October 22: Waking the Moon by Elizabeth Hand (1994)
Quote 1:
They never found her. Nothing at all: no clothes, no jewelry, no bones or teeth or locks of auburn hair.
Quote 2:
By the door the two figures remained still. I slitted my eyes, afraid that they would see that I was awake, be moved by the reflection of starlight in my pupils to reach for me with those terrible arms. Still they said nothing, only stood there unmoving, watching, waiting.
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October 16: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (2005)
Quote:
We took away your art because we thought it would reveal your souls. Or to put it more finely, we did it to prove you had souls at all.
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In 1920, Native Women Sought the Vote. Here’s What They Seek Now.
Native women were highly visible in early 20th-century suffrage activism. White suffragists, fascinated by Native matriarchal power, invited Native women to speak at conferences, join parades, and write for their publications. Native suffragists took advantage of these opportunities to speak about pressing issues in their communities — Native voting, land loss and treaty rights. But their stories have largely been forgotten.
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October 24: House of Night series by P.C. & Kristin Cast (2007-2014)
Quote from Marked (2007):
“Remember, darkness does not always equate to evil, just as light does not always bring good.”
NOTE: I contributed the essay “Reimagining ‘Magic City’: How the Casts Mythologize Tulsa” to a book about the House of Night Series, Nyx in the House of Night. You can read more of my posts about the series here.
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Song: “Young Charlotte”
Quote:
They reached the door, and Charles sprang out and held his hand to her. “Why sit you like a monument, have you no power to stir?” He called her once, he called her twice; she answered not a word. He asked her for her hand again, and yet she never stirred.
There are many variations of this song. Read more here.
Listen to the performance of Grandpa Jones…
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October 2: Conversion by Katherine Howe (2014)
Quote:
Something was eating away at the back of my brain. Girls. Dominant narratives. Sex. Death. Arthur Miller. Ann Putman sitting invisible right in the middle of history.
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October 3: Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé (2021).
Quote:
I feel like I’m reliving the same nightmare over and over, and it will never stop.
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A new take on familiar entertainment | Lenoir-Rhyne University
My Star Wars class gets a shout out in this article. I’m offering it again in the Spring 2023 semester.
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Song: “In the Pines”
Quote:
“My husband was a hard working man,
Killed a mile and a half from here.
His head was found in a driving wheel
And his body hasn’t ever been found.”
“My girl, my girl, don’t lie to me.
Tell me, where did you sleep last night?”
“In the pines, in the pines,
Where the sun don’t ever shine.
I would shiver the whole night through.”
Read the complete lyrics.
Listen to Lead Belly’s performance…
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October 17: In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead (2021)
Quote:
It turns out the real you is a quilt, made up of the light and the dark. The life you’ve lived in sunshine and your shadow life, stretching underneath the surface of your mind like a deep underwater world, exerting invisible power. You are a living, breathing story made up of the moments in time you cherish, all strung together, and those you hide. The moments that seem lost. Until the day they’re not.
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October 10: This Is Not a Test by Courtney Summers (2012)
Quote 1:
We eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner to the soundtrack of our own impending death.
Quote 2:
Sometimes you catch something specific like the screams and cries of people trying to hold on to each other before they’re swallowed into other, bigger noises. This is what it sounds like when the world ends.
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Dark Academia
I’m delighted to share the details of my Fall 2022 online Dark Academia class at Signum University!
I’m also thrilled to add that 3 of the brilliant authors whose works we’ll be studying in the Dark Academia course will be holding live Q&A sessions with the class!
I’m thrilled to add that 3 of the brilliant authors whose works we’ll be studying in the #DarkAcademia course will be holding live Q&A sessions with the class!
Peadar Ó Guilín for THE CALL (‘16)
Elisabeth Thomas for CATHERINE HOUSE ('20)
R.F. Kuang for BABEL ('22).
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Meet The Last Man!
In March 2024, I will be offering the module “Meet The Last Man” with SPACE (Signum Portals for Adult Continuing Education) online via Signum University.
Mary Shelley’s novel The Last Man is one of the most relevant books we can read right now, and I’m really looking forward to exploring it with students!
Here is more information.
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October is here! This year for my Halloween countdown, with the invaluable assistance of my husband (and resident expert on all things Appalachian), I will be bringing you a spooky, Halloween-appropriate song with a twist of mountain flavor. I’ve chosen one version of each of these songs to share, but some have been recorded and reinterpreted many, many times.
If you like “Boograss” (or Spooky Bluegrass), Southern Gothic tales, traditional murder ballads, ghost stories, and/or Halloween chills, I hope you will enjoy each day’s post!
Song: “O Death”
Quote:
O Death, O Death in the morning,
O Death, spare me over ‘til another year.
Listen to Rhiannon Giddens’ performance…
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I’ll be starting 2024 with two visits to Hill House! I’m joining SPACE (Signum Portals for Adult Continuing Education) online with Signum University. My first modules include The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (January) and its authorized sequel, A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand (February).
Registration is now open for January’s module. Voting is now open for February’s module. Here are more details. I hope to see you in SPACE!
ALT
ALT
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Song: “Katie Dear”
Quote:
Then he picked up this golden dagger, And stove it through his troubled heart, Saying, “Goodbye, Katie, goodbye darling. The time has come for us to part.”
There are many versions of this song. Read more here.
Listen to the performance of Brennan Leigh & Noel McKay…
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October 20: Vita Nostra by Marina Dyachenko & Sergey Dyachenko, trans. Julia Meitov Hersey (1st published 2007, in English 2018)
Quote:
“‘If we get to the end of the course… we shall become just like them. And we shall speak their language. Then we’ll take revenge.’”
Sasha shook her head.
“If we get to the end of this course, we won’t want to take revenge anymore. We’ll become just like them.”
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