Wearing their hearts on their bookshelves

Love is in the air — and on the shelves— at Roesch Library, where more than 100 students have curated its growing Popular Romance Collection since 2023.

Through senior lecturer Amy Krug’s English 200 course, Beyond Bodice Rippers: Popular Romance and Its Function in Communities, students explore and analyze romance — the top-selling fiction genre with $1.44 billion in sales in 2022.

“There’s this idea that romance is all fluff,” said Krug. “But the best of it deals with topics like faith, sexuality and gender — all manners of representation, really — with tenderness and complexity.”

Funded by UD’s Experiential Learning Innovation Fund and the Libraries’ Father Roesch Endowment, the project grouped students into themed book clubs according to their interests. Each selected a title to donate to the library’s growing first-floor romance section.

Senior Paige Hendryx chose All That’s Left in the World by Erik J. Brown: a queer, post-apocalyptic love story that reshaped her perception of the genre.

“I quickly realized that my original understanding was very flat and shallow,” she said. “Now, it’s my favorite genre.”

With support from University Libraries, students learned how books are reviewed, acquired and cataloged. They also published bookplates explaining their selections on UD’s open-access repository, eCommons.

"Moving students toward public-facing writing ... helps them understand they’re not just reading romance. They’re critically engaging with what literature can be."

“Moving students toward public-facing writing and not just writing for their professors helps them understand they’re not just reading romance,” explained Krug. “They’re critically engaging with what literature can be.”

Hendryx added, “Don’t be afraid to enjoy the genre — or be surprised by it.”

A version of this article appears in print in the Autumn 2025 University of Dayton Magazine, Page 16.  EXPLORE THE ISSUE — MORE ONLINE