Fall for the Book: October 8th Events
Wednesday, October 8, 2025 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM EDT
10:30 AM The Body Breathes Poetry: Call & Response
In this exciting crossover event, watch the original choreography of senior Mason dancers set to the poetry of Liza Achilles, author of Two Novembers: A Memoir of Love ’n’ Sex in Sonnets, Sarah Audsley, author of Landlock X, Martheaus Perkins, author of The Grace of Black Mothers, and Fairfax Poet Laureate Angelique Palmer, author of Also Dark. Then, hear the dancers and poets discuss their process. Katey Funderburgh, an MFA candidate at Mason, will moderate this conversation. The dancers choreographing original pieces are Kalen Simpson, Aleza Inman, Grace Fortune, and Hannah Freed.
Location: Fenwick Reading Room, Room 2001, Fenwick Library
10:30 AM Houses of Detention
Jean Ende’s debut novel, Houses of Detention, follows the Rosens, a family that fled to America to escape the Nazis. As they strive to live out their idealized version of life in the US, cracks in their family begin to show. In this frequently humorous novel, Ende uncovers family rifts, culture clashes, and disappointed in-laws. Author Stefan Merrill Block says, “To read Jean Ende’s remarkable debut novel is to pull up a seat to a dining room table in the Bronx of the mid-20th century, a table packed with colorful characters and their plentiful gossip. Beneath all that kibitzing, however, is the real story: the essential and often heartrending tale of one family of Jewish immigrants searching for a new American life in the shadow of genocide and exodus.” Sponsored by Judaic Studies.
Location: Updated – Rain location – George’s, 3rd Floor in the Johnson Center.
10:30 AM Loss of Freedom in Bangalore
Activist and educator Supriya Baily discusses her book Bangalore Girls: Witnessing the Rise of Nationalism in a Progressive City. Baily investigates the lives of a group of school girls in Bangalore, revealing how the freedom women once enjoyed in India’s most progressive city has been diminished by a rise of right-wing nationalism, misogyny, and religious fundamentalism. Booklist says, “This deeply researched book is especially timely in light of recent gender-based violence in India.”
Location: Meeting Room D, 3rd Floor, Johnson Center
12 PM Dyke Delusions: Essays and Observations
Essayist Samantha Mann is back with Dyke Delusions: Essays & Observations, the follow up to her highly-regarded book Putting Out: Essays on Otherness. In her latest essay collection, Mann blends personal history and pop culture to discuss body politics, motherhood, and feminine sexuality, all with her one-of-a-kind humor and incisiveness. Podcaster Julie Bashkin says, “Samantha Mann is raw, honest, vulnerable, and completely relatable.” Claudia Cabello Hutt, Associate Professor of Women and Gender Studies and Philosophy, will moderate this conversation. Sponsored by Women and Gender Studies.
Location: Wilkins Plaza Tent, between the Johnson Center and Horizon Hall. May be moved to rain location: George’s, 3rd Floor, Johnson Center.
12 PM Swimming Pretty: Women and Water
In Swimming Pretty: The Untold Story of Women in Water, Vicki Valosik traces the history of women’s aquatic performance, from vaudeville to the Olympics. She examines the complicated tensions between femininity and athleticism, and explains how they have impacted the lives and careers of synchronized swimmers. Reviewer Sophia Stewart says, “Valosik interrogates the porous boundary between sport and spectacle, a thin line that women’s swimming, in particular, has always navigated . . . By swimming ‘pretty,’ Valosik shows, women were able to subtly showcase their prowess, helping normalize women’s physical activity—and athletic excellence.”
Location: Fenwick Reading Room, Room 2001, Fenwick Library.
1:30 PM Memoirs of the Caribbean
In their memoirs set in the Caribbean, Camille U. Adams and Patricia Coral detail their struggles growing up amidst patriarchy and fraught family dynamics. Adams’ How to be Unmothered details her troubled relationship with her mother, combining Trinidad’s violent colonial history with her own family’s legacy of abandonment. Author Jaquira Díaz says, it “is a work of art, an excavation of memory, a blend of fierce determination, vulnerability, and a journey toward liberation.” Coral’s Women Surrounded by Water depicts the writer’s complicated decision to leave Puerto Rico, only for Hurricane Maria to draw her back again. Author Glen Retief says, “Poetic, intelligent, formally and culturally hybrid, and emotionally powerful, Women Surrounded by Water offers an important meditation on gender, family, imperialism, and natural disasters, amplified by factors like anthropogenic climate change and official indifference.” Carol Mitchell, author of What Start Bad a Mornin’, will moderate this conversation.
Location: Fenwick Reading Room, Room 2001, Fenwick Library.
1:30 PM Women in Wartime: Struggles and Sacrifices
Margaret Hutton and Maggie Stiefvater depict the struggles of women in World War II-era America, the sacrifices they make, and their ability to adapt without losing their identity. Hutton’s If You Leave traces the lives of three women, in a tale of breaking and mending of relationships, while discovering new friendships, motherhood, and art. Molly McCloskey calls it “tender and razor-sharp, empathetic and unsentimental. Its evocation of wartime Washington, DC, captures brilliantly the texture of everyday life, both the limbo of waiting for the war’s end and the pinched quality of women’s lives.” Stiefvater’s The Listeners follows June Hudson, a local orphan-turned hotel manager compelled to harbor Nazis under the watch of the U.S. government. Author Chris Whitaker calls The Listeners “by turns a beautiful love story, a fascinating glimpse into the horrors of history, and a haunting tale of loyalty and courage.” As June balances her staff, her “guests,” FBI agents, and the secrets of the springs, she discovers the meaning of true luxury. Alice Magelssen-Green, Associate Director of Watershed Lit: Center for Literary Engagement and Publishing Practice, will moderate this conversation.
Location: Wilkins Plaza Tent, between the Johnson Center and Horizon Hall.
4:30 PM Genre-Bending Stories
The stories of Molly Olguín and Lori D’Angelo explore wildness and otherworldliness in two genre-bending collections. In The Sea Gives Up the Dead, Olguín’s stories mine dragons, mermaids, and treacherous waters, while exploring queerness, grief, and longing. Writer Carmen Maria Machado says, “Gorgeously written, imaginative, startling—The Sea Gives Up the Dead is a wunderkammer of beauty and sorrow.” Witches, vampires, and more collide in D’Angelo’s feminist collection The Monsters Are Here. Mark Brazaitis calls it “as entertaining as it is unpredictable. Each story is a ride into the strange and stunning.” Caroline Bock, author two YA novels and the forthcoming adult novel Other Beautiful People, will moderate this conversation.
Location: Fenwick Reading Room, Room 2001, Fenwick Library.
4:30 PM Monsters, Curses, and the Uncanny
Three horror authors discuss their chilling tales. Nat Cassidy’s When the Wolf Comes Home follows a struggling actress and a five-year-old boy running for their lives as shocking incidents of butchery and violence follow them. Author Stephen King says, “Get your claws into this one, horror fiends. It’s terrific.” Alma Katsu’s Fiend tells the story of a powerful family with a sinister supernatural secret. Author Kelly Link says, “An absolutely wicked delight! Fiend ruined several nights’ sleep for me, which is the highest praise I can give a book.” Kristina Ten’s Tell Me Yours, I’ll Tell You Mine is a strange and ominous story collection that focuses on growing up and the rituals of childhood. Author Stephen Graham Jones calls the book “a joyous, incisive, inventive, and vital run of stories.” Marni Penning, award-winning audiobook narrator with 350+ titles on Audible, will moderate this conversation.
Location: Wilkins Plaza Tent, between the Johnson Center and Horizon Hall.
