ENGL 511 Special Topics in Writing: Young Adult Literature
Class Profiles
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Emily Graham is in her first official semester as a graduate student, having graduated from BSU this past fall (congratulations to her!). However, she has been taking graduate level courses since the summer through Bridgewater’s accelerated master’s program. Currently, she is a substitute teacher in the Swansea school system, where she also completed her student teaching practicum. Teaching has always been the dream for Emily, and she hopes to find a full time position working at a middle school. More specifically, Emily has a passion for teaching the youngest students at the school, as she loves working with students as they transition. She has a particular interest in social emotional learning in the classroom and prioritizes both making relationships in the classroom and making an impact on her students as people. When not in the classroom (either as a student or teacher), Emily has a passion for dance and has been performing since she was 3! She performed with the BSU Dance Company since she in undergrad. She has a love for creative hobbies in general, from drawing, to writing, to choreography. Additionally, Emily is currently rediscovering her love for reading, particularly reading simply for pleasure as opposed to dissecting works to analyze. In her pursuit of reading for fun, Emily has been using audiobooks to devour more light-hearted novels such as The Third Gilmore Girl by Kelly Bishop and Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan.
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"On a random day, in 7th grade ELA, my blood ran cold, my heart rate increased, and my eyes that had been zoned out on the board snapped to my teacher. She had said that tomorrow we would be watching the third Harry Potter movie: The Prisoner of Azkaban in class to apply the analysis skills we were learning for books to a different medium. No one else cared. Twelve-year-old Emily on the other hand was stressed. How was I supposed to watch a movie for a book I had not yet read? That’s like breaking the first cardinal rule of being a bookworm!"
--From Emily Graham's "My Comfort Series Now Brings Discomfort". To read her piece in its entirety, click here. |
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Aloha from Hawaii! Gus Haflin is joining our class from the sandy shores of Oahu, where the skies are blue, the sun is bright, and every day is paradise. A Hingham, Massachusetts high school English teacher currently on sabbatical, Gus is enjoying the island lifestyle with his wife and his dog, a lab-mix named Billie. While he has nostalgia for the snowy season and winter activities, Gus is enjoying the fact that every day in Hawaii is a beach day, and walking Billie in flip-flops at 6:00am is currently preferable to scraping ice off of his car windshield during a New England winter. Gus enjoys an active lifestyle of hiking and surfing. Getting outside for physical movement and adventure is an everyday staple for Gus. Like any excellent English teacher, Gus is easily able to discuss his favorite book of all time, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. His most-loved dessert is his mom’s famous sour cherry pie, made with cherries grown on the tree in their front yard.
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"When we returned home, my brother and I began the first of many “live like Harry” expeditions, happily encouraged by our parents, thrilled we were reading quietly rather than breaking yet another standing lamp. We excavated the cupboard under the stairs, piling in the hall the assortment of dining chairs, table leaves, and other table decorations, simulating Harry’s living quarters at Number Four, Privet Drive. One small lamp, two pillows, three specific books, and several blankets served as our first reading nook."
--From Gus Haflin's "Chapter Four: The Boys Under the Stairs". To read his piece in its entirety, click here. |
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Taylor McKinney teaches highschool at North Quincy high, but it may surprise you to find out that she hadn’t always had her heart on being a teacher. Initially, Taylor went for her business degree at BSU while she worked in cosmetology. However, after realizing she hated working with hair, she set her sights on teaching. After taking the literacy MTELs and preparing for her APB, Taylor worked as a paraprofessional before transitioning to a full time teacher. That was all just two years ago, just after covid, which isn’t that crazy? What’s even more crazy is that she got married during Covid too! As their anniversary comes up soon, Taylor can look back at all the changes in her life and know she went in a direction she is far more happy with than before. Now she lives with her partner and 2 dogs, Abby and Millie, as well as a Roomba that they’ve nicknamed Zoomba after their previous dog, Zoey. As she continues teaching, Taylor also aims to finish her MA here at BSU! We are all rooting for her.
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"Freshman year of high school for me was my brother's freshman year of college, and he moved to Rhode Island to attend Johnson and Wales University.
I. Was. A l o n e. Before my brother had left for college he had given me a book he had recently read. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. Upon receipt of this book, I could not understand why my brother would give me such a strange book. Flipping through the pages each page was a maze, and select words were in blue, and red. There were hundreds of footnotes, there were stories within the stories, there were hidden codes and secret messages. There were pages with only one word on the page, and pages where the text was circular. There were pages with text overlapping with more text. This book was a puzzle, it was a maze, and I was woefully unprepared for the journey ahead of me once I finally attempted to read this piece of art. " -- From Taylor McKinney's "Finding Peace in Literature." Click here to read the piece in its entirety. |
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Ryan Juliano is from Windsor, Connecticut. He went to Western New England College (where it became Western New England University during his sophomore year). He now runs the Writing Lab at Watertown High School. At his job, Ryan works with students who need help with their writing for assignments of all subjects: English, history, or whichever class they write for. Along with running the Writing Lab, he advises and runs Dungeons & Dragons Club. He is in his second year of running D&D club. Ryan is an avid reader who loved fantasy as a kid and enjoys all genres now. He also loves to write. He writes everything under the sun from fiction prose to poetry, and more! Although he has no pets at the moment, Ryan loves animals. He also loves music and has a budding vinyl collection, with genres such as blues and jazz, which he grew to love listening to his dad play trombone. Some of Ryan’s other hobbies include playing video games and watching movies. He has watched over 1,000 movies! One of his favorite movies is Tropic Thunder. A little fun fact about Ryan: he studied abroad in England for a bit and was able to walk through some of the places where Ted Lasso was shot in Richmond.
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"There was no limit to stories to get lost in. If I could disappear into a world full of dragons, I could disappear into any world. I would read, watch, or play anything that had an engaging story. I still do. That being said, I will always return to my roots. I have a deep love for fantasy and science fiction (stemming from my experiences with stories like the Dragonlance Chronicles)."
--From Ryan Juliano's "On Dragon's Wings". Click here to read this piece in its entirety. |
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Devon Melo, who grew up in Bridgewater, is a high school English teacher at East Bridgewater Junior-Senior High School who currently lives in New Bedford. Devon has been a coach and heavily involved with student activities at her school. She became a teacher, as she always dreamed of, because she loved being a student and being in school growing up. Devon enjoys taking on the challenge of making students feel comfortable in her classroom, the same way the influential teachers in her life made her feel. Devon loves to travel, Most notably, Devon spent time in Ireland where she studied abroad during her time in undergrad. Devon is a lover of Dairy Queen and treating herself to a blizzard of any kind. She also loves the 2017 movie Lady Bird, starring Saoirse Ronan, as well as the TV show Bob’s Burgers and any musical genre besides country.
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"Do not get me started on the old box sets. Little House on the Prairie. Nancy Drew. The Boxcar Children. These series were passed down from my mom. Collections of hers. The smell of staleness each time you’d flip a page. Yes, some were thrown away. If only the mold didn’t get them. These are the OG texts of my childhood. They fostered my initial love for reading as a kid. "
--From Devon Melo's "My Book Collection". To read her piece in its entirety, click here. |
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Diane Gentile is a ninth year English teacher, from Waltham, Massachusetts. Diane currently teaches at Arlington Middle School in Lawrence, where she has taught for the last four years. Throughout her career, she has only taught eighth grade, and wouldn’t have it any other way. Her favorite texts to teach are To Kill a Mockingbird and the Summer of the Mariposas, which her students love and connect deeply too. Diane runs her school’s student council, where her students are excited to sell chocolate roses for Valentine’s Day. Prior to teaching, she graduated from Bentley University with her Bachelor's in Sports Marketing. Her love for sports runs deep, as Diane is a huge Chiefs’ football fan and obsessed with Patrick Mahomes. Outside of sports, Diane loves reality television, anything Real Housewives, thriller or mystery genre novels, Mexican food, and cannolis. Additionally, Diane is an avid traveler, and has been to the Dominican Republic at least ten times.
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"I still remember cracking open the weathered, purple-covered copy of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird in 8th grade ELA. I remember how I felt getting to know the characters, wondering what the deal with Boo Radley was, and being shocked the one person Scout feared the most was the one who ended up saving her and Jem. I can close my eyes and picture being at home, in my childhood bedroom, reading the assigned chapters and slowly realizing we can never truly know someone’s full story (not until we walk in their shoes, to quote Atticus Finch)."
--From Diane Gentile's "A Moment in Time". To read her piece in its entirety, click here. |
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Sadie Petta is a teacher at Agawam High School who hails from Chicopee, MA. Within Agawam’s halls of academia, she teaches 9th Grade English and runs the school’s yearbook club. She student taught at Agawam before becoming a tried and true teacher. Such showcasing of her educational talents made the transition quite easy. Sadie’s talents do not lie solely in the classroom, however. She is a budding musician whose chosen axes are bass guitar and ukulele. Her fiancé, a musician himself, was the final push she needed to jump into the realm of music after years yearning to. Sadie’s life is full of music. Her younger brother is also a musician and a bass player like Sadie herself. Though, there is quite a gap in these siblings' chosen genres. Sadie enjoys the softer sounds of folk rock while her brother likes the harsher tones of metal and hard rock. During summer break, and when she isn’t rocking out, Sadie works at the Brewster Scoop on Cape Cod. The Cape is like a second home to her. In fact it will soon simply be home. Once the current school year is finished, Sadie and her fiancé are planning a big move to the Cape. They will not be going alone either! Their cat Mimi will be coming along for the ride. And this trio may very well become a quartet soon after the move. Rumor has it there will be a search for a future feline friend looming in the future.
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"I had always heard that books could make people feel less alone. Sure, I would read novels and grow attached to characters, but it all felt superficial. I could look into the lives of the sisters from Dead is the New Black and imagine that I was there with them, all to avoid the realities of the world. When I read The Glass Castle, it was the first time I connected with a story through something other than escapism. Rather than pulling me out of my world, the book made me feel less lonely when experiencing my reality."
--From Sadie Petta's "I Became Convinced The Glass Castle Was Written For Me." To read her piece in its entirety, click here. |
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Megan Johnson is a 9th year English teacher who has worked in two schools; first at Fall River High School and now at her alma mater, Bishop Feehan High School in Attleboro. Ironically, for her senior year superlatives Megan won “most likely to work at Feehan”! She earned both her undergraduate degree and first master’s degree in Literacy Instruction from Providence College. When asked about why she is working towards a second master’s degree at Bridgewater State, Megan said she was just doing it “for fun” - this is not something you hear every day, but it makes it clear that Megan has a passion and interest in literature. Megan works at Bishop Feehan with her partner, who she recently became engaged to! In her freetime, Megan likes to craft on her Cricut. For Christmas this year, she made most of her own gifts, using the Cricut to etch different designs on glasses. She is also in a book club with friends, where they recently read Dracula. On top of all of her aforementioned successes, Megan is also a proud member of the “Correct Spelling of Megan” Club.
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"These memories of reading Gatsby for the first time make me laugh; an English teacher, a self-proclaimed “good” reader, originally got her favorite novel completely wrong. My romanticized version, which existed only in my head, was a direct result of being a teenager who was dating for the first time. To me, there was something simple about the concepts of hope and fickle love in Gatsby that perhaps only an adolescent could pick up on and believe in. Reading something that I couldn’t fully comprehend, but spoke to my experience was meaningful. I teach this book every year, and I am able to recall my initial reading experience each time I reread it with my students."
--From Megan Johnson's "Misread Classics. To read her piece in its entirety, click here. |
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Gabby Sleeper is a third-year eighth grade teacher at Taunton High School. When not working with teens, Gabby works on a farm, tending to horses and goats in her instructor's backyard. She has two cats of her own: Molly and Marceline (the Vampire Queen) who are also scholars and will frequently make appearances during any zoom class (be on the lookout!). Gabby is a double bear who is halfway through working towards her MAT at Bridgewater. She is studying English and education but also completed her bachelor's here too. In undergrad she studied English and Secondary Education with a minor in African American studies and an honors thesis on ghosts in African American women’s literature to prove it. Her free time is spent playing Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) with her friends, which has been going on for over three years and allows her to immerse herself in a world of fantasy of her own creation. She loves fantasy in any medium – books, movies, art. Her current favorite, however, is Dread Nation by Justina Ireland. It is considered a perfect mix of historical fiction and horror, something that Gabby now has extensive academic knowledge in. Gabby has always loved books (what English teacher doesn’t?) and they have carried her through many important life events.
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"When I was hiding out in my room, away from grieving relatives, Death told me about how Liesel hid in a shelter from bombs. When I woke up from nightmares of doctors and disease, Death recounted Liesel’s dreams, also perverted by loss. But it’s not always sad. Death also reminded me of the beauty in the world, of the joys. Liesel losing herself in a book, playing soccer with her friends, listening to her papa play the accordion and her mother lovingly scolding her: these moments reminded me of my own love of books, of playing board games with my friends, of adventures with my father, and stories read by my mother."
--From Gabby Sleeper's "". To read her piece in its entirety, click here. |
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Marisa Silk is turning 23 this upcoming March. She is a 9th and 11th grade English teacher at Walpole High School. In the spring of 2024 Marisa graduated as valedictorian from Stonehill College in Easton, MA. She is currently pursuing her master’s in English literature with a goal of becoming an English Professor to share her love of reading. Although she is exhausted, she finds being a first-year teacher and first year grad student to be very rewarding. She is especially looking forward to the Oxford travel program this summer, however she will be away from her sister, Katie, who she lives with now. The drive to want to be a teacher was because of the inspirational teachers Marisa had growing up. She had teachers who fostered her love of reading, which allowed her to get to know the characters and escape the world around her. Marisa wants to share this passion with her students, she wants to teach them the meaning of literature, helping them find texts that intrigue them. Marisa also wants her students to see the purpose in why we read and write. When she is not in school or teaching, Marisa is the biggest Swifty Fan who likes to hang out with her friends.
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"At 1:00 in the morning, at 13-years-old, I should be sound asleep, yet there is a book to be devoured. The novel in front of me consumes my very brain. I have to be brainwashed; this is the only reason for why I cannot physically put this book down. It must be a serious ailment because my friends don’t struggle with this, just me. I can’t seem to put it down. The book is a drug; a drug with a thousand capabilities. "
--From Marisa Silk's "I Need A Fix". To read her piece in its entirety, click here. |
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Hailing from Leominster, Massachusetts, Megan LeBlanc is a crafty creative. In her free time, Megan can be found engaging in a series of crafts that could make Michael’s employees jealous! Megan enjoys painting, knitting, crocheting, and making friendship bracelets. Her creative side isn’t only noticed with her crafts, however. Megan is an avid player of the game Stardew Valley, where players create and customize their own farm plots. Megan’s aptitude for imaginative and creative play likely began with the books she read growing up; how else could a young reader develop their imagination other than reading the illustrious Stephen King? Megan cannot place her finger on how she obtained her first Stephen King novel, but she highly suspects her dad’s affinity for King is the likely culprit. While Megan certainly isn’t discussing the plot of Misery on a daily basis, she is currently an English teacher in the Taunton public school system. As a teacher, Megan desperately wants to be an early riser; she claims that there is nothing that matches the peaceful quietude of a student-less hallway in the morning. However, Megan jokes that she loves sleeping too much, and does her best work in the afternoons instead. Luckily, this schedule works well for Megan as she lives only 5 minutes from school! When Megan is not teaching or crafting, she can be found spending time at home with her boyfriend and their pets, a very cute cat named Theo and a leopard gecko.
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"I remember the feeling of reading something so dense. I felt smart and capable, able to read books that many adults couldn’t (or so I heard). My dad saw how much I loved reading in general, and while he always encouraged this habit, he began to specifically go out of his way to get me anything and everything Stephen King-related. Now, I have dozens of his books and am working to have his full collection."
--From Megan LeBlanc's "The King of Horror and I". To read her text in its entirety, click here. |
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Catarina Morrissette is a 31-year-old, stay at home mom, and full time graduate student at Bridgewater State University, studying English literature. She was born in the Azores, and moved to the United States when she was 5-years-old. She worked for 10 years in the military as a patient administrator, and then as a civilian to help soldiers with travel orders. As a child, she moved around a lot, but decided to settle down with her family in New Bedford, MA. Her daughter is 8-years-old and her son is 11-years-old. Catarina also has two dogs, Zuma (yes, an intentional Paw Patrol reference!) and Cocoa (just like the hot beverage!). Her cat, Garfield, is named after the character himself for their similar looks. She received her Bachelor’s degree in English literature from BSU in 2024, and she wishes to pursue a career of teaching 6th grade ELA. Catarina reminisces on how she used to struggle with reading English as a child with it being her second language. She would “count how people were ahead of [her] to know when [she] would read next,” displaying a feeling many young students feel when they struggle with something in school. This poignant sentiment shows Catarina’s dedication, hard work, and resilience in studying English that will in no doubt inspire her future students with this role model in their lives. When she is not taking care of her kids and studying English literature, she can be found crafting all things in her free time.
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"What opened my eyes to reading and its ability to change the world, was listening to my son read for the first time. I knew that eventually he was going to read, but in the back of my head he was still my baby. During our nightly readings he was picking up on sight words, and when we were out, he started reading street signs. Reading started at a young age for him because he would get nightly stories before bed. I didn’t know it then but by doing this I was only helping my son and his reading skills. This created a bond between the two of us, I ended up with a library of various children’s books, like the classics, The Polar Express, and The Night Before Christmas, which I still read to my children every year during Christmas time."
--From Catarina Morrissette's "Rediscovering Reading: How My Son Showed Me Away". To read her piece in its entirety, click here. |
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Kaitlynn Davis is a self proclaimed “Yapper” and loves to talk, and will talk to anyone and everyone. She is also currently a full time student and Graduate Assistant for the BSU English Department. Her journey to becoming a college student involved a 2 year gap between her first and second year of undergrad and returned to finish her bachelor’s during Covid. She has been determined to reach her goals as she dived straight into her Masters upon completing her Bachelor degree. She originally wanted to be a Vet when she was in high school and attended “the Aggie”, at that time she also knew she wanted to be a writer. Life took her in a different direction than being a vet, but the dream of being a writer still flourishes as she has taken steps to become a successful novelist in the future. She has been inspired by her love for YA and Fantasy novels to work on a fantasy series inspired by Alice in Wonderland. One fun fact about Kaitlynn is that she loves foxes. She has recently become engaged during the summer of 2023. She and her fiancé have 2 cats, Pancake and Cosette. They currently also have two roommates who each also bring a cat into the household, Smokey and O'Brien.
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"Sometimes I can glue myself to a page and be lost, and other times I cannot read a single sentence. It’s always a battle. Despite this, Young Adult fiction has always lended me an accessible hand. The few books I really clung to during my gloomy teenage years were: Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas, Truthwitch by Susan Dennard, and Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard. These books were stories of teen girls overcoming the odds and saving a world. Laid out before a highbrow literary critic they may be melodramatic and cheesy, but to me they formed a staircase to positive self reflection. They were stories written by women for women."
--From Kaitlynn Davis's "When I Imagine." To read her piece in its entirety, click here. |
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Caitlin Kelly is in her ninth year teaching English at Mashapee High School. Her journey into the profession started at Stonehill, where she earned her degree in English. She vehemently denied that she’d be a teacher and eyed law school; however, the two law firms at which she interned drew her ire, and she found a home teaching high schoolers to love reading and writing. She greatly enjoys teaching The Great Gatsby and The Hate U Give, though the dreaded Romeo and Juliet has been as inescapable as soot in the Valley of Ashes; it’s followed her from curriculum to curriculum across age groups! Parting with this story would be no “sweet sorrow,” just “sweet!” Caitlin finds her joy at and around water; she ritually goes to the beach on the first day of summer to read, loves to kayak and paddleboard, and grew up in Sandy Neck. Recently, she and her husband bought a house, which has launched them into the highs and lows of do-it-yourself home renovations. They have nourished a lovely garden which yields tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers; they hope to see it flourish in the future.
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"As I wandered among the shelves that day, trailing my small hand along the book bindings, I found myself eye-to-eye with a pastel colored shelf. There were what seemed like a million books, all of a similar size, with numbers on the bindings, and letters that looked like blocks running down the spines. As I traced down the blocks spelling out “The Babysitters Club,” I was intrigued. Having always wanted to be a babysitter when “I grew up,” and being very fond of my own babysitter, who always let me make cookies and who never made me do the dishes, the series spoke to me. A rule follower through and through, and not wanting to do anything to risk my reading prize, I pulled out the book with the #1, plopped myself down, and began to read."
--From Caitlin Kelly's "Passport to Reading". To read her piece in its entirety, click here. |
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Lee Torda celebrates her 24th year as a faculty member in the English Department at BSU. In anticipation and honor of her 25th anniversary, her silver, she is growing out her grey hair. It's been an honor and a privilege to work with her students over the years teaching Composition Pedagogy, Writing, and Literacy Studies. She's had a lot of jobs during her 24 years at the university, most recently she is serving as the Interim Dean of Undergraduate Studies. When not at school, she can typically be found hiking with her dog, the famous, Chicken, and her husband in and around her home of almost three years, New Bedford. Their cat Noodle, at 19 years old, opts to stay home. Though she was reluctant to leave Boston in 2022, she can't imagine living anywhere but NB and roughly a mile from the ocean. Go Whalers. Hobbies include, aforementioned hiking, running (slowly), walking, just generally moving outside, reading (of course), cleaning, crossword puzzles, jigsaw puzzles and really not all that much else. It's a good life.
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"But I read and reread Little Town on the Prairie over and over and These Happy Golden Years over and over because they were about happy times. Nobody died, or at least I don’t remember anyone dying. But, now that I think of it, I don’t think that’s really why, at least not entirely. Laura becomes a teacher and goes on to live a life beyond her family. She meets and marries her husband. She grows up. I think in the end that is one of the things I loved about Little Women. They all grow up, except for Beth of course. She dies. Which was unendingly sad when I read it the first time. I couldn’t believe they killed Beth. Like, who writes books where people die? But that’s how you know you’ve read a grown up book–somebody dies. And the rest of them all grow up and made lives for themselves, lives that included the deep loss of a sister. "
--From Lee Torda's "The Girls of Summer". To read her piece in its entirety, click here. |
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Need to be in touch with me?
Lee Torda, PhD Interim Dean of Undergraduate Studies 200 Clement C. Maxwell Library 508.531.1790 Teaching Website: www.leetorda.com |
OFFICE HOURS: By appointment. Email me at [email protected] with times/days you'd like to meet, and I will respond within 24 hours.
“Let’s save pessimism for better times” --Eduardo Galeano |
ZOOM link to attend class: https://bridgew.zoom.us/j/91202035302?pwd=akVFQ4cdIaHX77ttkfZFFM10iTdtmW.1