EDEN

English Department Electronic Newsletter

Volume 5, Issue 3

February 2006

 

 

 

With the start of the Winter, 2006 semester, I’d like to congratulate everyone on getting through the fall semester and welcome any new students and faculty.  I hope that the beginning of this new semester and new year has gone well. 

 

This issue contains faculty and student accomplishments and publications and includes several upcoming events.  Plan to attend, and, as always, please send me information that you would like to see in the next edition of EDEN. 

 

Rachel Hovel

EDEN Editor

 

 

 

Someone Said It:

 

"We must have ideals and try to live up to them, even if we never quite succeed.  Life would be a sorry business without them. With them it's grand and great."

 

-Lucy Maud Montgomery

 

 

 

Announcements:

 

e NMU's Poetry Club will continue to meet for the Winter 2006 semester on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 8 to 10 PM in room 1302 New Science Facility. The club consists of Undergrads, Graduate Students, and Alumni. Please check out the website at www.nmupoetryclub.jibegod.com.

Contact Manda Frederick at afrederi@nmu.edu if you have any ideas or questions.

 

e Reminder to undergraduate English majors and minors!

Save copies of your papers from all the English courses you take during your undergraduate career.  As seniors you must compile an individual portfolio of your work for the capstone course, EN 493, so be sure to keep back up files.

 

 

 

Upcoming Events:

 

Janis F. Kearney, author, book publisher, lecturer, literacy and education advocate, and oral historian will be coming to NMU on Wednesday, February 1st and Thursday, February 2nd to lecture and read from her book, Cotton Field of Dreams: A Memoir.  As one of nineteen children born to Arkansas Delta sharecroppers, she chronicles her story from the Arkansas cotton fields to the west wing of the White House in her nationally recognized book.  Kearney served as the personal diarist to President William Jefferson Clinton for five years, and was director of communications for the U.S. Small Business Administrator for two years during the Clinton Administration.  Before joining the Clinton-Gore campaign in 1992, she was the publisher of the award-winning Arkansas State Press newspaper.  In 2004, she and her husband, Bob Nash, founded Writing Our World Press.  Currently, she is a visiting fellow at DePaul University where she is completing an oral historical biography on President Clinton.  She will be appearing on February 1st for a lecture titled “Diversity: The Color of Our Future” at 7:00 PM in the Cadallic-Brule Room of the University Center.  On February 2nd, she will present a lecture titled “Careers for Writers” at 4:00 PM in the Nicolet Room of the UC.  At 7:00 PM on the 2nd she will read from her book, Cotton Field of Dreams: A Memoir, in the Nicolet-Marquette Rooms of the UC.  These events are brought to you by Diversity Student Services and the English Department and are free and open to the public. 

 

e Readings Sponsored by the MFA Program in English and Passages North Literary Magazine

 Poetry Reading:  Cynie Cory will read at the Jacobetti Center on Wednesday, March 22, at 7 p.m., followed by a book signing and reception including special culinary offerings.

A Reading of Poetry and Fiction:  Ander Munsen will read at the Women’s Federated Clubhouse on Thursday, April 6, at 7:30 p.m., followed by a book signing and light refreshments.

 

 

 

 

Faculty Accomplishments:

 

e David Boe presented a paper titled “G.B. Shaw’s Pygmalion and Linguistic Historiography” at the annual meeting of the North American Association for the History of the Language Sciences (NAAHoLS) in Albuquerque, New Mexico on January 6th.

 

e Stephen Burn had a review of Lee Siegel's Who Wrote the Book of Love? appear in the American Book Review; and a review of Franco Moretti's Graphs, Maps, Trees appear in the latest English Studies Forum. He was also part of a team that assembled a list of the "100 Best First Lines from Novels" that appeared in the American Book Review, alongside a short he essay wrote on the first line of Defoe's Robinson Crusoe.

 

e Allison Hedge Coke has published “Baggage” in hard copy and in online versions of Political Affairs Magazine.

 

She was one of the nine 2005-07 Fellows for Black Earth Arts.  Black Earth Arts is an arts collective based in Wisconsin. Founded in 2005, the collective was established as a “literary think-tank” that includes poets and writers from across the country, representing a broad spectrum of literary genres. Fellows are Wisconsin/Michigan nature writer and poet Robert Alexander; Connecticut-based John Briggs, aesthetics and physics writer/photographer and senior editor of Connecticut Review; Massachusetts slam poet Richard Cambridge; New York feminist fiction writer Elizabeth Cunningham; Alaska poet and essayist Barbara Flaherty; Michigan-based memoirist, Native American activist and labor poet American Book Award-winning Allison Hedge Coke; Chicago-based fiction writer and dramatist Deborah Holton; Iowa public radio commentator, poet and essayist Mary Swander; and Seattle-based American Book Award-winning poet Judith Roche.  Black Earth Arts was founded by DePaul University poet Patricia Monaghan, of Chicago, Ill., and physician and social activist Michael McDermott, of Black Earth, Wis. The Fellows were selected for their work bridging disciplines, cultures or genres.  The nine will meet annually in Wisconsin for a workshop dedicated to exploring the question of how to heal divisions between literature and science, politics and the sacred.  

 

e Dr. Kia Jane Richmond, Assistant Professor of English, was recently appointed Chair of NCTE's Promising Young Writers Advisory Committee. She also runs the PYW program (for 8th grade writers) for the state of Michigan. At the annual NCTE convention in Pittsburgh in November, Dr. Richmond chaired a session on English Education, attended the Conference on English Education methods colloquium, and heard Frank McCourt speak on his latest book, Teacher Man.


Dr. Richmond was a guest editor for a recent issue of Language Arts Journal of Michigan (Writing Matters - Spring/Summer 2005). Articles featured in this issue included those written by NMU students or former students including Abby Brown, Bridgette Buehrly, Heather Solgot, Mary-Kay Wildenhain Belant.

 

e Beverly Matherne has four blues poems in Cajun French in the special 100th anniversay issue of Francographies, published by SPFFA (la Société des Professeurs Français et Francophones d’Amérique) at Fordham University in New York City.  The poems, which document her blues poetry performance at the centennial conference in 2004, include “Maman marchait comme le vent danse,” “Le blues de la basse-cour,” “Le blues braillant,” and “Je vas vendre mon chasse-neige”.

 

Work by Beverly has been selected for two Walls of Poetry this year—in Bremen, Germany, and in Tours, France.  On Le Mur de Poésie de l’Institut français de Brême will appear “Feux follets” (prose poem), “Poème d’automne” (free verse), “La fabrique de tabac” (free verse), and “Le blues du tabac” (blues poem).  On Le Mur de Poésie de Tours will appear “Feux follets.”

 

e Two members of the English Department were honored at the Celebration of Scholarship Ceremony on Dec. 8. Marek Haltof received the Excellence in Professional Development Award, which is new this year.   Laura Soldner received the Excellence in Teaching Award.  This is the third year in a row that a member of the English Department has received the teaching award (Tom Hyslop was honored in 2003-04 and Ray Ventre in 2004-05). 

 

e Amber Kinonen’s creative non-fiction essay titled “Evolution and Parenting” was published in February’s issue of Sirr.  She originally wrote the piece while taking Jim McCommons’ EN 505 course last fall.

 

e Congratulations to David Boe and Miram Moeller who participated in the Noquemanon Ski Marathon.  For the second year in a row, Miram finished first in her age class. 

 

 

 

Student Accomplishments:

 

e Shirley Brozzo, MFA student, was the keynote speaker for Native American Heritage Month at the Ceridian Corporation in Minneapolis.  She read some of her original works, gave a discussion of culture and traditions and told some Anishnaabe stories.  This was the second time she has been their keynote. 

 

Professor Allison Hedge Coke and Shirley Brozzo gave a reading of their original poetry and short stories in celebration of Native American Heritage month activities here at NMU. 

 

e Kyle Flak,  undergraduate major in English literature, has a prose poem, “The Ham,” and a microfiction piece, “All of Me,” appearing in the winter issue of Dicey Brown magazine as well as two prose poems, “Coincidentaly, I Was Also a Mole” and “The Farm Hand,” appearing in the February issue of Sirr magazine.

 

e Maureen Latvala recently published a website that Elisabeth Massie,  Margaret Helwig, and she created last winter.  The site, entitled Women of the Beat and available for viewing at www.womenofthebeat.org, provides information about the women who were involved in or connected with the Beat movement as well as information about their accomplishments and the roles that they played in the movement.  This project was spawned from curiosity about some of the women connected to the Beat movement, like Hettie Jones and Joyce Johnson and the discovery that there is little information about these women available to the public (i.e. on the internet).  The site is still only 3/4 complete, during the process of compiling information and negotiating some copyright issues, but is functioning and serves as a source of information on the women of the Beat era. 

 

e The prestigious Native American Literature Symposium is coming to Michigan for the very first time!  Several participants from fall's 601 poetry class proposed a panel on Joy Harjo's work.  Their panel was accepted.  The following MFA students will present at the NALS Conference this spring (to be held at the Soaring Eagle in Mt. Pleasant): April Lindala, Brianna Reckeweg, Susan Morgan and Kate Mueller.

 

e The Eta Phi Chapter of Sigma Tau Delta at NMU has been identified as one of the most active, vital chapters in the country and has recently been invited to provide an exhibit at the STD International Convention in Portland, OR from March 29th-April 2nd, 2006.  English Department Faculty Sandra Burr and Raymond Ventre have recently learned of this recognition. 

 

 

 

 

Feedback:

 

*What did you think of this issue of EDEN?

 

*What do you want to see in the next issue?

 

*Email rhovel@nmu.edu with any comments, questions or concerns.  Faculty and students are asked to send announcements of courses and events, as well as news of your accomplishments.  Undergraduate and graduate students are also encouraged to submit poems for possible publication. 

 

Thank you! 

 

Rachel Hovel

EDEN Editor