The COOP x Authors: John Hampsey's Soda Lake

Join us for an inspiring literary evening as acclaimed author John Hampsey visits the COOP to share selections from his captivating new novel, Soda Lake. Discover the story behind the story—Hampsey will dive into the inspiration and creative journey that brought Soda Lake to life, offer insights into his writing process, and answer your questions in an open Q&A session.

Founded in 1882 by students, the COOP was established as a resource for Harvard and grew to support MIT and the greater Cambridge community. Today, we continue this tradition while being a hub for discovery and connection. Our commitment to you, our community, comes to life in COOP author events, where readers and writers gather to share stories and spark dialogue.

Soda Lake is out in hardback now. Purchase it at The COOP and have John sign it at the event!

About John Hampsey

John C Hampsey is professor of Romantic and Classical Literature at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, where he has won the University Distinguished Teaching Award. Previously, he taught at Boston University and MIT. His previous books include the critically acclaimed Paranoia and Contentment: A Personal Essay on Western Thought and his memoir, Kaufman’s Hill. During his career, Hampsey has had more than thirty stories and essays published in such places as The Gettysburg Review, The Midwest Quarterly, Antioch Review, The Alaska Quarterly, The Boston Globe, Arizona Quarterly, European Romantic Review, Witness, Colby Quarterly, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and McNeese Review, among many others. He lives in San Luis Obispo, California.

About Soda Lake

opens with an unnamed narrator seeing a man disappear into a lake of white salt. This sets the narrator on a quest of discovery, shaped by a series of stories with interconnected characters who all grapple with threats to their identity. The narrator's suspenseful journey mixes personal and collective human history, and his definition of self mysteriously fades as he gets closer to the elusive and timeless “McCuade,” who may or may not be real.Shifting from the coastal valley of central California to Chicago, Ireland, Greece, and France, each chapter in the novel presents a protagonist in the midst of a psychological struggle wherein the idea of McCuade becomes stronger than the reality of the characters themselves. With a twenty-first-century nod to works as diverse as Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio and Renata Adler’s Speedboat, Soda Lake blends elements of the archetypal detective quest with stories of the uncanny in order to freshly render the individual human psyche in its struggle to stand up to a progressively transmogrifying world.

Please note:

• This event is free and open to the public, but RSVP is required. By RSVPing, you agree to receive timely updates on COOP events and special offers.
• Books by John C Hampsey are available for purchase and signing at the COOP
• This event may have an event photographer taking photos for marketing purposes. If you do not want your photo taken, please let a COOP staff member know when you arrive at the event.

Cover art is by Armando Marino.

This event is located on the 3rd floor of The COOP at 1400 Mass Ave. in Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA.

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