Libraries to Host Author Talks Series

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The ongoing UMass Amherst Libraries Author Talks Series, celebrating authors and books with Five College connections, continues with three events in the spring semester, presentations by Ilan Stavans, Andrea Hairston and TreaAndrea Russworm. All take place from 5-7 p.m. in 2601 W.E.B. Du Bois Library.

Ilan Stavans, Thursday, Feb. 8: “Trump in Translation: What He Says in English and How He Says It”

Stavans is Lewis-Sebring Professor of Humanities, Latin American, and Latino Culture at Amherst College, host of NPR’s podcast “In Contrast,” and publisher of Restless Books. He is known for his insights into American, Hispanic and Jewish cultures, which are prevalent in his own works, including “Gabriel García Márquez: The Early Years” and “Return to Centro Histórico: A Mexican Jew Looks for His Roots,”as well as works he has edited or translated, such as “The FSG Book of 20th-Century Latin American Poetry” and Pablo Neruda’s “All the Odes.”

Andrea Hairston, Thursday, March 1: Readings and Music from “Will Do Magic for Small Change”

Hairston is Louise Wolff Kahn 1931 Professor of Theatre and Africana Studies at Smith College. She is an award-winning playwright, novelist and essayist whose works have appeared on stage, television and radio, and are currently produced at Chrysalis Theatre, where she serves as artistic director. Hairston will be reading sections from her new novel “Will Do Magic for Small Change,” and musical dynamo Pan Morigan will sing songs she has written based on lyrics from the book. The melodies are influenced by Morigan’s research into the banjo and blues and Irish music.

TreaAndrea Russworm, Thursday, April 12: “From Playing Trayvon to Trans Masculine Bodies in the NBA: Race, Resistance, and Shading Queer Game Studies”

TreaAndrea Russworm teaches in the UMass Amherst English department and has authored various books, most recently “Gaming Representation: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Video Games,” co-edited with Jennifer Malkowski and“From Madea to Media Mogul: Theorizing Tyler Perry,” co-edited with Samantha Sheppard and Karen Bowdre. Russworm’s contribution to both books continues her critique of the humanizing impulse in post-civil rights representational culture, from video games and other digital media to popular films and television shows. Her book, “Blackness is Burning: Civil Rights, Popular Culture, and the Problem of Recognition” is one of the first to examine the ways race and psychological rhetoric collided in the public and popular culture of the civil rights era. Russworm is working on a fourth book, a scholarly monograph, on race and technology.