Content warning: this article mentions suicide.
“This is what it means to be a ghost. To watch all the other girls live — laugh, talk, sleep, eat, dance, study, scream — while you flicker and fade into the shadows,” an unnamed narrator declares, opening “When All the Girls Are Sleeping,” published July 13, 2021, the latest novel by Mount Holyoke alumna Emily Arsenault ’98.
“For eighteen years, my unibrow has saved me from being sold into a painful, terrifying death,” Xiran Jay Zhao writes in their debut novel, “Iron Widow.”
“Iron Widow” is not for the faint of heart.
A story about a thirst for vengeance and hunger for power, brimming with the pain caused by a deeply misogynistic society, the novel is for angry girls — the girls who have been beaten down and poked just enough to snap. For anyone who is aching to break out of the claustrophobic boxes that make up our world — “Iron Widow” is a novel of catharsis, or as the endorsement quote on the cover from E.K. Johnston states, “A primal scream of a book.”
Don’t let the title fool you — Rivka Galchen’s second novel “Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch” is as far from contemporary popular fantasy as the Earth is from the sun. Based on an assemblage of historical documents from the seventeenth century, “Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch” is a fictionalized account of the real-life story of astronomer Johannes Kepler’s mother, Katharina Guldenmann Kepler, an accused — and acquitted — witch.
The literary organization The Tolkien Society, founded around a half-century ago, is dedicated to promoting the life and works of the British scholar and author of the high fantasy novel “The Lord of the Rings,” J.R.R. Tolkien. Since 1986, the Society has held an annual short summer conference consisting of academic talks and panel discussions on a Tolkien-related theme. The 2021 Summer Seminar, titled “Tolkien and Diversity,” was held live via Zoom on July 3 and July 4. The conference, free to the public, hosted more than 500 attendees from 42 countries. The theme of diversity received backlash from right-wing political commentators who accused the society of going “woke.”
At around 250 pages, British author Susanna Clarke’s second novel “Piranesi” seems miniscule in comparison to her 800-page debut novel “Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.” But with its imaginative world and compelling narrator, “Piranesi” packs a powerful epistemological punch. The book, however, is not without flaws — its portrayal of minority characters ultimately falls short, leaning on worn-out stereotypes of gay men and people of color.
On March 25, award-winning children’s author Beverly Cleary died in Carmel Valley, California, at the age of 104. She is perhaps best known for her series of books about sisters Ramona and Beatrice “Beezus” Quimby growing up in small-town America. The HarperCollins press release about Cleary’s death praised her for “setting a standard for realistic children’s fiction” through the publication of over 40 books, adding, “Cleary has also inspired authors, including Judy Blume, to deal with the real issues in young readers’ lives.”
As a first-year at Mount Holyoke, being able to handle the isolation of campus life during the pandemic can be difficult. My personal outlet has been finding places in and around campus to explore. One of the many places to find comfort during the pandemic for me has been bookstores. To be surrounded by physical books and people in real life seems like such a fantasy now, but it is slowly becoming reality again. Luckily for me and other Mount Holyoke book lovers, there seems to be a surplus of bookstores around the Pioneer Valley. Whether you’re on campus or just happen to be in Massachusetts, here are some local bookstores to explore.
Mount Holyoke held the 98th Kathryn Irene Glascock Intercollegiate Poetry Contest from March 25 to March 27. Normally held in Gamble Auditorium, this year’s competition was held virtually on Zoom due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The first day of the event was dedicated to a conversation with the judges. The event was intentionally set to “meeting” instead of “webinar” style, allowing the poets to better connect with the audience as they answered questions.
Kylie Gellatly FP ’22 isn’t one for a backstory or explanation. “I’ve never even attempted to do this,” she said in regard to summarizing over a decade of time that led her to Mount Holyoke and the publication of her first book. For Gellatly, this is best summarized through her art and creative process. When speaking at the FP Monologues on March 23, instead of talking about her journey to Mount Holyoke or a key event in her life that led her to who she is today, Gellatly shared a handful of poems, all to be published July 16 in her book “The Fever Poems.”
Memoirs are an easy way to feel seen and understood in literature. They won’t provide the same escapism as a fantasy book, but they will ground you in reality. As the Valentine’s Day section of CVS is on its last legs, try filling the chocolate-and-romance void by reading a memoir with eerily relatable themes of melancholic queer desire.
By Ella Jacob ’24
Staff Writer & Copy Editor
Content warning: This article discusses racism, slavery, sexual harassment and violence against African American individuals.
“There is no American literature without African American literature,” declared Elizabeth Young, professor and chair of English at Mount Holyoke College. However, according to the Harvard Ed. Magazine, “[i]t’s been more than 50 years since literacy experts first stressed the need for more diverse books in the classroom..” By expanding our literary scope beyond the white authors who commonly appear in the American literary canon, we can see the substantial impact Black authors have on American literature.
Lucy Terry wrote the first recorded piece of African American poetry in 1746. Terry was enslaved in Massachusetts when she wrote her only surviving work, the poem “Bars Fight.” Set in colonial America, the poem acknowledges white colonists killed in an encounter with Native Americans in 1746. It was passed down orally for more than 100 years until it was published in 1855.
Three years before the American Revolution, Phillis Wheatley became the first African American to publish a volume of poetry, “Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral,” written in 1773. Wheatley began learning to read and write at a young age, and it is believed she wrote her first poem at age 13. Her book received international acclaim, and her poetry earned praise from historically significant American figures like Benjamin Franklin and George Washington. Many people were reluctant to read her works, but she still emerged as a household name in American poetry.
Most African American poetry in the 19th century took the form of oral accounts from fugitive slaves. Among the authors who gained prestige during this era, Frederick Douglass is one of the most famous, known for publishing “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave,” which fueled the abolitionist movement in the U.S. Douglass was also the first African American to be nominated for U.S. vice president. He was a revered orator, leader and advocate for equal rights.
Harriet Jacobs was another renowned African American writer of the 19th century. In 1861, she self-published “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” a narrative of her enslavement. The book discusses the sexual abuse enslaved women faced from slaveholders alongside Jacob’s struggle to gain freedom for herself and her children. Jacobs published her book, now an American classic, under the pseudonym Linda Brent. “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” has become one of the most prominent slave narratives written by a woman and has brought attention to the particular abuse that enslaved women faced.
After the Civil War, there was a boom in printing African American literature. One of the leading writers of this period, Booker T. Washington, wrote several books, including “The Story of My Life and Work” and “The Man Farthest Down.”
Washington had an infamous feud with another well-known African American writer of the time, W.E.B. Du Bois. Du Bois had a more radical approach to combating racism, whereas Washington had an “assimilationist view; not as confrontational toward racial politics,” according to Young. “For Black political and cultural thought in the 20th and 21st centuries, Du Bois remains the more salient figure, the more intellectual, the more prolific, the more radical in his analysis,” she explained.
Although these writers are often identified by their opposing perspectives, “they were writing in the context of lots of different African American writers and intellectuals, … [including] Pauline Hopkins and Anne Francis Harper, two important African American women writers and thinkers,” Young emphasized. “I think it’s important, as we review the conflict between them, to see them as part of a kind of complex world of many people, including lots of women who are thinking and writing about race and Black life at the time.”
A significant and influential period in African American culture and art, the Harlem Renaissance saw the rise of some of the most prominent authors of the early 20th century. Alongside musicians like Louis Armstrong and artists like Aaron Douglas were writers such as Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Dunbar-Nelson and Langston Hughes, all of whom shaped African American literature.
Hurston is best known for writing “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” a book that follows Janie Crawford as she navigates adolescence and adulthood as a Black woman. The book was met with heavy resistance at its time of publication and fell into obscurity for a few decades, but was rediscovered in 1975 by another African American writer, Alice Walker. Hurston’s novel is now considered an essential piece of African American and women’s literature. Hurston, along with Dunbar-Nelson, were some of the most high-profile female writers of the era. Dunbar-Nelson was one of the only African American diarists of the early 1900s.
Hughes, considered one of the best writers in American history, shaped the Harlem Renaissance, focusing on portrayals of African American life from the 1920s to the 1960s. He brought increased attention to African American literature in American society, which led the mainstream media to begin absorbing and appreciating African American art.
Amid protests and demonstrations to abolish segregation following the civil rights movement, African American writers focused on the unfair treatment toward Black people while also highlighting the importance of the Black individual and the Black experience.
One of the most notable authors of that period was James Baldwin, who taught at Mount Holyoke as part of the Five College faculty. He wrote “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” which analyzed the intersection of race and sexuality, specifically what it meant to be both Black and gay in 1930s Harlem, a topic that was taboo for the general American public at the time.
Suzan-Lori Parks ’85 studied under Baldwin at Mount Holyoke. She says that he called her an “utterly astounding and beautiful creature who may become one of the most valuable artists of our time.” Parks went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2002 for her play “Topdog/Underdog.” She was the first African American woman to win the award.
Another author of the civil rights era was Ralph Ellison, who wrote “Invisible Man,” a National Book Award winner focusing on the unattainability of the American Dream for African Americans, as their accomplishments and individuality are largely perceived as “invisible.”
This period also marked an increase in the recognition of Black women poets, including Gwendolyn Brooks. She was the first Black author to win the Pulitzer Prize and the first Black woman to be a poetry consultant to the Library of Congress.
Alongside these books, many historic essays that focused on human rights and injustice were published by Black Americans during this time. The most well-known were Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and Malcolm X’s “The Ballot or the Bullet.”
From the late 1900s to the present day, African American literature has become increasingly popular, frequently earning awards and topping bestseller charts. Female authors made waves in the American poetry scene, from Alice Walker, who won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for her novel “The Color Purple,” to Maya Angelou, who delivered her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” at former President Bill Clinton’s first inauguration. Today, writers like Amanda Gorman, the youngest poet to speak at a presidential inauguration, continue to highlight the importance of African American composition.
Following the turn of the 21st century, the variety of African American writing circulating worldwide changed drastically from the limited availability of colonial African American works. As more Black writers establish themselves as forces in the American literary scene, their influence and work must be acknowledged in the American literary canon.
“I do not think one could talk at all responsibly or accurately or imaginatively about something called American literature that does not have African American literature at the center,” Young said.
The Pew Research Center found in 2019 that 27 percent of American adults did not start a book in the last 12 months, despite the many benefits of reading. Studies demonstrate that reading can increase a person’s understanding of themselves, other people and other cultures while also decreasing loneliness. Pleasure reading has also been linked to increased academic and professional success. Starting to read for fun, however, can be a difficult task. There are many strategies to stay motivated on your literary adventure. The Mount Holyoke News reached out to students to share some of theirs.
Fantasy books offer the perfect escape from life’s stressful moments, but it can be intimidating to dive into the deep lore and hefty page counts of adult fantasy. Whether you’re looking for a new challenge or ready to say goodbye to some childhood favorites, here are a few beginner-friendly page-turners to help navigate the transition from young adult to adult fantasy.
Pictured above: the cookbooks of Chloe MC ‘24
By Cat Barbour ’24
Staff Writer
Rereading a childhood favorite or otherwise beloved book creates a sense of comfort and enjoyment that only nostalgia can provide. Friends and familiar places wait within the pages, along with the memories of your life when you first read each page. As Cornelia Funke’s “Inkheart,” a young adult fantasy novel, puts it, “If you take a book with you on a journey, … an odd thing happens: The book begins collecting your memories … Yes, books are like flypaper — memories cling to the printed page better than anything else.”
With the arrival of the holiday season during a global pandemic, a tense political climate and finals around the corner, it’s no surprise students are reaching for their comfort books. The Mount Holyoke News spoke with current students to see which books they revisit during tough times
Overwhelmingly, students mentioned the “Harry Potter” series by J. K. Rowling, which chronicles boy wizard Harry Potter’s adventures at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Darcy Coleman ’24 read the series in elementary and middle school.
“I was obsessed with ‘Harry Potter,’” Coleman said. “[The books] help bring me back to happy times during my childhood. I struggle a lot with anxiety and books give me an escape, as well as a way for me to relate to the characters and feel motivated and hopeful about my own challenges.”
While Coleman reaches for “Harry Potter” for general comfort, Grace Lara ’24 seeks out “Fangirl” by Rainbow Rowell for a “reliable sick day read.” “Fangirl” follows the story of Cath, who, in a meta twist, is a huge fan of Rowell’s own “Simon Snow” series. Cath and her twin bonded over “Simon Snow,” but upon entering college, the books became more symbolic of their separation than their closeness. Now, out of her comfort zone and without her sister, Cath must navigate school by herself.
This past spring, Phoebe Murtagh ’21 sought out a book to help deal with her sadness following the closing of Mount Holyoke’s campus, finding solace in “Tell the Wolves I’m Home” by Carol Rifka Brunt. The story follows June as she comes to terms with the death of her uncle, the only person who understood her and makes an unexpected new acquaintance at the funeral who might just be everything she needs to heal. Murtagh calls the book “well written and rich, centered around love and grief and heartbreak and life.”
When Chloe MC ’24 wants the satisfaction of finishing a novel in one sitting, she returns to Douglas Adams’ “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” The book tells the story of Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect after Ford saves Arthur from being destroyed along with the Earth. The pair proceed to hitchhike the galaxy together, which happens to be Ford’s area of expertise. It is the first novel in the series. MC enjoys the “goofy little sci-fi series,” explaining, “The humor is what draws me in. [The characters] make everything [that sounds] so absurd [sound] perfectly normal.”
MC also shared the story of her family’s cookbook. “Food is very important; basically every event or holiday is centered around food and the kitchen,” MC explained. “For my parents’ first Christmas [as a married couple], my grandma on my dad’s side typed up and photocopied a cookbook’s worth of recipes and put them in a binder. Most of them belonged to my great-grandmother Kitty Cat.”
“We treat it as the holy grail,” she continued. “It’s where we go to first if we want a recipe for something. … It’s been around longer than I have. It’s comforting because it’s the go-to comfort food book. Some of the recipes are clearly dated (like soda salad) but some of it is gold.”
While not everyone has access to something from their family’s history to find comfort in, bakers may have a part of MC’s family cookbook hiding in their kitchen. “Fun fact,” MC said, “it’s my great grandma’s recipe for pound cake on the back of the Swan’s Down flour box, the whipping cream pound cake.”
There’s a reason that many books bring nostalgia and contentment to those who read them. Research by a professor at the University of California found that people enjoy stories more when they know the ending. An example provided in the study reads, “If you’re driving up Highway 1 through Big Sur, and you know the road really well, you can now peek around and admire the view.” Rereading leads to a greater appreciation of the writing and gives readers a sense of comfort because they already know the plot.
Graphic by Trinity Kendrick ‘21
By Cat Barbour ’24
Staff Writer
Both hated and revered by participants, National Novel Writing Month, known colloquially as NaNoWriMo, has drawn the attention of writers since 1999, including hundreds of thousands since 2007. In 2006, NaNoWriMo became a nonprofit dedicated to inspiring people to tell their stories. According to their mission statement, NaNoWriMo “believes in the transformational power of creativity.” The statement continues, “We provide the structure, community, and encouragement to help people find their voices, achieve creative goals, and build new worlds — on and off the page.”
The challenge: Write 50,000 words in 30 days. Or, in the words of NaNoWriMo headquarters: “Your job now is not to create a manuscript that a publisher will want to sell at lemonade stands all over the country. That comes later, once you've done a ton of revision and rethinking. For now, your task is to create a first draft. Or in other words, to make a glorious, beautiful, breathtaking mess.”
Emily Carle ’21, Mia Kerchen ’24 and Fiona Milton ’22 each discussed their participation in NaNoWriMo with the Mount Holyoke News.
Carle, while not currently participating, did so as a first-year in 2017 and was a part of the Western Massachusetts and Five College NaNoWriMo groups. She appreciated being a part of the groups and said that the motivation helped her complete 30,000 words. “With the Five College group, everyone else was a college student and so they were also dealing with … trying to take classes and write [for NaNoWriMo] and actually write for grades,” Carle said, adding, “They were truly a good support system for when I wanted to give up.”
For the past three years, Kerchen has also been writing. While she has never completed the challenge, she’s been having a lot of fun writing stories. She commented that NaNoWriMo is “really intense” and compared it to “writing a small paper every day.”
Milton did finish the 50,000-word goal on her first attempt. She has participated in NaNoWriMo four times: in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2017. She believes that “it is not about winning or writing 50K words, it is about starting to tell a story you’ve been wanting to tell.” She added, “NaNoWriMo is about writing for yourself and no one else, so don’t let anyone tell you how many words you have to write to do it right.”
Fans of NaNoWriMo are loud and proud, but so are its critics. Notably, blogs on both sides of the argument are a few years old. The dust seems to have settled, but for a while, peace was not an option.
Chris Becheen, an active comical blogger, reluctantly shared his opinion on NaNoWriMo in 2016 in his post, “Nanowrimo: The Good, The Bad, And the Very Very Ugly.” In the post, he detailed his issues with the program, arguing that 50,000 words would be generously considered a novella, that participating in the competition does not make one a novelist and that the program’s idea that word count above all else matters is problematic. Additionally, he warned, “Dec 1st, the predators come out to play. They promise the moon, … preying on people’s desire to BE writers and sucking off their hard-earned money by pretending that these manuscripts don’t need anything more than a copy edit to knock the socks off a publisher.”
NaNoWriMo also warns participants about “literary scammers.” The Terms and Conditions page reads, “If you are approached by someone wielding a too-good-to-be-true deal, please let us know, and we'll investigate.”
In line with some of Becheen’s views, even the NaNoWriMo website reminds participants that their books will be works in progress at the end of the month, stating that “The goal is 50,000 words in 30 days: not 50,000 perfect words, not even 50,000 readable words. Fifty thousand words of practicing your voice.”
In 2010, Laura Miller, journalist and author of “The Magician’s Book: A Skeptic’s Adventure in Narnia,” had similar issues with the competition. She believes that the competition leaves out an important part of the writing process: reading. A common piece of advice for aspiring writers is to read and learn from those who are more experienced. With the grueling pace of the competition, combined with the hectic month it takes place in, there isn’t any time to read, Miller said.
NaNoWriMo does provide some tools and support, such as writing seminars and NaNo Prep 101 to help flesh out pieces, and most participants realize that they can’t write a single draft and publish it immediately — as Carle said, “I know that publishing does not work that way.”
Whether you love NaNoWriMo or despise it, the program will not stop anytime soon. The number of writers it annually attracts only grows. Starting with just 21 participants in 1999, the challenge saw 455,080 people write over 2 million words in 2019. While not every submission will turn out like “Water for Elephants” by Sara Gruen, many participate to do exactly what Milton recommends: write to tell the story they’ve always wanted to tell.
Pictured above: the headshot of Anna Maria Hong.
By Amelia Scarponi ’23
Staff Writer
On the evening of Thursday, Oct. 29, the Odyssey Bookshop welcomed Anna Maria Hong, assistant professor of English at Mount Holyoke, to read from and speak about her second poetry collection “Fablesque.” The collection was awarded the Tupelo Press Berkshire Prize for a First or Second Book of Poetry in 2020.
Published in September, “‘Fablesque’ harnesses the power of old tales to dispel the disenchantments of women and animals in the #MeToo era,” according to its blurb. “The poems and prose pieces allude to animals real or imaginary, sometimes fantastical and often mythical,” Hong explained at the reading. Hong was joined by Andrea Lawlor, assistant professor of English at Mount Holyoke and author of “Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl.”
Though the pandemic led to the closure of campus and mandated social distancing, Zoom provided a relaxed and personal conversation between author and audience. Hong recognized the stress of the presidential election with a bit of humor, encouraging “everyone to make this a relaxing experience, lie on the floor, have a second glass of rosé or do yoga. Remember, we can’t see you,” she laughed. “It’s been another terrible week, almost crushing, but I would like to dedicate my first poem tonight to those who are voting for the first time in force, including my students,” Hong said.
“Siren,” the first poem read, is an ode to her love of sonnets and the comfort she feels working with a confined form. It conveys the double standards and obstacles women face. “Rip out the knees of the patriarchy,” Hong read. “No one cares if you're half-beast if you’ve got a great rack.” She confessed she is always aiming for wit, though rage is certainly on the surface of every word.
Erica Hawes ’22 tuned in from Bristol, England. “I’m a bibliophile, and the Odyssey felt like my second home,” she said. “I never left [campus] without purchasing a new book. Attending author readings and events with my friends was a weekly occurrence! Even though it’s 12 a.m. and my friends and I are all on different continents, we feel like we are back on campus together. Professor Hong is an incredible professor and her humor was not lost through Zoom.”
Lawlor influenced the dialogue during the Q&A session, laughing, “I don’t want to hog all the question time.” But members of the audience weren’t shy to ask questions as the event progressed. Lawlor kicked off the Q&A with praise and curiosity about Hong’s relationship to lyrical writing and sound, asking if it has been a driving agent in her work.
“I’ve been drafting these sonnets for several years. At some point I figured out that sound was smarter than I am,” Hong responded. “Sometimes I know what sound is but I don’t know what the word is. At the end of the day, I love working with the music of language.” Her inspirations range from Sylvia Plath to Gwendolyn Brooks.
One audience member asked how teaching influenced Hong’s writing. She admitted that she resisted teaching before discovering it was her second calling, which gave her the energy and passion to write. “If you have the privilege to teach about writing, you always think about writing,” she said.
Another individual expressed curiosity about finding the motivation to write. “Truthfully,” Hong replied, “I’m not as disciplined as I’d like to be. I write when I can and I try to make it a priority. I’ve found you really have to work with yourself if it’s something you love.”
Currently, Hong is working on a new collection of poetry “for her own sanity,” as well as a collection of daily meditations combining collage and prose in collaboration with visual artist Jill Moser. Moser is an abstract painter based in New York whose work is displayed in galleries and museums throughout the United States, most notably in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Hong ended with some words of wisdom that double as a glimpse of reality for aspiring writers: “The majority of my work is discarded, but there are poems that really fight for their lives, that still want to be written.”
