Bulletin

by Seth Vannatta ’95 Since he burst on the world with his heavy-metal memoir “Fargo Rock City” in 2001, Chuck Klosterman has been one of the most successful novelists and essayists in America. As he writes in his contribution to this book, Klosterman “enjoys writing about big, unwieldy ideas” as they circulate in culture, in…

by Gunther Karsten ’85 Karsten is the 2007 World Memory Champion, an eight-time German Memory Champion, and international memory coach. His memory technique book, a bestseller in Germany, and published in Russian, Chinese, Taiwanese, and Spanish, has now been translated into English and is available as an e-book. The book provides tools and mental exercises…

by J.L. Austgen ’02 Austgen believes “perfect characters are boring,” and the main character in his debut novel is far from perfect. FBI agent Evelyn Morgan’s job is to find the original sources of funding for a terrorist cell operating in a suburb of Washington, D.C. When the cell is lost and agents start dying,…

by Nancy Saltzman ’74 “I’m sorry. There were no survivors.” Nancy Saltzman tried to absorb the caller’s words. Her entire family had perished in a small-plane crash. The caller was wrong, though. There was a survivor — Saltzman. She had beaten cancer twice, and the book chronicles her journey through despair and how having a…

by Kaleb Rittenhouse ’09 “The God Within” is a collection of short stories and poems regarding the divinity within humans and the struggle to transcend mortality. Says Rittenhouse, “Even since before I could read or write I was a writer. I am a writer and I will always be a writer no matter what else…

by Kitty Kroger ’66 In this love story set against the backdrop of radical politics in 1970s New Jersey, Jenny belongs to a Maoist collective which sends its members into factories to organize the proletariat. At her workplace, Jenny falls for Miguel, a Dominican immigrant and revolutionary. Jenny is torn by misgivings about the politics…

by Mary Lowry ’97 Everything looks perfect in 14-year-old Rhonda’s world, but in actuality, the only reliable person in her life is the Mexican yardman, Jesús. When he is deported, Rhonda seizes an opportunity to find her friend by swimming to the Mexican side of the Rio Grande. When a peyote-addled bartender in the border…

edited and translated by Diane Rayor ’80 Rayor, who was awarded an honorary degree from CC in 2010, is a classics professor at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. Sophocles’ Antigone comes alive in this new translation that has been called “accurate yet accessible,” and helps bring to life the play’s inherent theatricality. Rayor provides…

by Pamela Riney-Kehrberg ’85 This story of childhood on America’s farms in the late 19th and early 20th centuries is a journey back to America’s breadbasket. Fleshing out the contours of everyday life, the book focuses on what farm children saw, heard, smelled, tasted, and felt — and how they worked, played, and learned. Drawing…

by Dean Metcalf ’69 Metcalf, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, grappled with the demons he encountered in Vietnam and in his post-combat nightmares. The book is a memoir of war, journalism, and growing up in the Pacific Northwest. Stories of his four years in the U.S. Marine Corps — in Vietnam; Okinawa, Japan; the Philippines;…