By Kristen LaRue-Sandler — January 18, 2023

 
Three faculty members in the ASU Department of English announce new books recently published or imminently forthcoming. Works include a limited edition chapbook, a historical novel, and a four-volume encyclopedia, and cover topics from submarines to WWII France to Geoffrey Chaucer.

'Would-Be Future Humans' (Ethel, 2022)

Jenny Irish released this limited edition chapbook in late 2022. The publisher shared a selection from the work:

• "'The USS Narwhal'
  
  The metal womb knows nothing of submarines, but that is how she thinks of herself: a submarine, except that she is not submerged and moves through time and not water, so the name is wrong—sub is wrong, marine is wrong. But, in body and in experience, that is how she sees herself: a submarine, a fat metal dart as sleek as a steel seal, parting an unimaginable vastness, and housed inside her, a hundred tiny and terrified heartbeats fluttering, frenetic, and longing to surface."

Irish is an assistant professor of English in creative writing at ASU, where she also received her MFA in 2016.

'At the Hour Between Dog and Wolf' (Ig Publishing, 2023)

Tara Ison’s latest novel is slated for a February release. From the publisher:

• "'At the Hour Between Dog and Wolf' is the story of a twelve-year-old Parisian Jewish girl in World War II France, living “in hiding” as a Catholic orphan with a family in a small village.
  
  When Danielle Marton’s father is killed during the early days of the German Occupation, her mother sends her to live in a quiet farming town near Limoges in Vichy France. Now called Marie-Jeanne Chantier, Danielle struggles to balance the truth of what’s happened to her family and her country with the lies she must tell to keep herself safe. At first, she’s bitter about being left behind by her mother, and horrified at having to milk the cow and memorize Catholic prayers for church. But as the years pass and the Occupation worsens, Danielle finds it easier to suppress her former life entirely, and Marie-Jeanne becomes less and less of an act. By the time she’s fifteen and there is talk amongst the now divided town of an Allied invasion, not only has Danielle lost the memories of her father’s face and the smell of her mother’s perfume, but her very self, transforming into a strict Catholic and an anti-Semitic, fervent disciple of fascism."

Ison is a professor of English in creative writing at ASU.

'The Chaucer Encyclopedia: Volumes 1-4' (Wiley-Blackwell, 2023)

Richard Newhauser is the editor-in-chief of this new edition, which also has a student companion site. From the publisher:

• "'The Chaucer Encyclopedia' provides the most comprehensive overview to date of the life, times, works, sources/analogues, and influence of Geoffrey Chaucer (b. 1340s – d. 1400). It also makes accessible the approaches readers have taken to understanding Chaucer's oeuvre, as well as the analogues and sources (direct or intermediary, contemporary or from the distant past) of Chaucer's works. Providing nearly 1400 entries, more than any similar work on the market today, 'The Chaucer Encyclopedia' is the best source for a new generation of students and scholars.
  
  'The Chaucer Encyclopedia' includes material on:
   * Important people, places, things, and concepts in Chaucer’s life and works that influenced and shaped him as a writer
   * Chaucer’s influence on generations of writers after him, including authors around the world who continue to look to Chaucer’s texts for inspiration
   * Various other topics that are of particular significance to those pursuing in-depth Chaucer scholarship
  
  'The Chaucer Encyclopedia' is an all-in-one resource for those interested in Geoffrey Chaucer. It is a key literary resource for undergraduate, graduate, and some secondary school students, teachers, and informed general readers."

Newhauser is a professor of English in literature at ASU.