This Week in English | October 7-13, 2024

October 7, 2024 News, This Week in English

Mo Drammeh on Panel about Thrillers on Tuesday Evening

This Tuesday evening four thriller writers at all stages of their careers will discuss the genre, the types of suspense that excite them most, and the lasting impacts of the books and stories of Stephen King. Featuring Steph Cha (author of Your House Will Pay and current series editor of the Best American Mystery & Suspense anthology), Mo Drammeh (Maine Lit Fest Fellow, UMaine English minor, and author of Where the Cryptids Fled), Paul Tremblay (author of 10 books including his latest, Horror Movie, and The Cabin at the End of the World), and Rebecca Turkewitz (author of Here in the Night). The event starts at 7pm at the Penobscot Theater in downtown Bangor and will be facilitated by Katrina Niidas Holm. Briar Patch Books will sell books. This is a free event with RSVP. Tickets will also be available at the door.

English Major Fall Social at Lunchtime this Wednesday

The English Department invites all majors and minors to attend our Fall Social this Wednesday, October 9, from noon to two in Neville Hall 402 (The Writing Center). Students are encouraged to drop in for free lunch, socializing with faculty and with one another, and arts & crafts!

Talty Presents on New Novel at Bangor Bull Moose on Wednesday Evening

Morgan Talty will be the guest at the next live installment of Maine Public’s All Books Considered book club. The event is scheduled for Wednesday, October 9 at 7 PM and will take place at Bull Moose in Bangor. MPR host Bill Nemitz will be in conversation with Talty about Talty’s latest book, the acclaimed novel Fire Exit.

The event will be streamed on various channels as well; learn more about those options at the Maine Public website. If you are unable to attend in person, you can submit questions here. This event is free and open to the public.

New Writing Series Hosts Keith Rosson on Thursday

The New Writing Series is sponsored by the English Department in partnership with the Center for Poetry and Poetics (formerly the National Poetry Foundation). Since its inception in 1999, the series has hosted more than 400 creative writers in a wide range of genres for live readings on campus. This fall the series marks its 25th anniversary by offering seven events, all of which take place in the Fernald APPE Space in the IMRC (Stewart Commons 104) on Thursday afternoons starting at 4:30pm. They are free and open to the public.

This Thursday, October 10, the Series will feature Keith Rosson, who will be introduced by Jeremy Parker. Rosson is the author of the novels The Devil by Name, Fever House, Smoke City, Road Seven, and The Mercy of the Tide as well as the Shirley Jackson Award–winning story collection Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons. His short fiction has appeared in Southwest Review, Nightmare, Cream City Review, PANK, Redivider, December, and more.

On October 5, Stephen King made this recommendation on X: “If you liked Justin Cronin’s vampire trilogy (starting with The Passage), I think you’ll love Fever House and The Devil by Name, a kind of zombie/Stand hybrid, by Keith Rosson. Big scares, big gross-outs, big fun.”

Other authors featured this fall include Rod Moody-Corbett (introduced by Hollie Adams), Dawn Lundy Martin (introduced by Jennifer Moxley), Babak Lakghomi (introduced by Greg Howard), Daisy Fried (introduced by Steve Evans), and Nick Rees Gardner (introduced by Morgan Talty).

Queen City Scribe Series Kicks Off on Sunday

Victoria Hood and Zack Lavway from the Department of English are co-hosting a monthly reading series and are looking for local writers who are interested in reading.

The Queen City Scribe Series is currently scheduled to take place monthly from October 2024 to March 2025, hosting readings on the second Sunday of each month at Bangor Beer Co. These events are free and open to the public.

Anyone interested in applying to read their work as part of QCSS can find more information here.

Art and Literature Events on October 18

The Zillman Art Museum in downtown Bangor is exhibiting a wonderfully bizarre series of prints, “Layered Realities,” inspired by an equally bizarre Henry James story, “The Jolly Corner.” The English department is sponsoring an informal conversation with Jonathan Barron of James’s story, followed by a trip to the exhibit sponsored (with food!) by the Art Department.

3:00 PM Friday October 18, 2024: Informal chat about Henry James’s “The Jolly Corner” with Professor Jonathan Barron in the Wicks Room (next to the English Department main office, 304 Neville Hall). Please email Dr. Barron if you plan to attend to receive a free pdf of “The Jolly Corner”

5:00 PM Friday October 18, 2024: Trip to the Zillman sponsored by the Art Department with Professor Liam Riordan, food and drinks included! To attend the Zillman event, sign up here (carpooling is being arranged).

Arts and Humanities Internship Survey

Katie Swacha, here at the University of Maine, and Allie Norton, Internship Coordinator for Arts, Humanities, and Nonprofits in Career and Employment Hub of the University of Southern Maine invite current students to participate in a research study about internships for arts and humanities students.

We are seeking undergraduate students majoring in arts and humanities fields, who have recently completed an internship, are actively seeking an internship and/or are currently in an internship. You must be at least 18 years old to participate.

We want to find out more about your experiences in internships as arts and humanities students, so that we can help create better resources and support for students like you.

Participating in this research study is voluntary.

If you agree to participate, you will be asked to take a 5 minute confidential, demographic survey and then participate in a 75 minute focus group with about 6 other arts and humanities students via Zoom. We will invite the first 7 survey participants in each of 3 categories—looking for an internship, just completed an internship, currently in an internship—to participate in a focus group.

If you participate in the focus group, you will receive a $45 Amazon e-gift card.

A consent form is attached to this bulletin. If you have any questions about this study, please contact Dr. Katie Swacha at kathryn.swacha@maine.edu or 207-581-3820.

Please click on this link to learn more about the study and to take the survey.

This Week in English 157 was sent to students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends of the department on October 7, 2024. If you would rather not receive these weekly bulletins, please reply with <unsubscribe> in your subject line. Earlier installments are archived on our website. If you’re on Facebook, please consider joining the English Department Group. We’re also (since March of 2024) on Linked In. To learn more about faculty members mentioned in this bulletin, visit our People page.

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University of Maine Language Acknowledgment