James Daniels & Andras Visky Read Dec. 7!

The Ambassador Poetry Project

The second issue of The Ambassador Poetry Project is now available online at www.AmbassadorPoetry.com. Visit the website to discover a variety of voices from Michigan and Ontario!

This issue includes selections from poets such as Judith A Goren, Therese Becker, Linda Leedy Schneider, Matthew Falk, and sound poetry from Penn Kemp. Also included is visual work by Grand Blanc High School student Rob Chron.

Teaching Writing: A Mini-Conference

Come join the first-year writing program teaching staff for an end-of-semester professional development event, highlighting the challenges and opportunities in teaching ENGL 1050 and 1000 at WMU. The opening presentation, "Righting Writing," will be by Dr. Thomas Kent, Dean of the WMU College of Arts and Sciences. There will be poster presentations on "Two to Too Much Grammar" Teaching Grammar in a Composition Classroom," "Special Topics a Go-Go: Composition as a Platform for Issues of Sustainability," "Completing the Circuit: Technology in Composition Instruction," Escaping the Ivory Tower: Putting Genre Studies to Use," "Finding Your Place: Bringing Place-Based Pedagogy to English 1000," and "Language ART." The event will take place on the 10th floor of Sprau Tower, from 6-7:30pm, on Tuesday, December 8.

Update: Sedgwick Conference ("Spanking and Poetry") in NYC—Deadline Extended

http://sedgwickconference.wordpress.com/

In Memoriam: Emerita Nancy Cutbirth Small

Dr. Nancy Cutbirth Small passed away after a long illness on Friday, 27 November 2009. Nancy joined the Department of English in 1971 and retired as Associate Professor with emerita status at the end of 1995. Her career was distinguished above all by the nurturing care that she lavished on her students, by her teaching of numerous courses in Renaissance Literature (particularly poetry), by her editing of The Anthony Powell Newsletter, and by her labors in conjunction with her future husband Tom in organizing what were then annual Shakespeare Festivals sponsored by the Department.

Following retirement Nancy pursued her passions for peace and the natural world. She was an early opponent of the war in Iraq, an early and active member of the Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy, and a founder of the Kalamazoo chapter of Wild Ones, an organization that advocates for natural landscapes. She lectured widely and wrote numerous letters and essays advocating for the preservation of natural spaces and all critters that live in, on, or above them. In a sense she never stopped teaching, as those who gardened with her, or received plants from her hands, or sought her advice on what to plant and where and why would testify.   T. H. Seiler

See also the Obituary in the Kalamazoo Gazette.