Class of 2016

Happy winter, friends!

Currently writing this in mid-July after a wonderful trip to Moosilauke Ravine Lodge to celebrate some birthdays. Happy birthday to my dear Vivian Hu and Katie Zhang! Thank you for giving us an occasion to hike Mount Moosilauke, introspect ’bout a campfire, and pass around memories like a fresh loaf of Lodge bread. Many alums attended: Adelaida “Adi” Tamayo, Alex Greer, Cindy Sun, Dalia McGill, David Wu, Jose Rodarte-Canales, Khizar Hussain, Tien Truong, Irene Feng ’17, and Malika Khurana ’15.

Alexandra “Xanthe” Kraft joined the Dominican congregation of St. Cecilia in Nashville. She writes, “I’m becoming a Catholic nun (like in The Sound of Music, except I will be teaching). The Dominicans dedicate their life to truth, community, and the service of others. I can definitely say that Dartmouth—with its friends and pursuit of knowledge—helped sow this seed of religious life.” Congratulations, Xanthe!

Alexandros Zervos moved to N.Y.C. in August, having successfully wrassled all the scorpions in Austin, Texas. He started his M.B.A. at Columbia Business School, so I’m wishing my freshman floormate good coffee and much business.

Mary Liza Hartong was on a panel of authors at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville in October. Her novel, Love and Hot Chicken, was published this past winter by HarperCollins. The paperback edition comes out on February 25.

As promised in our previous column, here is a Q&A with author Morgan Talty. Morgan is a citizen of the Penobscot Indian Nation and author of the short story collection Night of the Living Rez. His debut novel, Fire Exit, was published June 4.

How did you get started as an author?

Talty: “I had a long path to Dartmouth. I barely graduated high school, attended Eastern Maine Community College (EMCC) for three years, and then transferred to Dartmouth, where I spent four years. So a nice seven-year A.B. experience! But getting started as an author came about when I was at EMCC. Being there afforded me something I hadn’t ever had: freedom to think beyond the chaos and dysfunction of the life I grew up in at home (that I loved and still love dearly despite the darkness). I started to read and I recognized that the thing I loved the most—telling stories orally—was something you could do but in a different medium. Right then I knew what I wanted. Did I know how difficult it would be? No. If I did, would I have done it? Probably, because I’m stubborn.

“At Dartmouth I majored in Native American studies. I was interested in content—history, philosophy, business, storytelling, law, environmental science, and so on. Native studies is a very interdisciplinary field. It has to be. How can Indigenous knowledge as ‘academia’ exist when the foundation is epistemologically and ontologically Western? Despite it being interdisciplinary—the only way we in Native studies have been able to ‘fit’ in—it is still a misshapen puzzle piece that will never fit. And so I like to think my growth at Dartmouth was as long as the line at the King Arthur Flour Café in Baker-Berry during rush hour. I wept for several days when it closed, thinking about all those who would come after us not knowing what it was like to be in a rush, arrive and see a line wrapping around the corner, mumble ‘F***ing dammit,’ and have to go to Novak—Novak!—to get coffee and be verbally abused.”

Q&A continues next issue. Stay tuned!

—Lynn Huang, 4610 Altha St, Raleigh, NC 27606; lynnshuang94@gmail.com