Poet Jay Baron Nicorvo Reads His Work: Gwen Frostic Reading Series

The Spring 2013 Gwen Frostic Reading Series is honored to have WMU faculty member and poet Jay Baron Nicorvo read his work on Thursday, February 28th. The reading will take place at the WMU Bernhard Center, in room 208-209, starting at 8:00 PM. The reading is free and open to the public. We look forward to seeing you there.

Crosby Lecture next for Scholarly Speakers Series

The WMU English Department's Scholarly Speakers Series presents


SARA CROSBY

The Ohio State University at Marion



“The Democratic Poisoner: The Democrats, the Partisan Press, and the Erasure of the Poisonous Woman in Antebellum American Literature”



Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013

7 PM

Brown 3025


Free and open to the public. A reception will follow.


For more information, please contact Prof. Christopher Nagle: christopher.nagle@wmich.edu


This event is co-sponsored by the History Department, Phi Beta Kappa, and Lee Honors College.

Comparative Drama Essay Wins Award

Comparative Drama would like to congratulate Loren Kruger for being awarded the Philadelphia Constantinidis Prize for Critical Theory by the Comparative Drama Conference. Dr. Kruger earned this award for her recent essay, "On the Tragedy of the Commoner Elektra, Orestes and Others in South Africa" which was published in our recent special issue, "Transcultural Poetics and the 'Worlding' of Drama," guest edited by Ranjan Ghosh.

After Dancing: Dancers Turn to Writing

Kalamazoo, MI. February 13, 2013 — A former dancer at the acclaimed Martha Graham School and another dancer, trained in the Royal Academy of Dance school, will explore their next step as authors in an upcoming literary reading on the campus of Western Michigan University.

Authors Renee E. D’Aoust and Moira MacDougall will visit WMU's Dance Department at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 26 in WMU’s Dalton Multimedia Room to read from their recent books. The reading will be the culmination of a full day as guest artists in the Dance Department. They will visit classes in Modern Technique, 20th Century American Dance, and Choreography, with professors Carolyn Pavlik, Megan Slayter, and David Curwen.

The reading is free and open to the public. It is hosted by Danna Ephland, poet, and former Dance Department faculty. “Dancers who write bring a startling physicality to the page, embodied writing,” Ephland says.

The reading will feature D'Aoust's "Body of a Dancer" (Etruscan Press), a memoir of narrative essays about her time in New York at the Martha Graham School. Now as a writer, D’Aoust has numerous publications and awards to her credit including a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts’ Journalism Institute for Dance Criticism at American Dance Festival. She lives half the year in Switzerland, the other in Idaho, where she manages her family’s forestland.

MacDougall will read from her poetry collection, "Bone Dream" (Tightrope Books), which summons her training in classical ballet and modern dance, as well as her experiences as an Iyengar yoga instructor in poems that "sound the shifting depths of body and spirit." MacDougall is published widely in Canadian and American literary journals and is currently the Poetry Editor for the Literary Review of Canada. She lives in The Beach in Toronto, Ontario. MacDougall is available for interview by contacting her at mac.john@sympatico.ca .  D'Aoust at idahobuzzy@yahoo.com .

From the book jackets:

D’Aoust provides a powerful, acidly comic record of what it is to love, and eventually leave, a life centered on dance. ... Lance Olsen

MacDougall’s vital poetry puts the body first, from a dancer’s gnarled toes to a yogi’s spine….The vigorous poems of Bone Dream burst with the deliberate beauty of the posed body… Molly
Peacock

Third Coast Writing Project Announces 2013 Summer Programs

The Third Coast Writing Project has announced its 2013 Summer Programs for teachers and children. All applications, contacts, and program information can be accessed at http://thirdcoastwp.wikispaces.com/.

Invitational Summer Institute (June 17-28)
Our flagship program is available by application and invitation only. We will read, write, and demonstrate teaching in an engaging, but intense professional experience. The program will cap at 10 participants. All accepted participants will receive a $500 stipend. Two WMU graduate credits are available. SCECHs are included. Invitational Summer Institute applications must be returned by May 1, 2013.

Teacher as Writer (June 25-29)

This program focuses on the inner-writer that exists in all teachers. Under the guidance of our experienced poet/writer/creative writing teacher, teachers get the chance to concentrate, full-time on their own writing – fiction, poetry, or professional. Cost: $200 (SCECHs included; there is an option for one (1) WMU graduate credit with additional enrollment for interested participants.)Teacher as Writer applications must be returned by May 1, 2013. 

Invitational Summer Workshop (Co-Sponsored with AAESA) (July 30-August 2)

The ISW focuses on teaching writing, addressing the Common Core mandates, and using writing to help students and teachers think and learn in all content areas. Cost: Free to all AAESA districts; $200 for non-AAESA districts (SCECHs included; there is an option for one (1) WMU graduate credit with additional enrollment for interested participants.)

 

Holocaust Education Network Michigan Satellite Seminar [Co-Sponsored by TCWP with the Holocaust Education Network/Memorial Library of New York], July 7-12, 2013.  

Educators are invited to participate in the Second Michigan Satellite Summer Seminar on Holocaust Education sponsored by The Memorial Library of New York City. The seminar will be held in Farmington Hills, MI, July 7-12, 2013, at the Holocaust Memorial Center--Zekelman Family Campus. Our grant support means we can offer teachers this opportunity for a very low fee: for $100 teachers will receive lodging at the Courtyards by Marriott of Farmington Hills, most meals, and all materials and fees, all told approximately $700 per teacher will be invested by us! Then, teachers who complete the program are immediately eligible for an additional $1000 in grant money to take back to local classrooms and schools to provide additional training, Holocaust education, or programming.

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Camp for Young Writers (June 17-June 28)
This enrichment camp provides the spark for aspiring young writers in two distinct groups (ages 8-10 & 11-14). Our directors and teachers help motivated children find their direction in writing – poems, stories, and much more come to life and culminates in a public reading for families, friends, and teachers. Cost: $150

For more information, contact Dr. Jonathan Bush, English, at jonathan.bush@wmich.edu or 269-387-2571