Our next Reading Group meeting will be Tuesday, August 19th, 11am-1pm EST, when we will be joined by Sarah Ensor to discuss her new book, Queer Lasting: Ecologies of Care for a Dying World (2025) (discount code to purchase: NYUAU30). We will be focusing on the preface, introduction, and first chapter of Queer Lasting, which we want to discuss alongside the last two chapters of Sarah Orne Jewett's novel The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896): "Along Shore" and "The Backward View." Jewett's work helped inspire Ensor's project and we hope that reading the two together will generate a rich discussion. But please feel free to join us even if you only have time to dip into one of the books.

Our session will be divided into two parts. In the first hour, we will explore our impressions of Ensor's book and Jewett’s novel and generate some questions and reflections to share with Ensor, who will join us for the second hour. (We will also have a short break in-between.)

We will circulate a Zoom link on the SIG and MSA listservs in the days before the meeting. Follow this link to join the SIG listserv or email the facilitators.

Here, in case you are not able to access the book, is the Preface, Introduction, and Chapter 1.