The John J. Burns Library at Boston College is highlighting Irish novelist, playwright, and satirist Flann O’Brien in an exhibit on display now through June 8. “Genius of Genre: The Pen Names and Personas of Flann O’Brien” will examine O’Brien, [the pseudonym of Brian O’Nolan (1911-1966)], through the library’s unrivaled collection of the writer’s papers and personal library. The Burns collection comprises 30 boxes of material, plus a number of artifacts, including a hat, briefcase, wallet, passport, and Underwood typewriter. Students from BC faculty member Joseph Nugent’s course, “From Page to Pod: Making Literature Public,” are creating podcast and iBook projects to accompany the exhibit. Read more in the BC Libraries newsletter.
Flann O’Brien exhibit at Burns Library
Little Man
A little boy learns that making mistakes is an important part of being human and that laughing at those mistakes is what helps a little boy grow into a little man, in a new book by Boston College alumnus Matt Clemente. Currently a doctoral student at BC, Clemente also teaches in BC’s Woods College of Advancing Studies. His book, Little Man’s Misadventures, is illustrated by his brother, R.L. Clemente.
Posted in Alumni Authors, Boston College Authors
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The Challenge of “Us” in Ecological Times
Theologian Elizabeth A. Johnson, C.S.J., a professor emerita at Fordham University, will present the 18th Annual Prophetic Voices Lecture on Feb. 28 at 5:30 p.m. in Fulton Hall, room 511. In her talk, titled “The Challenge of ‘Us’ in Ecological Times,” Sr. Johnson will explore the basis for kinship in the community of creation. Sr. Johnson is the author of numerous articles and books, including Creation and the Cross: The Mercy of God for a Planet in Peril. RSVP: Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life.
Fiction Days
Writer, critic, and essayist Carmen Maria Machado will speak on campus Feb. 27 as part of the University’s Fiction Days. The talk will focus on her debut short story collection, Her Body and Other Parties, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, the Kirkus Prize, and the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize, and the winner of the Bard Fiction Prize. Her writing has appeared in the New Yorker, Granta, Tin House, Guernica, Gulf Coast, and elsewhere. Machado’s memoir House in Indiana is forthcoming this year. The event will take place in Gasson Hall, room 100 at 7 p.m. Sponsor: Lowell Humanities Series.
Posted in Guest Authors, Lowell Humanities Series
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Journalist Elizabeth Flock
Journalist Elizabeth Flock, a BC alumna, will talk about her career and her book, The Heart is a Shifting Sea: Love and Marriage in Mumbai (Harper Perennial), on Feb. 25 at 3 p.m. in Devlin Hall, Room 026. The Heart is a Shifting Sea offers a deep dive into the lives of three couples living in India’s largest city, where tradition is colliding with Western culture. Flock’s writing has appeared in the New York Times, Atlantic, Vice, Al Jazeera, and many other publications. She runs the PBS NewsHour-New York Times Book Club, “Now Read This.” Read more about Flock’s book in this BC Bookmarks post from 2018.
Navigating grief
Boston College alumna Susan Hannifin-MacNab was the mother of a young child when she was suddenly widowed at age 41. Over the next few years, she turned to counseling, meditation, diet, and a therapy dog, among other tools, to help her and her son through the grieving and healing process. Hannifin-MacNab chronicled the experiences in a book, A to Z Healing Toolbox: A Practical Guide for Navigating Grief and Trauma with Intention, a 300-page workbook she hopes will help others who are grieving. Each chapter — from A for animal therapy to Z for “Getting your zzzzzs (sleep)” — begins with a description of the tool and how it helped her, followed by action steps readers can use, healing stories by others, a list of resources and a blank page for notes. A to Z was awarded a bronze medal in the Psychology and Mental Health division of the 2018 Independent Publisher Book Awards and was a finalist for a 2018 INDIE Book Award. Read more in this article from the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Orange is the New Black
Piper Kerman will speak on criminal justice reform as part of the Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics’ Chambers Lecture series on Feb. 19 in Gasson Hall, room 100. Kerman is the author of the best-selling memoir, Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison, which chronicles the 13 months she spent in the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut. Her book explores the experience of incarceration and the lives of the women she met in prison, and was adapted into the critically acclaimed Netflix series “Orange is the New Black.” Kerman is an award-winning advocate for prison and criminal justice reform. She has testified before the U.S. Senate on solitary confinement, women prisoners, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Her talk begins at 6 p.m. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and seating is on first-come, first-served basis.
Dermot Sparhawk
The crime novel series featuring private investigator Dermot Sparhawk continues with the release of Murder in the Charlestown Bricks. The novel is about Sparhawk’s search for the person who murdered a woman who was like a second mother to him. Dermot Sparhawk is the creation of Tom MacDonald, a Boston College alumnus who also teaches in BC’s Woods College of Advancing Studies. MacDonald is a computer programmer-turned-novelist who directs a food pantry in Boston. He first introduced readers to Sparhawk in his novel The Charlestown Connection. Read more about MacDonald in The Charlestown Patriot-Bridge.
What would President Niebuhr do?
R. Ward Holder and Peter Josephson, both from St. Anselm’s College, will discuss their new book, Reinhold Niebuhr in Theory and Practice: Christian Realism and Democracy in America in the Twenty-First Century on Feb. 13 at noon at an event hosted by the Boisi Center. The authors explain the collapse of the Niebuhrian renaissance in public life and consider the possibility of a distinctly Niebuhrian public intellectualism and political practice in the wake of the 2016 election. Advance registration is required for the event.
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Tagged Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life, politics
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Martha C. Nussbaum
Martha C. Nussbaum, the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago, will present “Fear, Anger, Democracy: Our Need for the Liberal Arts” on Feb. 13 at 7 p.m. in Gasson Hall, room 100. A highly regarded philosopher and public intellectual, Nussbaum is the author of numerous books, including The Monarchy of Fear: A Philosopher Looks at Our Political Crisis, Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach, Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education, and The Fragility of Goodness: Luck and Ethics in Greek Tragedy and Philosophy, among many others. She has been honored with the Kyoto Prize, Japan’s highest private award for global achievement; the Berggruen Prize, a worldwide prize in philosophy; the Don M. Randel Award for Humanistic Studies from the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and more than 60 honorary degrees. Co-sponsors: Lowell Humanities Series and the Institute for the Liberal Arts.
BC Bookmarks 