NKU alumnus David Mack's 'Kabuki: The Alchemy' named as 2011 Book Connection selection
News from NKU...
Thursday - April 27, 2011
For immediate release...
HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. - The Northern Kentucky University Office of First-Year Programs, in collaboration with the university's Book Connection Committee, announced today that NKU alumnus David Mack's graphic novel, Kabuki: The Alchemy, is the 2011 Book Connection selection.
The NKU Book Connection will turn a new leaf by featuring a graphic novel, also defined as a narrative expressed through sequential art and text. Graphic novels have been explored in NKU's academic departments such as English, communications and visual arts, and W. Frank Steely Library has an extensive collection holding literary graphic novels and superhero comic books, among others.
"Kabuki is a work of art as well as literature and we believe its unique style will encourage a new level of engagement with the Book Connection," said Dr. Mei Mei Burr, director of NKU First-Year Programs. "First-Year Programs and the Book Connection Committee are very excited about the creative and fun programming planned for the 2011-12 academic year. We invite the entire campus to experience 'Kabuki Fever'!"
Incoming freshman students will receive a copy of The Alchemy at summer orientation. Faculty from a variety of disciplines will use the graphic novel in first-year courses, drawing from themes such as identity, diversity, creativity and transformation.
"David Mack will be an inspiration for our incoming freshmen," said Dr. Bob Wallace, professor of English and a longstanding member of the Book Connection Committee. "He is a young NKU alum with an international following. He is brilliant with words as well as images. His Kabuki: The Alchemy will speak to our freshmen’s own lives as well as to their place in the world."
Continuing the tradition for NKU freshmen and the community, Mack will return to NKU Oct. 25-26 for three separate "conversations." These conversations invite freshmen and community members to ask questions and have a dialogue with the author. The afternoon conversations on October 25 and 26 are open to freshman students only. The evening conversation on October 25 will be open to the general public and the university community.
"I'm deeply honored that NKU has selected Kabuki: The Alchemy for 2011," said Mack, "and I will do my best to make the events I'm involved in as educational, genuinely useful, applicable, motivational and inspiring to the students as I possibly can."
Events leading up to the 2011 Book Connection Conservations will be announced in the coming weeks.
About the book:
The Alchemy is the seventh volume of Mack's Kabuki series. But it is a wonderful starting point for readers, as the character begins in a place that many people find themselves after graduating high school or college, a point of leaving their previous social structure to face the questions of what they are really meant to do in life, how to figure that out and what are the practical "real world" applications for making that happen.
A young former government and media operative, scarred physically and psychologically by her previous hierarchy, embarks on a new life to fulfill her own dreams and perhaps even influence the world culture in a creative way.
A beautiful mix of collage, graphic design and painting, the graphic novel chronicles the philosophy and principles of this transformation.
About the author:
Mack is the New York Times best-selling author of the Kabuki graphic novels, the writer and artist of Daredevil (Marvel Comics) and the author of the children’s book The Shy Creatures (MacMillan publishing).
Mack's work has garnered nominations for seven Eisner Awards (America's most prestigious comics award), four International Eagle Awards and both the Harvey and Kirby Awards in the category of Best New Talent, as well as many other national and international awards and nominations.
Mack attended NKU for five years. At 17, he was awarded a four-year scholarship based on his portfolio of art works, and later a fifth year Dean's Scholarship for academics. He studied multiple disciplines in art and academics, including children's literature, world religions and mythology, anatomy and physiology, theater, world history, and the Japanese language.
He graduated with a BFA in graphic design (which included studies in sculpture, painting, drawing, art history, photography, typography and bookmaking) with an area of concentration in literature. The first published Kabuki collection, Kabuki: Circle of Blood, was Mack's senior thesis in writing.
Mack's Kabuki books have been the subject of undergraduate and graduate university courses in art and literature. His work has been studied in graduate seminars at the University of Southern California and displayed in the Los Angeles Museum of Art. He has lectured at universities and taught classes in writing, drawing and painting all over the world, including the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia, and Japan's School of Communication Arts of Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka. Mack was also an invited speaker as the guest of honor at Harvard's annual Science Fiction Writing convention for 2005.
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