This Week in English | November 12 – 18, 2018
Seeking Student Volunteers for Open House on Saturday
The next open house for prospective students takes place on Saturday morning, November 17. If you’re an English major and/or minor who is willing to share some of your experiences with students and their parents, please write to <english.chair@maine.edu> for more information. We’ll meet in the field house at 9am, then take a tour of the department at 10am.
Armistice Day
This past Sunday marked the hundredth anniversary of the armistice agreement that brought World War I to an end. To commemorate that anniversary, and to honor the lives lost in the conflict, the chamber choir Euphony collaborated with the McGillicuddy Humanities Center to offer “We Are the Dead”: The Legacy of Loss, a choral concert and poetry reading. Mezzo-soprano Margo Lukens gave voice to Claude Debussy’s Noël des enfants qui n’ont plus de maisons (a “Christmas carol for homeless Children”) and also recited “Break of Day in the Trenches” by Isaac Rosenberg. Carla Billitteri read a suite of poems by Giuseppe Ungaretti, Eugenio Montale, and Ardengo Soffici. Among the members of the audience on a wintry Sunday evening were former English professors Paul Bauschatz and Patricia Burnes.
Modernist Scholar Vincent Sherry on Campus This Week
Vincent Sherry is the Howard Nemerov Professor in the Humanities at Washington University of St. Louis, where he also chairs the English Department. Thanks to the initiative of fellow modernist scholar Laura Cowan, who has organized his visit as part of the McGillicuddy Humanities Center’s Symposium “War without End: World War I and its Legacy,” Professor Sherry will be on campus this week to lead a colloquium discussion of “Modernisms: Past and Future” on Thursday at 12:30 in the Writing Center, and to lecture of “Modernism in Wartime: Avant-Gardes, Revolutions, Poetries” on Friday at 3pm in the Hill Auditorium, Barrows Hall. For more information see the attached flyer.
New Writing Series Features Creative Writing Faculty on Thursday
Meghan Dowling, Jeremy Parker, and William S. Yellowrobe, Jr. will read from their work in the first of two NWS events intended to highlight the talented writers who are teaching English 205: Introduction to Creative Writing to more than two hundred students this fall. For more information visit the event page. On December 6, Joanna (Jody) Crouse, Kathleen Ellis, and Leonore Hildebrandt will read in the follow-up event.
Graduate Faculty Spotlights
As application season for graduate school begins in earnest, prospective candidates can catch up with the research and creative work of our graduate faculty through a new series of Faculty Spotlights initiated by program coordinator Dylan Dryer with the help of Ellen Manzo. The profiles to date include Caroline Bicks, Laura Cowan, Jennifer Moxley, and Sarah Harlan-Haughey. Candidates who wish to be considered for support through a teaching assistantship have until January 15, 2019 to complete their application dossiers. English majors who are interested in learning more about the Master’s Degree are encouraged to contact Professor Dryer for more information.
Alumnus Update
Raymond Tilton double majored in English and Secondary Education, graduating in 2007. He recently wrote in with this update:
I have been teaching English at Mattanawcook Academy for twelve years. I teach all seniors and offer Psychology, Advanced Placement Literature and composition, Folklore, and a general English 4 course that focuses on college prep and the writing process. I also teach an Adult Education HiSet Preparatory course. I finished earning my masters in Literacy Education recently, and I am currently working toward my CAS.
Upcoming Events
First-year master’s candidate Tori Hood coordinates a monthly Writers Night at the Bangor Beer Co. with the help of fellow graduate students in English. The next event directly follows the NWS reading on Thursday, November 15, at 7mp. As the attached flyer says, this event is open to writers of all ages and styles.
On November 29, poet Kate Colby reads in the New Writing Series.
On November 30, Elizabeth Neiman will moderate and participate in a panel on the question of aesthetics in creative writing and literature pedagogy. Steve Evans, Gregory Howard, and Danielle Pafunda will also participate. The event will be held in the Writing Center at 3pm. Snacks will be served. All are welcome.
The next department meeting is scheduled for Thursday, December 6, at 2pm in the Hatlen Room (Neville 406).
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This Week in English 38 was circulated to faculty, students, and friends of the department on Tuesday, November 13, 2018. If you would rather not receive these weekly bulletins, please reply with <unsubscribe> in your subject line. Earlier installments are archived on our website.
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