SEMO English professor's new novel tackles grief, loss

Southeast Missouri State University English professor James Brubaker will launch his latest novel next week.

"We Are Ghost Lit", Brubaker's second novel, centers around themes of loss and grief.

The novel, although a work of fiction, takes its starting point from a real- life incident; the mysterious and unexpected death of Brubaker's best friend is where "We Are Ghost Lit" takes off and moves on to the world of fiction.

"The novel uses that very real loss as a starting point. While there are a few things that I wanted to be a part of the novel to memorialize my friend, it definitely goes to different places," he said.

The novel consists of three interwoven stories that all come together at the end.

In the first part, the reader will witness the first narrator (who has Brubaker's name) grieve after the loss of his best friend. He tries to solve the mystery of this unexpected death by speculating. These sections are written in second-person to the deceased friend.

"A big part of the character's development through the novel is figuring out how to forgive himself and find meaning in grief and loss at the same time," Brubaker said

The second part is written in brackets where a second narrator (who also has Brubaker's name) comments on the events happening in the other parts of the novel.

The third part is about a celestial being made of stardust named Starman who drifts through the cosmos in search of answers about his origin and identity.

Although the first part of the novel was inspired by the loss of his friend, Brubaker said the idea for the other parts existed before. The Starman, for example, was inspired by "a desire to explore ideas of boredom and identity and curiosity," he said. "He is this entity who just exists up in the cosmos who really has no idea why he exists and what he is doing up there, and he does whatever to kill the time."

Brubaker said he hopes his book will communicate to the reader that processing feelings can be hard and challenging.

"The ways that we feel things and move through the world are messy and weird and uncomfortable. But those are things that we all feel, especially when some sort of tragedy has touched our life," he said.

When he was mourning the loss of his best friend, he listened to the album "A Crow Looked at Me" by musician Phil Elverum that was recorded following Elverum's wife's sudden death to cancer. Although the album was full of feelings and sometimes heartbreaking, Brubaker said he found it comforting.

"I found solace in this other person's art, so maybe this ("We Are Ghost Lit") can help someone else through something difficult," he said.

Brubaker's novel is also influenced by other literary works and figures. "Borges and I" by Jorge Luis Borges helped Brubaker develop the framework for having multiple James Brubakers as narrators. Additionally, he mentioned that Gabriel Blackwell's exploration of multiple layers of textuality and interaction among narrators has had an impact on his work.

Brubaker received a Bachelor of Science in secondary integrated language arts in 2003 from Bowling Green University in Ohio, and then a master's degree in English and literature at Wright State University in Ohio, where he completed a creative thesis. In 2013, he earned his Ph.D. in creative writing with a focus on fiction from Oklahoma State University. He has been teaching writing at Southeast Missouri State University for nearly a decade.

His prior publications include a chapbook titled "Pilot Season", two short story collections — "Liner Notes" and "Black Magic Death Sphere: (Science) Fictions" — as well as a novel called "The Taxidermist's Catalog".

Brubaker will launch "We Are Ghost Lit" at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 26, at Spectrum Record Lounge, 113 Broadway in downtown Cape Girardeau. During the event, he will read from the novel and sign copies of the book, which will also be available for purchase.

"We Are Ghost Lit" may be purchased on Amazon among other online retailers.