JCU greets four up-and-coming authors

By Alison Graham

ROME, March 19 - Four young writers from The New School in New York City came to John Cabot University Monday night to read excerpts from their novels in progress. Andrew Cotto, Steven Estok, Becky Ferriera and Carlos Dews entertained an audience of around 35 in Aula Magna by reading aloud from their works.

Each writer is currently enrolled in the M.F.A. program in fiction writing at The New School. Beyond that, all similarities end.

Andrew Cotto, a professor at ASA College, was born in New Jersey and is the author of "The Domino Effect". He read from a novel he is currently working on, a mystery set in Brooklyn. Titled "Promised Land Blues", it is a coming-of-age story which the main character describes his life as full of “turbulence, movement, and the desire to overcome.”   

Steven Estok was born in 1959, a year known for its Bordeaux, and this predetermined his fate at as a lover of red wine and French culture. He spent an undergraduate year at the University of Montpellier in France and later completed his M.A. degree while attending Middlebury College’s program in Paris. On Monday, he read his story "Exhultation", a story of a woman’s illicit affair with a gardener named Ky.

Becky Ferriera is a performer of improv comedy in New York, as well as a contributor to "The Brooklyn Rail" and "The L-Train Magazine". Her novel, "Moonshot" is the story of Teddy, who is forced to face his mother’s abandonment of her family when her long-lost twin comes to town.

Carlos Dews, born in “a family of cockfighting rednecks,” according to JCU’s website, read passages from his novel in progress "Nacogdoches".

Set in Argentina, his novel is the comedic account of an author who is approached by a mysterious gentleman claiming to be famed Argentinean author Jorge Luis Borges. Borges begs the author to write the story of the secret love affair between himself and another famous author from Argentina.

The readings, sponsored by the Department of English Language and Literature at JCU, were followed by a reception where wine and refreshments were served.