Anyone passing through the student union late last October might have been a little surprised to see some unusual patrons: a gathering of over a dozen dead authors. It wasn’t an especially literate zombie attack, but rather an event organized by the ETFL Student Engagement Committee. As ETFL faculty member Hannah Baggott Anderson explained, “we wanted to encourage students to celebrate the work of authors we admire that have... passed on... in a fun way. By dressing up and embodying the author, we could have a little more fun that just coming to their work as we would in a classroom. We bring the authors to life! It's also a fun alternative to the traditions of Halloween.”

Over a dozen students and faculty gathered, representing authors as diverse as Mary Shelley, Ursula K. Le Guin, Langston Hughes and Sylvia Plath. A contest was held for best costume: in the student category, Kody Peterson, representing Homer, took first prize, while faculty member Autumn Lauzon’s Charlotte Perkins Gilman took the prize in her division, scoring a whopping 83 on the applause meter.