Monday Missive – October 5, 2015

October 05, 2015 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive
Carl Sandburg and Harry Golden
Harry Golden and Carl Sandburg — In the recently published Carolina Israelite:  How Harry Golden Made Us Care about Jews, the South, and Civil Rights, Kimberly Marlowe Hartnett writes about Golden’s vast network of friends and colleagues.  One of his dear friends was the writer Carl Sandburg, and Hartnett does a wonderful job of describing this relationship in her biography.  As Hartnett explains, Golden and Sandburg had many of the same heroes, including Clarence Darrow, Abraham Lincoln, and Margaret Sanger.  Golden was also a great admirer of Sandburg’s poetry. Golden and Sandburg met in 1948, and the two soon became close friends.  Sandburg was then living on a farm near Flat Rock, North Carolina, and Golden often traveled to Flat Rock to visit Sandburg.  Eventually, Golden wrote a book about Sandburg.  In her biography, Hartnett captures the nuances of Golden’s friendship with Sandburg.  She draws on the correspondence between the two men as well as their personal recollections.  As a result, readers of her biography come away with a sense of sitting on the porch with these two giants, listening in on their conversations.  Such are the treats that await the readers of Hartnett’s biography.

Hartnett will be talking about her biography tomorrow evening in the Atkins Library’s Halton Reading Room.  Her talk will be followed by a panel presentation, and our own Paula Eckard is one of the panelists.  This event starts at 6:30 and concludes at 8:00 with a reception and book signing.  For more information, please click on the following link:  http://library.uncc.edu/harrygoldentalk

Our Newest Honorary Member of the English Department — By the power vested in me as the Chair of the English Department, I am proud to proclaim Alison Walsh to be our newest honorary member of the English Department.  Alison is the Director of Student Support Services, but she has a long-time interest in the field of English Studies.  She was an English major at Appalachian State University with a concentration in creative writing.  She has studied film history and criticism, and she took film classes with Sam Shapiro.  This past weekend, Alison gave her first paper at an academic conference (see below for details).   She gave her presentation on the films of Coen Brothers, and from all accounts her presentation was a big success.   Since she is now an honorary member of the English Department (retroactive to cover this past weekend), her success is our success.

Kudos— As you know, I like to use my Monday Missives to share news about recent accomplishments by members of our department.  Here is the latest news:

Bryn Chancellor gave a reading from her new book, When Are You Coming Home?, last week at University of North Carolina at Greensboro, hosted by its MFA program in creative writing as part of its visiting writers’ series.

Paula Eckard‘s review of Carolina Israelite:  How Harry Golden Made Us Care about Jews, the South, and Civil Rights was recently published in The Charlotte Viewpoint.  Here is the link:  http://www.charlotteviewpoint.org/article/3465/Carolina-Israelite%5D%5D-How-Harry-Golden-Made-Us-Care

Beth Gargano‘s entry on “Victorian Education and Literature” recently came out in the  Blackwell Victorian Encyclopedia. Also, two of her poems– “The Dream Visit” and “Harvest”–appeared in Fall 2015 in Vox Populi: A Public Sphere for Politics and Poetry.

Jeffrey Leak was interviewed for an NPR story dealing with Henry Dumas.  Here is the link:
http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/10/01/433229181/henry-dumas-wrote-about-black-people-killed-by-cops-then-he-was-killed-by-a-cop

Aaron Toscano recently gave a presentation titled “Games of Conquest:  A Cultural Analysis of Video Games” at the annual conference of the Popular Culture Association of the South.

Alison Walsh recently gave a presentation titled “A Cruel Sense of Humor:  Comedic and Disruptive Violence in the Films of the Coen Brothers”

Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here are some dates to keep in mind:
October 9 — Mid-semester reports of unsatisfactory grades are  due on Friday, October 9th at noon.
October 19 — The deadline to apply for a Faculty Research Grant is October 19.  For more information, click on the following link:   http://research.uncc.edu/proposal-development/locating-funding

Quirky Quiz Question — Carl Sandburg is most famous for his poetry and his biography of Abraham Lincoln, but he also wrote original fairy tales for children.  His collection of children’s tales has the name of a vegetable in its title.  What is this vegetable?

Last week’s answer: Tuscaloosa
Marty Shapiro grew up in New York City, but he moved to the South after serving in the Army during the early 1950s.  He received his Ph.D. in American Literature from the University of Alabama.  Does anybody know the name of the city where the University of Alabama is located?