Monday Missive

Connections — This past week my wife and I paid a quick visit to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville in order to see the famous mansion all decked out for the holidays. As we toured the home, I kept thinking about all the differences between the world that the Vanderbilts inhabited and the world that I inhabit. I began to wonder if there are any connections that tie the Vanderbilts to the English Department. At first I thought there were none, but after I gave the matter some thought, I came up with three.

George Vanderbilt, the man who orchestrated the building of Biltmore Estate, and Thomas Wolfe, the famous author, both lived in Asheville during the early part of the 20th century. Wolfe was born in Asheville in 1900, five years after the grand opening of Biltmore Estate. Wolfe was well aware of the Vanderbilts during his growing-up years, and he incorporated the Vanderbilts in his autobiographical novel, Look Homeward, Angel. In his novel, however, he called the Vanderbilts the Goulderbilts, and he changed the name of Biltmore to Biltburn. One of the nation’s leading experts on Look Homeward, Angel teaches in our English Department. She is the Editor of the Thomas Wolfe Review, and her name is Paula Eckard.

George Vanderbilt was the grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, the person who amassed the Vanderbilt family fortune. Known as “The Commodore,” Cornelius Vanderbilt built and endowed Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Vanderbilt University opened in the 1870s and has since become one of the leading universities in the South. One of the graduate degrees it currently offers is an MFA in Creative Writing. Bryn Chancellor, our new creative writing professor, received her MFA from Vanderbilt University in 2009.

George Vanderbilt cared as much about the land surrounding his home as he did about the building itself. For this reason, he hired Frederick Law Olmsted, America’s foremost landscape architect at the time, to take charge of the landscaping associated with this project. Olmsted’s role
in the history of landscape architecture is of interest to many contemporary historians, including Joyce Connolly, who is currently a Museum Specialist at the Smithsonian Gardens in DC. Before joining the Smithsonian, Joyce Connolly worked at the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site in Massachusetts. Joyce Connolly is the sister of Paula Connolly.

Figuring out these connections between the Vanderbilts and our English Department underscored for me the interconnected nature of our lives. The old stereotype of academics living in isolation of the rest of the world certainly does not apply to our English Department. We have connections.

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:

Boyd Davis has just returned from Belgium, where she delivered a plenary address titled “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Corpus: The Carolinas Conversations Collection” at the CLARe Workshop on Language and Aging. For more information about this address, please click on the following link:
http://dailyscience.be/2015/12/10/quatre-axes-de-recherche-pour-mieux-vieillir/

Chris Davis recently learned that the journal December just accepted two of his poems. these poems are titled “Graphic Material” and “Shell Island.”

Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here are some dates to keep in mind:

December 19 — The Commencement for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences will take place in the Barnhardt Student Activity Center (SAC) on Saturday December 19th at 3:00 pm.

December 21 — Final grades for the Fall 2015 term must be submitted by Monday, December 21 at noon.

Quirky Quiz Question — Biltmore Estate has long had a nickname among the residents of Asheville. This nickname includes the word “Hill” but it has nothing to do with Senior Associate Dean Bill Hill (although Dr. Hill received his undergraduate degree from nearby Appalachian State University). What is the nickname for Biltmore Estate?

Last week’s answer: Frank Sinatra

Bing Crosby’s recording of “White Christmas” holds the record for being the best-selling single of all time, but many other singers have also recorded this song. In 1944 another famous crooner released a version of the song that also was a hit on Billboard magazine’s singles chart. This crooner’s 100th birthday falls on December 12 of this year. What is the name of this famous singer?

Holiday Season — The derivation of the word holiday can be traced back to the Old English word for holy day. Although the word holiday is no longer used exclusively for days that have religious significance, the word still has religious connotations. For this reason, I associate the start of the holiday season with Hanukkah. This year Hanukkah began at sunset on December 6, and will close on Monday, December 14. If any of you are interested in learning more about the history of Hanukkah, I recommend that you read a recent blog post written by my friend and colleague James Tabor. Here is the link: http://jamestabor.com/2015/12/05/hanukkah-yes-but-what-about-kislev-24-2/

In our religiously diverse country, we are often unsure how to celebrate or commemorate the religious holidays associated with religions that are not our own. For many American Jews, the holiday of Christmas is an especially tricky issue. During my childhood, this issue arose every December. My mother came from a Christian background and enjoyed celebrating Christmas, while my father came from a Jewish background and never felt entirely comfortable with my mother’s Christmas doings. Still, my father made his peace with Christmas by contributing to our own family traditions during the holiday season. For my father, the high point of the Christmas season was reading Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol aloud to our entire family. I wrote about this aspect of my family history in a column that ran in Charlotte Viewpoint a few years ago. Here is the link: http://www.charlotteviewpoint.org/article/2922/’A-Christmas-Carol’-bridges-family-traditions

Irving Berlin, another American Jew, also made his peace with Christmas. In fact, he wrote “White Christmas,” which is one of the most famous Christmas songs ever recorded. Berlin’s “White Christmas” debuted in the the 1942 film Holiday Inn, starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. As a Jew, Berlin found that writing this song was a bit of a challenge, but he overcame this challenge by celebrating the aspects of Christmas that transcend particular religious teachings or themes.

As we look forward to the English Department’s holiday party on Thursday, I think we too can celebrate the holidays while respecting our religiously diverse community. I like to think that there is plenty of room for all of us at our own Holiday Inn.

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:

Allison Hutchcraft has been awarded a Regional Artist Project Grant from Charlotte’s Arts & Science Council in conjunction with the North Carolina Arts Council to work on her book manuscript.

Sarah Minslow published a review of Genocide in Contemporary Children’s and Young Adult Literature in the most recent issue of the Children’s Literature Association Quarterly.

Maya Socolovsky published an article titled “Cultural (Il)literacy: Narrative of Epistolary Resistance and Transnational Citizenship in Julia Alvarez’s Return to Sender” in the most recent issue of the Children’s Literature Association Quarterly.

Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here is a date to keep in mind:

December 10 — The English Department holiday party will take place on December 10, 2015, from 11:30-1:30 in the faculty/staff lounge. As usual, this will be a potluck event. There is a potluck sign up sheet at the front desk.

Quirky Quiz Question — Bing Crosby’s recording of “White Christmas” holds the record for being the best-selling single of all time, but many other singers have also recorded this song. In 1944 another famous crooner released a version of the song that also was a hit on Billboard magazine’s singles chart. This crooner’s 100th birthday falls on December 12 of this year. What is the name of this famous singer?

Last week’s answer: oranges

Pilar Blitvich just returned from Valencia, Spain, which is sometimes called the Orchard of Spain. Valencia is especially famous for what type of fruit?

Faculty Achievement — The Celebration of Faculty Achievement, an event sponsored by the Dean’s Office of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, takes place on Wednesday, December 2, from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm in the Harris Alumni Center. This event honors faculty who published books this past year or who received external funding for research between July 1, 2014 and June 30, 2015. Eight members of the English Department will be honored at this event. Bryn Chancellor, Peter Larkin, Elizabeth Miller, Jennifer Munroe, Lance Phillips, and I will be recognized for publishing books in 2015, while Lil Brannon and Boyd Davis will be honored for receiving externally funded grants. I am very proud of these achievements by members of our faculty, and I am pleased that the department with the most books published in 2015 is the English Department.

Although publishing books and receiving grants are important faculty achievements, I am well aware of the many other faculty achievements that often go unheralded. These achievements include publishing articles, editing journals, developing new classes, helping graduate students with their applications to doctoral programs, organizing events and readings, and working with community organizations. As we celebrate the faculty achievements that are being recognized during the event on Wednesday, I think we should also remember to celebrate the many other achievements of our faculty. In fact, one of the reasons I include the “Kudos” section in my Monday Missive is to recognize such achievements.

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:

Pilar Blitvich just returned from Valencia, Spain, where she co-directed a new conference on Approaches to Digital Discourse Analysis (ADDA) http://adda.blogs.uv.es. The conference attracted 145 participants, including linguists, IT scholars, communication specialists, and rhetoricians. ADDA II will be held at UNC Charlotte in the fall of 2017. ADDA III will be held in Finland 2019. In addition to her performing her organization duties, Pilar presented a paper, co-authored by Becky and Liz (Roeder, Miller, Blitvich – order of authors) based on research done on our Language and digital communication concentration. The title of the presentation is “Pedagogy, audience and attitudes: Influencing metalinguistic awareness about text practices.”

Jeffrey Leak authored the opinion piece “UNC Charlotte and the faculty pay raise” published in the Charlotte Observer.

Janaka Lewis has been invited by the Chris Canty Foundation to participate with”Brown All Over” in their Women for Literacy Book Fair from 1-4 this Saturday at the Arboretum Barnes and Noble.

Lara Vetter presented a paper titled “Outside the Margins of Modernism: Spirituality and Women Writers” at the recent Modernist Studies Association conference. She also chaired a roundtable on women’s writing in the World War II era.

Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here is a date to keep in mind:

December 10 — The English Department holiday party will take place on December 10, 2015, from 11:30-1:30 in the faculty/staff lounge. As usual, this will be a potluck event. There is a potluck sign up sheet at the front desk.

Quirky Quiz Question — Pilar Blitvich just returned from Valencia, Spain, which is sometimes called the Orchard of Spain. Valencia is especially famous for what type of fruit?

Last week’s answer: Z and Q

In the game of Scrabble, each letter has a point value. What two letters have the highest point values?

Games and Puzzles — I recently learned that the week of Thanksgiving is also National Games and Puzzles Week. The game I always associate with departments of English is Scrabble. When I was in graduate school, the teaching assistants in the English Department played Scrabble on a weekly basis. They even organized Scrabble tournaments. I remember thinking at the time that I would never meet anybody else who played in Scrabble tournaments, but I was wrong. I heard a rumor that our former colleague Jay Jacoby regularly participates in Scrabble tournaments, so last week I sent him an email and asked him if there is any truth to the rumor. Here is what he had to say:

I’m afraid the Scrabble rumors are in fact true. About three and a half years ago I took an 8-week class in “How to Play Scrabble like a Champ” offered by UNCA’s Osher Life-long Learning Institute (a college for seniors at which I often teach and take classes). I have enjoyed playing Scrabble since I was a kid, but this was an introduction to the world of competitive Scrabble, tournament-level play (with timers, rules, cut-throat strategies, etc.). It didn’t take long for me to become hooked.

I began playing Scrabble at the local Asheville Club that meets every Sunday from 2-6 and draws between 12-20 participants each week (check out their web site to learn more than you ever wanted to know: www.ashevillescrabble.com). Members range in age from folks in their 20s to those in their 70s, active and retired teachers, doctors, realtors, truffle-farmers, pool-cleaners, etc. I also became one of the 6,000+ members of the North American Scrabble Players Association, and started participating in regional tournaments. Such tournaments are held every week-end across the country (during the next two week-ends there will be tournaments in Lexington, KY, Dallas, Princeton, Brooklyn, Potomac, MD, Elmhurst, IL, Ontario, and British Columbia–number of participants vary: Asheville hosted a tournament a few weeks ago that attracted 80 people; about 125 folks are expected for an early January tournament in New Orleans). National Tournaments, in places like Reno or Buffalo, attract several hundred participants. Prize money is good for those who play well.

Speaking of playing well, I’m sad to say that after over three years and 15 tournaments, I am still pretty mediocre. I have won a few tournaments, but that is rare. Still, I really do enjoy the competition and the camaraderie–I’ve met tons of people from all over and we are all word freaks.

In celebration of National Games and Puzzle Week, we have set up a Scrabble game and a book-themed jigsaw puzzle in the faculty/staff lounge. Have at it!

English by the Numbers — At last week’s English Department meeting, Aaron Toscano gave a presentation on the numbers of undergraduate students who have declared English as their major or who have signed up for one of the English Department’s minors. As Aaron made clear, the numbers of English majors have increased steadily since 2013. Listed below is a snapshot of where we currently stand in terms of English majors and minors:

English Department Majors and Minors

Majors Enrolled Fall 2015

· General: 187· Creative: 85

· Lang & Dig Tech: 61

· Lit & Culture: 73

· Pedagogy: 46

Total (enrolled): 452 (458* as of 11/19/2015)

Minors Enrolled Fall 2015

· Children’s Lit: 207

· Diverse Lit: 10

· English: 84

· Linguistics: 30

· Tech/Prof: 41

· HTAS: 8

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 recently gave a fiction reading at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC, as part of Winthrop’s Writers Reading Series.

Katie Hogan presented a paper titled “Complicit: On Being A WGSS Program Director in the Neoliberal University” at the National Women’s Studies Association’s Annual Conference. The conference was held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, November 13 to November 15.

Tony Jackson recently published an article titled “Prime Time: Visual Cognition in the Prelude to Citizen Kane” in Style (Winter 2015).

Juan Meneses has recently been notified that his essay “Historical Restoration, Narrative Agency, and Silence in Graham Swift’s Waterland” has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Modern Literature.

Quirky Quiz Question — In the game of Scrabble, each letter has a point value. What two letters have the highest point values?

Last week’s answer: The Mad Hatter, March Hare, and Dormouse
The high tea at CLGO’s recent event was inspired by the mad tea party in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. In addition to Alice, who else participates in this mad tea party? Here is hint: there are three other participants.

The student involvement in these two recent events underscore for me the many and diverse strengths of our students.

This Wednesday (November 11), the Children’s Literature Graduate Organization (CLGO) is presenting a public event that they are calling Alice’s (un)Birthday Party.  This event will take place in the Student Union Room 340B from 4:00 to 5:30.   Professor Jan Susina, an internationally recognized expert on Carroll’s writings, will deliver a keynote address.  Professor Susina is a Professor of English at Illinois State University and the author of The Place of Lewis Carroll in Children’s Literature.  Following the keynote address, there will be a panel discussion featuring Professor Susina, Sarah Minslow, and Alan Rauch.  Everyone who attends will have an opportunity to participate in a Victorian tea party complete with tea, sandwiches, and scones.   I hope to see you there.

Heather Blain Vorhies recently presented “Doing Business Over There: Misunderstanding the Place of Nineteenth-Century Women’s Writing in the Place of Business” at the Feminisms and Rhetorics conference in Tempe, Arizona.
Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here is a date to keep in mind:

November 13 — Shakespeare in Action is presenting a lecture by Paul Menzer titled “Every Bad Quarto Deserves a Good Theory” on Friday, November 13, at 6:00 pm in Robinson Hall’s Black Box Theater.

Quirky Quiz Question — The character Alice in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is based on a real girl whose first name was Alice.  Does anybody know the last name of the real Alice?

Last week’s answer: Steampunk

Gears and clockwork figure prominently in a popular fantasy genre that is set in a world in which advanced electronics and digital technology never developed.  What is the commonly used term for the fantasy genre?

Drawing by Nafis Bilal

Engagement — I associate the word engagement with an image of engaged gears spinning around like clockwork.  This image seems appropriate to me within the context of the engagement activities associated with our faculty and students.  As I see it, the teaching/learning that takes place in the classroom is like the main driver gear (sometimes called the primary gear).  However, when this gear meshes with other gears, the motion or energy that starts with the driver gear can power a much larger and more complex operation.  Something similar happens when classroom activities are connected to the world outside the classroom–the gears engage and a complex operation is set in motion.  Within the past two weeks, members of the English Department have engineered numerous examples of this type of engagement.  Here are four examples.

Through the Chancellor’s Diversity Fund grant, students in ENGL 4254/5254, English methods, worked with the Poetry Project, The UNC Charlotte Writing Project, and Discovery Place, Inc., to host a family literacy night for the Renaissance West and Little Rock Charlotte communities. Over a hundred people attended this event.  UNC Charlotte students are working with the Poetry Project on ways of teaching performance poetry to urban youth, and this event gave English students the opportunity to put into practice the power of poetry and the spoken word.  UNC Charlotte Writing Project teachers were also involved and they connected this out-of-school work with families to ways performance poetry happens in the classroom to increase student engagement and deepen their knowledge.  Discovery Place, Inc., worked with our students and the families on the science of sound through informal science learning which integrated literacy and science through hands-on science activities.

The English Department co-hosted a meeting of the Charlotte Regional Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication (STC) last Wednesday night. The topic was the job search and the role of LinkedIn. Roger Gilmartin and Sonia McCallum, two officers from the local chapter, made presentations and led a discussion that focused on how LinkedIn differs from other forms of social media and can be used as an electronic portfolio tool. They led a discussion of effective rhetorical strategies for traditional resumes and interviews as well. The event was well attended. Another STC meeting on campus is planned for next April, to exhibit the work of students in our programs in Technical/Professional Writing and Language and Digital Technology.

As these examples illustrate, engagement activities mesh perfectly with the work of the the English Department.

Last week’s answer: Novello

EpicFest follows in the tradition of an earlier literary festival sponsored by the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.  Does anybody remember the name of this earlier festival?

EpicFest — Over the years, I have collaborated with the the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library on many worthwhile events and projects, but I am especially pleased to be on the Planning Committee for EpicFest. Sponsored by the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation, EpicFest is a free literary festival for children of all ages. It will take place on Saturday, November 7, at ImaginOn, and it will feature nine award-winning children’s authors. The festival will also include learning activities, a family concert, and book signing opportunities. Students from our English Learning Community will be volunteering at this event. For more information about EpicFest, please click on the following link: http://foundation.cmlibrary.org/epicfest

Poetry Reading — Our creative writing program is having a poetry reading on 4 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 28 in Fretwell 290B. The reading will feature Cedric Tillman and Coen Crisp. The poets also will hold a Q&A with the audience, and light refreshments will be provided. The event is sponsored by the Department of English with support from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Here is more information about the featured poets:

Cedric Tillman holds a BA in English from UNC Charlotte and graduated from American University’s Creative Writing MFA program. He is a prestigious Cave Canem fellow and a former Boston Review “Discovery” contest semifinalist. Cedric’s poems appear in several publications including Crosscut, Folio, Kakalak, The Chemistry of Color, and Home Is Where: An Anthology of African American Poets From the Carolinas, edited by Kwame Dawes. His debut collection, Lilies in the Valley, was a semifinalist selection for the 2011 42 Miles Press Poetry Award, and was published by Willow Books in 2013. He is the inaugural winner of the Willow Books Emerging Poets & Writers Award. Cedric lives in Charlotte.

Coen Crisp is a writer living in Greensboro, NC. His recently published book of haiku, 575, deals with life as a transgender male transitioning in the South. His work has also appeared
in Original Plumbing Magazine, FTM Magazine, and TransLife.

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:

Malin Pereira recently published an article titled “A Seat at the Front of the Bus of American Poetry: Wanda Coleman’s ‘Retro Rogue Anthology’ in Mercurochrome” in Hecate 40.1: 97-115. The article appeared in a “Focus Section” of the issue, with six essays on Coleman, the first issue of a journal focusing on Coleman’s work.

Alan Rauch recently gave a presentation titled “Rain, Steam and Speed: What’s So Great about the Greatest Painting of the 19th Century” at an area assisted living center.

Becky Roeder recently co-presented a talk titled “Simultaneous Innovation and Conservation: Unpacking Victoria’s Vowels” at the New Ways of Analyzing Variation conference in Toronto, Ontario.

Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here is a date to keep in mind:

November 4 — Bryn Chancellor will give a reading and sign her new book, When Are You Coming Home?, at Park Road Books at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 4. http://www.parkroadbooks.com/event/2015-11

Quirky Quiz Question — EpicFest follows in the tradition of an earlier literary festival sponsored by the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library. Does anybody remember the name of this earlier festival?

Last week’s answer – Dia de las Muertes

In Latino/Latina culture, a major holiday is celebrated in the beginning of November.  What is the name of this holiday?  For extra credit, what is the Spanish name for this holiday?

The topic of Latinos/Latinas in the New South is of interest to several members of the English Department.  Maya Socolovsky addresses this topic in her book titled Troubling Nationhood in U.S. Latina Literature.  In her book, Maya examines fiction by several contemporary Latina authors, and she shows how these works reflect changing attitudes concerning nationality among recent immigrants to the New South and elsewhere in the United States.  Another member of the English Department who has taken an interest in this topic is Becky Roeder.  Recently, Becky, in collaboration with former graduate student Chase Walden, has studied Spanish on public signage in the first ring suburban area of Charlotte along Eastway between N. Tryon and Central.  Liz Miller is addressing this topic in one of her classes.  Liz’s graduate-level class, Seminar in Language, Culture, and Society (ENGL 6127), will be focusing on the intersection of language, race and ethnicity over the next few weeks. One of the research articles that her students will present and discuss focuses on the ideologies that inform Anglo-Americans’ joking use of “Mock Spanish” and how such seemingly innocuous utterances can reinforce racial/ethnic inequality.  As these three examples illustrate, the English Department is engaged in the recent conversations related to Latinos/Latinas in the New South.

Paula Martinac‘s short story, “Comfort Zone,” was accepted for publication by The Raleigh Review.

Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here are some dates to keep in mind:

October 28 — A poetry reading featuring Coen Crisp and Quentin Talley will take place on October 28 at 4:00 p.m. in Fretwell 290B.

November 4 — Bryn Chancellor will give a reading and sign her new book, When Are You Coming Home?, at Park Road Books at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 4. http://www.parkroadbooks.com/event/2015-11

Quirky Quiz Question — In Latino/Latina culture, a major holiday is celebrated in the beginning of November.  What is the name of this holiday?  For extra credit, what is the Spanish name for this holiday?

Last week’s answer: DC

The Folger Shakespeare Library was founded by Henry Clay Folger and Emily Jordan Folger.  It opened in 1932 and is known today as the premier center for Shakespeare studies outside of Great Britain.  In what American city is the Folger Shakespeare Library located?