Former Elon University School of Communications assistant professor Ken Calhoun will host a reading from his new book “Black Moon,” starting at 1 p.m. Friday, March 14 in Powell 210.
The event will begin with an ice-cream social, followed by the reading. The book, published this year, features a chaotic world gripped by sleeplessness. A description of the work:
“Insomnia has claimed everyone Biggs knows. Even his beloved wife, Carolyn, has succumbed to the telltale red-rimmed eyes, slurred speech and cloudy mind before disappearing into the quickly collapsing world. Yet Biggs can still sleep, and dream, so he sets out to find her.
He ventures out into a world ransacked by mass confusion and desperation, where he meets others struggling against the tide of sleeplessness. Chase and his buddy Jordan are devising a scheme to live off their drug-store lootings; Lila is a high school student wandering the streets in an owl mask, no longer safe with her insomniac parents; Felicia abandons the sanctuary of a sleep research center to try to protect her family and perhaps reunite with Chase, an ex-boyfriend. All around, sleep has become an infinitely precious commodity. Money can’t buy it, no drug can touch it, and there are those who would kill to have it. However, Biggs persists in his quest for Carolyn, finding a resolve and inner strength that he never knew he had.”
Calhoun taught at Elon from 2007-2010. He currently serves as an assistant professor and chair of chair of the Art and Graphic Design Department at Lasell College in Newton, Mass.