Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Benefit Event for Julie Moulds Rybicki at Kraftbrau

Join us this Sunday for a reading, concert, and party held at Kraftbrau Brewery to benefit the NTAF Great Lakes Bone Marrow Transplant Fund and provide relocation costs for New Issues poet Julie Moulds, author of The Woman with the Cubed Head.

Featuring the Poetry and Fiction of: Conrad Hilberry, Bonnie Jo Campbell, Bill Olsen, Nancy Eimers, Jack Ridl, Jackie Bartley, Rodney Torreson, Diane Seuss, David Dodd Lee, Elizabeth Kerlikowske, Danna Ephland, Gail Martin, Greg Rappleye, Dave Marlatt, Susan Ramsey, John Rybicki and Julie Moulds Rybicki and more.

Also Featuring: Irish music by Dave Marlatt and the Rambling Boys of Pleasure as well as American Roots Acoustic music by Solid Geometry and a Silent Auction of arts, crafts and signed books.

Where: Kraftbrau Brewery, 402 East Kalamazoo Avenue, Kalamazoo, MI. $5 admission. Free food.

When: Sunday, November 4 from 3 to 7:30 p.m.

Abstracting Reality (Four short plays)

Mike Monje would like to announce the following performances at FIRE on Portage Road on Saturday, 11/3 and Saturday, 11/10. Abstracting Reality (details below) is directed by Andy Argo, one of our undergraduates, and features a play by Neely Shingledecker (undergraduate) as well as one by Mike Monje:

Abstracting Reality
Four short plays by Michigan Authors
Directed by Andy Argo
Featuring:

Baggage Claim
by Sara Snyder
--------------------------------
What happens when picking up baggage at the airport takes a psychological turn?

T - Laura Wagner
Bo - Kyle Foster

The Reunion
by Michael Monje
--------------------------------
The turmoil of an atheist son and his Christian fundamentalist mother.

Stephen - Joshua Graves
Catherine - Melissa Zinn

The Video Game
by Christine Kilpatrick
--------------------------------
Ever wonder what those video game characters are doing when you're not playing with them?

Frank - Lucian MacDonald
Ed - Kyle Foster

Vignettes of Failure
by Neely Shingledecker
--------------------------------
An absurd tale of love, marriage, sex, and attempted murder.

George - Chris Schwallie
Winnie - Lynn Holt

at FIRE, 1249 Portage Rd
Saturday, November 3rd and Saturday, November 10th
7pm and 8:30pm performances each evening
$10; $8 students/seniors

Monday, October 29, 2007

Jiang Receives Travel Grant

Graduate student Yan Jiang is the recipient of a highly competitive Graduate Student Research and Travel Grant from Western's Graduate College. Congratulations!

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Marvin Bell events, November 7




The Gwen Frostic Reading Series is pleased to present poet Marvin Bell next Wednesday, November 7. Bell will be speaking at a Q&A at 4pm on the 10th floor of Sprau. His reading will be at 8pm at the Little Theater.


Author of nineteen collections of poetry and creator of a form known as the "dead man poem," for which he is both famous and infamous, Marvin Bell was for many years the Flannery O'Connor Professor of Letters at the Iowa Writers' Workshop and served two terms as the state of Iowa's first Poet Laureate. He now teaches for the brief-residency MFA based in Oregon at Pacific University. His most recent work includes Iris of Creation, The Book of the Dead Man, Ardor, Nightworks: Poems 1962-2000, Rampant, and his latest collection, Mars Being Red. The recipient of awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Academy of American Poets, the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Poetry Review, and Poetry Magazine, Bell has also held Senior Fulbright Appointments to Yugoslavia and Australia.


We hope you can join us for these events. Please encourage your students to attend.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Hruska Wins College Appreciation Award

Dean Tom Kent has recently begun an initiative called the Dean's Staff and Faculty Appreciation Award to recognize the great work done during an entire academic year by exemplary staff and faculty. I am pleased (actually, I am tickled to death) to inform you that our very own MICHELLE HRUSKA has been awarded this honor. I quote from the dean's letter: "I know personally how you have performed well beyond the call of duty to help our students and staff." All of us agree, and Bethlynn was one of the first to congratulate, as you can see in the picture.

This prestigious award carries a cash prize of $ 1,000. Please join me in congratulating Michelle on this wonderful honor.

rju

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Robin Hemley Reads October 29


The Gwen Frostic Reading Series is pleased to present Robin Hemley next Monday, October 29. The reading will begin at 8pm at the Little Theater.


Hemley, who is Director of the Nonfiction Writing Program at the University of Iowa, has published seven books of nonfiction and fiction. His latest, Invented Eden, The Elusive, Disputed History of the Tasaday (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2003) was an American Library Association's Editor's Choice book for 2003. His other books include the memoir, Nola: A Memoir Of Faith, Art And Madness (Graywolf, 1998), which won an Independent Press Book Award for Nonfiction; the novel, The Last Studebaker (Graywolf); and the story collections, The Big Ear (Blair) and All You Can Eat (Atlantic Monthly Press). His awards for his fiction include The Nelson Algren Award from the Chicago Tribune, The George Garrett Award for Fiction from Willow Springs, the Hugh J. Luke Award from Prairie Schooner, two Pushcart Prizes, and many others.


Please join us for this event and encourage your students to attend.

Nagle Speaks at International Conference on Romanticism


Chris Nagle presented a paper, " The Traveling Pleasures (and Perils) of Sensibility: Ireland and Italy, Owenson and Staƫl," on a panel devoted to "The Object of Pleasure" at the 16th International Conference on Romanticism sponsored by Towson University and Loyola College in Baltimore, MD, on October 21, 2007.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Sigma Tau Delta Inductions

The Fall induction ceremony for Sigma Tau Delta went well. Thanks to all who attended. For those who didn't, you need not worry. We have Spring inductions too.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Rossi Recognized as Distinguished Alumna

Francine Rossi, our department's 2007 Distinguished Alumna, was honored at the College of Arts and Sciences Reception on Friday, October 19, 2007. She attended the reception together with her husband, Gregory. Francine, who graduated from WMU with a bachelor's degree (major: English; minor: Speech/Drama), achieved an outstanding career in consumer affairs, breaking the glass ceiling as director and owner of The American Center for Educational Development, Inc., and owner of AS-RA-TECHnologies, an environmental remediation company with contracts for the Department of Aviation (e.g., at O'Hare, Midway & Meigs Airports) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. She has kept a close connection with Western since her graduation, culminating in her six year service on the WMU Alumni Board of Directors. During the conversations she had with Drs. Meg Dupuis, Chari Thralls, and Richard Utz, she stressed how her education as a reader, writer, speaker, and editor (she was editor of the Western Herald) played a major role in reaching her career goals. English department students will get a chance to meet and speak with Francine in April, when she has promised to return to Western to share her experiences and speak about the many opportunities a thorough education in English studies provides.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

New Issues Titles Win Awards


One Tribe, the first AWP Novel Award Winner published with New Issues, has won the 2007 Global Filipino Literary Award for Fiction. One Tribe will be submitted to the Library of Congress and will receive a special catalog number for inclusion in the Global Filipino Literary Awards Collection housed permanently in the Library's Asian Reading Room.

Even more exciting, the book's author, M. Evelina Galang, was named one of the 100 most influential Filipina Women in the US by Filipina Women's Network and will be honored at the Filipina Summit (www.ffwn.org) in Washington D.C. next week. She'll be reading from One Tribe at the Library of Congress on Saturday.

David Keplinger's poetry book, The Prayers of Others, won the 2007 Colorado Book Award for Poetry at a special event last night (Oct. 17). His other book with New Issues, The Clearing, was a finalist for the same award last year.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Sigma Tau Delta Fall Induction

Sigma Tau Delta's Fall induction will be 21 October, this Sunday at 2PM on the 10th floor of Sprau. The ceremony will recognize new and returning members to WMU's chapter of the International English Honor Society. This is a great time to honor students who excel in various English curriculums. If you need any more incentive than that, there will be cake and various assorted snacks.

Our new inductees for the fall are:

Sarah J. Anderson
Conor W. Burke
Eric B. Dial
Gregory A. Flynn
Caroline N. Lampinen
Patrick S. Love
Danielle N. Lutz
Amanda M. Lynch
Rebecca Paxon
Miranda L. Rosenberg
Ashley J. Russo
Amy P. Simon

You are more than welcome to attend the induction even if these are not your students. Please join us in welcoming these new members.

-Theresa, Sigma Tau Delta PR

English Writing Conference: Please Announce

Sigma Tau Delta's English Writing Conference
2007 Call for Papers
Submission Deadline: Friday, November 2

What can you do with a course paper after the class? Present it at the EWC!

Students may submit papers focusing on any topic connected to English studies. Submissions may explore:
● novels, short stories, poems
● films, speeches
● linguistics
● theory
● original explications
● English studies pedagogical papers (though not lesson plans or teaching tips)

Original creative works are also encouraged.
All submissions must be presentable within a 15-minute time slot.
Prose submissions must be typed, double-spaced, in a standard 12-point font and should range from approximately 5 to 10 pages in length.
Poetry submissions must be typed in a standard 12-point font and may include a single poem or a group of poems. The submitted body of work should have a title.
Each person may submit up to two works in different genres for this conference.

Panel submissions are welcome. (Panels may include three or more participants from a single class presenting on similar topics/a single project, a pre-planned discussion on a particular text by three or more individuals, or another creative group presentation.)

Submissions may be emailed to: WMUSigmaTauDelta@gmail.com
Submissions must be received by 12 midnight on Friday, November 2.
Email Subject Line: EWC Submission.
Email Body: Your full name, title of the work(s), and contact information. (Working email is best.)
Submission attachment should be in: .doc format.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Wendy Wall "At Home with Shakespeare"


Prof. Wendy Wall, chair of the Department of English at Northwestern University, is the fifth annual Comparative Drama Distinguished Lecturer. Her talk, "At Home with Shakespeare," will be at 7:00 pm on Thursday, October 25th, on the 10th floor of Sprau Tower.

This presentation examines the particular way that textiles in The Merry Wives of Windsor and Othello signal contradictions in how domestic work was understood in the period. These plays make strikingly clear that domesticity was a site of creativity, power, and fantasy, comprising objects and activities whose meanings could not fully be controlled. As they exploit contradictions in household ideology, Shakespearean plays reveal creative tensions in how housework was used to structure--and to negotiate--communities and relationships.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Utz on Editorial Board of Arthuriana

Richard Utz has accepted an invitation to serve on the Editorial Board of Arthuriana: The Journal of Arthurian Studies. Arthuriana is the quarterly for the International Arthurian Society - North American Branch. It is dedicated to all aspects of the Arthurian story from its inception in the Middle Ages to its enactments in the present moment. The only academic journal in the world on Arthurian subjects, Arthuriana is poised on the cutting edge of current debates on Arthurian topics. Contributors to the journal consistently include the top scholars in the field, and the journal constantly seeks out new and innovative scholarship that brings fresh perspectives to Arthurian studies.

Tiffany's Edition of Tempest Forthcoming with Johns Hopkins

Grace Tiffany's edition of The Tempest has been bought by Johns Hopkins University Press, along with eight other single-play Shakespeare editions from other editors. The editions will be issued as the Johns Hopkins University Press Shakespeare series.

Spring/Summer Achievement Summary

Thanks to Arnie Johnston, we can publish the following achievements by departmental students and faculty from this year's spring semester and summer:

Daneen Wardrop has won the Gerald Cable Book Award from Silverfish Review Press for her poetry collection, The Odds of Being.

Stuart Dybek has been chosen to receive The Mark Twain Award in 2007 for “distinguished contributions to Midwestern literature” from the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature at Michigan State University.

MFA student in poetry, Kim Kolbe, has a poem currently online at AGNI: http://www.bu.edu/agni/poetry/online/2007/kolbe.html.

Steve Feffer has won one of this year’s New Jewish Theatre Commissions awarded by the National Foundation for Jewish Culture and the Jewish Endowment for the Humanities. The grant will allow Steve to continue his work with a sponsoring theatre—in this case, the Whole Art—on Ain’t Got No Home, his new play based on Chicago’s legendary Chess Records.

Arnie Johnston’s short play, Roulette, was a Finalist for Wilkes University’s (Wilkes-Barre, PA) 2007 John C. Gardner Prize for the Two-Minute Play. Arnie and wife Debby Percy have adapted their short play But If It Rage into a screenplay that will be filmed this summer in Los Angeles by IntroSpec Pictures under the direction of Greg Siers.

Part-time colleague Linda Dick has written five biographies of literary characters--White Fang, Billie Joe (Out of the Dust), Jonas (The Giver), Cat in the Hat, and Summer (Missing May)--for the forthcoming Student Companion to American Literary Criticism.

Undergrad major Theresa Thomas has received a Dean’s Summer Thesis Research Award of $2,500 from the Lee Honors College. Theresa’s work will be supervised by faculty mentor Lisa Minnick.

Doctoral candidate Ron Riekki received a contract from Ghost Road Press to publish his novel U.P. in fall 2008. In the acceptance note, Matt Davis of Ghost Road Press wrote, “I am just going to start this off by saying that I love your book. Hollow, Craig, J, and Antony are so compelling and their voices are so real that I found myself re-reading chapters and sections just to experience their words again. I think this is the perfect book for Ghost Road Press and would like to offer you a contract to publish if the ms is still available. Please let me know...if it is I will draft an offer and send it to you as soon as I hear back. The book would be set to come out for Fall 2008.” I’m going over the contract right now and may ask (beg) for some changes based especially off of some minor points (that may be major) that Robert Eversz passed on to me. U.P. was previously nominated for the Sewanee Writers’ Series by National Book Award winner John Casey and it actually won, set to be published with Overlook Press (a subsidiary division of Penguin Putnam), but they pulled out last minute, so it is great that I have found another publisher for the book at this time. You can also add to the Bulletin that I just worked for VH1’s I Love New York 2. (I Love New York set the record for highest Nielsen rating in the history of VH1.) And also I’m going into a studio in Detroit on June 1 as a comedy writer with five other comedy writers from Chicago to write Second City style sketches for the next album to be released by the Artfull Dodgers. (Gozza from the Artfull Dodgers appeared on VH1’s egotrip’s “The (White) Rapper Show.” I’m talking with VH1 about working for them in L.A. for the remainder of the summer and I fly out on Wednesday for a job interview with a Florida college, so a ton going on. Oh, and Abstraction Theatre is doing a staged reading and production of Good Behavior. Ron :)

Jon Adams has received official word from the University of Virginia Press that his book has been accepted for publication and is scheduled for a Fall 2008 release. The MS is currently with UVA’s ‘cultural studies’ series editor (Robert Newman, dean of Humanities at the University of Utah), as it will likely be included in that series. The contract is forthcoming.

For the fourth consecutive summer, Western Michigan University’s Departments of Theatre and English collaborated to stage readings of a series of exciting new plays. This year’s New Play Project—under the guidance of Steve Feffer and Theatre Department colleague Mark Liermann—included fifteen student-written plays selected for development with a company of fourteen student actors, directors, and stage managers. The plays ran the theatrical gamut from an apocalyptic love story set beneath a clock that is either “counting down the end of the world or the time it takes to bake a potato”—to a parody of modern art centered on Duchamp’s “The Fountain.” The readings took place during May and June in the Zack L. York Arena Theatre in the Gilmore Theatre Complex. “The Fountain” by Alyse Castillo, “Deja Vu Goodbye” by Chris Bell, “After Wilson” by Mike Monje, “Everybody Gets Fifteen Minutes” by Max Clark, “Ham and Cheese Omelet” by Leah Okraszewski.

Janet Heller’s illustrated children's book, How the Moon Regained Her Shape, was selected as a Children's Choice of 2007. For the complete Western News story, go to http://www.wmich.edu/wmu/news/2007/05/044.html. And a short time later the Publishers Marketing Association chose How the Moon Regained Her Shape as the winner of the 2007 Benjamin Franklin Award in the category of Interior Design, three or more colors—Children's/Young Adult. Janet’s article “The Nature of Learning in Garrison Keillor’s ‘Drowning 1954’ and ‘After a Fall’” was published in MidAmerica 32 (2005). She also made several presentations at the May 2007 Symposium on the Cultural Heritage of the Midwest at Michigan State University in East Lansing: “Letters Home from a Map-Maker for General Patton” (an analysis of her father's war letters and autobiography), “Rummage Sale” (a poetry reading), and “Returning to Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin” (a creative nonfiction essay). Congratulations, Janet!

Teaching Assistants Announced for Prague Summer Program 2008

The following students have been selected as Teaching Assistants for the Prague Summer Program, June 28 to July 25, 2008:

Melinda Moustakis, fiction
Michael Davis, fiction
Kathy Zlabek, fiction
Shannon Jonas, poetry
Kory Shrum, poetry
Kate Dernocoeur, multi-genre
Marin Heinritz, nonfiction
Paul Goff, scriptwriting
Meghann Meeusen, culture studies

The Teaching Assistants are integral to the success of the Prague Summer Program, and are at the heart of the Program’s unique structure. Each is, in effect, the workshop manager in her or his group. In the weeks preceding arrival in Prague, she or he gathers, online, the materials to be critiqued over at least the first one or two sessions of the first week, and for at least the first session of the third week. Since non-credit-seeking students may participate for either the first two weeks or the seconds two weeks of the program, the logistics of gathers and disseminating student materials is particularly challenging, and must occur during the time leading up to everyone’s arrival in Prague, when they are often least communicative due to travel.

Once the program begins, the TAs keep attendance records for the workshops, the lecture series and the Ypsilon Reading Series (Czech spelling); they also keep records of the work that is critiqued in the workshops. Because the classes are composed of students at different experience levels, the TAs conduct tutorials with neophyte poets, fiction and nonfiction writers and playwrights outside of class.

Because most of the workshops have two mentors, one the first two-week session and another the second, the TAs must coordinate the transition. Because none of the mentors is an instructor of record for grades (they suggest grades to the program director, who is the instructor of record, and he factors those suggestions into the final evaluation which includes his judgment of each credit seeker’s performance on a final essay, and on the attendance record supplied by the credit seeker’s TA), the TAs’ reports to the program director are crucial. TAs are the program director’s representatives in the workshops.

TAs in the Prague Summer Program are indeed integral to success, but they also themselves benefit greatly from fulfilling their roles. They gain valuable experience in pedagogy, managing groups of individuals being mentored by some of the finest writers and teachers of writing in the world. Of course, they also benefit as aspiring artists from having their own work critiqued by those mentors. In addition, they learn valuable lessons regarding the practical aspects of arts management. Finally, they benefit in the same sense as every other PSP participant should, from living for a month in one of the world’s most beautiful and culturally rich cities, having their own language, their American-ness, their very sense of what it is to be an artist, defamiliarized, re-contextualized.

Richard Katrovas
Professor of English & Founding Director,
Prague Summer Program

CFP Writing the Midwest

CALL FOR PAPERS AND READINGS

The Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature invites you to participate in its 38th Annual Symposium:

Writing the Midwest: A Symposium of Scholars, Creative Writers, and Filmmakers

May 8-10, 2008, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan

The Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature is devoted to the study and production of Midwestern literature in whatever directions the insight, imagination, and curiosity of the members may lead. The SSML annual symposium brings together writers, scholars, and filmmakers to present criticism, poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and films.
We welcome proposals for individual papers, panels, and roundtables on Midwestern literature, and reading of creative work with a Midwestern emphasis. Filmmakers are encouraged to propose the screening of films with Midwestern subject matter. Information at: http://www.ssml.org

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Northwestern Nominates Olsen

Northwestern University Press has nominated Bill Olsen's Avenue of the Vanishing for both a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award.
Olsen is a recipient of fellowships through the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Breadloaf. His three previous collections of poetry are The Hand of God and a Few Bright Flowers, Vision of a Storm Cloud, and Trouble Lights.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Rypma on Rapunzel's Hair

On October 3, 2007, Judi Rypma read from her poetry chapbook, Rapunzel's Hair (winner of the All Nations Press poetry chapbook contest) at the Portage District Library.

Heller on How the Moon Regained Her Shape

Janet Heller (and local illustrator and WMU alumna Amelia Hansen) recently spoke on the subject of writing and her award-winning children's book, How the Moon Regained Her Shape at Kzoo Books Annex in Kalamazoo. Heller's book was selected for Children's Choices of 2007 by the Children's Book Council and the International Reading Association and in 2006 as a Book Sense Pick, a monthly and seasonal selection of new books chosen by independent booksellers.

Thralls and Webb on NCTE Committees

As the result of a national election, Allen Webb is now serving a four-year term on the Executive Committee of the Conference on English Education (National Council of Teachers in English), an organization that provides professional leadership and direction for the education and certification of future teachers and recognizes and promotes excellence in research, diversity, and teacher inquiry.
Chari Thralls has accepted to serve as Chair of the Committee on Scientific and Technical Communication, a national committee under the auspices of the National Council of Teachers in English. The committee's mission is to increase the professional community's awareness and skill in teaching technical and scientific communication.

Schulman Speaks on Paolini's Eragon

Jana Schulman presented a paper, "Retelling Old Tales: Germanic Myth and Language in Christopher Paolini's Eragon," at the 22nd International Conference on Medievalism (entitled: Neomedievalisms) at the University of Western Ontario, London, ON, on October 6, 2007.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Bush Publishes in The Writing Instructor

Jonathan Bush is the co-author (with W. Douglas Baker, Elizabeth Brockman, and Kia Jane Richmond) of an essay on "Composition Studies/English Education Connections," in the special September 2007 issue of The Writing Instructor, entitled Composition Studies, The Next Generation: Teaching and Mentoring New Composition Teachers, ed. Jane Alsup and Lisa Schade Eckert. For more information, click here.

Comparative Drama Available on Project Muse

Beginning with volume 41 (2007), Comparative Drama, the scholarly journal housed in WMU's English Department and edited by Eve Salisbury (editor-in-chief), Cynthia Klekar, and Anthony Ellis (associate editors), will be available electronically through Project Muse, one of the premier providers for electronic access to scholarly journals.

Vocke Publishes Monograph

Karen Vocke recently published "Where Do I Go From Here?" Meeting the Unique Educational Needs of Migrant Students (Heinemann Publishers). Vocke's research focuses on migrant education, and this book for teachers is the culmination of time spent in schools in Michigan and California. To read an excerpt, click here.

Thralls Coeditor of Essay Collection


Chari Thralls is the co-editor, with Mark Zachry, of an essay collection, Communicative Practices in Workplaces and the Professions: Cultural Perspectives on the Regulation of Discourse and Organizations (Baywood Publishing). For more information, click here.

Walker on Letter Writing and E-Mail

Joyce Walker has recently published an essay, "Letter Writing in the Late Age of Print: Electronic Mail and the Ars dictaminis," in Letter-Writing Manuals and Instruction from Antiquity to the Present. Historical and Bibliographic Studies, ed. Carol Poster and Linda C. Mitchell (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2007), pp. 230-43.

Witschi in American Literary Scholarship


Nic Witschi recently authored the essay on "Late-Nineteenth-Century Literature" in the 43rd annual edition of the prestigious American Literary Scholarship, a selective annual review of the voluminous research in the field published by Duke University Press.

Webb, Arver, and Rozema in English Journal

Allen Webb ("Digital Texts and the New Literacies"), current graduate student Cara Arver ("Are You Willing to Have Your Students Join Ralph, Jack, and Piggy?"), and former graduate student Rob Rozema ("The Book Report, Version 2.0: Podcasting on Young Adult Novels"), are contributors to the special issue on "New Literacies" in the September, 2007, issue of the English Journal, the largest circulated academic journal in the world (30,000 issues per annum). For a complete table of contents of the special issue, click here.

Feffer in Journal of Popular Music Studies

Steve Feffer recently published an essay, "'Despite All the Amputations, You Could Dance to the Rock and Roll Station': Staging Authenticity in Hedwig and the Angry Inch," in the current issue of the Journal of Popular Music Studies (Volume 19, Issue 3, Blackwell Publishing). The essay considers how the performance strategies of the New York stage production of the glam-punk musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch challenges some of the fundamental discursive structures of rock authenticity particularly as they are related to gender and identity.

Monday, October 8, 2007

Creative Writing Hire

Please feel free to bring this job description for our position in Creative Writing/Fiction to the attention of colleagues who might be interested in applying:

Associate or Full Professor, Creative Writing-Fiction
Seeks applications for a tenure-track position in Creative Writing (Fiction) to begin Fall 2008 at the rank of Associate Professor or Full Professor, depending on qualifications, experience, and budgetary approval. MFA, Ph.D., or DFA in English required. Western Michigan University offers programs in fiction, poetry, drama, and creative non-fiction, including the Ph.D. in English with Creative Dissertation, the MFA in Creative Writing, and creative writing majors and minors; these are enhanced by the Prague Summer Program, Third Coast Literary Magazine, New Issues Poetry & Prose, and a number of drama projects. The successful candidate will be an active writer with a distinguished record in the field, several books of prose fiction, and substantial teaching experience at the university level. Publications in other genres of creative writing, particularly in creative nonfiction, will be considered an asset. This position will involve mentoring and assisting our fiction students in entering the world of professional fiction writing, especially at the graduate level. As with rank, workload and salary level are competitive, depending on qualifications and experience. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has placed WMU among the 76 public institutions in the nation designated as research universities with high research activity. Western Michigan University is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer consistent with applicable federal and state law. All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply. Please send letter of application, vita, transcripts, and three letters of reference to: Dr. Richard Utz, Chair, Department of English, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI 49008-5331. Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled.

English 1000 Staff Trip

Thanks to Michelle, we were able to get some funding from the provost to take our entire English 1000 staff to Michigan Council of Teachers of English conference last Friday. They are all undergraduate English students in our department. What you may not know is that they are all teaching a section of English 1000: The Writing Process - a class taken by a lot of our first year students - and they are doing a great job.

You'll recognize a lot of these students from your classes. Be sure to ask them how their classes are going -- Jake Frye, Rob Gardella, Lauren Hill, Owen Horton, Kyle Krol, Randall Seltz, Camila Stewart, Brandon McNab, Megan Allen, Sam Boyd, Laura Butler, Christina Cousino, Sara Dibartolomeo (and Mike Monje and Elena Adkins, our graduate lead teachers).

Jonathan Bush

Sunday, October 7, 2007

Major Excitement












On October 13, various members of the English department participated in "Major Excitement," an event organized by the College of Arts and Sciences to introduce students to the many majors offered by the college and to help them make an informed decision about selecting a major early on in their college careers. Prospective majors had an opportunity to meet and consult with faculty members, graduate students, and alumni/ae, and the large number of interested visitors at the info table attested to the many attractive features involved in the vast field of English studies.


Welcome

Dear readers,

I am creating this blog to provide an additional source of information for students, parents, faculty, alumni/ae, emeriti/ae, and all other friends of the English department at Western Michigan University to stay informed about the department's various activities. To avoid spam postings, only staff members, faculty, colleagues in closely related areas, and a small number of students (usually representatives of various student organizations, etc.) will be authorized to post messages, comments, etc. However, please note that all the world can access and read this blog, and all authors of postings should, therefore, take the open nature of this tool into consideration when publishing information.
If you are unfamiliar with blogging, please follow the easy-to-use instructions provided by Google to learn and experiment with this exciting means of communication. I am looking forward to reading the many creative contributions to these pages.

With collegial regards,
Richard Utz
Professor & Chair
Department of English
Western Michigan University