Flyer made by Amaya Behsman ‘25.
AMAYA BEHSMAN / COURTESY
Victoria Schiller, Senior Writer
On March 10, the English department at Manhattan University welcomed critically acclaimed author Justin Torres to campus. The department is known for hosting their Major Author Reading Series, where faculty have invited several acclaimed authors and writers to visit campus to share their work, host Q&A sessions and meet students.
Torres’ first novel, “We the Animals” was a national bestseller and was later adapted into a feature film in 2018. His second novel, “Blackouts” won the National Book Award for fiction. The Quadrangle had the opportunity to speak to faculty and several students who attended the event.
Rocco Marinaccio, department chairperson of liberal learning and a professor of English at MU, has taught Torres’ books in several of his classes. Marinaccio spoke about the success of the night, along with why the Major Author Readings Series events are so important on campus.
“I love teaching his [Torres] work,” Marinaccio said. “I was an undergraduate here and we have a long history of bringing writers on campus. It’s something we do really well because we’re in New York and we have a very thriving department of literature and languages, and liberal arts school in general. Like many things, it sort of declined a bit because of COVID and because we have less money to pay writers these days. It was really great to see this kind of energy. Some of the best events that I remember, I knew that people were there because they loved the work and that the work spoke to them. I don’t think we’ve ever had a crowd like that. You’re looking at around 150 people. I counted heads. There were a lot of people in that room.”
Marinaccio also shared how this event came about and what goes into the planning process of major events like these on campus.
“We ideally want to get someone where they’ve [students] read the work,” Marinaccio said. “I think that was part of what made the Torres reading so special. Many of us in many different courses teach his work. There were a lot of students. I could look out in the audience and see dozens upon dozens of students that I had taught, who I knew had read and liked the work. You want to bring someone whose work you think is just really good and interesting and worth listening to. Torres was a person who spoke to a wide audience. He has a really meaningful, authentic presence. As a queer novelist, Latinx novelist and as a first generation college student, we knew that he would reach a wide constituency of our students. And also, he’s a National Book Award winner. He is a major, major writer. He ticks all the boxes.”
Ashton Erb, a sophomore and sociology major, read “We the Animals” in Marinaccio’s English 150 course. Erb attended the event and shared her favorite part of the night.
“If I had to choose one, it would be when he [Torres] was reading out the chapters of the book and explaining some of it,” Erb said. “It was cool to hear the way that he says the sentences. The way that I read it is a different interpretation. Reading and art are subjective things, so it was really cool to hear it from his mind the way he wanted it to be heard. It was like reliving the book all over again in a different light. That was really cool. Just the way he talked to us, even when he was in front of the whole crowd, he was still personable in that there was a rhythm to the way he talked. It was alive.”
Aaron Schoepf is a junior and an English major who attended the event. He had the opportunity to meet and speak with Torres throughout the night. It was also Schoepf’s first time attending an event from the Major Author Reading Series.
“I want to be a writer after I graduate, so Major Author Reading events are an extremely valuable resource to me,” Schoepf wrote in an email to The Quadrangle. “‘We the Animals’ is such a raw, vulnerable piece about familial relationships, sexual identity and mental health, something we can all relate to in some form or another. My favorite part of the event was Justin signing copies of his books. He took the time to talk to every single person who got their copies signed, even putting personalized messages in as well. Seeing this be received so well made me excited for the future of the English department, and hopefully they can do more events within the Major Author Reading Series next semester!”
*Editor’s Note: Elizabeth Kalaj contributed to reporting.