David McGrath, a 1996 Boston College alumnus, is a brain cancer survivor, educator, stand-up comedian, and host of “The WWIM (Women Who Inspire Me) Podcast.” In 2024, he published his first children’s book, If You Give a Dave a Darth. Written and illustrated by McGrath, If You Give a Dave a Darth is a whimsical tale that captures the boundless imagination and energy of a child. McGrath also is a published poet. His poetry collections include Poetry Anthology 1990–2020, Blue Star Poems, and Poems from a Tragic Comic.
Meet Dave
A Black Mariology
A new book by BC Assistant Professor of Theology and African and African Diaspora Studies Amey Victoria Adkins-Jones begins with the claim, Mary is Black, to ground how Christian thinking of salvation, possibility, and identity are challenged when assumptions about race, gender, and divine significance are reconsidered through the lens of the Virgin Mary, and specifically, through a return to the Black Madonna. Staged as a Black feminist and womanist theological conversation, Immaculate Misconceptions: A Black Mariology (Oxford University Press, 2025) offers a layered journey through art, theology, and culture to consider a theology arising from the condition of the Black Mother, following the condition of the Black Madonna, and for the consideration of all those who pursue justice and life at the spiritual intersections of the world. Adkins-Jones considers how Christian collusion with colonialism, capitalism, and anti-Blackness have worked theologically to deny Blackness from the realms of the sacred.
Humble Pie
Pat LaMarche, who has written and advocated on issues related to poverty and homelessness for decades, has published a thought-provoking book about food and food insecurity. Humble Pie is part nonfiction and part cookbook. LaMarche has collected stories from the economically disadvantaged she has encountered in shelters and shares their recipes as well as recipes from a professional chef. LaMarche is a 1982 Boston College graduate whose publications include American Roulette, Left Out in America: The State of Homelessness in the United States, and Daddy, What’s the Middle Class?, among many others. Humble Pie will leave readers with an appreciation of the significance of making meals, no matter the limitations, and empathy for the many people in our country who are hungry. Read more.
Landscaping Patagonia
In late 19th-century Latin America, governments used new scientific, technological, and geographical knowledge not only to consolidate power and protect borders but also to define the physical contours of their respective nations. Chilean and Argentine authorities, in particular, attempted to transform northern Patagonia through a myriad of nationalizing policies. In her new book, Landscaping Patagonia: Spatial History and Nation-Making in Chile and Argentina (University of North Carolina Press, 2025), BC Assistant Professor of History María de los Ángeles Picone examines how explorers, settlers, authorities, visitors, and bandits constructed their versions of ‘Chile’ and ‘Argentina’ in the Northern Patagonian Andes. She argues that between the 1890s and 1940s, these groups created shared versions of nationhood through regional, often cross-border, interpretations and transformations of the natural environment. Landscaping Patagonia shows how these different actors sought to make Patagonia their own by transforming a collection of geographical sites into a landscape that evoked a shared past and a common future. More from BC News.
Posted in Boston College Authors
Tagged History Department, Latin America, South America
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The Queens of Crime
The Queens of Crime (St. Martin’s Press 2025) is the latest novel from bestselling author—and Boston College graduate—Marie Benedict. The story is set in 1930s London and revolves around a group of women mystery writers, including Dorothy L. Sayers and Agatha Christie, who come together to solve the real-life murder of a young English nurse found strangled in a park in France. Benedict’s other novels include The Only Woman in the Room, Lady Clementine, and, with Victoria Christopher Murray, The Personal Librarian and The First Ladies. Library Journal starred review.
Alumnus Larry Ruttman, inquisitive historian
For his book Intimate Conversations: Face to Face with Matchless Musicians (Torchflame Books, 2024), Boston College Law School graduate Larry Ruttman engaged with world-renowned musicians of the 21st century, discovering their influences and inspirations. Ruttman interviewed composers, conductors, vocalists, instrumentalists, and a music manager. Not a musician himself, Ruttman approached this book project as classical music fan and lifelong learner. Ruttman is a Fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society. His previous publications include American Jews and America’s Game, about the Jewish presence in professional baseball in the U.S., and Voices of Brookline, a collection of perspectives from residents of Ruttman’s beloved hometown. Ruttman graduated from BC Law with a J.D. in 1958. His podcast, “A Life Lived Backwards: One Man’s Life,” is based on his forthcoming memoir Larry Ruttman: A Life Lived Backwards – An Existential Triad of Friendship, Maturation, and Inquisitiveness. Read more from Boston College Law School Magazine.
Fiction Days Presents Anne Berest
French writer Anne Berest will present a lecture on “Family Fictions: The Postcard, Gabriële, and Writing True Novels” at Boston College on April 23 at 7 p.m. in Devlin Hall 110. Berest’s novel The Postcard was a national bestseller, a Library Journal, NPR, and TIME Best Book of the Year, and winner of the American Choix Goncourt Prize. Based on the author’s own family history, The Postcard is a moving saga of a family devastated by the Holocaust and partly restored through the power of storytelling. With her sister Claire Berest, she is the author of Gabriële, a critically acclaimed “true novel” based on the life of her great-grandmother Gabriële Buffet-Picabia, Marcel Duchamp’s lover and muse, a leader of the French Resistance, and an art critic. Berest’s lecture is presented by the BC Lowell Humanities Series and cosponsored by the Boston College Fiction Days Series. The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.
Margaret Heckler: A woman of firsts
Margaret O’Shaughnessy Heckler (1931-2018), a 1956 graduate of Boston College Law School, had a lengthy and influential career in public service. She was a United States representative, secretary of Health and Human Services, and U.S. ambassador to Ireland. A Woman of Firsts: Margaret Heckler, Political Trailblazer (Lyons Press, 2025), a new biography written by Kimberly Heckler (daughter-in-law of Margaret), chronicles her groundbreaking achievements as a woman in politics, while also offering a behind-the-scenes view of American politics from the 1960s through the 1980s. Among Heckler’s accomplishments was the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, landmark legislation that gave women the right to credit in their own names for the first time in American history. Margaret Heckler’s archives are housed at BC’s John J. Burns Library.
Educating for Justice
Schools have a vital role to play in readying the next generation to transform society. Educating for Justice (ASCD, 2025) describes school-wide structures and practices that prepare students at every grade level to challenge injustice and build a better world. BC Lynch School of Education and Human Development Professor Scott Seider and co-authors Aaliyah El-Amin (Harvard Graduate School of Education) and Boston College graduate Julia Bott ’02, M.Ed. ’07, Ed.D. ’24 (Boston Public Schools) share research-backed strategies, concrete tools, and examples drawn from real schools and classrooms so school leaders and teachers can center justice in curriculum and pedagogy and engage students in social action. Their book also offers steps for educators who want to collaborate with families and community partners to strengthen justice-based school practices. Read more in this Lynch School article.
Translating Korean literature
When South Korean writer Han Kang was awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature, it shined a spotlight on her works, including an English translation of one by a Boston College faculty member. Seung Hee Jeon, an associate professor of the practice of Korean in the Eastern, Slavic, and German Studies Department, translated Kang’s Convalescence from Korean into English. Jeon is a leading translator of Korean literature as well as a distinguished bilingual literary scholar, critic, and editor. Notably, she was the translator for the late South Korean President Kim Dae-jung’s autobiography, Conscience in Action. Her translation of Bang Hyun-seok’s Time to Eat Lobster was selected as one of the “75 Notable Translations of the Year” list by World Literature Today. Her translation of Adania Shibli’s Minor Detail was chosen as one of the “10 translations of the year” by The Hankyoreh newspaper. Jeon, who holds a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Harvard University, has published articles on trauma, memories, and truth in war.
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