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Adelphi Professor Publishes Young Adult Novel About Climate Change

Garden City, NY (06/20/2022) — Adelphi University Adjunct Professor and author Ellen Hagan will release her third young adult novel, "Don't Call Me a Hurricane," on July 19. The novel, which will be published by Bloomsbury, is a coming-of-age story that explores family, community, the changing ocean tides and what it means to fall in love with someone who sees the world in a different way.

"I had so much fun writing this book," said Hagan. "This one feels like the biggest love story that I've written."

Set on Long Beach Island on the New Jersey shore, the novel follows a group of student environmental activists who live through a hurricane on their island home. It's the summer before their senior year of high school and their biggest action is protecting the Clam Cove Reserve, an area of marshland that's in danger of being destroyed and becoming overdeveloped. While trying to protect the reserve, the main character, Eliza Marino, finds herself falling in love with a tourist who is holding on to a secret.

While writing the book, Hagan explored climate change and climate justice with her students.

"The more I followed what's happening in this global crisis, the more I thought, 'How does art respond to some of these issues?'" she said. "How do young people speak back to what's happening? How do you create and begin to be in dialogue with some of these larger social justice issues? That's really what inspired the book."

For more than 20 years, Hagan has been dedicated to educating young minds. She has co-led Adelphi's Alice Hoffman Young Writers Retreat for high school students and has published multiple novels and poetry collections. Several of Hagan's poems and essays have been published in literary magazines such as Underwired Magazine, She Walks in Beauty, Huizache, Small Batch and Southern Sin.

"For me, everything I do in the classroom fuels what I do as an artist," said Hagan. "I am hopefully teaching them, but they are at the same time, teaching me."

"Don't Call Me a Hurricane" is available for preorder now: bookshop.org/don-t-call-me-a-hurricane

About Adelphi: A modern metropolitan university with a personalized approach to higher learning

Adelphi University, New York, is a highly awarded, nationally ranked, powerfully connected doctoral research university dedicated to transforming students' lives through small classes with world-class faculty, hands-on learning and innovative ways to support academic and career success. Adelphi offers exceptional liberal arts and sciences programs and professional training, with particular strength in our Core Four: Arts and Humanities, STEM and Social Sciences, the Business and Education Professions, and Health and Wellness.

Recognized as a Best College by U.S. News & World Report, Adelphi is Long Island's oldest private coeducational university. It serves more than 7,500 students at its beautiful main campus in Garden City, New York -- just 23 miles from New York City's cultural and internship opportunities -- and at dynamic learning hubs in Manhattan, the Hudson Valley and Suffolk County, as well as online.

More than 118,000 Adelphi graduates have gained the skills to thrive professionally as active, engaged citizens, making their mark on the University, their communities and the world.

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Cover of Ellen Hagan’s third young adult novel, “Don’t Call Me a Hurricane.”

Adelphi University Adjunct Professor and author Ellen Hagan

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