This Week in English | November 4-10, 2024
This week’s bulletin is here, a bit belatedly, to divert you from election eve jitters and to remind you that we’ll be here, taking words seriously, come what may. Let’s stay connected and committed to one another and to the truth-telling powers of the written word!
Bicks Delivers Pre-Screening Talk on “Horror and the Power of Kids”
This past Sunday, Caroline Bicks gave a talk entitled “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Woods: Horror and the Power of Kids” at the Harbor Theater in Boothbay before a showing of “Lost on a Mountain in Maine.” The film is based on the true story of Donn Fendler, a twelve-year-old boy who got lost on Mt. Katahdin in 1939 and survived for nine days before being rescued.
In other news, Caroline’s Everyday Shakespeare Podcast (co-hosted by her friend and fellow Shakespeare professor, Michelle Ephriam at Worcester Polytechnic Institute) was just named a winner in the 3rd Annual Signal Awards for Best Live Recording. The Signal Awards are mission-focused on uplifting the podcast medium by recognizing the most potent, meaningful and unprecedented audio projects being made today. Entrants are reviewed by the Signal Awards Judging Academy, an esteemed collective made up of the architects and trailblazers of the medium. Caroline and Michelle just dropped the first episode of their third season, “Childless Cat Ladies of Yore.” You can listen to it here.
BA Alum Update: Natane Bann
Natane Bann reached out to the department recently hoping to find a copy of The Open Field in which her work appeared when she was an English major in 2013-2016. In the course of our correspondence, Natane generously agreed to provide this welcome update:
After graduating from UMaine, I spent some time traveling in Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam). I returned to the US, and went to nursing school before taking a job at Tulane Medical Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. I got trained in the ICU six months before the covid pandemic. Over the last five years of working in the Intensive Care Unit, I have witnessed a range of really challenging, heartbreaking situations and touching moments of resilience and human connection. Over the last three years I worked in an ICU connected with San Quentin Prison in California treating the inmates there. I have been humbled by the stories, healing, and people that I have worked with, learned from, and cared for. I am in the process of moving back to the East Coast to be near my family, start a family of my own, and transition to working in women’s health. I am incredibly thankful for my time in the English Department studying with Steve Evans, Sarah Harlan-Haughey and Elizabeth Neiman. I learned to appreciate the world through other people’s eyes, to value empathy and compassion, and to advocate for my patients in the face of challenging social adversities.
If you’re an alum and haven’t touched base in a while, consider this your invitation to do so—we would love to share your news with current students, faculty, and fellow alums!
New Writing Series Hosts Babak Lakghomi on Thursday
The New Writing Series resumes this Thursday, November 7, with a reading by fiction writer Babak Lakghomi, who will be introduced by Greg Howard. The event, which is free and open to the public, will take place in the IMRC Fernald APPE Space (Stewart Commons 104) at 4:30pm. A Q&A with the audience will follow the reading.
This is the first of three consecutive Thursdays of literary programming through the New Writing Series. On November 14, we’ll be welcoming the poet Dawn Lundy Martin to the NWS podium, and on November 21, we’ll celebrate this year’s Millay Prize for Poetry with a reading by the prize winners and the external judge, the poet Daisy Fried. An updated flier can be found below.
MA Alum Amanda Gerrod to Present on Fried Green Tomatoes November 13
The WGS program is excited to bring Amanda Gerrod back to campus next week for a conversation with the audience about her thesis work last year in the English department’s MA program. Amanda’s lived-experience-based thesis work on cultural christianity and its impact on southern queers sparks this important discussion on the relationship between banned books, cultural blindness, and overlapping identities. This conversation is sure to interest anyone who wants to explore the intersections between gender, literature, creative expression, and personal identity. The talk is titled “Reckoning With Religion In Southern Queer Lit: An Auto-Critical Approach” and will take place on Wednesday, November 13, from 2:00 to 3:00pm in the Bangor Room of the Memorial Union. WGS will provide cookies, tea, and coffee.
Library of Congress Opportunity through Sigma Tau Delta
The Library of Congress is now accepting applications for its in-person and remote summer Junior Fellows Program, an incredible opportunity for students to gain direct experience working with analog and digital collections and supporting the services of the world’s largest, all-inclusive library.
As a Junior Fellow, you will get the chance to:
- Dive into rare collections and artifacts.
- Work on one of seventeen exciting, high-impact projects.
- Build professional skills and expand your network.
This 10-week paid internship is open to undergraduate and graduate students, as well as recent graduates. If you are enthusiastic about research, preservation, or public service, this is the internship for you!
The deadline to apply is Sunday, November 17, 2024. Successful applicants must be US citizens.
Learn more and apply now via the Library of Congress. It is important that you mention your affiliation with Sigma Tau Delta in your application. If you have any questions about the internship, please contact: juniorfellows@loc.gov.
This Week in English 161 was sent to students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends of the department on November 5, 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 Land Acknowledgment
