Eagle-eyed viewers of the Mac Daily and Old Main frequenters alike may have noticed an event advertised as the English department’s Literary Salons. Occurring during the department’s weekly Coffeehouse slot from 4:30-5:30 p.m., these events have led people to ask, “What’s that all about?” We can tell you!
The English department has historically hosted a Wednesday evening event but following low turn-out for the previous event, Treat Night, the department wanted to re-envision these events in a way that would facilitate higher student engagement.
“We started doing more [internal] programming in Coffeehouse itself,” English Department Coordinator Jan Beebe said. “[For example,] we’ve done our course information sessions, [English] Honors Society has done presentations, we’ve had English-y org fairs during it, MacSlams have performed poetry. So it just ended up being a really nice time to do some programming, along with just hanging out.”
For distinguishment purposes: Coffeehouse is the weekly event the English department hosts, where themed snacks are available and conversation amongst students and faculty abounds. The Literary Salons are hosted within that time frame a couple of times per semester, some featuring Twin Cities-based authors, and others highlighting either students’ or professors’ writing projects.
Alongside department-related programming, Beebe said that “students want to spend more time with faculty outside of the classroom, and this is a wonderful way to do it.”
Echoing Beebe’s sentiment, English Department Chair and Associate Professor Matt Burgess highlighted the community-building intentions behind Coffeehouse. Taking advantage of Macalester’s location and the literary scene of the Twin Cities is core to the ethos of Literary Salons.
“One of the things that’s unique about Macalester … is that it’s a small liberal arts school located in a pretty vibrant city, and so we’re trying to build more community amongst our students,” Burgess said. “We’re trying to take advantage of this place we live in, so it seems like a natural fit to create a space where students can meet and talk to and interact with exciting people in the Twin Cities who are doing the kind of work that students might be interested in doing down the line as well.”
Lucy Flack ’27, the department’s communication and events specialist, added: “There was a big desire within the faculty, and also for the English students and staff, to bring in and incorporate Twin Cities authors and writers, because there’s such a rich cultural and art atmosphere here. So, I think a lot of it was around wanting to get local writers and people involved in bringing them to campus and connecting more with the Twin Cities.”
Flack’s role in planning the Literary Salons consists of initial outreach to faculty involved in facilitating specific Salons and coordinating with them on their Salon’s featured author, the format of the event itself and the theme — both to gauge general vibes and for snacking purposes, of course.
“Faculty members here have a lot of connections, both academic and creative,” Emma Törzs ’09, a predominantly creative writing professor in the department, said. “And specifically, we were thinking about how the Twin Cities is full of writers. It’s one of the most writer-heavy cities in the country, and we were thinking how nice it would be to be able to invite working writers to campus for students to interact with.”
Professor Coral Lumbley, who specializes in Welsh and medieval studies, echoed this in an email to The Mac Weekly. “Meeting cool new people, talking about fascinating ideas and projects, sharing new ways of doing things– these are the joys of a literary life and we wanted to share that with students,” Lumbley said.
In the end, the planning for the event and the interactions within the event itself are both student and faculty driven.
“It is a beautiful blend,” Beebe remarked, “utilizing the resources of the students, of the faculty and of our local community, of local authors and their talents.”
Beebe and other members of the department have always felt that the student workers are central to the planning and success of these events.
“I utilized and understood the importance of the student workers to create a core, and so it always has been their event,” said Beebe.
The most recent Literary Salons from this semester had a decent turn out, one of the key hopes of the department. Lumbley hosted a Literary Salon in late February with author and medieval scholar David M. Perry. Perry, who once taught history at Macalester, spoke on his career as a medieval historian, a published author and an opinion writer who has written for news outlets like The Minnesota Star Tribune and CNN.
“I was friends with him through medieval social media circles for years before I moved to the Twin Cities,” Lumbley said in her email. “Then I realized we lived in the same area! Because he does so much public political writing and is also a medievalist, I figured he would be a perfect guest to talk with Mac students about translating a passion into marketable publications.”
Törzs hosted another Literary Salon on March 12 with author Ben Percy, who talked with students about growing up as an avid fantasy reader, always possessing “a dark tower of paperbacks with embossed titles.”
Percy read an excerpt from his 2021 novel “The Ninth Metal,” a literary sci-fi thriller set in Minnesota, in his deep, audiobook-style voice. After engaging in conversation with Törzs, questions opened to the student body in attendance.
He recommended that his fellow creative writers in the audience go slow, be intentional readers and careful students of storytelling. In his closing remarks, he said: “Everyone is strenuously trying to write the best story possible, and if you can find the best minds, it can be incredibly invaluable.”
Törzs’s decision to invite Percy stemmed from wanting to meet a fellow writer that she both admired and thought could provide valuable feedback to students.
Törzs described her thought process as “who would my students want to hear from? Who would enjoy making a connection with Macalester? And then, in terms of Ben Percy, he’s just a writer that I really admire. And when I realized he lived in Minnesota, I wanted an excuse to meet him, and I thought, ‘oh, what better excuse than inviting him to Macalester and having him give a little presentation.’”
Törzs frequently teaches another of Percy’s books, “Thrill Me: Essays on Fiction,” to her own students.
“I’ve taught it for so long,” Törzs said, “and so it was really fun to hear him talk about some of these things that I have been teaching from him … and a lot of my students have read essays from this book as well.”
Flack remarked on the privilege that authors are able to come to campus and converse with budding writers, particularly since writers are so passionate about their work.
“I think it’s really cool that they come here at all and that we get to see people talk so passionately about their work,” Flack said. “I think people light up in such a different way when they talk about something that they’re really passionate about. There’s greeting the guests and bringing them in, but then you sit down and actually watch their presentation, and they kind of transform, and I think that’s really cool.”
Looking to the future, Burgess encourages students to reach out about what kinds of topics or conversations they would like to have as they begin to plan the Salons for next year.
“I would love to hear more from students about the kind of stuff that they would like to see that we haven’t been doing,” Burgess said. “[W]hat kind of folks do they want us to bring in? What kind of conversations do they have? What do they need help about? What are they excited about?”
Flack feels a growing momentum in terms of the status of the authors who get invited to campus.
“People increasingly know about the authors that we’re bringing in, or are more interested,” Flack said. “So I think there’s definitely a forward momentum, and I don’t see it stopping anytime soon.” English department Coffeehouse events take place every Wednesday from 4:30-5:30 p.m. on the fourth floor of Old Main. Keep an eye out for future Literary Salons with more immense talent from right here in the Twin Cities!
*Natalie Mazey contributed to the reporting for this article.
