Free, Virtual Session for Public to Feature 2023 Work by the Horror Master
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10/22/2025
Media Contacts: David Joyner, executive director of communications and digital media, David_Joyner@uml.edu and Nancy Cicco, associate director of media relations, Nancy_Cicco@uml.edu
LOWELL, Massachusetts – Writer Stephen King, whose works have thrilled millions and shaped popular culture for more than 50 years, will join acclaimed author and UMass Lowell English Professor Andre Dubus III for a free, virtual program open to the public later this month.
The inaugural Andre Dubus III UMass Lowell Alumni Book Club event, to be held virtually on Wednesday, Oct. 29 at 4 p.m., will see the two writers discussing King’s 2023 crime novel, “Holly.” The book club series is sponsored by the university’s Office of Alumni Relations.
“It’s a joy and an honor for me to host this new book club in service to our wonderful UMass Lowell alumni and friends all over the world,” Dubus said. “The great Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy reminds us that ‘art is transferring feeling from one heart to another,’ and so who better to be our inaugural author guest than Stephen King, a writer who has moved (and horrified) millions and millions of readers in dozens of countries for decades. I’m very much looking forward to our conversation on Oct. 29 on his deeply compelling 2023 novel, ‘Holly.’”
Individuals who would like to attend the Zoom session should visit alumni.uml.edu to register, as space is limited. Attendees may also submit their questions to King as part of the discussion.
The program is a welcome back to King, who visited UMass Lowell in 2012 as the inaugural guest in the Chancellor’s Speaker Series. Held at the Tsongas Center, that event drew a sold-out crowd and marked the launch of the Stephen and Tabitha King Scholarship, which supports UMass Lowell English majors, particularly students studying creative writing.
King made his first professional short story sale in 1967. In the fall of 1971, he began teaching high school English classes at Hampden Academy, in Maine. Writing when he could, he continued to produce short stories and craft novels. In 1974, his novel “Carrie” was published, providing him the means to leave teaching and write full time. He has since published more than 60 novels or novellas, some under the pen name Richard Bachman, and several nonfiction books. Many of his works have been adapted successfully for film and television, including “Carrie,” “The Shining,” “Stand by Me,” and “The Shawshank Redemption.” He is the recipient of the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to the American Letters and the 2014 National Medal of Arts, among other honors.
Dubus’ books include the New York Times’ bestsellers “House of Sand and Fog,” which was adapted into a film by the same name; “The Garden of Last Days;” and his memoir of growing up in Haverhill, Massachusetts, “Townie.” His novel “Such Kindness” appeared on Amazon’s “Best Books of 2023” list and a collection of personal essays, “Ghost Dogs: On Killers and Kin,” received praise for its unvarnished honesty. He has been a finalist for the National Book Award, and has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, The National Magazine Award for Fiction, three Pushcart Prizes, and is a recipient of an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature.
Members of the media who’d like to join the call to report on the session should contact UMass Lowell media relations to register.