Northern Michigan University // English Department

Main | Undergraduate Studies | Graduate Studies | EDEN (news)| Department Personnel | Department Resources | NMU Home

English Department Faculty and Staff

	J. Marek Haltof Professor M.A., University of Silesia, Poland M.A., Flinders University of South Australia Ph.D., University of Alberta mhaltof@nmu.edu Teaching Specialties - Introduction to Film, Film History, and History of Film Theory - Central European Cinema, Australian Cinema - Film and Literature - Authorship and Art Cinema (Krzysztof Kieslowski, Peter Weir, Paul Cox) Marek Haltof joined the faculty of NMU in 2001. Since completing his doctoral dissertation in 1995, he has published several books in English and Polish on the cultural histories of Central European and Australian film. His recent books include The Cinema of Krzysztof Kieslowski: Variations on Destiny and Chance (London: Wallflower Press, 2004; distributed by Columbia UP), and Polish National Cinema (New York/Oxford: Berghahn, 2002), translated into Polish and Japanese. In 2002, he co-edited The New Polish Cinema (London: Flicks Books). His earlier books include Peter Weir: When Cultures Collide (New York, 1996), Australian Cinema: On the Screen Construction of Australia (Lodz, 1996; revised and expanded edition published in 2005 in Gdansk), and Authorship and Art Cinema: The Case of Paul Cox (Krakow, 2001), the last two works published in Polish. He is also the author of three other books published in Poland; two short novels, Max is Great (1988) and Duo Nowak (1996), and a collection of essays on American genre cinema, The Cinema of Fears (1992).
	Kate Myers Hanson Associate Professor B.A., Creative Writing, University of Iowa M.F.A.Creative Writing, The Iowa Writers' Workshop khanson@nmu.edu Teaching Specialties - Fiction - Creative Nonfiction - Prose Poem and Short Short Fiction - The Novel in Story Cycles Professor Hanson is beginning her third year on the writing faculty in the Department of English. In addition to teaching, she is Editor-in-Chief of Passages North, the literary magazine of Northern Michigan University and is active in the Marquette Arts Council, promoting the Poets and Writers Series, a collaborative effort between the community at large and the Department of English. Her short stories have been widely published, including work in The North American Review, Prairie Schooner, and Shenandoah. In 1998, her story, "Book of Name," was awarded the Bernice Slote Award for Fiction and nominated for a Pushcart Prize by Prairie Schooner. Carnegie Mellon Press will publish her collection short stories, Narrow Beams, this fall. Currently, she is hard at work on a novel told in story cycles.
	Jennifer A. Howard Instructor B.A., University of Detroit M.A., Indiana University M.F.A., Northern Michigan University jculik@nmu.edu Jennifer A. Howard received a BA in English and math from University of Detroit, an MA in English literature from Indiana University at Bloomington, and an MFA in fiction writing from Northern Michigan University. She serves as a fiction editor of Passages North. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Crab Orchard Review, Blue Mesa Review, Redivider, Smokelong Quarterly, Sycamore Review, and the W. W. Norton anthology Flash Fiction Forward.
	Austin Hummell Professor B.A, English, Principia College M.A., English, Univ. of Maine PhD, English, University of Missouri-Columbia ahummell@nmu.edu Teaching Specialties - Poetry writing - 20th. Century American Film Austin Hummell teaches Mythology, Film and Poetry Writing, and is an Associate Professor of English. His books are Poppy, winner of the 2003 Del Sol Press Poetry Prize, and The Fugitive Kind, winner of the University of Georgia Press’s Contemporary Poetry Series. He is poetry editor of Passages North.
	Thomas A. Hyslop Professor ABD - Doctor of Arts, English-Composition Studies, University of Michigan thyslop@nmu.edu Visit his Homepage Currently teaching in his 39th. year at Northern Michigan University, Tom Hyslop is the senior professor in the department. Since 1983-84, he has served as a teacher-of-teachers in his role as the Director of The Secondary Program in English, which includes offering the department's English pedagogy courses, placing student teachers throughout Michigan, Wisconsin, and Canada, and supervising them over the course of their internship. He designed the current two-semester sequence of Liberal Studies Composition courses, serving as Director of the Composition Program on four separate occasions; designed a variety of other courses offered by the department; was acting head of the department, as well as assistant to the Head on two other occasions, and has served on every committee of the department on numerous occasions. He was a teacher-director of The Michigan Writing Project. He has served (and continues to serve) on innumerable school and university-wide committees, and on four statewide committees following his appointment to them by the Michigan Department of Education. He served on a national commission after being appointed by the National Council of Teachers of English. Since 1978, he has read, on a yearly basis, for the NCTE's Achievement Awards in Writing. A long-time member of the Michigan Council of Teachers of English, for many years he served as a reader for their Publications Award. He currently serves on the Executive Committee of the MCTE, and is the Region XI Coordinator for the MCTE. For three years, he served as a "rangefinder" for the Michigan High School Proficiency Test in Writing, following his appointment to that group by the Michigan Department of Education. A recognized master teacher, he received three awards from individual groups for his teaching during his NMU career. In the Fall of 2004, he was selected fto receive the NMU Excellence in Teaching Award. Over the course of his career, Hyslop has given presentations at the university, at national and statewide conferences, and to groups of public school educators throughout the Upper and Lower Peninsula. Curiously enough, he continues to enjoy his work immensely, and can't imagine doing anything else. He doesn't carve ducks; has no woodshop in the garage, and refuses to take up knitting humorous cummerbunds. He will likely retire when he is carried from the classroom on his briefcase... or when on a Tuesday, he wonders why it isn't Friday.
	Rebecca Johns Assistant Professor M.F.A., Iowa Writers' Workshop rtrissle@nmu.edu Assistant Professor Rebecca Johns’s first novel, Icebergs, was a finalist for the 2007 PEN/Hemingway Award. She received her MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and her undergraduate degrees from the University of Missouri. She has been an editor at Highlights for Children and Woman’s Day magazines and a copywriter at Penguin Putnam. Her writing has been widely published in such magazines as Brides, Chicago Tribune, Cosmopolitan, Fitness, LIFE, Mademoiselle, Self and Seventeen, and she is currently at work on a second novel and a book of short stories.
	Ronald L. Johnson Professor B.A., California State University, Fresno M.F.A., Univ. of California,Irvine PhD, English, University of Utah rojohnso@nmu.edu Teaching Specialties - Creative Nonfiction Writing - Fiction Writing - Narrative Form and Theory: Novel, Short Story, Memoir - Russian Literature in Translation Ron Johnson is completing a memoir of blue collar life, sections of which have been published in the Missouri Review (1997 Editor's Award) and Grain Magazine (Canada, Saskatchewan Writers Guild, August 2000); another section is forthcoming in Open Spaces. His short fiction has appeared in the United States and New Zealand; a novel, Silver Thaw, was published by Salvo Press (www.salvopress.com) through Rocket eBooks in September 2000. His Anton Chekhov: A Study of the Short Fiction (Twayne 1993) is among his critical publications. Ron enjoys daily walks at Presque Isle Park in Marquette's Upper Harbor.
	Amber Kinonen Instructor B.A., Northern Michigan University M.A., Northern Michigan University acristan@nmu.edu Teaching Specialties - Composition - Developmental reading, writing, & study skills Amber Kinonen 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 in English (2000). After spending some time as a substitute teacher in the public schools, she returned to NMU as a teaching assistant while completing her M.A. in pedagogy (2005). Amber continues to show her enthusiasm in the classroom while teaching a variety of composition and study skills courses, along with EN 309, The Teaching of Writing. She recently completed the Upper Peninsula Writing Project and is recognized as a Teacher Consultant of the National Writing Project. When she is not teaching, Amber enjoys writing, reading, local history, and spending time outdoors with her husband Greg and her very very busy three year old son, Mason.
	Jamie Logsdon Kuehnl Instructor B.A., Northern Michigan University M.A., Northern Michigan University jkuehnl@nmu.edu Jamie Logsdon Kuehnl earned her Bachelor’s Degree in English/Native American Studies from Northern Michigan University in 2002, and her Master’s Degree in Literature from N.M.U. in 2004. Her main areas of emphasis throughout her graduate studies have been in post-colonial and Native American Literatures. Currently, Jamie is a doctoral student of Women’s Literature and Spirituality from the California Institute of Integral Studies (C.I.I.S.) in San Francisco, where her focus is the sacred dimensions of ancient oral and written traditions. She has presented research at several national academic conferences and is set to be published this year. Jamie’s personal interests revolve around her two children: Jessee David and Jasmine Victoria, and her academic interests include archetypal mythology, eco-feminism, and comparative literature.
	Paul Lehmberg Professor B.A., Concordia College (Moorhead, MN) M.A., University of Utah Ph.D., University of Utah plehmber@nmu.edu Teaching Specialties - Creative Nonfiction - American Literature - Nature and Literature - Composition Paul Lehmberg received his B.A. in English and Philosophy from Concordia College (Moorhead, MN) in 1968. He then applied, and was admitted, to a Lutheran seminary, but thought better of it, and decided instead to pursue graduate work in English. He received his Ph.D. in American literature in 1977. Lehmberg then worked for a year as feature editor for a business magazine in the trucking industry. Since 1978 he has been teaching creative nonfiction writing, American literature, and composition at NMU. He was instrumental in mounting NMU's M.A. and B.A. programs in writing, and for years he served as Director of English Graduate Studies. Lehmberg is the author of In The Strong Woods: A Season Alone in the North Country (St. Martin's, 1980). He has published literary criticism, creative nonfiction, book reviews, and journalism. Lehmberg is married to Zhuang-Zhong, and they have two young daughters. Currently he is at work on A Guangzhou Journal, a family memoir based on a trip to China. In 1998, Lehmberg was ordained a Zen Buddhist priest. Besides practicing Zen, he writes on Zen topics and is interested in the conjunction of Eastern and Western thought in American literature. He is also active in the Marquette Interfaith Forum.
	Z.Z Lehmberg Assistant Professor Ph.D., Wayne State University zlehmber@nmu.edu Zhuang-Zhong (Z. Z.) Lehmberg has been moved to a tenure-earning position in the department. She is a familiar face on campus. For eight years she taught as an adjunct in the English Department, and for the last four years, she has been Director of the Writing Center, Director of the Writing Proficiency Exam, and Director of English Placement. She received her doctorate in composition theory from Wayne State University in 1995, and she has published scholarly articles, book reviews, and creative nonfiction essays. Professor Lehmberg is also a regular presenter at regional and national professional conferences, and she often involves graduate and undergraduate students in her research and presentations. Besides teaching for the English Department, she was instrumental in establishing the first Chinese language course for the Modern Languages Department. She is also the founding teacher of the Marquette Children's Academy of Chinese Language and Culture.

Listings

- Dept. Contacts

- Graduate Assistants