Friday, October 24, 2014

Dr. Maryellen Keefe’s Lecture on her new biography “Casual Affairs”


On Tuesday October 21st, author and SUNY Maritime Professor Maryellen Keefe gave a presentation and lecture on the life and stories of New Yorker writer Sally Benson, the subject of her new biography Casual Affairs: The Life and Fiction of Sally Benson. Dr. Keefe, a humanities professor at Maritime, told stories about Benson’s private pursuits and her life as a career woman and brought to life the spirit of Benson’s works, whose character-driven stories were retold in the well-known film “Meet Me in St. Louis.” 


Most exciting about the book talk for several of us audience members was a glimpse into Dr. Keefe’s research process for the book, which began as she was researching her dissertation. For Casual Affairs, Dr. Keefe was able to interview several generations of Benson’s family and was provided with access to their family papers.

Casual Affairs is available through SUNY Press at a cost of $29.95.

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Farewell to Library Director Shafeek Fazal

We would like you to join us in bidding farewell to Library Director Shafeek Fazal, who has been with us at SUNY Maritime’s Stephen B. Luce Library for more than ten years running. Over the years, Mr. Fazal has been a wonderful mentor and friend to all here at Luce Library, offering much needed guidance and welcome advice to many early- and mid-career librarians.  

 
To celebrate Mr. Fazal’s long tenure, the library hosted a party on October 21st for SUNY Maritime faculty and staff. Many came to bid their farewells to Mr. Fazal, as well as to swap stories about how the college has changed throughout the years. Mr. Fazal also spoke fondly of his times at the college and of the many noteworthy events and accomplishments that have been made under his leadership while providing library services at Maritime.





Mr. Fazal will remain close by within the SUNY system at SUNY Stonybrook and promises to stay in touch with the all the students, faculty and staff he has come to know here at Maritime. We wish him best of luck in all his future endeavors.

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Columbus Day




Saturday, October 11 –
Monday, October 13, 2014

THE LIBRARY WILL BE
CLOSED
IN HONOR OF


 COLUMBUS DAY

The Library will reopen at 0830 on
Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Upcoming Library Lecture Series: Maryellen Keefe, PhD, Tuesday, October 21st, 2014 @ 13:30

Library Lecture Series, Celebrating 140th Anniversary of Maritime College presents:

Casual Affairs: The Life and Fiction of Sally Benson 
With Author Sister Maryellen Keefe, PhD Associate Professor of English at SUNY Maritime
Tuesday, October 21st, 2014 @ 13:30, Stephen B. Luce Library




Sister Maryellen Keefe entered the classroom as an Ursuline nun, teaching at various East coast academies before ultimately pursuing her doctorate in English Literature at the University of Delaware. A New York City native, Dr. Keefe has never been one to follow a traditional path while fulfilling dual roles as both a sister and faculty member of the Humanities department at SUNY Maritime College. In addition to receiving numerous National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships, she is advisor of the Newman Club, a Catholic ministry organization, and serves on the Faculty Senate. Outside of her tireless work in and out of the college, Keefe is a published and highly praised author of both children’s and adult nonfiction titles. 



Dr. Maryellen Keefe’s new book Casual Affairs: The Life and Fiction of Sally Benson is Casual Affairs: The Life and Fiction of Sally Benson is a critical biography of the New Yorker writer whose stories were retold in the well-known film and musical Meet Me In St. Louis. Keefe’s vivid retelling of Benson’s life traces her feats and successes as she navigated the delicate balance between family life as a wife and mother and her role as a career woman, while indulging in several “quiet little affairs.” Drawing on family papers and interviews with Benson’s family members, Keefe’s meticulously researched biography presents us with a portrait of an honest and masterful storyteller who, like her contemporary, Dorothy Parker, is full of wit in her deprecating portrayals of middle class Americans from the Jazz Age well into the 1940s.

“Finally a biographer capable of bringing the brilliant and outrageous Sally Benson to life! And what a life it was for a woman, who began a long career writing for the New Yorker in 1929 and Hollywood in the forties. Keefe’s vivid account…is also the story of a generation of young women eager to balance work and family.” —Susan Goodman, author of Republic of Words: The Atlantic Monthly and Its Writers, 1857–1925