Behind the Read The NEA Big Read Lakeshore

In this episode, my co-host, Addie, and I have a conversation with Joe Goodkin, a Chicago-based singer/songwriter and modern traveling bard. Joe tours the country performing his one-man folk-opera interpretation of Homer's Odyssey (over 300 performances in 43 US states, Canada, Greece, Italy, and The Netherlands) and for years released music under the name Paper Arrows (five records total). In 2020, he premiered a new classically-inspired work, The Blues of Achilles, a 17 song reimagining of Homer’s Iliad and released it in 2022, tracked by Steve Albini at Electrical Audio Studios. Joe performed both classically-inspired works extensively during the pandemic in the Zoom environment. From 2015 through 2017 he released a trio of EPs entitled Record of Life/Loss/Love and in 2019 a collection of live recordings entitled (somewhat confusingly) Paper Arrows.

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The Blues of Achilles

The Odyssey

In this episode, my co-host, Addie, and I have a conversation with George O’Connor, an author, illustrator and cartoonist. Above all, George is a Greek mythology buff and a classic superhero comics fan, and he's out to remind us how much our pantheon of superheroes (Superman, Batman, the X-Men, etc) owes to mankind's original superheroes: the Greek pantheon. Now he has brought his attention to Olympians, an ongoing series retelling the classic Greek myths in comics form.

​In his New York Times bestselling Olympians series, O'Connor draws from primary documents to reconstruct and retell classic Greek myths. These stories are action-packed, fast-paced, high-drama adventures, with monsters and romance. O'Connor's vibrant, kinetic art brings ancient tales to undeniable life, in a perfect fusion of super-hero aesthetics and ancient Greek mythology.

George's first graphic novel, Journey Into Mohawk Country, is about the actual historical journal of the seventeenth-century Dutch trader Harmen Meyndertsz van den Bogaert.

In addition to his graphic novel career, O'Connor has published several children's picture books, including the New York Times best-selling Kapow!, Sally and the Some-Thing, If I Had a Raptor and If I Had a Triceratops.

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O’Connor’s Book Suggestions:

The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony

D'aulaires' Book of Greek Myths

In the episode, my co-host, Addie, and I have a conversation with Liv Albert, the host, creator, writer, editor, and producer of the “Let’s Talk About Myths, Baby!” podcast. Liv has a degree in English Literature & Classics from Concordia University in Montreal where she studied ancient Greece and Rome broadly. Now, she researches new details and versions of Greek mythological stories to tell in her podcast, and especially loves speaking with experts on various ancient world subjects. Liv is devoted to the world of Greek and Roman mythology, even, in her own words, if it is full of bloodshed and horrible men. Liv is also the author of the #1 New Release and Bestselling book that came out in 2021, Greek Mythology: The Gods, Goddesses, and Heroes Handbook, and her newest book came out in April, Nectar of the Gods which is a book of 75 Greek mythology themed cocktails created with Thea Engst and illustrated by Sara Richard.

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In this episode, my co-host, Addie and I have a conversation with two middle and high school teachers at Black River Public Schools, Brent and Karen Rowe. Karen Rowe has taught middle and high school English at Black River Public Schools since 2005. She has her Masters of Arts in English Literature from Grand Valley State University. Karen has participated in NEA Big Read Lakeshore for all of its 8 years and serves as our Big Read teacher leader along with Audra Bolhuis. Brent Rowe graduated from Hope College in 1999 and has his Masters in Coaching and Athletic Administration from Concordia College of Irvine. He taught in the Dominican Republic and Berkeley, California before his current teaching position of 21 years at Black River Public School.

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In this episode, my co-host, Addie, and I have a conversation with two professors at Hope College, Dr. Bram ten Berge and Dr. Margaret Burr. Dr. ten Berge has his Ph.D. in classics from the University of Michigan. As part of his postgraduate training, Dr. ten Berge did the Regular Year Program at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, and has worked on archaeological projects in England, Greece, and Italy. He joined the Hope faculty in 2017 where he teaches language, history, and classical civilization classes across the classics and history curricula.

Dr. Burr has her Ph.D. in archaeology from the University of Oxford, and has been teaching at Hope since 2020. Her courses have included Introduction to Classical Archaeology, Introduction to Ancient Civilization, and two travel-themed First Year Seminars. Dr. Burr loves being engaged in fieldwork, and most recently worked as the finds supervisor on a project excavating a Roman “small town” near Oxford. She has also worked on field projects in Italy, Greece, Romania, and the United States.

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In this episode, my co-host, Addie and I have a conversation with Dr. Stephen Maiullo, the interim Dean of Arts and Humanities at Hope College. Dr. Maiullo has his Ph.D. in Classics from Ohio State University, and has been a professor at Hope College since two thousand ten. His area of expertise is in Greek literature, Greek and Roman philosophy, and reception of classical literature. He teaches Latin and Greek language courses, classes that focus on the literature of the classical world, and general education courses on topics such as classical mythology, and the history of Rome.

Learn more about our program at bigreadlakeshore.com and follow us on social media to stay up-to-date on all things Big Read!