When you think of Maine, Stephen King comes to mind. Those in the greater Bangor area also tend to think of the University of Maine, where King was a student and professor. So, it is only fitting that UMaine Professor and Stephen E. King Chair in Literature, Caroline Bicks, launches her book, Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen King, at Orono Brewing Company.
Orono Brewing opens their doors on Tuesday, April 21 at 6:00pm to help celebrate the special occasion. To help celebrate the launch, author Caroline Bicks will spend sometime in conversation with Capes and Tights founder Justin Soderberg as well as answer questions from those in attendance. For those interested in the book, The Briar Patch, located in Downtown Bangor, will be in on-hand with copies of the book available for purchase. Bicks will take time to sign each copy for those interested. Orono Brewing will have light refreshments as well as beer, wine, hard seltzer, and soft drinks available for purchase to enjoy during the event.
About Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen King
After Caroline Bicks was named the University of Maineʼs inaugural Stephen E. King Chair in Literature, she became the first scholar to be granted extended access by King to his private archives, a treasure trove of manuscripts that document the legendary writerʼs creative process—most of them never before studied or published. The year she spent exploring King’s early drafts and hand-written revisions was guided by one question millions of Kingʼs enthralled and terrified readers (including her) have asked themselves: What makes Stephen King’s writing stick in our heads and haunt us long after we’ve closed the book?
Bicks focuses on five of his most iconic early works—The Shining, Carrie, Pet Sematary, ʼSalemʼs Lot, and Night Shift—to reveal how he crafted his language, story lines, and characters to cast his enduring literary spells. While tracking King’s margin notes and editorial changes, she discovered scenes and alternative endings that never made it to print but that King is allowing her to publish now. The book also includes interviews Bicks had with King along the way that reveal new insights into his writing process and personal history.
Part literary master class, part biography, part memoir and investigation into our deepest anxieties, Monsters in the Archives—authorized by Stephen King himself—is unlike anything ever published about the master of horror. It chronicles what Bicks found when she set out to unearth how King crafted some of his scariest, most iconic moments. But it’s also a story about a grown-up English professor facing her childhood fears and getting to know the man whose monsters helped unleash them.
About Caroline Bicks
Caroline Bicks is an internationally-recognized Shakespeare scholar who has published widely on early modern drama, gender, and the history of science. She studied Renaissance poetry at Harvard University as an undergraduate and received her Phd in English Literature from Stanford University. She was tenured at Boston College in 2008, the same year that she began summer teaching at the Bread Loaf School of English. In 2017, she became the inaugural Stephen E. King Chair in Literature at the University of Maine. The endowed Chair’s mission is to support the public humanities, a challenge that Bicks has embraced by giving talks around the state to a wide variety of audiences, and bringing award-winning fiction writers, journalists, educators, and activists to speak and work with different Maine communities. The position also allowed her to develop a working relationship with Stephen King that led to him granting her access to his personal papers and to her writing a book about what she discovered, Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen King.
The uniquely public-facing nature of her position as King Chair complements the creative nonfiction pieces she has delivered to popular audiences over the years across various media platforms, including the Modern Love column for the New York Times, NPR’s “All Things Considered,” and the show Afterbirth, which she performed in alongside Andrew McCarthy, Andrea Martin, and other stars. Bicks’s award-winning blog, “Everyday Shakespeare,” was the inspiration for her humorous book, Shakespeare, Not Stirred: Cocktails for Your Everyday Dramas, co-authored with Michelle Ephraim. In April 2023, they launched their Webby-Award honored Everyday Shakespeare podcast, where they use their talents as educators and entertainers to deliver fresh, funny insights into how Shakespeare’s world connects to ours.
About Justin Soderberg
Justin Soderberg is the founder and host of the Capes and Tights Podcast and capesandtights.com, which launched in August 2021 and is set to surpass 300 episodes this fall. Through Capes and Tights, Soderberg has reviewed hundreds of comics, graphic novels, books, movies, and TV series. His quotes from his reviews have appeared on the print editions of more than 40 graphic novels and over five novels, and his reviews have been widely used to help promote a various comics and books.
A native of Maine, Soderberg lives in Newport with his wife and two children. He also works as the Creative Director at Orono Brewing Company.
