By ELLA WALTERS
As the afternoon sun stretched into The Powerhouse’s Turbine Hall, alumni journeying from all over for this year’s Beloiter Days gathered behind tables and layed out their beautiful, bound, book babies for what would be Beloit College’s first ever (to my knowledge) Alumni Author Celebration.
This past Friday, September 13, (spooky!) from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m., with the efforts of our iconic English professor Chris Fink, our college editor Chris Chambers, and the glowing, passionate Executive Director of Advancement Operations Karen Mayse, any alumni who had published any kind of book were invited to share and present their work; but more than anything, be celebrated for their the labor of love it is to write and publish a book.
From my time there, and conversation with some of the authors, I experienced just that. Ranging from a sleep paralysis thriller from Danny Hodorowski’14 to the magical memoirs of Cerridwn Fallingstar to my introduction to “gonzo journalism” via Michael W. Newman’88, it was truly a gathering of the reaches of the written word. Zachary Gordon’73 even set part of his book “Alley Pond Park” at Beloit College and an alumni who was not officially on the ticket was able to join and display his amazing book on that game of sudoku and how to play it. Mark Street, the son of Beloit’s beloved Professor Emeritus of Modern Languages and Literatures, Jack Street, was there in honor of him and his late brother Stephen Street’77 who had started a book before he passed which has now been able to be published this year as “Balloon Theater: Short Stories and Personal Essays.”
I was honored enough to meet with Karen Mayse, (who I would dub the mastermind behind Beloiter Days) and although she was recovering from a cold from how intensive the last weekend had been, she enthusiastically described to me how this event was just the testing waters for hopefully bigger and better alumni author celebrations in the future.
In the coming years there’s plans for even more alumni to be able to present their published works and to have more activities like readings and panels for the authors. As an aspiring author myself, going to the panel gave me hope that I could one day be showing off my own works as a published alumni. Over my time at Beloit, and this event was an amalgamation of that, I’ve met the warm, kind, enthusiastic, talented faces of fellow Beloiters, students or faculty, past or present, and it makes me know that my author alumni dreams are in good hands.
Featured Image Credit: Ella Walters’27
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