ORONO — Stephen King will launch his newest book “Hearts in Suspension” at the University of Maine on Monday, Nov. 7.

He will read from the book and discuss his days as a student at UMaine during the Vietnam War era. This will be followed by a conversation with his former classmates and friends who attended UMaine with him and who co-authored the collection.

The event is at 7 p.m. in the Collins Center for the Arts. Doors open at 6 p.m., and ticket holders must be in their seats by 6:45 p.m.

Tickets are free. UMaine community members can register for one ticket each with their student ID at the box office from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Oct. 12-14. Members of the public can register for two tickets per person beginning Oct. 17 at the box office or online at collinscenterforthearts.com. All tickets are general admission, and may be picked up at the box office beginning at 1 p.m. Nov. 7 with photo ID.

“Hearts in Suspension,” published by the University of Maine Press, a division of UMaine’s Fogler Library, marks the 50th anniversary of King’s enrollment at UMaine. In the years that followed, the escalating Vietnam War and social unrest nationwide, especially on college and university campuses, had “a profound impact on students of the period and deeply influenced King’s development as a writer and a man,” according to the publisher.

The volume includes a reprint of “Hearts in Atlantis,” which tracks the “awakenings and heartbreak” of his fictional counterpart, Peter Riley, during his first year at UMaine. The novella is accompanied by King’s new essay, “Five to One, One in Five,” in which he reflects on his undergraduate years, creating “a revealing portrait of the artist as (a) young man and a ground-level tableau of this highly charged time.”

Along with photographs and documents of this era at UMaine are four installments of King’s student newspaper column, “King’s Garbage Truck.” The columns, reprinted for the first time, are described by the publisher as “lively examples of King’s damn-the-torpedoes style.” The entertaining and shrewd youthful perceptions “more than hint at a talent about to take its place in the American literary landscape.”

The book also features essays by 12 of King’s classmates and friends, including Jim Bishop, one of King’s college English teachers and the book’s editor. As a sophomore, King enrolled in a writing workshop taught by Bishop and English professor Burton Hatlen, where the young author’s talent was validated and where he connected with other student writers. The group of dedicated young writers continued to meet in the semesters following the class.

In addition to Bishop’s essay and his introduction to the book, there are other personal narratives reflecting on the UMaine student experience by Michael Alpert, David Bright, Keith Carreiro, Harold Crosby, Sherry Dec, Bruce Holsapple, Frank Kadi, Diane McPherson, Larry Moscowitz, Jim H. Smith and Philip Thompson.

Bright was the editor of the student newspaper, Crosby was King’s freshman roommate and Moscowitz was the head of the Students for a Democratic Society chapter on campus. All were with King in the anti-war movement and bear witness to “a formative time in their lives and a defining moment in the country’s history,” according to the publisher.

“Hearts in Suspension” is dedicated in memory of Hatlen and two of King’s other inspirational professors at UMaine: Edward “Ted” Holmes and Edward “Sandy” Ives.

Copies of the book will be for sale at the Collins Center following the event, and available at bookstores nationwide after Nov. 7. Copies may be pre-ordered now from the University of Maine Press website at umaine.edu/umpress/forthcoming-books/hearts-in-suspension.

King has published more than 50 books. He is the recipient of the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, and the 2014 National Medal of Arts. Earlier this year, the Stephen E. King Chair in Literature was established at UMaine by a gift of $1 million from the Harold Alfond Foundation.

FMI: 207-581-1755.