fargo, to the much larger-scale denials of climate change or systemic racism. Drawing on classic studies in the social sciences and his own research of the denial of torture, Del Rosso builds a fascinating typology of the forms and meanings of denial, exploring the behavior of those who refuse to acknowledge their actions, and what it means to live in a society where such lying, fraud, and corruption is commonplace. Del Rosso earned a doctorate in sociology from BC in 2012. He is on the faculty at the University of Denver. Read an excerpt from Denial via Literary Hub.
A McAleer mystery
Boston College graduate Andrew McAleer is co-editor of a new book that features 12 original mystery stories written exclusively by Edgar Allan Poe Award and Shamus Award-winning authors, including a never-before-published story from Andrew’s late father, BC Professor of English John McAleer. Edgar and Shamus Go Golden (Down & Out Books, 2022) offers readers tales of murder, mystery, and master detection from such literary luminaries as Doug Allyn, Martin Edwards, and Art Taylor. John McAleer’s contribution is “The Case of the Illustrious Banker.” BC graduate Paul McAleer discovered the 85-year-old hand-written, unpublished manuscript among his father’s papers. John McAleer, who graduated from BC in 1945, taught at the University for nearly 50 years. A Pulitzer nominee, he was an acclaimed biographer and mystery writer who won an Edgar Allan Poe Award for his biography of Rex Stout. Andrew McAleer, who graduated BC in 1990, formerly taught at the Woods College of Advancing Studies.
Inequality in the U.S.
With his new book, 
The Six Facts that Matter: Understanding Inequality in the United States (2022), author Geoffrey Sanzenbacher says readers will be thinking like economists by the last page. Sanzenbacher, an associate professor of the practice in BC’s Economics Department, walks readers through the simple facts behind economic inequality in the United States—from the declining of middle class wages to the stalling of women’s progress towards equality. A Boston College graduate, Sanzenbacher is also a research fellow at BC’s Center for Retirement Research. He conducts research on the role of cognitive decline in late-life finances, the retirement savings decision, and the shift from defined benefit to defined contribution pensions. He talks about his book The Six Facts that Matter in this interview.
Totally creative
Boston College graduate Ted (T.M.) Murphy has teamed up with his childhood friend, Mark Penta, to launch Totally Weird Activity Books (West Margin Press), an open-ended book series for kids who can add their own stories and artistic creations. Murphy is the writer and Penta is the illustrator. The first volume in the series is Super Strange Story Starters. Filled with unusual illustrated characters, strange stories, and peculiar places, each of the 22 story prompts includes space for young readers to write down and explore ideas of what happens next. The second volume is Creative Coloring and Far-Out Fun! where kids can color the pages, finish comics, solve mysterious jumbles, and more. A third installment, Unusual Objects in Fantastic Places, is forthcoming this spring. Educators and parents say that these books spark children’s imaginations and build self-esteem as children realize they can create something uniquely their own. Murphy graduated from BC in 1994. He is author of the Belltown Mystery Series and Saving Santa’s Seals. He also taught writing at BC’s Woods College of Advancing Studies for 12 years.
A Journey Below the Mason Dixon
Imani Perry, the Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, will talk about her bestselling book, South to America: A Journey Below the Mason Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation, at Boston College on March 1 at 7 p.m. in Gasson Hall, room 100. South to America, which won a 2022 National Book Award, is a narrative journey through the American South using a historic, personal, and anecdotal lens. Perry, a Black woman and native Alabaman, returns to the region she has always called home and weaves together stories of immigrant communities, contemporary artists, exploitative opportunists, enslaved peoples, unsung heroes, her own ancestors, and her lived experiences. A scholar of law, literary, and cultural studies, Perry asserts that to build a more humane future for the United States, concern must be centered below the Mason-Dixon Line. Perry’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, New York Magazine, and Harper’s, among other publications. Her lecture is presented by the Lowell Humanities Series and co-sponsored by the African and African Diaspora Program, Law School, and History Department.
Father Ed, spiritual sponsor for AA’s co-founder
Edward Dowling, S.J. (1898-1960), was called “the greatest and most gentle soul to walk this planet” by Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill Wilson. Dawn Eden Goldstein, author of a new biography titled Father Ed: The Story of Bill W.’s Spiritual Sponsor (Orbis Books, 2022), will share Fr. Ed’s story at a Boston College lecture on Feb. 28 at noon. Fr. Ed’s guidance transformed Bill’s life and deepened the spirituality of the 12-step movement. But despite his vital role in AA history little is known about him. Goldstein’s biography enlightens readers on how the Jesuit priest came to devote his ministry to helping people, not only alcoholics but also people in troubled marriages and those suffering from nervous disorders. According to Goldstein, he was also a champion of civil rights and other social justice issues. Goldstein is an award-winning author whose other titles include Sunday Will Never Be the Same and The Thrill of the Chaste, among others. Goldstein penned an essay on Father Ed for America magazine. Her talk is sponsored by Boston College Libraries, the Center for Ignatian Spirituality, School of Theology and Ministry Continuing Education, C21 Center, and the Jesuit Institute. To register, visit the event website.
Colm Tóibín’s ‘The Magician’
Irish novelist Colm Tóibín will present “Writing Thomas Mann: Fact into Fiction” at Boston College on February 22 at 7 p.m. in Gasson Hall, room 100. Tóibín’s acclaimed 2021 novel, The Magician, dramatizes the life of Nobel Prize-winning writer Thomas Mann. Tóibín’s other novels include: The Master (winner of the Dublin IMPAC Prize; the Prix du Meilleur Livre; the LA Times Novel of the Year; and shortlisted for the Booker Prize), Brooklyn (winner of the Costa Novel of the Year), and Nora Webster (winner of the Hawthornden Prize), among others. He is also a writer of short stories, nonfiction, and plays. Tóibín’s writing has been translated into more than 30 languages. He is a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books and a contributing editor at the London Review of Books. He is currently Mellon Professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia and Chancellor of Liverpool University. Tóibín’s lecture is presented by the BC Lowell Humanities Series and is co-sponsored by the BC Irish Studies Program and Fiction Days Series.
BC Bookmarks 