This Week in English | March 25-31, 2024
Submissions Invited for English Writing Awards
Submission guidelines for the annual competitions for excellence in writing essays, fiction, poetry, and plays at both the undergraduate and the graduate level can be found in the image below. The deadline is two Fridays from now, on April 5th.
Queer Romance Author Cat Sebastian on Campus Tuesday
Queer romance novelist Cat Sebastian is in town this Tuesday. Many of our students will be participating in her Romance Writing Workshop that evening, from 5:00 to 6:45 in Neville 208. We are also holding a Q and A with Cat Sebastian on the romance writing industry and also her latest novel, We Could Be So Good, from 12:30 to 1:30 (also in Neville 208). The Q and A is open to the public; the writing romance workshop is open to all UMaine community members though registration is required. There may still be space to attend the workshop (to register, email Elizabeth.Neiman@maine.edu).
Gibran Graham from the Briar Patch will be at the workshop with copies of two of Cat’s other recent novels, The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes and The Queer Principles of Kit Webb for sale.
Jennifer Moxley Reads in Boise on Friday
The Creative Writing MFA Reading Series and the Literary Translation Society at Boise State University are hosting Jennifer Moxley for a reading and book signing on Friday, March 29, at 7:30pm. Moxley’s most recent books include the collection of essays For the Good of All, Do Not Destroy the Birds and an English translation of poet Marie Uguay’s Journal. UMaine graduates Adam Ray Wagner (MA in Poetry and Poetics) and Savannah Butler (BA in English) are currently pursuing MFAs at Boise and studying with New Writing Series alums Sara Nicholson (fall 2019) and Martin Corless-Smith (fall 2012). The reading Moxley gave in the series in the fall of 2011 is archived at PennSound.
Deadline for McGillicuddy Fellowships Extended to March 27
Due to the original deadline falling during Spring Break, our colleagues at the McGillicuddy Humanities Center are extending the deadline application for MHC faculty grants and fellowships to March 27, 2024.
- MHC Faculty Grant award applications are being accepted for maximum awards of $5,000 to support faculty at all levels (including lecturers and adjunct instructors), for their research, community engagement, or innovative teaching proposals. For more information, visit https://umaine.edu/mhc/research/for-faculty/. Email completed grant applications and budget forms to Director Beth Wiemann (bwiemann@maine.edu) by March 27 for the Spring 2024 deadline.
- The MHC Undergraduate Fellows program offers juniors and seniors the opportunity to work on independent research or creative projects in the humanities under the supervision of a faculty mentor. Fellows receive $4,000 each per semester, or $8,000 in total, and present the outcome of their work to a public audience upon culmination of their fellowship term. For more information and application instructions, visit https://umaine.edu/mhc/research/for-students/undergraduate-fellowship/.
For more information, feel free to contact brian.jansen@maine.edu or mhc@maine.edu.
The Open Field Launch Party on April 4
The student editors of UMaine’s undergraduate literary magazine The Open Field invite you to come celebrate the 2024 installment of the journal with contributors and editors. The event will take place at 4pm in the Writing Center and food and refreshments will be on offer.
Morgan Talty to Talk about Tommy Orange Novel at Maine Humanities Council event on April 6
The Maine Humanities Council is hosting a Readers Retreat at UMaine on Saturday, April 6. As Morgan Talty informs us:
A number of events will be occurring starting at 8 am to 5 pm at UMaine (Wells Conference Center), but at 1:15 pm I will be giving a lecture on There There and Native Fiction, and then at 3:30 there will be a panel of three Native writers (me, Brendan Basham, and Julian Noisecat).
More details about the day’s events can be found here.
On February 27, just after our last bulletin was circulated, Talty’s interview with Tommy Orange was published in Esquire under the title “Tommy Orange Refuses to Be Your Tour Guide to Native Life.”
Save the Date for EGSA Spring Symposium on April 18
The English Graduate Student Association has announced that the annual spring symposium celebrating the creative and scholarly work of the department’s MA students will take place on April 18 from 5-8pm in the Writing Center (Neville 402). We will share details about the program in this bulletin nearer to the date. In the meantime, you can browse EGSA merch on Bonfire, featuring a haiku by second-year MA student Christopher Gardner.
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