National Best-Selling Author Julianna Baggott Named Jenks Chair at Holy Cross

Sunday, June 29, 2014

GoLocalWorcester Lifestyle Team

Julianna Baggott

Julianna Baggott, national bestselling author, has been named the new William H.P. Jenks Chair in Contemporary American Letters at the College of the Holy Cross.

The position is an initial appointment of two years, and may be extended up to five years. The Jenks Chair was established in 1988 in honor of William H.P. Jenks ’54.

Baggott will work to bring other authors to campus for readings and lectures as well as fulfill her teaching duties in the English department.

Baggott succeeds Leah Hager Cohen, a nonfiction writer and novelist, who has been appointed Distinguished Writer in Residence at Holy Cross.

“We are thrilled such a talented, well-respected and world-renowned author and scholar will be joining us at Holy Cross,” says Margaret Freije, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the College. “Julianna’s breadth of interests, her wide ranging storytelling ability and her commitment to the ideals of Jesuit education will be valuable to all in our community—faculty and students, English, mathematics and music majors alike.”

Baggott received her B.A. at a sister Jesuit school, Loyola University Maryland.

“My Catholic education began in sixth grade and continued on through college. Holy Cross feels, on many levels, like coming home,” she says. “My work stretches across genres, and I'm very interested in what makes an idea elegant, in the mathematical sense, and/or beautiful and compelling, artistically, as well as how to generate and cultivate ideas. I'm looking forward to creating an atmosphere in the classroom where students feel emboldened to take creative risks in their storytelling.”

Baggott also writes under the pen names Bridget Asher and N.E. Bode. She has published 19 books over the last 12 years. Baggott’s essays have appeared The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times Modern Love Column, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe.

Baggott is currently working on “Harriet Wolf’s Seventh Book of Wonders,” which will be published by Little Brown in 2015.

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