Book events

“Europe Endless” short film sneak preview and “Patrick McCabe's Ireland” book launch
5-8 p.m. March 19, Alumni Hall

Pitt’s European Studies Center, Film and Media Studies Program, and the Center for Art in Society at Carnegie Mellon University will present a sneak preview of the film “Europe Endless,” starring Pitt English professor Colin MacCabe and noted Irish author Patrick McCabe, who discuss Britain’s decision to leave the European Union, the impact of the referendum on the Irish border, the Republic of Ireland’s relationship with Europe and McCabe’s novels.

The event also will launch the collection of stories from the last 1990s and early 2000s: “Patrick McCabe's Ireland: ‘The Butcher Boy,’ ‘Breakfast on Pluto’ and ‘Winterwood’ ”  (Brill, 2018), edited by Jennifer Keating. In the recent context of Brexit, McCabe’s work carries considerable poignancy, especially in relation to the Catholic Church, gender roles and persistence of a history of violence in Ireland.

Wesley Morris, presented by Pittsburgh Contemporary Writers Series
7:30-9:30 p.m. March 21, Frick Fine Arts Auditorium,

Wesley Morris is a critic at large for The New York Times, where he also is the cohost, with Jenna Wortham, of the podcast “Still Processing.” Morris has written for the San Francisco Chronicle, The San Francisco Examiner, Grantland and The Boston Globe, where in 2012 he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. His essay on black male sexuality, “Last Taboo,” was selected for the Best American Essays 2017.

Talk by M.O. Grenby, professor of children's literature and 18th-century studies at Newcastle University, director of the Newcastle University Humanities Research Institute, and author of “The Child Reader 1700-1840”
11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. March 22, 501 Cathedral of Learning

In his talk, open to the public, Grenby will discuss his research on transnational popular print for children c.1600-1850 — i.e. the cheap, often ephemeral material that was published for children, or that was used by them, across Europe, European colonies and beyond, in the early modern period.

NEW BOOKS

• Ronald J. Zboray, professor of communication, and Mary Saracino Zboray, visiting scholar in communication, have just seen their co-edited volume, “The Oxford History of Popular Print Culture, Volume Five: U.S. Popular Print Culture to 1860,” released in the United Kingdom. It will soon be released in the United States as well.  

• Calum Matheson, director of debate, has a new book, “Desiring the Bomb: Communication, Psychoanalysis, and the Atomic Age” (University of Alabama Press).