Dr. Nicholas Powers, an Associate Professor from the English Department, recently wrote “Thirst: The Rich are Vampires,” a political vampire novel that returns the horror genre back to its political roots published by Upset Publishing.
“The idea for 'Thirst' for me began with Occupy Wall Street,” explained Dr. Powers during a reading sponsored by the English Department. “I remember spending many nights there and I remember leaving on the subway and seeing a blank advertising space where I pictured an ad comparing the one percent to vampires - sucking us dry. In some ways you can look at Occupy Wall Street as a 21st century Vampire hysteria. “
When asked how it was to write this new novel, Dr. Powers commented, "writing 'Thirst' felt like I channeled our hope and anxiety into characters who came alive and took over the plot and made it their own."
As a novelist, Powers' writing pulls from his interests in surrealism, marxism, feminist theory, and mythology to transform silence into entertaining fiction and his writing has appeared in Truth-Out, The Indypendent, The Catalyst, Raw Story, Business Insider, Lucid News, The Village Voice, and Vibe. He has previously written two other books, “Theater of War: The Plot Against the American Mind” and “The Ground Below Zero: 9/11 to Burning Man, New Orleans to Darfur, Haiti to Occupy Wall Street.”