A Very Colson Christmas, Part 2

As you can see from the following artist's rendering, Sarah and Piers were successful in their search for a Christmas tree, and we've now got it up and decorated. Note how excited the graduate students are:

A Very Colson Christmas. Part 1

We're a bit behind this year, but we should have the place decorated for the holidays very soon. In fact, Professors Sarah Neville and Piers Brown were just sent off to get us a Christmas tree....

 

...since they seem to have found a lot that sells partially pre-decorated trees, it shouldn't be too long before we get it up in the Great Hall.   

 



 

Bonnie Wheeler Summer Research Fellowship for Women Medievalists

The deadline for the Bonnie Wheeler Summer Research Fellowship for 2014 is January 31, 2014. The fellowship is designed to support the research of women medievalists below the rank of full professor. The $10,000 award is to be used during the period of June 1–December 31, 2014.

Eligibility: Applicants must be women who hold a Ph.D. in any area of medieval studies and who are full-time faculty in an academic department in the U.S. Preference will be given to candidates who are “caught in the middle” in the promotion ladder, as described in the MLA report “Standing Still: The Associate Professor Survey.” Budgets for Fellowship applications should include not only research costs, but also the costs of freeing up applicants’ time--for example, relief from summer teaching, daycare and/or eldercare expenses, and the like. Candidates from previous years are welcome to reapply.

Mentoring: A special feature of the Fellowship is that it will connect the recipient with a mentor in her scholarly field.

Timetable: The application period is from October 1, 2013 through January 31, 2014. Completed applications must be received no later than January 31, 2014. The award will be announced February 28, 2014.

Application Procedure: Please see the Application Instructions on the website (bonniewheelerfund.org) for details.

Wanted: Authors to Read Their Food-Related Works

By way of background, the following appeal came to the Tenants via Jeremy Justus, one of our doctoral alums, who is a colleague of Professor Landrigan. Participation is worth contemplating, if only for the name of the January event alone:

 

*******************************************************************************************************************

 

Allow me to introduce myself: I'm Marissa Landrigan, creative nonfiction writer and Assistant Professor of Writing at the University of Pittsburgh - Johnstown, and I'm seeking writers to participate in a new food-themed reading series I'm curating.
 

Acquired Taste is a series of public readings in various locations around Pittsburgh, each featuring 3-4 authors reading their work around a food-related theme. Our first event will be held at East End Book Exchange in December, and future events are lining up at local food shops, bars, music venues, and more.

I'm looking for writers who may be interested in participating in the series to submit work, most urgently to our upcoming event tentatively scheduled for January 15th at The Shop (a studio space/music venue in Bloomfield) on the theme of "Punky Foodster: Readings on Food, Sex, and Rock and Roll," which will also feature live performances by several local Pittsburgh bands.

The work may be in any genre -- fiction, nonfiction, journalism, and poetry are all welcome, but pieces should be around or under 15-20 minutes long. The work may also, of course, have been previously published, or under consideration for publication.
 

Themes are meant to be interpreted as broadly or narrowly as each writer likes, and do not need to be taken literally. My hope is that this will be a playful reading series, one that welcomes humor, smut, irreverence, etc. One that makes food tasteful or tasteless. One that engages our audience's imagination to make them salivate, and to extend our ideas of what "food writing" looks like.

Please feel free to get in touch with me (mkl18@pitt.edu) with any questions, submissions (for this or future events), or just to express interest in being notified about future calls for submission to the reading series. 

Calliope Accepting Submissions

 

Calliope, WVU’s undergraduate literary journal, is now accepting submissions!

Are you an aspiring writer, poet, or artist? Would you like to be published in an award-winning journal? If so, then this is for you! Calliope is now accepting submissions in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and artwork for this year’s edition. Each submission should include your name, major, and MIX email address. Additionally, prose pieces should include a fiction or nonfiction designation. For more information, check us out on Facebook or creativewriting.wvu.edu/calliope.

Thanks, and we look forward to seeing your work!
　

 Submission guidelines

Prose 
2000 words per entry3 entries per person
fiction or nonfiction

 Poetry500 words per entry
5 entries per person

Artwork
3 entries per person

DEADLINE: DECEMBER 15 2013

submit online at: creativewriting.wvu.edu/calliope


 

CFP: Comparative Drama Conference

38th Comparative Drama Conference Call For Papers Baltimore, MD April 3 – 5, 2014 Abstract Submission Deadline December 3rd, 2013 2014 Keynote Event A Conversation with David Henry Hwang On 4 April 2014, the Comparative Drama Conference will welcome playwright David Henry Hwang for a stimulating conversation about contemporary theatre, followed by Q & A with the audience. Few writers have turned issues around ethnicity and identity into a widely acclaimed and award-winning career like David Henry Hwang. The Chinese American playwright, described by the New York Times as "a true original" and by TIME magazine as "the first important dramatist of American public life since Arthur Miller," is best known as the author of M. Butterfly, which won a Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, John Gassner Award, and Outer Critics Circle Award, and was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Other plays from his 30 year career include Golden Child (Obie Award, three Tony nominations), Yellow Face (Obie Award, Pulitzer finalist), FOB (Obie Award), and Chinglish (Drama Desk Nomination, named Best New American Play by TIME magazine). Currently, Hwang is the Residency One Playwright at the Signature Theatre in New York City, with a new play, Kung Fu, premiering in May 2014. 2014 Play Event: 7:00 Thursday, April 3 Twelfth Night By William Shakespeare / Directed by Gavin Witt https://www.centerstage.org/twelfthnight Revelry, disguises, swashbuckling, and (of course) pining lovers abound in what some call Shakespeare’s most perfect comedy. Twins Viola and Sebastian, separated in a shipwreck and presuming each other dead, wash ashore in the beautiful but mysterious land of Illyria. A tale of mistaken identity and mismatched ardor unfurls as lords and ladies, servants and masters wind a topsy-turvy path to happiness. Call for Papers Submission Deadline: 3 December 2013 Papers reporting on new research and development in any aspect of drama are invited for the 38th Comparative Drama Conference hosted by Stevenson University in Baltimore, MD, April 3-5, 2014. Papers may be comparative across nationalities, periods and disciplines; and may deal with any issue in dramatic literature, criticism, theory, and performance, or any method of historiography, translation, or production. Learn More... 38th Comparative Drama Conference The Comparative Drama Conference is an international, interdisciplinary conference founded by Dr. Karelisa Hartigan at the University of Florida in 1977. Every year, approximately 175 scholars are invited to present and discuss their work in the field of drama. The conference draws participants from both the Humanities and the Arts. The papers delivered range over the entire field of theatre research and production. Over the past 37 years, participants have come from 32 nations and all 50 states. Each year a distinguished theatre scholar or artist is invited to address the participants in a plenary session. Conference Registration Pre-registration The 2014 pre-registration fees are valid until February 28, 2014, and are as follows: Presenter, Reader or Presenter Session Chair: $99 for faculty members, $89 for graduate students Non-presenter Session Chair: $79 Guest: $69 Student Guest: $39 One-day guest passes: $30 ($20 for students) The pre-registration fee for categories 1 – 4 covers all conference events and services, including a copy of the conference Programs and Abstracts book, a copy of the current edition of Text and Presentation, admission to all conference events and the conference reception, and a ticket to a local performance yet to be determined. One-day passes include conference admission only (including plenaries and keynote event). Presenters are required to pre-register. Those whose papers are accepted are expected to attend the conference; papers are not read in absentia. Submitters of abstracts are also advised to apply for travel funds from their home institutions as early as possible. International attendees please visit our website for further instructions. Registration after February 28: For those who wish to register after February 28 or at the conference, the fees increase to $109 / $99, $89, $79, and $49. One-day pass fees remain the same. DOWNLOAD: Registration Form Conference Hotels The Pier 5 Hotel is the conference site, and The Admiral Fell Inn, which is a 15- to 20-minute complimentary shuttle ride away, is also providing attendees with a conference discount: Pier 5: $149 per night plus tax for up to four. Admiral Fell Inn: $129 per night plus tax for up to four, continental breakfast included. All reservations must be made on an individual basis by February 28, 2014 to receive the discount. Call Harbor Magic Hotels at 866-583-4162 to make your reservation. Please be sure to ask for the Comparative Drama Conference discount. Pre-organized Panels Pre-organized panels will also be considered. A pre-organized panel should include three papers. Each paper should be 15 minutes in length. Learn More... Plenaries Each year at the CDC, a major scholar in drama and/or theatre addresses the conference on a topic of general interest. The Comparative Drama Conference welcomed Edward Albee, winner of three Pulitzer Prizes and four Tony Awards, including a Tony for Lifetime Achievement, as our Keynote Speaker in 2013. The 2012 Keynote Event was A Conversation with Paula Vogel, a Q & A session with award-winning playwright and educator Paula Vogel. Learn More... Staged Readings The conference board invites proposals for staged readings of new plays. 2-4 new plays will have staged readings during the course of the conference. Each staged reading will also feature a talkback with the audience led by a dramaturg. Learn More... Text & Presentation For 31 years, The Comparative Drama Conference Series has been publishing the best papers presented at its annual meetings, keeping readers current in scholarship and performance aesthetics in drama internationally. Learn More... Constantinidis Award The Philadelphia Constantinidis Essay in Critical Theory Award will be given to the best comparative essay on any aspect and period of Greek drama or theatre that was published in English in any journal or anthology in any country between January 1 and December 31 in the prior year. Learn More... Any Questions? Please visit our website or email us at cdc@stevenson.edu.     friend on Facebook | forward to a friend  Copyright © 2013 Comparative Drama Conference, All rights reserved.  unsubscribe from this list | update subscription preferences

Yvonne Hammond, ABD

Yet more good news from Colson Hall. Since we couldn't say it better than Katy Ryan, we'll just quote her:

"Congratulations to Yvonne Hammond for passing her booklist exam with intelligence and poise this morning. Amid thoughts of narrative theory, historiography, and performance, Yvonne also conjured Miley Cyrus and MC Hammer. Her committee--Ryan Claycomb, Cari Carpenter, Rosemary Hathaway, John Ernest [of the University of Delaware], me--enjoyed the lively discussion but refrained from dancing in any way whatsoever."

The Tenants are relieved to note that there was no mention of giant teddy bears or twerking and extend Yvonne a hearty congratulations.

Undergraduate PWE Poster Exhibition Replay

On Thursday the Professional Writing and Editing (PWE) program hosted the biannual PWE Poster Exhibition. PWE concentrators are required to complete a capstone internship  in professional or technical communication, and their posters are an opportunity for them to showcase their work for the university community. This fall, fourteen students shared posters at the event, representing a diverse range of internships, from the U.S. Embassy in London to all 55 counties of West Virginia via WVU Extension Services to the ground floor of Colson Hall and the English department’s own Center for Literary Computing (CLC). Interns learned and practiced skills in social media, editing, event planning and marketing, feature writing, and publishing.

Prizes are awarded for the best posters, and this semester the top prize went to Beth Warnick for her poster "Independent Contracting in the Professional Field: The Many Jobs of a Single Writer in Academia," which showcased her work for the WVU religious studies program.

Second prize went to Melissa Yost for her poster “Summer Abroad: Editor at the U.S. Embassy in London, England.”

Third prize went to Lisa Romeo for her poster “My Internship as a Contributing Writer & Social Media Intern with My Morgantown eMagazine.”

Congratulations to all of the interns on their accomplishments this term, including:

• Emilee White, who interned with Trillium Performing Arts Collective and The Lewis Theatre in Lewisburg, WV. She worked on promotions for theater events, press releases, and a Kickstarter campaign that was successful in raising “39K in 39 Days” to purchase a new digital projector for the historic Lewis Theatre. 

• Khali Blankenship, who interned with WVU’s Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, dividing her time between planning and writing articles for Diversity Week and editing and organizing Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action web content.

•  Kristen Talerico, who interned with the English department’s CLC, using Adobe Indesign, editing, and proofreading skills in work on The ELMCIP Report. 

• Chrissy Hanna, who interned with Courtesy Associates in Washington, D.C., working on event planning and digital promotion for non-profits, government, technical, and medical societies. 

• Drew Lovejoy, who interned with the CLC, editing, formatting, and coding several book projects for multiple electronic formats. 

• Zane Lacko, who interned with WVU Extension Services, writing press releases, feature articles, speeches, and agent biographies.

•  Keelin McGill, who interned with the CLC and contributed comprehensive editing and digital formatting skills to the Electronic Book Review. 

• Amy Marino, who interned with Forever 21, working on internal communication including a weekly employee newsletter, manager communication logs, posters, and a new-hire interview policy. 

• Zachary Wied, who interned with Eventstyle in New York, using various social media platforms to connect with multiple audiences for multiple purposes, from current and prospective clients to vendors. 

• Kate Murphy, who interned with the Eberly College’s Office of Marketing and Communications, conducting interviews, updating web content, and writing feature articles. Her poster highlighted the transfer of these skills to her current full-time position in property management. 

• Kassandra Roberts, who interned with the CLC, editing, indexing, formatting, and proofreading PO.EX, a collection of essays from Portugal.

Thank you to everyone who supported these talented English majors by attending the poster exhibit, especially the three graduate students (Natalie Carpini, Sara Ash, and Jay Kirby) who performed the difficult task of evaluating and narrowing down the top three poster presenters.

Jericho Williams and Sreya Chatterjee, Both ABD

It's been a busy day in Colson Hall. During the morning, Jericho Williams impressed his booklist committee--Tim Sweet (Chair), Katy Ryan, Brian Ballentine, Lowell Duckert, and Tom Kinnahan of Duquesne University--and successfully passed his Qualifying Exam for Doctoral Candidacy.

Not to be outdone, in the afternoon Sreya Chatterjee had a similar chat with her committee--Lisa Weihman (Chair), Gwen Bergner, Marilyn Francus, Ann Oberhauser (who stopped by from the Geography Department), and yours truly--who also felt she was more than ready to move on with her degree.

Both Jericho and Sreya are thus now ABD, and the Tenants extend a hearty congratulations to both of them.

The Faculty Research Colloquium

The Department of English presents:

 

 

The Faculty Research Colloquium

 

The Elit Crowd: the impossible Community of

Electronic Literature

 

by Sandy Baldwin

 
 

“In the crowd the individual feels that he is transcending the limits of his own person.” – Elias Canetti

There is no community of writers using digital media but there is a crowd of writers on the surface of media. Writers using digital media have nothing in common, they are indifferent to and negate all difference of others in the crowd, and they relate through the fact of writing in and with a medium. Such writers are social, mobile, and ubiquitous, and such crowds possess the power of globalized, neoliberal, media systems. Considerable recent scholarly work seeks to map and understand the formation and dynamics of electronic literature communities. Such work in fact describes crowds of writers with great power and potential. Such crowds model invention through writing. The best-known example, the European ELMCIP project, uses electronic literature as a “model of creativity in practice,” where networks of writers and readers can scale to other communities and actor-networks of practice. Yet it is the “love of literature” that makes this crowd a community after all:  a community not of social, mobile, and ubiquitous media but of the asocial, the immobile, and the singular. Elit is literature because (in as far as) its failure (refusal?) as a product of global, neoliberal, media systems. In this talk I will examine current research on elit communities. I will re-situate that work in terms of the power of crowds writing on the surface of media. I conclude by discussing the conditions and possibility for a literary community in the elit crowd.

November 20, 2013

2:30 p.m., 130 Colson Hall

Graduate Academy Courses for Spring

Spring 2014 Graduate Academy Courses:

In the online schedule, the department name is Graduate Academy.

GRAD 694B: Seminar: Preparing Future Faculty 2 Credits, CRN 15525, Tuesdays:

2:30pm-4:00pm

This seminar introduces students to the faculty job application process, the responsibilities of faculty positions, and the different kinds of institutions in American higher education.

Instructor: Dr. Jenny Douglas.

GRAD 710: Scholarly Teaching 3 Credits, CRN 14682, Tuesdays: 1:30pm-4:20pm

This pedagogy course provides teaching strategies drawn from current research on college education. Students will practice and apply these teaching skills in their own disciplines in order to become effective college instructors.

Instructor: Dr. Michelle D. Withers.

 GRAD 794A Seminar: 21st Century Teaching 1 Credit F/S, CRN 16039, Mondays:

3:00pm-3:50pm
 

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is a growing movement in higher education to conduct scholarly research on learning and inform teaching. Students will learn strategies for combining effective teaching with research and explore SoLT opportunities within their field. Students in the Certificate should enroll in this course twice: first in the fall, then in the spring.

Instructor: Dr. Amy L. Kuhn.

 GRAD 685: Teaching Capstone 3 Credits, CRN 15901, Online

This is the capstone course for the Certificate in University Teaching and is intended to help students design a course in their interest area, design an effective teaching portfolio, and prepare for the academic job search.

Instructor: Dr. Jenny Douglas.

Panel to Discuss U.S. Role in the Developing World

A former United States ambassador and the former director of program development for the American Refugee Committee International headline "Extending a Hand: Personal, Literary, Historical, and Political Perspectives on U.S. Efforts to Aid the Developing World,” a panel to be held Wednesday, November 13^th, at 7:30 p.m. in the Rhododendron Room of the Mountainlair.

In addition to examining the role of the United States in developing nations, the panel will offer WVU students who are interested in living and working abroad insight into how to pursue international careers.

The panel is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

Panelists are former U.S. Ambassador to Senegal Dane Smith and his wife, Judy Smith, a docent at the Museum of African Art; Connie Kamara, director of Health and Wellness Services at Winona State University, who is a former director of program development for the American Refugee Committee International; and Joshuah Marshall, an impact evaluator at the Administration for Native Americans (ANA) and a former Peace Corps Volunteer who served in Morocco and recently received the Franklin H. Williams Award, given to ethnically diverse returned Peace Corps Volunteers who exemplify a commitment to community service.

The panel will be moderated by Mark Brazaitis, a WVU English professor who has worked as a Peace Corps Volunteer and a Peace Corps Technical Trainer in Guatemala and as a U.S. AID contractor in Mexico and has written novels, short stories, essays, and poems about his experiences abroad. His latest book, Julia & Rodrigo, winner of the 2012 Gival Press Novel Award, is a Romeo-and-Juliet story set during the Guatemalan civil war.

“It’s exciting to be able to bring to WVU dynamic panelists with a wide-range of experiences in the developing world,” Brazaitis said. “I know they will have excellent advice for WVU students who are interested in working in developing countries.”

The panel is funded by the James and Arthur Gabriel/Gabriel Brothers Inc. Faculty Award. Brazaitis was one of three 2013 recipients. The award, established by James and Arthur Gabriel, the founding partners of Gabriel Brothers Inc., was created to promote and support faculty members in their projects associated with American culture and society.

 

Dibs Roy, ABD

Mr. Roy, contemplating the prospect of a nuclear apocalypse

There was a lot of noise coming from 106 Colson yesterday afternoon, which considerably alarmed the staff, but it turned out just to be Dibs Roy recreating the hypermasculine ideology of the atomic bomb, including an enactment of a scenario of mutually assured nuclear destruction, for the benefit of his exam committee: Sandy Baldwin (Chair), Brian Ballentine, Ryan Claycomb, Patrick Sharp of Cal State (who was able to watch the whole thing from a safe distance via Skype), and yours truly. In the aftermath, the committee unanimously agreed the Dibs had passed his Qualifying Exam for Doctoral Candidacy and that he was now Dibs Roy, ABD. Congratulations, Dibs. 

Cheat River Review Launch Party

This past Friday, the editors, staff, and friends of our online literary journal, Cheat River Review, gathered to celebrate the launch of the inaugural issue. The photos are not the best—sorry about that—but everyone worked so hard, that pics are required, even if some of them are blurry.

Here's editor-in-chief Patric Nuttall telling us that the issue "dropped" that day and showing us around the website. As he said, "check out our blog... it's pretty sweet."

We also heard selections from the journal... read by fiction editor Mari Casey (in costume, for this was a Halloween party too)...

poetry editor Jessica Guzman (not in costume, and, as she said, surprisingly nervous to read someone else's work)... 

and nonfiction editor Sadie Shorr-Parks (dressed as "the old country" and wearing "all the babushkas" her grandma left behind when she moved to Florida).

We also ate Dirty Bird chicken (actual quote from Glenn Taylor who really should be their spokesman: "God, I love this chicken."), and the post-launch festivities included more discussion of costumes and, believe it or not, the playing of board games.

Yep. That's how we roll in creative writing. In the now-famous words of Patric Nuttall, it's pretty sweet. 

Congratulations!

Last night Sigma Tau Delta, the English honorary, had its annual induction ceremony. Department Chair Jim Harms sent along these pics of the impressively large group of students and of the ever-lovely E. Moore Hall.

That's such a tranquil blue on the walls, don't you think?

That's Sigma Tau Delta President Ken Heitmeyer at the podium in those first two pics. Special thanks to him for all his work on this event. And special thanks to faculty advisor Anna Elfenbein. Anna, why are you not in these photos? Event planning is one of Anna's talents, and I'm quite sure last night's ceremony was an elegant celebration thanks to her.

Congratulations to all our inductees!

Finally, some art on the walls!

When you come to The Gathering next week, you'll see that we've finally brightened the place up with some poems and art by middle schoolers from Putnam and Preston counties. These pieces were the result of workshops sponsored by McGraw-Hill/CTB. We hope you enjoy the work of these young artists and writers. Actually, we know you will, and we think you'll be impressed, too.

Second Annual Department of English Gathering

The Department of English at West Virginia University is excited to announce its Second English Gathering, beginning at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, November 1 in Colson Hall on the downtown campus.  The event is part of WVU’s Mountaineer Week.

The Gathering is an opportunity for graduates and former faculty of the department to convene in celebration of all things literary.  Current students in the department’s four graduate programs (PhD, MFA, MAPWE and MA) will give informal talks on their research, creative writing and teaching practices, and guests will have the opportunity to roam the halls of historic Colson Hall and meet with current and former faculty and students.   

A celebratory wine and hors d’oeuvre reception will begin at 6:00, to be followed by a special program in honor and memory of the distinguished West Virginia poet Tom Andrews.  The program will feature readings of Andrews’ poems, a personal reflection on his life by Creative Writing Program Director Mary Ann Samyn, and a talk by the distinguished poet, translator, scholar and editor David Young, who is Longman Professor of English at Oberlin College.  Professor Young is the author of countless books of poetry, translation, nonfiction and criticism, including most recently, Moon Woke Me Up Nine Times:  Selected Haiku of Basho (Knopf, 2013), and Field of Light and Shadow:  Selected and New Poems (Knopf, 2010). 

A special announcement will conclude the celebratory event.

The Second English Gathering is free and open to the public.  A book signing will follow.