By Kelsey Rogers, Asst. Living & Arts Editor
Joseph Scapellato, a former Susquehanna professor, gave a reading of “Big Lonesome,” his debut collection of short stories, in Isaac’s Auditorium on Sept. 13.
Born in the suburbs of Chi- cago, Scapellato earned his master’s degree in fiction at New Mexico State University. He is currently an English, poetry, creative nonfiction and screen writing professor at Bucknell University.
Many of the stories featured in “Big Lonesome” were writ- ten while Scapellato taught at Susquehanna. The collection contains 25 stories and comes in three different parts: old west, new west and post-west.
Old west features tales of the mythical landscape of the west, while new west features modern day spin. Post-west, also set in modern times, explores the Midwest at what Scapellato describes as “one more distance.”
According to Scapellato’s website, the settings and stories included in “Big Lone- some” are both “unquestionably familiar and undeniably strange.” The description continues to say that the collection explores “place, myth, masculinity and what it means to be whole or to be broken.”
The first piece Scapellato read for the audience was an excerpt of “5 Episodes of White Hat Black Hat,” where each episode takes the reader through an inverted journey inspired by Joseph Campbell’s work on mythology “The Hero With a Thousand Faces.”
Scapellato followed “5 Episodes of White Hat Black Hat” with an excerpt of “Dead Dogs,” which is based on a dog-friendly bar in his neighborhood that he would take his dog to while his then-fiancé was away in Europe. He realized that many drunks love to tell stories about their dead dogs and felt compelled to put them together in a story.
Throughout his reading of the excerpt, Scapellato used a variation of voices when performing as the different characters who tell tales of their furry loved ones.
“Voice and language are very important to me,” Scapellato said. “They lead me through a story.”
It’s one of the first things I place my trust in as a writer,” Scapellato continued. “I want there to be something mysterious or exciting about the sentence that I’m writing.”
“Life Story,” the third story read, seemed to demonstrate a romantic situation that is far too common: two individuals that don’t love each other, but enjoy each other enough. The concept of “enough” that is emphasized carries this couple throughout their lives and keeps them from what they truly desire.
“Immigrant,” a tale depict- ing a child of an immigrant who can’t seem to find their place in the world, is a type of character that Scapellato constantly finds himself coming back to due to his father emigrating from Sicily at the age of eight.
The final story read was an excerpt from “Cowgirl,” a girl who enters the world out of a beef cow. Cowgirl discovers the world and emotion for the first time, taking the reader along the way for quite an interesting ride.
When asked by an audience member how he writes fearlessly without worry or embarrassment, Scapellato admitted that he had to get to a point where he had to ask himself
what the intention of the story was and give himself the confidence to write it.
“Even if it was gonna embarrass me,” he said. “Because you owe it to the story to try to fulfill [the story’s] image.”
Sophomore Kaitlynn Yeager said she was engaged with the reading and was able to visualize Scapellato’s stories in her head.
“With all the other readings I’ve come to, I’ve easily zoned out,” Yeager said. “But with him, I was very interested in what was going on.”
Scapellato’s reading was the first in the Seavey Reading Series. Other writers scheduled to visit this year include Claire Vaye Watkins and Derek Palacio, Ishion Hutchinson, Aminatta Forna, Sayed Kashua and Melissa Goodrich.
Other readings this year in- clude those for Susquehanna professors Silas Zobal and Karla Kelsey, St. Martin’s Press editor Jennifer Weis and former Susque- hanna professor Gary Fincke.
There are also six senior read- ings throughout the year, as well as magazine launches for “Essay,” “Susquehanna Review” and “RiverCraft,” the latter of which will feature Goodrich, who is a Susquehanna alumnus.
