September 24, 2024

SVSU associate dean to publish novel

“Quiet Limit of the World” to be released Sept. 24

Carlos Ramet, associate dean of SVSU’s College of Arts and Behavioral Sciences, will publish his first novel on Tuesday, Sept. 24. “The Quiet Limit of the World” will be released by RIZE Press, which specializes in publishing works by minority writers.

Set in late 1970s San Francisco, the novel follows Diego Contreras, a recent college graduate, and Saloma Sevilla, a wealthy Filipino-Chinese graduate student, as they navigate societal and familial obstacles and civic unrest while coming to terms with their own constraints.

Ramet said his own past inspired him to write this novel, though it is not autobiographical.

“I lived in San Francisco in the late 1970s and always wanted to write about that time and place.  It was an exciting time and a period of tremendous change,” Ramet said. “Some elements of my personality and past are in everything creative I’ve written, but ‘The Quiet Limit of the World’ is very much a work of fiction. While there are historical incidents in the book that I witnessed or knew about, the characters and their experiences are largely invented.”

While Ramet has published several nonfiction books and articles as well as many fictional short stories, “Limits” is his first published novel. Ramet said he spent about six months writing this work, completing most of the draft during the COVID-19 lockdown.

“This is my first published novel, but I learned from the unpublished ones that came before it and are sitting in a drawer,” Ramet said. “I felt more surefooted writing ‘The Quiet Limit of the World’ and hope to build on that foundation to write other novels.”

Ramet joined SVSU in 1991as a faculty member teaching English and creative writing. In addition to serving as the chair of SVSU’s English Department, Ramet filled roles as executive assistant to the president and executive director of public affairs before being named associate dean. In 2000, he was honored with the SVSU Faculty Award for Scholarship.

Ramet has been active in professional and civic organizations, including the Society for College and University Planners; the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters; Saginaw Arts and Enrichment Commission; Governor’s Committee on Cities of Promise (Saginaw); Saginaw Sunrise Rotary Club Board of Directors; and the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra Board of Directors, among others.