Fiction
Mansfield Park
By Jane Austen; edited with an introduction by Goucher College Professor of Literary Studies Juliette Wells
Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition
September 9, 2025; available for pre-order
Jane Austen’s complex tale of social class and morality, now in a collectible deluxe edition celebrating the 250th anniversary of the author’s birth, with an introduction by Goucher professor and Jane Austen scholar Juliette Wells.
Shy and penniless Fanny Price is brought up on her uncle Sir Thomas Bertram’s estate, Mansfield Park, as an act of charity. Sir Thomas also owns land—and benefits from the labor of enslaved people—in the Caribbean colony of Antigua. Fanny is miserable until her kind cousin Edmund Bertram takes her under his wing. Having secretly fallen in love with him, Fanny suffers severely when his head is turned by the captivating Mary Crawford. Fanny’s quiet fortitude makes Mansfield Park one of Austen’s most psychologically astute novels.
Nonfiction & Memoir
Slip: Life in the Middle of Eating Disorder Recovery
By Mallary Tenore Tarpley, M.F.A. ’22
Simon Element, an imprint of Simon & Schuster
August 5, 2025; available for pre-order
When Mallary Tenore Tarpley lost her mother at 11 years old, she wanted to stop time. If growing up meant living without her mother, then she wanted to stay little forever. What started as small acts of food restriction soon turned into a full-blown eating disorder, and a year later, Tarpley was admitted to Boston’s Children’s Hospital. Slip chronicles Tarpley’s childhood struggles with anorexia to her present-day experiences grappling with recovery.
A journalist by trade, Tarpley interviewed and surveyed hundreds of patients, doctors, and researchers to provide a deeper understanding of eating disorder treatment. She draws on this original reporting, as well as cutting-edge science, to illuminate what has changed in the years since she was first diagnosed.
As Tarpley came to learn, “full recovery” from an eating disorder is complicated. And that idea provides the basis for the new framework explored in this book: that there is a “middle place” between sickness and full recovery, a place where slips are accepted as part of the process but progress is always possible.
Godstruck: Seven Women’s Unexpected Journeys to Religious Conversion
By Kelsey Osgood, M.F.A. ’10
Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House
April 8, 2025
Religious involvement has been declining in the West for decades—and, though men have historically outnumbered women among the disaffiliated in the U.S., a greater share of the young adults leaving religion today are women. A young, secular Kelsey Osgood would have been surprised to hear that she would be among those moving in the opposite direction. And yet, after the conversion to Orthodox Judaism that transformed her life, she began to wonder about the other contemporary women who, like her, had been startled to find a home in organized religion.
In Godstruck, she profiles six other converts—some raised firmly atheist, others agnostic or religious—navigating independent paths to religious devotion. From Angela, a data-driven writer and journalist who finds herself drawn to Quaker meetings, to Hana, whose conversion to Islam leads her halfway around the world, to Christina, whose Amish faith transforms her relationship to modernity, these women’s unexpected revelations introduce them to new and sometimes radically different ways of living. Along the way, Osgood charts a course through a wide range of cultural references—from Saint Augustine, Simone Weil, and Tolstoy to desert hermits, Alcoholics Anonymous, and contemporary feminism—to explore some of our attempts to understand and cope with the mysteries of life and the human condition.
Biomythography Bayou
By Mel Michelle Lewis ’02
The Griot Project Book Series, Bucknell University Press
October 11, 2024
When your stories flow from the brackish waters of the Gulf South, where the land and water merge, your narratives cannot be contained or constrained by the Eurocentric conventions of autobiography. When your story is rooted in the histories of your West African, Creek, and Creole ancestors, as well as your Black, feminist, and queer communities, you must create a biomythography that transcends linear time and extends beyond the pages of a book.
Biomythography Bayou is more than just a book of memoir; it is a ritual for conjuring queer embodied knowledges and decolonial perspectives. Blending a rich gumbo of genres—from ingredients such as praise songs, folk tales, recipes, incantations, and invocations—it also includes a multimedia component, with “bayou tableau” images and audio recording links. Inspired by such writers as Audre Lorde, Zora Neale Hurston, and Octavia Butler, Mel Michelle Lewis draws from the well of her ancestors in order to chart a course toward healing Afrofutures. Showcasing the nature, folklore, dialect, foodways, music, and art of the Gulf’s coastal communities, Lewis finds poetic ways to celebrate their power and wisdom.
Short Stories
Horse Show
By Jess Bowers ’02
Santa Fe Writer’s Project
April 9, 2024
From the tale of Lady Wonder, the mare who fooled a Duke University psychologist into thinking she could read minds, to television palomino Mr. Ed’s hypnotic hold over Wilbur Post and his long-suffering wife, the 13 stories in Horse Show explore how humans have used, abused, and spectacularized their equine companions throughout American history. Wrestling with themes of obsolescence, grief, and nostalgia, Bowers guides us through her museum of equine oddities with arresting imagery, unflinching intensity, and dark humor.
Kids & Young Adult
Discovering Life’s Story: The Evolution of an Idea
By Joy Hakim, M.Ed. ’54
MITeen Press
May 7, 2024
In the second volume of the Discovering Life’s Story series by best-selling author Joy Hakim, the theory of evolution takes hold—transforming ideas about survival, extinction, and life itself.
Can species change? Or go extinct? In the 18th century, most people answer no to both questions. But in the century that follows, that certainty gets challenged as some people in Europe question the common belief that all creatures are the same as they’ve been since life’s creation. The Evolution of an Idea, the second volume of Discovering Life’s Story, opens with the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus, who attempts to create an organizing system for the myriad forms of life on earth. It continues into the late 1800s, when two Englishmen—Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace—each develop their own version of a startling new theory of how life-forms change over time. This evolutionary idea will alter the understanding of our place in the great web of life on earth. In this volume, author Joy Hakim continues charting the path of human discovery and shows how groundbreaking thinkers began to unlock the biological secrets of our own existence.
Perfect Match: The Story of Althea Gibson and Angela Buxton
Written by Lori Dubbin ’77 and illustrated by Amanda Quartey
Kar-Ben Publishing
September 10, 2024
When Althea Gibson first dreamed of joining the big American tennis leagues, she was denied because she was Black. Angela Buxton dreamed of joining the best tennis clubs in Britain, but she was rejected because she was Jewish. When Angela heard that Althea was coming to Britain to compete, she skipped school to see the match. If Althea didn’t let hatred stop her from playing the game she loved, Angela wouldn’t either.
At the French Championships in 1956, Angela told Althea about her dream of winning Wimbledon with a doubles partner. To win as a team, they would have to stick to their strengths—together.
Charlie Drew and His Missing Stethoscope
Written by David C. Miller, M.Ed. ’97, and illustrated by Cameron Wilson
Dare to be King Project
December 2, 2024
When he is not in school, Charlie loves to play basketball with his dad and eat ice cream. Unlike most boys his age, Charlie’s schedule is super busy with biochemistry, pharmacology, and anatomy classes. Charlie Drew and His Missing Stethoscope is about an 11-year-old genius who attends Howard University Medical School. Charlie is the youngest student in the United States in medical school.
Career guides & how-to books
Creating an EVEN Greater Whole: Becoming an Emotionally Intelligent Leader
By Susan Schwartz ’81
Auerbach Publications, an imprint of CRC Press
April 25, 2025
Leadership is not a solo sport; it’s about people and how they engage with one another. True leadership isn’t driven by an individual’s ego, but by the ability to connect, understand, and inspire others. Emotional intelligence (EQ) enables leaders to shift their mindset, empowering their teams to reach their highest potential. Creating an Even Greater Whole: Becoming an Emotionally Intelligent Leader offers managers a fresh perspective and practical tools to navigate their leadership journey.
Start, Manage & Exit A Profitable Government Contracting Firm
By Brianna Bowling ’92
Brindan
March 24, 2025
If you want to start a government contracting firm but think it’s too complicated, this book will guide you through the process. It covers all aspects, from getting the proper credentials to finding opportunities, writing proposals, establishing your rates, maximizing your profit, and motivating your employees. If you feel overwhelmed, these real-world examples will take you step-by-step and simplify what seems complicated into something easy to understand.
Faculty Book Chapters
“Opening Her Third Eye: Protagonist and Auteurial Awakening in Sweetie, The Piano, and Holy Smoke!”
By Assistant Professor of Writing Katherine Cottle ’95
In A Critical Companion to Jane Campion, edited by Elsa Colombani and Eurydice Da Silva
Lexington Books/Rowman & Littlefield<
December 3, 2024
A Critical Companion to Jane Campion offers a thorough study of the director’s works. This edited volume seeks a modern approach by blurring the frontiers between film and television, film theater releases, and platforms, and treats the entirety of Campion’s body of work as a meaningful whole. The chapters explore recurring themes and connections across Campion’s oeuvre, including her complex feminine characters, exploration of New Zealand landscapes, love for literature, constant dialogue between media, and the influence of the Gothic. Contributors draw on a variety of scholarly approaches, methodologies, and perspectives to provide innovative readings of Campion’s work that are sure to spark new discussions.
“Communitas and Practice in the Baltimore Rhythm Festival”
By Professor Emeritus Rory Turner
In Egalitarian Dynamics Liminality, and Victor Turner’s Contribution to the Understanding of Socio-historical Process, edited by Bruce Kapferer and Marina Gold
Berghahn Books
July 1, 2024
Liminality, the state of being “betwixt and between,” is one of anthropology’s most influential concepts. This volume reconsiders Victor Turner’s innovative extension of Arnold Van Gennep’s concept of liminality from within the Manchester tradition of social anthropology established by Max Gluckman. Turner’s work was grounded in ethnography and engaged with philosophical perspectives in varied socio-historical contexts, extending well beyond the confines of the anthropology that initially inspired much of his work. Liminality has therefore become a concept with broad interdisciplinary reach. Engaging with topical issues across the globe—from neuroscience to open access publishing and refugee experiences in Europe—this volume launches Turner’s fundamental work into the future.
“‘He has great pleasure in seeing the performances of other people’: Austen’s Men and the Arts”
By Professor of Literary Studies Juliette Wells
In The Edinburgh Companion to Jane Austen and the Arts, edited by Joe Bray and Hannah Moss
Edinburgh University Press
May 31, 2024
Jane Austen was a keen consumer of the arts throughout her lifetime. The Edinburgh Companion to Jane Austen and the Arts considers how Austen represents the arts in her writing, from her juvenilia to her mature novels. The 33 original chapters in this companion cover the full range of Austen’s engagement with the arts, including the silhouette and the caricature, crafts, theater, fashion, music, and dance, together with the artistic potential of both interior and exterior spaces. This volume also explores her artistic afterlives in creative reimaginings across different media, including adaptations and transpositions in film, television, theater, digital platforms, and games.
“Fulfilling Allah’s Trust: Rhetorics of Amannah as a Foundation for Social Change”
By Associate Professor of Professional and Creative Writing Lana Oweidat and Tamara Issak
In Pluriversal Literacies: Tools of Perseverance and Livable Futures, edited by Ellen Cushman, Romeo García, and Damián Baca
University of Pittsburgh Press
January 2, 2024
Decolonial projects can end up reinforcing dominant modes of thinking by shoehorning understandings of Indigenous and non-Western traditions within Eurocentric frameworks. This volume seeks to decenter these theories and to engage Indigenous contexts on their own terms, starting with the very tools of representation. The volume editors and contributors argue for epistemic change at the level of the language and media that people use to represent meaning. The range of topics covered includes American Indian and Indigenous representations, literacies, and rhetorics; critical revisionist historiography and comparative rhetorics; delinking colonial literacies of cartographic power and modernity; “northern” and “southern” hemispheric relations; and theorizations of/from oceanic border spaces.