Drawing on her 20 years of experience as a New York City public school educator and financial literacy advocate, 2005 Boston College graduate Diana Isern has published Money Talks: An Educator’s Guide to Teaching Financial Empowerment (Beacon Press/Penguin Random House, 2026). According to Isern, Money Talks comes at a time when more than half the country requires personal finance education in high schools, and most of the instructors being tasked with teaching those courses were never trained to do so. Money Talks is a jargon-free guide that helps educators create engaging lessons about topics ranging from savings and the stock market to real estate and building credit. Isern’s book blends personal reflection, practical tools, and real voices from students and educators on the transformative power of financial education. Isern is an accredited financial counselor whose work has been featured in Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, and MarketWatch.
‘Money Talks’
Quoth the Raven
Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven,” a narrative poem about a grieving student mourning the death of his lost love—and his slow descent into madness after a mysterious talking bird visits him, was an immediate sensation and remains one of the most iconic poems in literary history. In his new book, Quothing “The Raven”: The First Responses to America’s Most Famous Poem (Mercer University Press, 2026), BC English Professor Emeritus Paul Lewis follows “The Raven” from the literary salons where it was discussed, to the newspapers where it was reviewed, to the 29 parodies that made fun of both the poem and its author. A Poe scholar, Lewis addresses why “The Raven” was widely reprinted, praised, criticized, and mocked during the years from its 1845 publication to Poe’s death in 1849. Read more on BC News.
Posted in Boston College Authors
Tagged Edgar Allan Poe, English Department, literary analysis, poem
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‘Weathering’
In her book Weathering: The Extraordinary Stress of Ordinary Life in an Unjust Society, Arline T. Geronimus coined the term “weathering” to describe the effects of systemic oppression—including racism and classism—on the body. She will be the featured speaker at the Lowell Humanities Series Lecture on October 21 at 7 p.m. in Gasson 100. Based on more than 30 years of research, Geronimus argues that groups who experience systemic cultural oppression, long-term material hardship, exploitation, stigma, and political marginalization suffer biological aging long before they are chronologically old. She is a professor in the School of Public Health and research professor in the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, where she also is affiliated with the Center for Research on Ethnicity, Culture, and Health. Her talk is co-sponsored by the Park Street Corporation Speaker Series, Connell School of Nursing, and BC School of Social Work. The event is free and open to the public, but advance registration is required.
‘Servants of the Mysteries’
BC Clough School of Theology and Ministry Professor John Baldovin, S.J., presents a comprehensive Eucharistic theology of the ministerial priesthood as envisioned by the Second Vatican Council in his new book, Servants of the Mysteries (Liturgical Press, 2026). Fr. Baldovin has 40 years of experience teaching and writing on the relation between ordained priesthood and the Eucharist. Servants of the Mysteries brings the theology and sacramental practice of Catholic priests in line with Vatican II’s commitment to full, active, and conscious participation of all the faithful in the liturgy in light of insights from contemporary Catholic theology of the Eucharist. He talks about his book in this video from Liturgical Press.
Emily Knox on book banning
Emily J.M. Knox, interim dean and professor at the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will present “Book Banning in the 21st Century” at Boston College on October 14 at 7 p.m. in Devlin 110. Knox has testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on book banning and is author of Book Banning in 21st-Century America (Bloomsbury). First published in 2015, with a second edition earlier this year, Book Banning examines contemporary cases of book challenges in schools and public libraries across the United States. Knox’s scholarly work focuses on information access, intellectual freedom and censorship. She also is the author of the award-winning book Foundations of Intellectual Freedom and a former editor of the Journal of Intellectual Freedom and Privacy. Her lecture is presented by the Lowell Humanities Series and cosponsored by Boston College Libraries, the Lynch School of Education and Human Development, and the Communication Department. The event is free and open to the public, but advance registration is required.
‘The Taste of Rain in Buenos Aires’
When a vision disorder stole his ability to read, 2005 Boston College graduate Will Dowd found himself exiled from the world of books—until he discovered an unusual path back through the landscape of dreams. Armed with an experimental dream-inception device from MIT, Dowd embarked on a yearlong odyssey into his own unconscious. His new book, The Taste of Rain in Buenos Aires (Etruscan Press, 2026), chronicles 20 dream narratives born from this first-of-its-kind experiment. Part literary experiment, part exploration of consciousness, The Taste of Rain in Buenos Aires reveals how dreams, like books, can become portals to other worlds. A regular editorial cartoonist for The Boston Globe, Dowd’s writing and artwork have appeared in The Washington Post, NPR, The Boston Globe Magazine, Lithub, and elsewhere. He is a poetry editor for Post Road Magazine. Dowd’s previous book, Areas of Fog, was named a Massachusetts Book Award “Must Read.”
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‘From Suffrage to Sisterhood’
Burns Visiting Scholar in Irish Studies at Boston College Senia Pašeta studies the intersection of Irish women’s political and social activism with the Irish nationalism that took root in the late 19th century, and ultimately sparked Irish independence from Great Britain in 1922. A professor of modern history at the University of Oxford, Pašeta is the author of Modern Ireland: A Very Short Introduction, Irish Nationalist Women 1900-1918, and Before the Revolution: Nationalism, Social Change and Ireland’s Catholic Elite, 1879-1922. Her current book project scheduled for release next year, Political Women in Ireland, 1880-1918, is a more expansive survey of women’s multifaceted political activism, its historical foundations, and adaptation to wider political challenges. Pašeta will discuss her research on the continuity and transformation in Irish feminism at the Burns Scholar Lecture on September 30 in the Burns Library Thompson Room at 6 p.m. (preceded by a 5 p.m. reception). Her lecture, “From Suffrage to Sisterhood: A History of Feminism in Modern Ireland,” is free and open to the public. Learn more at BC News.
A mystery in Massachusetts
Boston College graduate Stephen Paul Sayers’ new book, Beneath Still, Dark Water (Milford House Press, 2026), is a haunting suspense novel set against the backdrop of a divisive historical event in Massachusetts: the forced displacement of 2,500 Swift River Valley residents to build the Quabbin Reservoir. In 1938, homes and businesses are burned to the ground as the state prepares to create the reservoir. A once-thriving community becomes a ghost town. Then a local girl disappears. But secrets have a way of floating to the surface. Twenty-five years later, Harrison “Brick” Bricker’s alcohol-ravaged memories begin to return, forcing him to confront what really happened before the dark waters settled over the place he once called home. Sayers is on the faculty at the University of Missouri. His previous works include The Carousel Man and the Caretakers trilogy.
Meet Kuro
A little black cat named Kuro introduces children to Latin American and Caribbean cultures in the bilingual book, Mi Familia Cubana con Kuro/My Cuban Family with Kuro by Yvette Ramirez. Readers will go on an adventure and learn about the customs, foods, and music of Kuro’s Cuban/Salvadoran family. A 2012 Boston College graduate, Ramirez is founder of Kuro Libros, which is dedicated to empowering parents and children to engage with Latin American and Caribbean culture and language, promoting cultural acceptance and compassion. The goal is to build confidence and resilience, using Kuro the cat as a guide to help young readers understand who they are, where they came from, and how they contribute to the world.
Space for Indigenous artists
In recent years, studios like Marvel and DC have seen enormous success transforming comics into major motion pictures. At the same time, bookstores have made more room for comic books and graphic novels on their shelves. Yet despite the popular appeal of these media, Indigenous artists continue to find their work given little attention by mainstream publishers, booksellers, production houses, and academics. In his book Indigenous Comics and Graphic Novels: Studies in Genre (University Press of Mississippi, 2024), James J. Donahue, a Boston College graduate, unravels the disparities of representation in the fields of comics studies and comics publishing. Donahue documents and analyzes the works of several Indigenous artists, including Theo Tso, Todd Houseman, and Arigon Starr. The author emphasizes that the creation of artistic and critical spaces for Indigenous comics and graphic novels should be an essential concern for the comics studies field. Indigenous Comics and Graphic Novels was shortlisted for the 2025 Charles Hatfield Book Prize from the Comics Studies Society. Donahue, who earned a master’s degree from BC in 1998, is a professor of English at SUNY Potsdam, where he has taught since 2007.
