William Towner Morgan 鈥55. Where Rivers Merge: Stories from the History of Sartell, Minnesota (2022)
Dr. Bill Morgan 鈥55 taught American studies at St. Cloud State University from 1978 to 2009 where he designed courses in American architecture, local history, and preservation. He wrote monthly articles on those subjects for the St. Cloud Times, and many of those pieces appear in his book, Where Rivers Merge, in edited form.
鈥淎s a writer who likes 鈥榖eing there,鈥 I have experienced some thrilling moments in and around local historic sites, including climbing to the top of Peace Rock; visiting several places where oxcart remnants can still be seen; and exploring the last-standing yellow-brick building on the abandoned paper mill site. Sartell鈥檚 late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century character is well represented by these historic structures.
My searches have also taken me to several historic sites near Sartell as well, including the Arnold/Heim Mill and House; the Graves鈥 Farm; the site of the vanished town of Watab; and the Rice, Minnesota, cemetery where lie members of the wedding party who died in the 1886 cyclone.鈥
Ben Voigt 鈥10. Postpastoral (Poetry.onl, 2023)
An academic information associate at Macalester, Ben Voigt 鈥10 was awarded the inaugural Poetry.onl Chapbook Fellowship, which includes publication of a chapbook. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been a joy and an honor to find a home for my work that really understands and affirms what I鈥檓 up to,鈥 he said.
The poems in his chapbook, Postpastoral, wrestle with how technology (from Facebook to farm equipment) not only shapes our everyday experiences in the twenty-first century, but connects us intimately to the violence of global capitalism. 鈥淲e have to ask: What鈥檚 the cost of these digital escapes?鈥 Voigt said. 鈥淭he long poem from my chapbook is an elegy for Xu Lizhi, a poet who wrote about life in a Foxconn factory in China, and eventually committed suicide. Is all my scrolling on the other side of the world partly responsible for his death? To me, that鈥檚 an open question.鈥
Sarah Rossmann Deschamps 鈥88. Journey to Japan: A Life-Saving Memoir (Amazon Publishing Lab, 2023)
Calling her memoir a 鈥渢rue Macalester story,鈥 Sarah Rossmann Deschamps 鈥88 recounts how, after moving from Minnesota to Tokyo with her family and dreaming of exploration and adventure, she gave birth to a baby with multiple medical issues. She details their lengthy 鈥渃ross-cultural medical nightmare,鈥 and her family鈥檚 relentless determination to give their child the best chance in the world.
Fred and I met in 1985 at Macalester. Fred was from Belgium, and I was from across the street. On our first date, we went to a Japanese restaurant near campus. Fred proclaimed, 鈥淚 took you to a Japanese place because I want to live in Japan someday.鈥
I loved to travel. When I was a child, my parents took us to Europe and Australia. At Mac, I took every opportunity to travel. I spent January terms in Spain, in New York at the United Nations, and my senior year in China. I studied in Bogot谩, Colombia, for a semester during my junior year. Japan intrigued me. The moment Fred mentioned it, I was all in. We married in 1992, traveled the world, and fell in love with the idea of living abroad.
Freya Manfred 鈥66. When I was Young and Old: Poems and Prose (Nodin Press, 2023)
“When I Was Young and Old”
Out of nowhere we find ourselves
stretched out under the sun on the summer lawn,
and I saw how lively, how supple, he was
in each new pose, as I breathed in, yes, and out yes,
and when we sat down to eat I heard every word
he spoke, yes, as if he knew I would always understand,
and I asked for soup that was green and wild,
and he wanted to taste it, and I said yes again,
and on the mountains we slid so smoothly
through snow drifts, down icy-steep ravines,
on our two simple, matter-of-fact feet, yes 鈥
and when I wandered off alone,
the wolf who followed us did not attack,
but went his solitary way, so I felt safe, yes.
And when we lay down together, at last,
I was amazed how much care he gave
to my humble, forgotten ears and cosmic toes,
and when he kissed me, I slipped like lightning
into another world, yes and yes and yes.
This all happened when he was young and I was old,
and I was young and he was old,
and it still happens whenever a dream arrives at night
to assure me it was all meant to be.
But now I wonder, is my dream more alive
than the poem I write about the dream?
And is my life as alive, as real, as the poem or the dream?
Yes, and yes, and yes.
Deborah G. Martin 鈥91 and Joseph Pierce. How To Think About Cities (Polity Books, 2023)
Michael Mario Albrecht 鈥98. Trumping the Media: Politics and Democracy in the Post-Truth Era (Bloomsbury 2022)
