WEST LIBERTY, W.Va., June 8, 2022 — Is there anyone who hasn’t heard of Harry Potter? The books and movies have earned author J.K. Rowling countless fans of all ages for her book series about the young wizard and his story.
West Liberty University Dean of the College of Liberal and Creative Arts Dr. Cecilia Konchar Farr studies the Harry Potter novels and their readers. She recently edited a book of essays, published by University Press of Mississippi, entitled: Open at the Close.
“This book is one of the first to focus on the Harry Potter novels as literature,” said Konchar Farr, who joined West Liberty University this past August. “In Open at the Close we consciously address Harry Potter primarily as a literary phenomenon instead of a cultural one. Our essays interrogate the novels on many levels, from multiple perspectives, and with various conclusions, but they come together around the overarching question: What is it about these books? At their heart, what is it that makes the Harry Potter novels so exceptionally compelling, so irresistible to their readers, and so relevant in our time?”
The 270-page book is a collection of literary essays on Harry Potter and includes black and white illustrations. Konchar Farr wrote the introduction for the book and also co-authored the first essay, “Ascendio: A Close and Distant Reading of Progressive Complexity in the Harry Potter Series.”
Other contributors include: Lauren R. Carmacci, Keridiana Chez, Kate Glassman, John Granger, Marie Schilling Grogan, Beatrice Groves, Tolonda Henderson, Nusaiba Imady, Juliana Valadão Lopes, Amy Mars, Christina Phillips-Mattson, Patrick McCauley, Jennifer M. Reeher, Jonathan A. Rose, and Emily Strand.
Konchar Farr came to WLU from St. Catherine University in Minnesota, where she had served since 1994 as professor of English and Women’s Studies and in various administrative and academic leadership positions. A native of Western Pennsylvania, she holds a doctoral degree in Literature and Theory, a master degree in Literature and a bachelor degrees in both English and Journalism/French.
Konchar Farr is author of The Ulysses Delusion: Rethinking Standards of Literary Merit and Reading Oprah: How Oprah’s Book Club Changed the way America Reads. She is also editor of several books, including a student-generated collection of essays about the Harry Potter novels, A Wizard of Their Age: Critical Essays from the Harry Potter Generation.
Open at the Close: Literary Essays on Harry Potter, is available on Amazon, Barnes and Nobles bookstores and through the publisher (upress.state.ms.us). It sells for $25 for a paperback edition. For more information, please email Dr. Konchar Farr at cecilia.konchar-farr@westliberty.edu.
A signed copy of the book also is available at WLU’s Elbin Library for borrowing.