ECU English associate professor to launch new book, unveil sculpture
Dr. Helena Feder, East Carolina University associate professor of literature and environment in the Department of English and director of the Great Books program, will host a reception, sculpture unveiling and launch of her new book, “You Are the River,” at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 1 at ECU’s outdoor sculpture garden between Joyner Library and Mendenhall.
The event is a culmination of Feder’s 2019-20 Mellon/ACLS Scholar and Society Fellowship spent in residence at the North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA). While there, Feder worked on three book manuscripts, “Close Reading the Anthropocene,” “You Are the River” and “Apprehensions” (still in progress).
“You Are the River” edited by ECU associate professor Dr. Helena Feder
“You Are the River” is a collection of 75 literary responses to 75 works in the NCMA permanent collection. Feder said the idea for the volume came, in part, from the workshops she offered at the museum before COVID-19 closed its doors in March 2020. The museum has since reopened and 2022 marks the 75th anniversary of the state appropriation that contributed to its establishment.
“The volume features writing by the most acclaimed and accomplished writers in North Carolina, including Dorianne Laux, shortlisted for a Pulitzer in 2020, N.C. Poet Laureate Jaki Shelton Green, Michael Parker, David Gessner, Liza Wieland, Michael McFee, Fred Chappell, Jill McCorkle, Dan Wallace, Marianne Gingher, Linda Beatrice Brown and many others,” Feder said, “as well as work by several talented emerging writes, including one piece by a museum workshop participant.”
Contributing authors who will read at the event include Green and ECU’s Wieland, Luke Whisnant, John Hoppenthaler, Alex Albright and Peter Makuck.
The Great Books sculpture is an interactive take-a-book/leave-a-book library, designed to demonstrate the connection between — and importance of — the arts and the humanities.
Feder said she enjoys when people ask her about the Great Books program because it gives her the opportunity to tell them more about ECU.
“English is a flagship department, staffed by some of the most talented creative writers and scholars of literature, writing, linguistics and media in the state,” Feder said. “Great Books is a multidisciplinary comparative humanities program, with faculty from seven different departments. We teach a wide range of key texts of many languages, disciplines and cultures, from antiquity to the present.
“The world needs students with both broad and deep cultural literacy, with the knowledge and skills an education in our Great Books program provides. Whether our majors become journalists, lawyers, educators, doctors, scientists, editors or public leaders, they will be critical and creative thinkers,” she said.
This event is a fundraiser for the Great Books program, and Feder is happy to speak with anyone interested in contributing to the program’s mission. Event tickets are limited and available online at www.ecuarts.com. If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation, visit www.give.ecu.edu/greatbooks. For questions, call the Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences at 252-328-6249 or email thcas@ecu.edu.