By Haley Zeller, Assistant Arts & Entertainment Editor
In the third installment of the Seavey Reading Series, Susquehanna University’s Professor of English and Creative Writing, Karla Kelsey, presented her newest experimental novel in Isaac’s Auditorium on Nov. 19.
Dr. Karla Kelsey is a poet, novelist and essayist who has been teaching at Susquehanna since 2005. She holds an MFA from the University of Iowa, a B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a PhD from the University of Denver. Kelsey has been the recipient of a Fulbright Scholars grant, and her writing has appeared in numerous well-renowned journals and anthologies.
Most recently, Dr. Kelsey has been diligently researching and working on two novels that have come to fruition. She was delighted and honored to present them at the reading.
The first novel she introduced was “Lost Writings: Two Novels by Mina Loy”, published in 2024 by Yale University, of which she was the editor. Kelsey came across Loy’s work during her time at the Beinecke Library of Yale University, tucked away in the archives. Almost immediately, Kelsey fell in love with Loy’s work and described her as someone who was “exuberantly creative.”
Loy was born in the suburbs of London and faced an oppressive Victorian upbringing. She attended numerous art schools in Europe, but eventually fled to the U.S., where she lived in New York after the outbreak of World War I. An intelligent and innovative artist, Loy was fluent in multiple languages from her voracious reading habits, and she designed many different inventions—such as a bracelet that had blotting paper on it.
Loy’s novels, “The Child and the Parent” and “Islands in the Air” were combined in the “Lost Writings” book that Kelsey presented. The former novel’s content was described by Kelsey as, “the process in which the free creative spirit comes into consciousness.” She read from “The Parent”, which illustrated Victorian social constructs of the time through detailed imagery of corsets and ruffled clothing, and symbolism of a loaf of sugar. The excerpt highlighted the “fashion” of this era: for wives to conform.
Loy was a writer of radical free verse during the early twentieth century. The quiet criticism of her intricate writing is hard not to recognize and appreciate.
The second excerpt that Kelsey read was from “Islands in the Air,” in which Mina Loy’s alter ego, Linda, makes an appearance.
The excerpt opened with both a humorous and cynical conversation between Loy and their mother. It then transitioned into Loy at age 15, imagining the art she would create in school—of cupids and peacocks, cypresses and swans. It becomes evident that Loy was an unconventional artist of her time, drawing concepts from the Dada, Surrealism and Futurism movements.
To close the night, Dr. Kelsey read from her own novel titled “Transcendental Factory: For Mina Loy,” which functions fictionally, autobiographically and historically. Kelsey put a huge amount of effort into researching tens of notable milestones, events and inventions that occurred in 1931. To list a few of them: the Paris Colonial Exposition was hosted in Paris, France; the horror films “Frankenstein” and “Dracula” were released; Al Capone was indicted for tax evasion; and nuclear physics saw many developments. It was also the year that Mina Loy’s son, Giles, died unexpectedly.
As Kelsey read from the excerpt, pictures of Loy’s artwork were displayed on the auditorium’s projector, as well as a special photograph of Loy’s. It shows her with multiple famous artists in Constantin Brancusi’s art studio, a Romanian artist who she deeply admired the work of.
After the final excerpt, Dr. Kelsey closed the night with a short Q&A session. Kelsey believes the importance of these novels is revitalizing an author’s work who was nearly lost as time carried on. She says, “It can be difficult to get interest in the dead.” Though Loy was an exceptional artist, many of her publications were declined while she was still alive. In fact, it was Loy’s daughter Joella who was responsible for the novel being archived.
By writing and editing these novels, Karla Kelsey paid homage to a talented artist, and she has gifted knowledge of Mina Loy’s history to the audience that attended the reading.
For those who could not attend, make sure to come and listen to the next event, when another impactful author will read their work.