Newberry Library Fellowships!

Midwest Modern Language Association   Department of English, Loyola University Chicago   1032 W. Sheridan Road | Chicago, Illinois 60660   phone 773.508.6083 | fax 773.508.6062   email: mmla@luc.edu | www.luc.edu/mmla

Dear Friends, Applications are now being accepted for the annual Midwest Modern Language Association Short-Term Fellowship at the Newberry Library. The fellowship provides support for one month in residence at the Newberry and a $2000 stipend. At the Newberry's request, applicants must live outside the Chicago area and hold a doctorate or be enrolled in a PhD program. They should also anticipate a specific need for the Newberry collections and foresee making use of them during their one month of residence. An applicant's M/MLA membership must be current at the time of application and through the period of the fellowship, and must be completed without interruption during the following year. Applications must be received by January 15, 2014.  For application procedures, visit the Newberry’s website, http://www.newberry.org/short-term-fellowships. This is a wonderful opportunity for our members, and an opportunity to interest new members.  I’d urge all eligible students and post-docs to apply—please bring this to the attention of your students and colleagues. Best wishes, Jack Cragwall Associate Professor of English Loyola University Chicago Executive Director and Editor Midwest Modern Language Association

Calliope Informational Meeting

Contact: Mary Ann Samyn, 304-293-9730

Calliope, WVU’s Literary Magazine, to Host Informational Meeting

A meeting of undergraduate students interested in working on Calliope, WVU's award-winning undergraduate literary magazine, will be held on Tuesday, September 17, at 7:00 p.m. in room 130 of Colson Hall. Calliope’s editor-in-chief, Caleb Stacy, and faculty advisor, Mary Ann Samyn, will talk with students interested in editorial positions (managing editor, fiction editor, poetry editor, etc.) as well as students interested in contributing in other ways to the editorial and publication process. No experience is necessary! Enthusiasm is a plus!

Students who are not able to attend the meeting but would like to be on the Calliope staff should email or call the magazine's faculty sponsor, Mary Ann Samyn, at maryann.samyn@mail.wvu.edu /304-293-9730.

Questions should be addressed to Professor Samyn.

Otter Nonsense

Graduate alumna Kerry Hogan (Kerry Hughes as was) has called the Tenants' attention to Discourse on the Otter, a Tumblr blog that, um, enlivens quotations from contemporary theory, as demonstrated by this gem derived from Judith Butler:

The Tenants are particularly taken by the quote from Richard Nixon, but we'll let you discover that for yourselves. Thanks to Kerry for giving us a good laugh at the start of the school year.

Cheat River Review

---Cheat River Review is the MFA program's new online literary journal. But you already knew about that, right? In any case, here's the very pretty web site... take a look and help us spread the word, ok?

Virginia Butts Sturm Creative Writing Scholarship

English majors who are currently pursuing the Creative Writing Concentration and have completed at least three credit hours in the concentration are encouraged to apply for the Virginia Butts Sturm Creative Writing Scholarship. 

 To apply for the $1000 scholarship, students should submit a writing sample and their name, address, telephone number, and email address to Marsha Bissett, 100 Colson Hall by Monday, September 9.  The writing sample should consist of either 5-10 poems or one work of fiction or creative nonfiction, with a maximum 25 pages.

 The recipient of this scholarship will be notified after September 23 and will receive the scholarship in the following spring semester.  The public announcement of the recipient will be at the evening reading of the 2013 Virginia Butts Sturm Writer in Residence, Janisse Ray.  That reading is scheduled for Monday, September 30, at 7:30 p.m. in the Gold Ballroom, WVU Mountainlair. 

 Although any West Virginia University student, regardless of major, can pursue a Creative Writing Concentration, this scholarship may only be awarded to a student majoring in English as stipulated by the benefactors.  Past recipients include Caleb Stacy (2013-14); Emily Isaacs (2012-13); Kimberly Nold (2011-12); Brandy Hoover (2009-10); Kelly Sundberg (2008-09); Marit Ericson (2007-08); Nick Gaudio (2006-07); Sarah Whitney Holmes (2005-06); Aaron Flanagan (2004-05); Tricia Almase (2003-04); Abigail Aikens (2002-03); Natalie Sypolt (2001-02); Jessica Harriman (2000-01); Ann Marie Lavorata (1999-2000); Nicole Sheets (1998-99); Scott Matthews (1997-98); Adriane Schramm (1996-97);  Ruth Ann Schmitt (1995-96); and Michael Thobois (1994-95).

Virginia Butts Sturm Workshop

The Department of English announces

Janisse Ray

2013 Virginia Butts Sturm Writer in Residence 

Through the generosity of the Sturm endowment, students at West Virginia University are given the opportunity to study for one week with a nationally renowned visiting writer in a workshop setting.  Janisse Ray, author of The Seed Underground and Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, is the writer selected to lead the 2013 Virginia Butts Sturm Writer-in-Residence Workshop, which is scheduled for September 30-October 4.

The Sturm Residency sponsors the writer in a free public reading, which will be held on Monday, September 30, at 7:30 p.m. in the Gold Ballroom, WVU Mountainlair.

Janisse Ray is a writer, naturalist, and activist. Her publications include five books of literary nonfiction and a collection of poetry. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly called Ray’s most recent book, The Seed Underground: A Growing Revolution to Save Food, an “enchanting narrative—part memoir, part botany primer, part political manifesto.” The Seed Underground has won several awards including the Nautilus Gold Book Award Better Books for a Better World in the Green Living Category, the American Horticultural Society Book Award, and the American Society of Journalists and Authors Arlene Eisenberg Award for Writing that Makes a Difference. Her highly acclaimed Ecology of a Cracker Childhood was a New York Times Notable Book and won the Southern Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction in 2000. Ray holds an MFA from the University of Montana, and she is on the faculty of Chatham University’s low-residency MFA program. She lives on a farm in Southern Georgia.

 How to Apply for the Workshop:

 Students interested in being considered for the Sturm Residency should submit 10-15 typed pages of nonfiction to Marsha Bissett in the Department of English (room 100, Colson Hall) by Monday, September 2, 2013.  With the entry, students will be asked to complete a Manuscript Submission Form, which will list name, address, telephone number and other information.  Students may also email their entry as a single attachment to marsha.bissett@mail.wvu.edu. Within the body of the email, please include your name, address, and telephone number. Please note: anyone enrolled as a student at WVU is eligible to participate in the Sturm Writer-in-Residence Workshop.

 The 12 students selected for the workshop will be notified by September 16th. If selected, students are required to attend the Monday, September 30, evening public reading.  Janisse Ray will then meet with them Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings from 7:00 – 10:00 p.m.  An optional, closing event is held on Friday.  Students who complete the workshop will receive one hour of English credit.

 Questions?  Contact Professor Mary Ann Samyn at 293-9730 or maryann.samyn@mail.wvu.edu.

MFA Annual Rooftop Reading

by Rebecca Doverspike

On the last Thursday before before the start of the Fall 2013 semester, we held our 3rd annual Rooftop Reading at Cafe Montmarte atop Hotel Morgan. Such a reading began, thanks to our COW predecessors, during my first year entering the MFA program and it was such a wonderful welcoming that it turned into tradition. We couldn’t have asked for clearer weather—light blue skies and a sun setting just a little faster than during the heart of summer—as we heard from 3rd and 2nd years as well as some brave 1st years. Thanks to Cafe Montmarte for hosting, all the COW officers (especially President Hannah McPherson) for putting on the event, everyone who attended and those who read, and, to our ever-encouraging faculty. It was wonderful to reunite and meet new faces, and geared us all up for an energetic and productive year. Below are some photos (all courtesy of Fiction Professor Glenn Taylor):

MFA Director Mary Ann Samyn and English Chair Jim Harms (both fantastic poetry professors), ready to listen.

2nd year nonfiction writer, Sadie, gives us witty and thought-provoking insight as she ponders how childhood experiences shape a person.

 2nd year MFA, Xin Tian, reading her ever-eloquent poetry.

2nd year poet and CRR Editor, Patric, reading powerful words involving loss and bus rides (sometimes interwoven).

2nd year MFA and COW President Hannah McPherson reading some thoughtful creative nonfiction about her time in Turkey.

Writers come in all heights! From front to back: Sadie, Morgan, Mari, and John.

Some old and new MFAs chatting after the reading.

College hooligans of 1955

For your weekend delectation, this bit of WVU campus history that I came across while doing some research in the West Virginia and Regional History Collection.  Couch-burning is, clearly, only the most recent manifestation of student misconduct.
  


From a letter written by then-WVU President Irvin Stewart to the Board of Governors, dated November 11, 1955:

Gentlemen:

You have undoubtedly seen reports of the panty raid at the University last night.  The incident was undoubtedly a result of the rising temperature in connection with the Pitt football game.

Apparently the incident was spontaneous in origin.  According to reports, there was no evidence of organized activity as late as 11:00 p.m....Sometime around 11:30, a small group seems to have started toward Women's Hall, yelling "Panty Raid."  Someone (perhaps a member of the original group) called WAJR to report that a panty raid was in progress.  The report came during a disc jockey program and was immediately put on the air.  This served to draw students in from all parts of town.

I was asleep shortly before midnight, when I was told of the raid.  I immediately dressed and went to Women's Hall, where I met Mr. Gluck, Dean Betty Boyd, and Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds, Edwin Orr, who told me that the last of the raiders had been cleared out of the dormitory and had started toward the sorority houses. I went after the group as rapidly as I could and was a party to dispersing the groups in front of the Kappa Kappa Gamma, Alpha Xi Delta and Delta Gamma sororities....

There was one unfortunate episode which served to give the panty raid more notoriety than it might otherwise have received.  The Delta Gamma House was rather late on the list of those visited and the occupants had had an opportunity to prepare themselves. Part of the preparation consisted of hooking a hose to the water tap on the second floor. I got through the crowd of men in front of the sorority and reached the front line of the group just as the hose was turned on. Some of the water came down on my hat and some hit Mr. Gluck, who arrived about the same time. As we were recognized, the water was turned off, but apparently somebody at the sorority told the newspapers of the incident and it will doubtless receive considerable play in the newspaper stories."

Not sure which is the "unfortunate episode" in that last paragraph: President Stewart's hat getting wet, or the story's being leaked to the paper.  I like to imagine it's the former.

At any rate, it's clear that then. as now, most college students' prefrontal cortexes were not fully developed.

Wonder if there's been any feminist scholarship on the phenomenon of the panty raid, though?  There certainly should be.

The Youngest Tenant: Summer 2013 Edition

It's been awhile (in fact, almost a year) since Colson Hall welcomed a junior tenant, but Professor Komisaruk has just announced that we've been joined by Alice Komisaruk (current age: 5 days), viz.


Miss Komisaruk

"ALICE ELZA KOMISARUK

Born to Stacey, Adam & Josephine on Wednesday 3 July 2013 at 8:49 AM

7 lbs. 3 oz., 19.5""

While we gather that Alice has not yet had a chance to read any Wordsworth, we figure it's just a matter of time. Congratulations to Alice, Stacey, Josephine, and Adam.

July-ish

Dear Tenants,

I have not forgotten about you. In fact, I've spent days (and days!) looking for just the right July-ish Richard Scarry drawing to let you know that I'm thinking of you.

Alas, I can find nothing. No pigs having picnics. No cats swimming. No Lowly Worm doing anything summer-y.

What I did find is this pic of a boy and a girl and a lot of rabbits. I'm not sure what it means. Especially given the hats. A crown? What for? Very confusing. On one hand, I'm reminded of an assignment I once had in my all-girls Catholic high school creative writing class: all those rabbits... that's a lesson... write about it... in a one-act drama! On the other hand... I got nothing.

But I am thinking of you and hoping you're having a good July and not succumbing to any "Oh no! It's July already!" panicking. I mean, just because we start school in August (what's wrong the world??), it's still only July. We'll let you know when it's time to panic.

And if you have thoughts about those rabbits (one is wearing a hat, too, no? the favored rabbit?), send us a postcard.