BC alumna Lynne Spigelmire Viti has published her first short story collection, titled Going Too Fast (Finishing Line Press, 2020). Viti presents interlocking stories of women coming of age in the 1960s and 1970s in Baltimore and New York, as they establish their identities in a turbulent world, and on women in middle age coping with wrenching breakups and divorce, death of parents, and loss of old friendships. Viti’s previous works include the poetry collections The Glamorganshire Bible and Baltimore Girls. Viti is a emerita lecturer in the Writing Program at Wellesley College. She earned both a PhD in English and a law degree from Boston College.
Biography of James Martin, S.J.
Thanks to his appearances on television with talk show host Stephen Colbert, his Twitter following of more than a quarter of a million people, and his bestselling books, James Martin, S.J., may be the most recognized Catholic priest in the United States. A newly published biography, James Martin, SJ: In the Company of Jesus (Liturgical Press, 2020), aims to shed light on the interior life of one of the most influential Catholics in contemporary society. The biography, written by Jon M. Sweeney, explores Fr. Martin’s early life, experiences as a corporate executive, call to religious life, ministry and spirituality, and his feelings about both the adoration and the criticism he receives from so many. Fr. Martin is a BC alumnus by virtue of his graduation from Weston Jesuit School of Theology, which joined with BC’s Institute for Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry to form BC’s School of Theology and Ministry. He is the author of several books, including The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything, My Life with the Saints, Jesus: A Pilgrimage, and Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity. Publisher and editor-in-chief at Paraclete Press, Sweeney also is the author of The Complete Francis of Assisi, among other titles.
New from Mike Lupica
In his latest book for tweens and teens, Strike Zone (Philomel Books, 2019), Mike Lupica tells the story of 12-year-old baseball prodigy Nick Garcia, the dreams he has about playing professional ball and worries he has for his sick sister and undocumented parents. A Boston College alumnus, Lupica was a longtime columnist for the New York Daily News and is a member of the National Sports Media Hall of Fame. He also is a bestselling author of novels for adults and young readers.
Goodness and mercy in Toni Morrison’s writings
International Studies Visiting Assistant Professor Mara Willard is one of the editors of a new book exploring the writings of Pulitzer Prize winner and Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, who died earlier this year. Goodness and the Literary Imagination (University of Virginia Press, 2019) is a collection that includes Morrison’s 2012 Ingersoll Lecture at Harvard Divinity School, essays written by scholars on the religious dimension of Morrison’s fiction and literary criticism, and an interview with Morrison. Willard edited the volume along with Harvard University professors Davíd Carrasco and Stephanie Paulsell. Willard also contributed an essay to book titled “Morrison’s Pietàs as Participatory Loss and Love.” Publishers Weekly calls Goodness and the Literary Imagination “eloquent,” adding “This volume highlights Morrison’s invaluable contribution to American letters and suggests her influence will be felt for years to come.”
Book prize for Ismay
Trust Among Strangers: Friendly Societies in Modern Britain (Cambridge University Press) by Associate Professor of History Penelope Ismay, was named co-winner of the 2019 Stansky Book Prize presented by North American Conference on British Studies. The Stansky Book Prize is awarded annually for the best book published anywhere by a North American scholar on any aspect of British studies since 1800. Ismay’s book provides a rich understanding of theories of responsibility to others and the nature of mutual self-help as it was practiced in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The NACBS called Trust Among Strangers “deeply researched and engagingly written.” More from BC News.
Remembering and forgetting
Since arriving at BC, Burns Visiting Scholar in Irish Studies Guy Beiner has seen his book, Forgetful Remembrance: Social Forgetting and Vernacular Historiography of a Rebellion in Ulster (Oxford University Press, 2018), selected for three major awards in the field of history-related research: the American Historical Association George L. Mosse Prize for “an outstanding major work of extraordinary scholarly distinction, creativity, and originality” in the intellectual and cultural history of Europe since 1500; the Katharine Briggs Award for a distinguished contribution to folklore studies; and the National University of Ireland Irish Historical Research Prize, which recognizes the best new work of Irish historical research. In Forgetful Remembrance, Beiner uses the 1798 rebellion in Ireland’s Ulster province to illustrate the dynamics of social forgetting. More from BC News.
Graver’s NYT Books review
Professor of English Elizabeth Graver has written a review of Niall Williams’ novel, This is Happiness, for The New York Times. In his latest work, Williams’ narrator, 78-year-old Noel Crowe, reflects back on the time he spent in his grandparents’ village in County Clare. Graver calls This is Happiness a “big-hearted novel.” Graver, who co-directs the Creative Writing Concentration at BC, is the author of several novels, most recently The End of the Point, which was long-listed for a National Book Award in fiction.
Nancy Paulsen Books
Boston College alumna Nancy Paulsen is president and publisher of her own imprint for young readers at Penguin publishing house, where she has worked for more than two decades. Nancy Paulsen Books publishes 15 books a year and focuses on diverse and distinctive voices and books that offer kids hope. Read more from Boston College Magazine.
Ethics in a world of strangers
A philosopher, cultural theorist, and novelist, Kwame Anthony Appiah is a professor of philosophy and law at New York University and has an interest in political and moral theory, the philosophy of language and mind, and African intellectual history. He will present “Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers” on Dec. 5 at 7 p.m. in McGuinn Auditorium. He most recently wrote The Lies That Bind: Rethinking Identity (Liveright/WW Norton & Company, 2018), an exploration of how the collective identities that shape our polarized world are riddled with contradiction. He also is the author of The Honor Code, Cosmopolitanism, and The Ethics of Identity, among other works. He has taught at Yale, Cornell, Duke, and Harvard, and lectured at other universities in the United States, France, Germany, Ghana, and South Africa. Sponsor: Lowell Humanities Series. Co-sponsors: The Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy, Global Citizenships Project, and International Studies Program. Read a Q&A with Appiah in New York Magazine.
Water ethics
Christiana Zenner of Fordham University, whose research is at the nexus of fresh water ethics, ecological theory, earth science, and Catholic social teaching, will give a public lecture on Dec. 4 at 5 p.m. in Gasson Hall, room 100. Zenner is the author of Just Water (Orbis Books), which explores the necessity and availability of a supply of fresh water from the perspective of Christian ethics. The title of her lecture is “The Convenience Just Tastes So Good: Profit, Public Health, and Ethics in Our Ongoing Desire for Bottled Waters.” Zenner’s commentary has appeared in the Washington Post and The New Republic and her research has been published in the Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, and Journal of Moral Theology, among other publications. Sponsored by PULSE’s 50th Anniversary with the following co-sponsors: The Office of the Dean of the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences, Earth and Environmental Sciences Department, Environmental Studies Program, and Theology Department.
BC Bookmarks 