New Issues Authors Kevin Fenton and Rachel Eliza Griffiths Read Their Work: Spring 2012 Gwen Frostic Reading Series

We welcome you to join us for our second reading of the Spring 2012 Gwen Frostic Reading Series. We're honored to have poet Rachel Eliza Griffiths and fiction writer Kevin Fenton read their work this Thursday, February 2nd. The reading will take place at the WMU Bernhard Center, in room 157-158, starting at 8:00 PM. We look forward to seeing you there. This reading is co-sponsored by New Issues Poetry & Prose.

2012 Creative Writing Awards Call for Submissions

The deadline for this year's Frostic Creative Writing Awards is Friday, February 3rd. The awards are open to current students at WMU. We very much hope you'll consider submitting your work.

Here are the details. Be sure to follow all guidelines:

• Submissions will be accepted in four genres: Fiction, Poetry, Non-Fiction, and Drama.

• You may submit to as many genres as you would like; you may submit up to three poems, one story, one essay, and/or one play.

• Your submission should include a cover sheet with your name, the title(s) of the submission, your contact information, and whether you are a GRADUATE or UNDERGRADUATE student. Also put this cover sheet information into the body of the email.

• The manuscript of the submitted work must not include any identifying information.

• Email submissions to Steve Feffer (steve dot feffer at wmich dot edu), and copy to Dustin M. Hoffman (dustin dot m dot hoffman at wmich dot edu).

• Please note the genre and whether you are a graduate or undergraduate student in the subject line.

• If you have any questions, please direct them to Dustin.

Creative writing faculty will determine the finalists in each genre and classification (GRAD and UNDERGRAD), which will then be passed on to outside judges. Those judges will pick a SINGLE overall winner in each genre and classification. Fiction submissions will also be considered for the annual Gordon Prize in Fiction.

All the best,

Steve Feffer
Spring Coordinator, Creative Writing

Gender, Sexuality & Language @ UM

Gender and Sexuality: What's Language Got to Do With It?
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
4:00 PM - 5:30 PM

Hatcher Graduate Library, Room 100, Gallery

Speakers:

Anne Curzan
University of Michigan, English, Linguistics and Education
Scott Kiesling
University of Pittsburgh, Linguistics
Robin Queen
University of Michigan, Linguistics
Shelley Swearingen
University of Michigan, Linguistics

In this panel, four scholars of language consider how language has been used to construct and perform gender and sexuality. They will examine a history of approaches to language, gender and sexuality; the connection between language, sexuality and masculinities; the erasure of lesbians from queer linguistics; the encoding of gender and sexuality in the grammar and lexicon and efforts to change the language.

Witschi's American West a Choice Outstanding Title

A Companion to the Literature and Culture of the American West (Wiley-Blackwell 2011), edited by Nicolas S. Witschi, has been named by Choice as an Outstanding Academic Title for 2011. According to the official notice posted online, "Every year, Choice subject editors single out for recognition the most significant print and electronic works reviewed in Choice during the previous calendar year. Appearing annually in Choice’s January issue, this prestigious list of publications reflects the best in scholarly titles and attracts extraordinary attention from the academic library community. The 2011 feature includes 629 titles in 54 disciplines and subsections." The full list of awardees may be found at this link.

Russo on the Once and Future (Medieval) Classroom

One of our WMU Ph.D. students in Medieval Studies, Keith Russo, just published his first essay, based on his experience as a classroom teacher at the IMG Pendleton School in Bradenton, FL. Please find his essay, "21st Century Inferno: Exploring Dante's Digital Legacy with Your Students," HERE. Two years ago, Keith co-edited (with Richard Utz and Christine Havens) an essay cluster on Culture and the Medieval King, in UNIversitas: The University of Northern Iowa Journal of Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity.