EDEN

English Department Electronic Newsletter

Volume 6, Issue 1

September  2006

 

 

Welcome to the Fall, 2006 semester at Northern Michigan University!  Whether you are a returning student or an incoming freshman, I’d like to wish you a good beginning of the school year and introduce you to EDEN.  Several times per semester, this electronic newsletter keeps you up to date on happenings in the English department, including upcoming events, faculty and student accomplishments, and announcements such as new faculty or special course offerings.  This issue will feature the work that professors and students have accomplished throughout the summer, as well as biographies of three new full time professors. 

 

As we progress through the year, please send my way any professional or educational accomplishments or announcements that you would like to see in the next edition of EDEN. 

 

Best of luck for the new school year!

 

Rachel Hovel

EDEN Editor

 

 

 

Someone Said It:

 

“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.”


-William Wordsworth

 

 

 

Announcements:

 

e The Graduate Writers Association is excited to announce that they have scheduled three open-mic readings for this semester.  The first of these readings will be held on September 29.  (The following two are scheduled for October 27 and December 1.)  All readings will all be held on Friday at 7:00 pm at Dead River Coffee on Washington Street.  Please come to enjoy original works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and drama from undergraduates, graduates, professors, and community members.  In addition, Theo roasts the coffee beans in-house and Kate makes the desserts from scratch.  Lastly, if you are interested in reading on any of these dates, please contact Brianna (breckewe@nmu.edu) or Susan (smorgan@nmu.edu) ahead of time.  Thanks and we hope to see you there!

 

e There will be three readings sponsored by the MFA Program this Fall.

Steve Almond, author of Candyfreak, will be reading at 7:30 pm, October 16, in the Peter White Public Library Community Room.  Ilya Kaminsky, author of Dancing in Odessa, will be reading at 7:30 pm, November 3, in the Peter White Public Library Community Room.  The MFA Program will also be hosting a reading for Professor Diane Sautter on November 16, at 7:30 pm. This reading will be at the Women's Federated Clubhouse.   All are welcome!

 

 

Upcoming Events:

 

e On Monday, October 2, 2006, the JOBSearch Center will present the newest addition to our career development programs for NMU students, soon-to-be graduates, and alumni:  Preparing For a Job Fair.  Held from 7 PM - 8 PM in the Brule Room of the University Center, this one-hour program will feature helpful information that students, graduates and job-seekers need to know in order to get the most out of their attendance at career-related fairs and events.  Topics related to professional attire, resumes, questions candidates should ask, and questions employers typically ask will all be addressed.  Advice will be offered by employers who have recruited at NMU, and staff from the JOBSearch Center will share updated lists of the more than 60 employers who are expected at this fall’s Career Day on October 11. 

 

 

 

New Faculty: 

 

eInstructor Amber Kinonen has been hired to a one-year term position to replace Bill Knox, who accepted a position as Director of Honors College at Western Illinois University.  Amber was raised in the Upper Peninsula, prompting her to attend NMU where she discovered a passion for teaching and earned a B.A. in secondary education with a concentration on English (2000).  After spending some time as a substitute teacher, she returned to NMU as a teaching assistant while completing her M.A. in pedagogy (2005).  After graduating, she continued to show enthusiasm in the classroom while instructing composition and study skills courses as an NMU adjunct instructor.  She is currently teaching EN 309 The Teaching of Writing.

 

e Assistant Professor Dominic Ording received the Ph.D. in American Studies from Michigan State University (2003).  His dissertation, "The Difficulty of Intimacy: Gay Masculinities Before and After Stonewall," traces representations of masculinity from the Lost Generation through the Beat Generation, and through the years just prior to the advent of the HIV/AIDS health crisis.  His publications include articles on the Vietnam Era and the counterculture, Jack Kerouac, and the philosophy of education.  Since completing the doctorate, Dominic has taught in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures at Michigan State, including courses focusing on gender studies, civic engagement, and the evolution of American thought.  He also has M.A. degrees in Philosophy and TESOL, both from Michigan State.  Dominic is extremely pleased to be back in Marquette, where he graduated from Marquette Senior High School and began his academic career at NMU.

 

e Assistant Professor Stephanie McKenzie received her Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Toronto (2001) where she specialized in Aboriginal literature in Canada and Canadian literature. She has an M.A. from Concordia University (Montreal) and a B.A. from the University of Victoria (British Columbia). Dr. McKenzie also attended the University of the West Indies (Kingston, Jamaica) as the Louise Bennett Exchange Scholar (1997). McKenzie taught for approximately eight years at Sir Wilfred Grenfell College, Memorial University of Newfoundland and also for one year at Waterford Institute of Technology (Waterford, Ireland) where she helped to set up the Centre for Newfoundland & Labrador Studies. McKenzie owns and operates a Newfoundland publishing house, Scop Productions Inc.; with the School of Humanities, WIT, Scop has co-published and co-edited two international poetry anthologies, The Backyards of Heaven: Contemporary Poetry from Ireland and Newfoundland & Labrador (2003) and However Blow the Winds: An Anthology of Poetry and Song from Newfoundland & Labrador and Ireland and is at work on a third (The Echoing Years: Poetry from Ireland and Canada). McKenzie also co-edited and published Humber Mouths: Young Voices from the West Coast of Newfoundland & Labrador and co-edited with Martin Ware An Island in the Sky: Selected Poetry of Al Pittman (St. John’s NL: Breakwater, 2003). McKenzie’s first book of poetry, Cutting My Mother’s Hair, was released by Salmon Publishing (Cliffs of Moher, Ireland) in 2006, and her first book of literary criticism, Before the Country: Native Renaissance, Canadian Mythology, is forthcoming with the University of Toronto Press.

 

 

 

Faculty Accomplishments:

 

eDavid Boe gave a presentation titled “Cartesian Linguistics Revisited” at the XVIIIth International Colloquium of the SGdS (Studienkreis Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft) in Leiden, The Netherlands, on June 29th.  He also recently participated in two mountain bike competitions, The Ore-to-Shore race (from Negaunee to Marquette) on August 12th, and the Fat Tire Festival (in Copper Harbor) on September 3rd.

 

e Stephen Burn wrote a review essay on the American short story writer George Saunders for the Times Literary Supplement, and has been commissioned to write an essay for a forthcoming Routledge volume on the American novel in the 1990s.

 

e Marek Haltof published a book chapter in Poland, “Zagubieni w buszu. O konteście kulturowym Pikniku pod Wiszącą Skałą (1975) Petera Weira” [Lost in the Bush: The Cultural Context of Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)], in Studia Filmoznawcze: Film w ogrodzie nauk, edited by Sławomir Bobowski, Wrocław: Wrocław University Press, 2006: 55- 67. In June, he also delivered a paper titled After Kieślowski: Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Legacy in Poland at the multi-disciplinary conference on Polish Studies in New York, organized by the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America (PIASA) and Hunter College CUNY.

 

eJim Livingston has had accepted for publication the following items: a translation of the Requiem text for performances of Mozart's work this summer by the Superior Festival Orchestra and Chorus, and a translation of the text (from medieval Latin, Old German, Czech, and Romansch) and program notes for a recording of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. 

 

eBeverly Matherne completed the French version of  her collection of linked prose poems on Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, founder of Detroit and first governor of Louisiana, a project she started in France in 2001, thanks to an NMU Faculty Research Grant that allowed her a residency this summer in Saint-Nicolas-de-la-Grave, France. 

Living in the explorer’s native village, doing research at the Cadillac Museum and surrounding libraries, and doing field research allowed Beverly to depict the boyhood, adolescence, and early manhood of an important historical figure whose early life is virtually unknown.   She did research on French history, architecture, music, dance, costume, and viticulture and cuisine, and also interviewed natives of the village on customs, oral literature, and folkways.  In addition, she collected thirty specimens of wildflowers and trees she identified with a local botanist, who could verify the flora thriving in Cadillac’s day.  This enabled her to place flowers, trees, birds, and fish in proper ecosystems and even to guess what Cadillac may have eaten, not appetizing, while studying at the Jesuit College in Montauban, from age 12 to 19.   The Occitan language of the troubadours, (Langue d’oc), still spoken in the village, enabled her to salt and pepper the “Parisian” French she used to depict the setting and character of her protagonist.

Beverly was warmly welcomed by the village, including the mayor, who gave her a history book on Cadillac, and the president of the Office of Tourism, who gave her a CD on Cadillac in New France.  She is indebted to many in the village and beyond, who are proud that an American had come all the way from Michigan to write a book about their prominent forefather. 

 

Beverly Matherne journeyed to the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA, for the release of her French translation of The Artist (l’Artiste), a portfolio edition of poetry by former US Poet Laureate Stanley Kunitz, featuring original lithographs by the Bulgarian artist, Tchouki.  At the reading she met several well-known poets, including Grace Paley, who appreciated her French translations.  While in Provincetown, Beverly also participated in a memorial service for Kunitz, which included a reading of the poet’s Collected Poems, from W. W. Norton and Co., 2000.
Kunitz, completely lucid and generous with his time while Beverly worked with him on the translation, died at age 100 in May.

 

Finally, Beverly’s poem “The Blues Cryin’ ” was published in Bengali in Shabdaguchha:  An International Poetry Journal, in New York City.

 

eJames McCommons has published articles in several national magazines in recent months. These include, from Audubon Magazine: “So Lawn: Each year American homeowners apply more than a million tons of toxic fertilizers and pesticides to their lawns. Fortunately, there’s a gentler, easier alternative” (May-June 2006); and “Suburban Renewal: In their backyard, a Wisconsin couple plants a prairie that will thrive for decades. Here’s how to put native grassland plants to work in your home landscape” (July-August 2006).

From Better Homes and Gardens: “Take Charge of Your Debt: Dig yourself out of credit card debt—or avoid pay-by-credit pitfalls in the first place” (June 2006); “Before They Go Abroad: As more students plan studies in other countries, setting ground rules can help keep them safe,” “Insuring Pet Health: Pet health insurance is the newest way to keep your animal safe and sound,” and “Stretching: The truth about keeping the body elastic” (August 2006); “Rethink Your Insurance: As you get older your insurance policies need to change” (September 2006); and “Start a Walking Club: Join with other walkers to take off pounds” (October 2006).

                From The Los Angeles Times, “Hiking and Mountain Biking Nebraska’s Pine Ridge: In the state’s northwest corner, the land is rugged and definitely not flat” (Travel Section, Sunday, Sept. 17). 

 

McCommons also completed two articles for publication in 2007.   In Wildlife Conservation Magazine, a Profile of Prof. Dan Klem, the world’s foremost expert on birds colliding with glass. Klem estimates that 1 billion birds die yearly after flying into windows, and in The Los Angeles Times, an ecotourism story for the Sunday Travel Section on the resort town of Saratoga and the North Platte Valley in southern Wyoming. 

 

McCommons also was accepted as a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) and attended the group’s annual conference in New York City in May 2006. To be accepted in ASJA, writers must submit a portfolio of articles published in national magazines and/or books published and sold as trade books.

 

eHeidi Stevenson will present a paper, “Me Talk Professional One Day: Authentic Voice in Technical Writing,” at the Michigan College English Association Annual Conference in East Lansing, October 20-21, 2006.

 

eKia Jane Richmond has recently published a number of works, listed as follows:            

“Crossing Boundaries: English Education, Teaching Writing, and Connections to the Real World.”  In Closing the Gap: English Educators Address the Tensions between Teacher Preparation and Teaching Writing in the Secondary School. Eds. Karen Keaton Jackson and Sandy Vavra. (Language, Literature, and Learning Series). Information Age Publishing. (In press, August 2006).

“Composition Studies/English Education Connections” (with W. Douglas Baker, Elizabeth Brockman, and Jonathan Bush). The Writing Instructor. www.writinginstructor.com (In press, Summer 2006).

"Becoming Centered: CEE Membership and Program Development" (by Jill VanAntwerp and Allen Webb with Tonya Perry, Kia Jane Richmond, and David Schaafsma).  English Education 38.4 (July 2006).

“Tapping Creativity in the English Classroom” in What Works for Me. Teaching English in the Two-Year College 33.4 (May 2006): 462.

 

She has also been productive with presentations and activities, including those listed below:  

"Teaching Writing to Teachers of K-12: Different Passions, Similar Goals" presented in a workshop (sponsored by the SIG for Connections between Composition and English Education) at the annual Conference on College Composition and Communication in Chicago in March 2006.

Conference on English Education's Commission on Writing Teacher Education. March 23, 2006. Attended session designed to build a connection between those at CCCC and those in CEE.

Rural Poetry Initiative - Served as Judge and as Emcee at the subsequent Celebration for Rural Poets at the Landmark Inn, May 20, 2006.

Promising Young Writers Program - State Coordinator for Michigan. Coordinated eighth-grade writing competition at the state level. See this site for more: http://www.ncte.org/about/awards/student/124607.htm

Michigan Council of Teachers of English Executive Board Teleconference. June 17, 2006. Participated in conference as Region XI Co-coordinator.

 

eThis past summer two members of the English Department were significantly involved in the annual Summer Institute of the Upper Peninsula Writing Project (UPWP).  Now in its eleventh consecutive year and its fifteenth year overall, the UPWP offers this five-week summer workshop to help K-16 teachers learn how to integrate more writing into their instruction and to do it more effectively.  Mark Smith served as one of the two leaders of this summer’s program, and Beth Grbavcich, a second year TA, was one of the 19 participants. Tom Hyslop and Kia Richmond continue to provide advice and support to the program, and Jim Schiffer has been instrumental in providing some departmental financial support.  Mark reports that “over its 15 year history more than 200 K-12 UP teachers in all subject areas have participated in these Summer Institutes.  In my years of teaching composition at NMU I’ve seen an overall improvement in the writing of new NMU students.  I attribute some of this to the UP Writing Project.”

 

 

 

Student Accomplishments:

 

eBen Hagen has just completed a review of Carl DiPietro’s Shakespeare and Modernism for a forthcoming issue of James Joyce Quarterly.

 

eTodd Dodson's short story, “The Sadie Kinder Story,” will be published by the Florida Review in spring 2007.  This story is part of his MFA thesis. 

 

e Bill Bradley, MA in writing from NMU in 2002, earned his Ph.D. in English from University of Missouri and this fall begins a tenure-track position at Florida Atlantic University.

 

 

 

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