Earlier this year, upper school English teacher Charles Shuttleworth, a noted expert on the life and works of Beat generation author Jack Kerouac, was selected as the keynote speaker at this year’s Lowell Celebrates Kerouac Festival, which takes place Oct. 8-12. Shuttleworth’s lecture, titled “Kerouac: The Buddhist Years,” will be viewable throughout the festival, and he also will be holding a special Q&A session via Zoom at 11 a.m. PST on Oct. 10. Those who would like to participate in the Q&A are being asked to RSVP. 

The Lowell Celebrates Kerouac Festival is held annually by the nonprofit organization Lowell Celebrates Kerouac! Inc., which was founded in 1985 and is based in Kerouac’s birthplace of Lowell, Mass., where he is also buried. The festival typically includes walking tours of places Kerouac mentioned and alluded to in his works, but is being held virtually this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the summer, Shuttleworth had an essay published in Beat Scene, and independent magazine dedicated to covering authors of the Beat Generation, such as Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and Charles Bukowski.