Third Coast feature in Poetry Daily

A selection from Third Coast's "Symposium on Writing and the Midwest"--Mark Halliday's "Kenneth Koch of Cincinatti"--is the Poetry Daily prose selection of the week.

WMU celebrates Jaimy Gordon's National Book Award

Yesterday afternoon, at the Richmond Center, President Dunn, Provost Greene, Dean Enyedi and more than 140 colleagues and students gathered to honor Dr. Jaimy Gordon, winner of this year's National Book Award. Gordon was introduced by Bruce McPherson, her publisher, friend and collaborator since her days at Brown University. Before her own reading from the first chapter of Lord of Misrule, three of her former students, all graduates from WMU's Department of English, Bonnie Jo Campbell, Liesel Litzenburger Meijer, and Melinda Moustakis, read from their works and recognized Gordon's essential role in their progress as writers. The event was organized and hosted by Dr. Katherine Joslin, Director of WMU's new Humanities Center.

Poetry students read and present book of poems

Chad Sweeney’s "Advanced Poetry" Class will have its book release and final poetry reading this Wednesday, Dec 15 at 6-8 PM at Kazoo Books II, 2413 Parkview Avenue, Kalamazoo - (269) 553-6506, near Oakland’s Water Street Café.

All guests will receive a free book of poems by these brilliant young poets.

Bookstore website with map: http://www.kazoobooks.com/

Fancy Pants Theater Presents New Plays

National Search: Assistant Professor in Rhetoric and Writing Studies

WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY

Assistant Professor of English – Rhetoric and Writing Studies

Western Michigan University invites applications for a tenure-track position as Assistant Professor of English (Rhetoric and Writing Studies), starting August 2011, pending budgetary approval.

Major Responsibilities: Teach in support of the Rhetoric and Writing Studies undergraduate program, including the Practical Writing major/minor. Additional opportunities may include course and graduate program development, support of the first-year and developmental writing programs, and participation in appropriate department and university committees. Special consideration will be given to candidates with research and teaching interests in new media, digital literature, and teaching with technologies. 

Qualifications: Required: Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Writing Studies or closely related area (e.g., composition studies, professional communication); a record of research and successful college teaching, including courses in rhetoric and writing studies; experience with digital technologies to support writing instruction. Desirable: Interest in developing curricula; supporting the university’s strategic vision of fostering investigations within areas such as diversity, environment/sustainability, and community writing through the development of pedagogical activities, interdisciplinary collaborative projects and grants, and community outreach; and administering first-year writing and developmental English programs.

The University: Western Michigan University is a dynamic, student-centered research university with an enrollment of 25,000. WMU is focused on delivering high-quality undergraduate instruction, advancing its growing graduate division and fostering significant research activities.  The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching places WMU among the 76 public institutions in the nation designated as research universities with high research activity. U.S. News & World Report’s annual ranking of American colleges and universities includes WMU as one of the nation’s top-100 public universities.

The Department: The Department of English consists of 40 board-appointed, full-time faculty. It currently educates approximately 600 majors and 250 minors in Practical Writing, Creative Writing, English Education, Language & Literature, and it offers M.A., M.F.A, and Ph.D. degrees and enrolls well over 100 graduate students. For full information please visit: www.wmich.edu/english.

Salary: Competitive and commensurate with qualifications and experience, with an excellent benefits package.

Expected Start Date: August 2011

Application Deadline: March 4, 2011

Required Application Documents:

Applicants must visit WMU’s Human Resources site at http://www.wmich.edu/hr/careers-at-wmu.htm to apply and submit through the site a letter of application, curriculum vitae, graduate transcripts, three letters of recommendation and, if available, summary teaching evaluations. Materials that cannot be submitted electronically at the Human Resources site should be sent in hardcopy to: Dr. Richard Utz, Chair, Department of English, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI 49008-5331.

Western Michigan University is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer consistent with applicable federal and state law. All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply.

Recent Graduates, please respond to survey!

Shehabat wins Travel Award

PhD student Abdullah Shehabat is the recipient of a competitive Graduate College Travel Award for presenting a paper, “Leila Ahmed’s A Border Passage: A Different Perspective of Alienation” at Henry Ford Community College, Dearborn, Michigan, in October.

Playwright Rebecca Gilman Presents Her Work: Fall 2010 Gwen Frostic Reading Series

We welcome you to join us for our final reading of the Fall 2010 Gwen Frostic Reading Series. We’re honored to have playwright Rebecca Gilman read who will be presenting one of her plays this Thursday, Dec. 9th. 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.

Four English Faculty Are Granted Sabbatical Leaves

It is my pleasure to announce that the following colleagues have been granted sabbaticals by Provost Greene:

Tony Ellis (AY 2011-212)
Lisa Minnick (Spring 2012)
Mustafa Mirzeler (Spring 2012)
Jana Schulman (AY 2011-2012)

Drs. Ellis, Minnick, Mirzeler, and Schulman will be working on scholarly projects during their leaves and bring additional recognition and experience to Western Michigan University, English Department, and their future classroom assignments.

Third Coast Magazine Featured in The Writer

Our Third Coast Magazine is currently featured in the section "Literary Spotlight" of The Writer (January 2011 issue, p. 46) as one of only a handful of nationally distributed literary magazines to regularly include four genres.
BTW, Third Coast's current, Fall 2010, issue features a Symposium on Writing and the Midwest. Check it out!

                                                    

The Kalamazoo Public Library Presents 
Deborah Ann Percy 
Reading from her new collection 
Cool Front: Stories from Lake Michigan 
Tuesday, December 14, 2010 
7 pm - 8:30 pm
315 S Rose St
Kalamazoo MI 49007
Phone 269-342-9837 
March Street Press, ISBN 1-59661-146-44, $15 
www.marchstreetpress.com

The smell of sunshine on sweet water permeates these stories, all set in Michigan's Lake Country.—Stuart Dybek, MacArthur Fellow, author of I Sailed with Magellan // Sand, water, sky are the elements here, edgy is the writing, perfect pitch the dialogue. —Alicia Ostriker, twice National Book Award finalist, author of No Heaven // The waters of Lake Michigan flow through Deborah Ann Percy's veins and into every word she puts on the page in this compelling collection of stories. —Robert Eversz, Nero Award nominee, author of Zero to the Bone // This is fine writing by a storyteller at the top of her game —Richard Katrovas, founding director of the Prague Summer Program, author of The Years of Smashing Bricks and Prague Winter