Monthly Archives: March 2019

Monday Missive - March 25, 2019

March 25, 2019 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive

The Center City Literary Festival as a Cultural Catalyst — In what has become an annual event, the Center City Literary Festival will take place on Saturday, March 30, 2019, at UNC Charlotte Center City, 320 E. 9th Street.  Co-sponsored by the English Department and UNC Charlotte Center City, this festival is divided into two parts.  The day-time part is intended for children and their families and will run from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.  The evening part is intended for adults and will run from 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.  Both parts of the festival are free and open to the public.  For detailed information about the festival, please click on the following link:  https://centercitylitfest.uncc.edu/

The part for children will feature appearances by children’s authors, creative activities, a live puppet show, a demonstration of giant puppets from the World of Creations, and a dance performance by Dances of India.  Among the children’s authors who will participate are Zaidoon Al-Zubaidy, Tia Capers, Heather Freeman, Lisa Kline, Janaka Lewis, Jessica McEachern, Linda Phillips, Stephanie Prysiazniuk, Brandon Reese, Candice Smith, Greg Wiggan, and Kim Wilson.

The part for adults will feature appearances by four writers, an opening reception with live music by the Mark Larson Combo, poetry and fiction readings, and a book signing.  The writers who will participate are Allison Hutchcraft, Patrice Gopo, Hannah Dela Cruz Abrams, and Tony Earley.

The organization of the Center City Literary Festival is a collaborative effort, but three people have played especially important roles in planning for this event:  Bryn Chancellor, Janaka Lewis, and Angie Williams.  Without the hard work of these three members of the English Department, there would be no Center CityLiterary Festival.

As I see it, the Center City Literary Festival functions as a sort of cultural catalyst.  In the realm of chemistry, a catalyst, according to my dictionary, “is a substance that enables a chemical reaction to proceed.”  Put another way, a catalyst facilitates the bringing together of chemicals to form new compounds.   Our Center City Literary Festival serves a similar function in relation to Charlotte’s cultural realm.  The festival is bringing together authors, musicians, and dancers.  It’s bringing together adults and children.  It’s bringing together members of the university community and members of the broader Charlotte community.   In the process of organizing the Center City Literary Festival, the English Department is contributing to Charlotte’s evolving cultural scene.

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

Meghan Barnes recently posted a new blog post on the work that she is doing at the Moore Place homeless shelter.  Here is the link:  https://www.urbanministrycenter.org/hugs-faith-cookies/

Allison Hutchcraft published a poem titled “Alice in Millefleurs” in Third Coast. Her poems are also forthcoming in Boulevard, Five Points, Image, The Missouri Review, and The Southern Review.

Jen Munroe recently had an essay on the role that gardens play in women’s writings from the the early modern period.  The essay is for an online series titled “Thirty Years, Thirty Ideas.”  Here is the link:  https://wwp.northeastern.edu/context/#munroe.30gardens.xml

Maya Socolovsky recently presented a paper titled “Documentation and Disappearance in Latinx Children’s Literature” at MELUS.

Aaron Toscano recently presented a paper titled “Facts, Fears, and Futurism: Isaac Asimov’s Lessons for the 21st Century” at the North Eastern MLA conference in Washington, DC.

Upcoming Events and Meetings — Here is a list of upcoming events and deadlines:

March 26 — The Personally Speaking presentation featuring Bryn Chancellor will take place on Tuesday, March 26, 2019, at UNC Charlotte Center City.  Bryn’s presentation on her book Sycamore will begin at 6:30 p.m.  A book signing and reception will follow her presentation. For more information and to RSVP, please click on the following link: https://clas.uncc.edu/community/personally-speaking/sycamore-novel

March 29 — The Children’s Literature Graduate Organization (CLGO) is sponsoring a Harry Potter Trivia Night on Friday, March 29th, at 7pm in the Halton Reading Room in Atkins Library.  CLGO is using it as a fundraiser for Read Charlotte, and all the teams will donate $10 as an entry fee.

March 30 — The Center City Literary Festival will take place on Saturday, March 30, at UNC Charlotte Center City. The children’s part of the festival will run from 10:00am to 1:00pm, and the adult part will run from 6:00pm-9:00pm.  For more information, please click on the following link:  https://centercitylitfest.uncc.edu/

Quirky Quiz Question — The impetus to create the Center City Literary Festival was in response to the demise of a community-wide literary festival that was sponsored and organized by the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library for many years.  What is the name of this former literary festival?

Last week’s answer: Shakespeare

During her career at UNC Charlotte, Ann Carver taught many different courses, but she most frequently taught courses on a particular topic related to her academic area of expertise.  What was this topic?

Monday Missive - March 18, 2019

March 18, 2019 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive

Celebrating the Connections between the English Department and the Women’s and Gender Studies Program — Beginning in 1987, March has been designated as Women’s History Month in the United States.  Since I am writing this Monday Missive in the middle of March, it seems like an appropriate time to write about the longstanding relationship between our English Department and the Women’s and Gender Studies Program.

UNC Charlotte’s Women’s and Gender Studies Program can be traced back to the late 1970s, but it wasn’t until the 1981-82 academic year that it made its first appearance in the university’s official catalog.  This catalog contains the following description of the program:  “The Women’s Studies Program at UNCC is designed to meet the needs of women and men for an educational program which recognizes the equal value of women’s experience and contribution to humanity.”  Ann Carver, an English professor, was named the first Coordinator of UNC Charlotte’s Women’s Studies Program.  Several other English faculty members also helped launch the program, including Shelley Crisp and Stan Patten.

In recognition of Ann Carver’s leadership in establishing women’s studies as a field of study at UNC Charlotte, the Women’s and Gender Studies Program now sponsors the Dr. Ann C. Carver Essay Contest.  The deadline for this contest is March 22, 2019.  For more information about this contest, please click on the following link:  https://womensandgenderstudies.uncc.edu/node/629

Throughout the history of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, members of the English Department have played important leadership roles in the program.  This pattern is especially evident in the recent history of the program.  The three most recent directors of the program are all faculty members in the English Department.  From 2012 to 2014, Paula Eckard served as the program’s director.  From 2014 to 2017, Katie Hogan served as the director.  Since 2017, Janaka Lewis has served as the program’s director.

Today the Women’s and Gender Studies Program is one UNC Charlotte’s largest and most influential interdisciplinary programs.  The success of this program has a lot to do with the many contributions by members of the English Department.

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

Janaka Lewis spoke on “Freedom and Family Narratives of African American Women” for the Charlotte Chapter of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society today (3/16) and did a “meet the author” talk on her books and research process for 4th and 5th grades at Winding Springs Elementary on Monday 3/11.

Kirk Melnikoff‘s co-edited essay collection Christopher Marlowe, Theatrical Commerce, and the Book Trade was recently reviewed in TLS.  Also, Kirk recently delivered the paper “‘[H]e that likes not this’: Elizabethan Publishing, Browsing, and the Book” at the RSA conference in Toronto, Canada.

Malin Pereira currently has the following three essays in production:  “Thylias Moss’s Slave Moth: Liberatory Verse Narrative and Performance Art.” Slavery and the Post-Black Imagination. Eds. Bert Ashe and Ilka Saal. In press, U Washington P, 2019;  “An Angry, Mixed Race Cosmopolitanism: Race, Privilege, Poetic Identity, and Community in Natasha Trethewey’s Beyond Katrina and Thrall.” Cosmopolitanism, Race and Ethnicity. Eds. Ewa Luzcak, Anna Pochmara and Samir Dayal. In press, de Grunter, 2019; and “Brenda Marie Osbey’s Black Internationalism.” Summoning Our Saints: The Poetry and Prose of Brenda Marie Osbey. Ed. John Lowe. In press, Lexington Books, 2019. 

Lara Vetter recently published an essay titled “Journeys Without Maps: Literature and Spiritual Experience” in British Literature in Transition, 1920-1940: Futility and Anarchy”  (Cambridge UP).

Upcoming Events and Meetings — Here is a list of upcoming events and deadlines:

March 21 — The Children’s Literature Graduate Organization (CLGO) will hold their annual Graduate Student Colloquium on March 21 in Cone 111 from 9:30 to 2:30. The title for this year’s colloquium is “Modern Authors, Historic Influences:  Framing Children’s Literature in Historical Context.”

March 23 — Grace C. Ocasio will lead a poetry workshop, read from her two previous books, and read from her now under-contract collection (Family Reunion/Broadstone Books) at Press 53’s The High Road Festival on Saturday, March 23, in Winston Salem.

March 26 — The Personally Speaking presentation featuring Bryn Chancellor will take place on Tuesday, March 26, 2019, at UNC Charlotte Center City.  Bryn’s presentation on her book Sycamore will begin at 6:30 p.m.  A book signing and reception will follow her presentation. For more information and to RSVP, please click on the following link: https://clas.uncc.edu/community/personally-speaking/sycamore-novel

March 29 — The Children’s Literature Graduate Organization (CLGO) is sponsoring a Harry Potter Trivia Night on Friday, March 29th, at 7pm in the Halton Reading Room in Atkins Library.  CLGO is using it as a fundraiser for Read Charlotte, and all the teams will donate $10 as an entry fee.

March 30 — The Center City Literary Festival will take place on Saturday, March 30, at UNC Charlotte Center City. The children’s part of the festival will run from 10:00am to 1:00pm, and the adult part will run from 6:00pm-9:00pm.  For more information, please click on the following link:  https://centercitylitfest.uncc.edu/

Quirky Quiz Question — During her career at UNC Charlotte, Ann Carver taught many different courses, but she most frequently taught courses on a particular topic related to her academic area of expertise.  What was this topic?

Last week’s answer: Nancy Gutierrez

Bryn Chancellor’s familiarity with Arizona stems from the fact that she lived in the state for much of her youth.  She earned her B.A degree from Northern Arizona University and her M.A. degree in English from Arizona State University before earning her M.F.A. from Vanderbilt University.  Like Bryn, another person associated with our English Department has significant connections to the English Department at Arizona State University.   Who is this other person?

Monday Missive - March 11, 2019

March 11, 2019 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive

Writing about Place — As a fiction writer, Bryn Chancellor stresses the importance of place in many of her stories.  The title of her debut novel, Sycamore, underscores this point.  The title is the name of the small town in Arizona where the novel takes place.  For Bryn, settings involve the natural world, the built environment, and the history of a place.  For Bryn, settings can be deceptive.  The places she describes have their secrets, and in the case of Sycamore, one of the secrets involves a mysterious death.

In some ways, Sycamore reminds me of Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio.  Both are set in small towns where things are not always as they seem.  The residents of Sycamore and the residents of Winesburg have complex responses toward their towns, vacillating between feeling a sense of belonging and feeling a sense of isolation.

Bryn will talk about Sycamore and the secrets of this small Arizona town during her presentation for the Personally Speaking series on Tuesday, March 26, at UNC Charlotte Center City.  For more information and to RSVP, please click on the following link: https://clas.uncc.edu/community/personally-speaking/sycamore-novel

Bryn is not the only member of our English Department who is interested in the relationship between place and writing.  Nearly every summer, Greg Wickliff teaches a course titled “Writing about Place.”  I recently contacted Greg and asked him for more information about this course.  Here is his response:  “In my summer ‘Writing about Place’ course, students explore (at a distance) an experience of place through language and to a lesser extent, through photography. A sense of place, enduring or transient, can be deeply meaningful to us, whether we feel we inhabit it as a native, as a willing visitor, or even as a captive. Writing about place is the subject of diarists and travelers, of anthropologists and historians, of the young and the old. As writers of non-fiction, students in this course reflect upon their impressions of specific places  – researching their histories and imagining their futures – preserved, threatened, stagnant, or revitalized. Because this summer course is an online-only one, we also seek to understand how places that are or once were physical and real, become through our writing, virtual constructions of words and images.”

Bryn and Greg have different academic specialties.  Bryn teaches fiction writing while Greg teaches professional and technical writing.  However, for both Bryn and Greg, the act of writing about places is not just an exercise in description.  They are both interested in how writing about places can evoke memories, stir up emotions, and communicate the personal meanings that we often gain from interacting with physical places.  In a sense, Bryn and Greg are standing on common ground, and that common ground is called the English Department.

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

Bryn Chancellor last week served as a speaker and literary table host for Poets & Writers’s gala benefit “In Celebration of Writers” in New York City.

Juan Meneses recently presented a paper titled “The Limits of Citizenship:  A Foreign Counter” at the American Comparative Literature Association Conference, which took place at Georgetown University.

Lara Vetter recently published an article titled “The Violence of Translingual Identity in Kazim Ali’s Bright Felon: Autobiography and Cities and Julia Alvarez’s The Other Side / El otro lado” in MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the U.S. 44.1 (2019): 110-131.

Upcoming Events and Meetings — Here is a list of upcoming events and deadlines:

March 12 — Sam Shapiro is presenting a 90-minute program on the “art of adapting books into film.”  He is focusing primarily on Katherine Anne Porter’s novella Noon WIne.  Here is the link to Charlotte Lit’s website, with further information: https://www.charlottelit.org/event/shapeshifting-adapting-the-novella-for-screen/?mc_cid=a38f543029&mc_eid=69ee4ca45f

March 21 — The Children’s Literature Graduate Organization (CLGO) will hold their annual Graduate Student Colloquium on March 21 in Cone 111 from 9:30 to 2:30. The title for this year’s colloquium is “Modern Authors, Historic Influences:  Framing Children’s Literature in Historical Context.”

March 23 — Grace C. Ocasio will lead a poetry workshop, read from her two previous books, and read from her now under-contract collection (Family Reunion/Broadstone Books) at Press 53’s The High Road Festival on Saturday, March 23, in Winston Salem.

March 26 — The Personally Speaking presentation featuring Bryn Chancellor will take place on Tuesday, March 26, 2019, at UNC Charlotte Center City.  Bryn’s presentation on her book Sycamore will begin at 6:30 p.m.  A book signing and reception will follow her presentation. For more information and to RSVP, please click on the following link: https://clas.uncc.edu/community/personally-speaking/sycamore-novel

March 30 — The Center City Literary Festival will take place on Saturday, March 30, at UNC Charlotte Center City. The children’s part of the festival will run from 10:00am to 1:00pm, and the adult part will run from 6:00pm-9:00pm.  For more information, please click on the following link:  https://centercitylitfest.uncc.edu/

Quirky Quiz Question — Bryn Chancellor’s familiarity with Arizona stems from the fact that she lived in the state for much of her youth.  She earned her B.A degree from Northern Arizona University and her M.A. degree in English from Arizona State University before earning her M.F.A. from Vanderbilt University.  Like Bryn, another person associated with our English Department has significant connections to the English Department at Arizona State University.   Who is this other person?

Last week’s answer: Lincoln College, Oxford University

Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel) received many honorary doctoral degrees, but he never completed the PhD in English that he started after graduating from Dartmouth College.  What is the name of the university where Dr. Seuss pursued his graduate studies?

Monday Missive - March 4, 2019

March 04, 2019 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive

Bridging Generations at the Seuss-a-Thon — The eighth annual Seuss-a-Thon will take place on Saturday, March 9, at Park Road Books (4139 Park Road) from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.  This community event is co-sponsored by the English Department and Park Road Books, Charlotte’s only full-service, independent bookstore.   At the Seuss-a-thon, many members of the English Department and other literacy advocates will participate in a four-hour marathon of reading Dr. Seuss books aloud to listeners of all ages.  The Children’s Literature Graduate Organization (with help from Monica Burke and Kelly Brabec) will run a Dr. Seuss-themed crafts table, and his books will be on sale for the day.

One of the pleasures that I gain from organizing the Seuss-a-Thon every year is observing how the event brings together participants from multiple generations.  I am especially pleased when the event spans three generations within one family.  I am already aware of one example of such generational bridging that will take place.  Heather Vorhies, her daughter (Aniela), and her mother (Janice Blain) are all planning to participate.  Heather will read I Can Read with My Eyes Shut!, and Janice will read One Fish, Two Fish.

I am also aware of another special example of generational bridging that will take place at this year’s Seuss-a-Thon.  At last year’s event, our dearly missed friend and colleague Anita Moss read Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?  I still remember how much energy and expression she put into her reading.  She had a special way of looking directly at the children in the audience and asking them the question that runs as a refrain throughout the book:  “Mr. Brown can do it.  How about you?”  Well, nobody can read Dr. Seuss books quite like Anita, but her daughters are also very talented at reading Dr. Seuss books, and both of them will be participating in this year’s Seuss-a-Thon.  Pam Hausle will read Horton Hatches the Egg, and Heather Smith will read Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?   In a sense, Anita’s presence will be felt at the Seuss-a-Thon thanks to the magic of Dr. Seuss and the love of her daughters.

I will be there.  How about you?

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

Janaka Lewis recently gave an invited Black History keynote presentation titled “Where Are We in Our Stories?” and read excerpts of her books to the staff, parents and students at the CT Walker Traditional Magnet School in Janaka’s hometown of Augusta, Georgia.

Tiffany Morin published a review of Growing Up with Vampires:  Essays on the Undead in Children’s Media in the most recent issue of the Children’s Literature Association Quarterly.  

Alan Rauch recently received a research grant from the Lilly Library at Indiana University to conduct a research project titled “Science, Women, and the Mother Tongue:  Translating Knowledge for Young Readers.”

Upcoming Events and Meetings — Here is a list of upcoming events and deadlines:

March 21 — The Children’s Literature Graduate Organization (CLGO) will hold their annual Graduate Student Colloquium on March 21 in Cone 111 from 9:30 to 2:30. The title for this year’s colloquium is “Modern Authors, Historic Influences:  Framing Children’s Literature in Historical Context.”

March 26 — The Personally Speaking presentation featuring Bryn Chancellor will take place on Tuesday, March 26, 2019, at UNC Charlotte Center City.  Bryn’s presentation on her book Sycamore will begin at 6:30 p.m.  A book signing and reception will follow her presentation. For more information and to RSVP, please click on the following link: https://clas.uncc.edu/community/personally-speaking/sycamore-novel

March 30 — The Center City Literary Festival will take place on Saturday, March 30, at UNC Charlotte Center City. The children’s part of the festival will run from 10:00am to 1:00pm, and the adult part will run from 6:00pm-9:00pm.  For more information, please click on the following link:  https://centercitylitfest.uncc.edu/

Quirky Quiz Question — Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel) received many honorary doctoral degrees, but he never completed the PhD in English that he started after graduating from Dartmouth College.  What is the name of the university where Dr. Seuss pursued his graduate studies?

 

Last week’s answer: University of Chicago

John Dewey developed many of his ideas about education at a famous laboratory school associated with the university where he was then teaching. What is the name of this university?