Postscripts — My wife always reads my Monday Missives, and she mentioned to me that last week’s Monday Missive read like it was my last Monday Missive of the Fall 2016 semester.  However, the word “missive” is an old-fashioned word for “letter,” and old-fashioned letters often included postscripts, so I decided to close out the semester with a few postscripts.

Commencement Report — Last Saturday the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences held its winter commencement ceremony, and for 82 of our students, this ceremony marked their transition from current students to graduates.  A total of 11 of our graduate students are listed in the commencement program, and 71 undergraduate students are listed.

I was especially impressed with how many of our BA students fall under the heading of “Graduation with Distinction.”  Of the 71 students, 7 earned the distinction of Cum Laude (GPA between 3.4-3.7), 4 earned the distinction of Magna Cum Laude (GPA between 3.7-3.9), and 3 earned the distinction of Summa Cum Laude (GPA between 3.9-4.0).  This total comes to 14 students. I am very proud of all of our graduating students, but I want to mention by name the 3 students who earned the distinction of Summa Cum Laude.  Their names are Megan Renee Bonds, Jasmin Marie Gonzalez Caban, and Kevin F. Wetherall.

Jen Munroe’s News — Sometimes good things come in threes, and this seems to be the case with Jen.  Three exciting opportunities recently came her way.  Jen (with Hillary Nunn from U of Akron and Amy Tigner from UT Arlington) will be teaching a summer course next May titled, “Making Manuscripts Digital.” This course will be part of the DH@Guelph Summer Workshops at the University of Guelph. Their participation is supported with an honorarium and expenses paid.  Jen will also be an invited participant in the Folger Institute program, “Early Modern Manuscripts Online: New Directions in Teaching and Research,” May 17-18, 2017.  She has been asked to present during a round table titled, “EMMO Pedagogical and Research Community.” That participation is also expenses paid.  And finally, Jen has been asked to contribute a chapter to a forthcoming essay collection co-edited by Hillary Eklund and Wendy Beth Hyman titled, Shakespeare and the Pedagogies of Justice. Her chapter will take up the question of teaching environmental justice and early modern texts.
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’s forthcoming novel, Sycamore (Harper, May 9, 2017), was chosen for Publisher Weekly’s spring 2017 preview, which selects the top 50 books in varied categories “to predict which books will stand out in the early months of 2017—which will make it to the top, in terms of attention, sales, and awards and prizes.” Chancellor’s is included in literary fiction. http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/new-titles/adult-announcements/article/72259-spring-2017-announcements-literary-fiction.html

Jeffrey Leak has accepted an invitation from Malin Pereira to serve as faculty fellow for the new Martin Scholars Program.

Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here is information about an upcoming event.

January 9 – The first day of classes for the Spring 2017 semester is January 9.

Quirky Quiz Question — In thinking about the term “missive,” I am reminded that some novels are told through a series of letters (or missives).  What is the term that is generally used for such novels?

Last week’s answer: Al Maisto

Malin Pereira is the current Executive Director of the Honors College.  Does anybody remember who ran the Honors College before Malin?

Turning Pages — I often think of semesters as chapters in a larger story.  As we prepare to turn the last page of the chapter about the fall 2016 semester, I am impressed with how much happened in this chapter.  We saw the debut of new characters, such as Melodye Gordon, Matthew Osborne, and Matthew Rowney.  We saw established characters take on new roles, such as Sarah Minslow, Jen Munroe, and Lara Vetter.  A whole new advising system came into place over the course of this chapter.  For me, however, the parts of the chapter that I’ve underlined with a yellow Hi-Liter are the passages that deal with the launching of the English Honors Program.  In the short span of one semester, our English Honors Program went from the glimmer of an idea to a vibrant program that has already attracted the involvement of 32 undergraduate students.

The launching of the English Honors Program could not have happened without the help of many members of the English Department.  At the top of the list is Kirk Melnikoff, who is serving as the director of the program.  Janaka Lewis has worked closely with Kirk to coordinate the connections between the English Honors Program and Sigma Tau Delta.  Aaron Toscano taught an English Honors Seminar this semester, and Monica Alston worked with Kirk to communicate with the students in the program.  Malin Pereira, the Executive Director of the Honors College, helped Kirk solve the logistical problems involved with launching our program.  Finally, too many faculty members to mention by name have agreed to work with our honors students on their thesis projects.  My thanks go to everyone who helped launch the English Honors Program.

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:

Sandy Govan was recently featured on a syndicated radio program about Maya Angelou.  Here is the link to the radio program:  withgoodreasonradio.org

Malin Pereira recently published an essay titled “Brenda Marie Osbey’s Black Internationalism” in Diasporas, Cultures of Mobilities,’Race’ 3: African Americans, ‘Race’ and Diaspora.

Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here is information about an upcoming event.

December 13 – The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Celebration of Faculty Achievement will take place on Tuesday, December 13, 2016, from 12:00 to 1:00 at the Harris Alumni Center.

Quirky Quiz Question — Malin Pereira is the current Executive Director of the Honors College.  Does anybody remember who ran the Honors College before Malin?

Last week’s answer: First the bank was called North Carolina National Bank.  Then it was called NCNB.  Then it was called NationsBank, and now it is called Bank of America.

In addition to mentoring Ron Lunsford, Roy Moose was well known for teaching courses on the works of Shakespeare.  In fact, he was the first member of the English Department to win the teaching award that is now known as the Bank of America Award for Teaching Excellence.  When he won the award in 1969, however, the award reflected the name of the bank at that time.  Does anybody know what Bank of America was called then?

Nudging as Mentoring — Last week I had a conversation with Ron Lunsford about his experiences as an undergraduate student in our English Department in the late 1960s.  Like many of our current students, Ron was a first-generation college student.  The thought of going to graduate school or pursuing a career in academia never occurred to him until some of his professors suggested that he consider applying for graduate school.  Ron credits an English professor named Roy Moose with providing the necessary nudge to apply to the M.A. program at UNC Chapel Hill.  This nudge proved to be a key moment in launching Ron’s career in academia.  As the saying goes, the rest is history.

The mentoring that Ron received from Roy Moose and other professors at UNC Charlotte underscores for me the importance of nudging in the mentoring process.  Sometimes students need a little push, a word of encouragement, or a suggestion to pursue opportunities.  For those of us who are working with talented undergraduate students, I suggest that we follow Roy Moose’s example and suggest to these students that they consider applying to graduate programs, including our own M.A. program.  Some of our best graduate students received their undergraduate degrees from UNC Charlotte.  For those of us who are working with graduate students, I suggest that we nudge these students to submit an abstract for the upcoming upcoming English Graduate Student Association Conference. The deadline to submit an abstract is today.  Please click on the following link for the paper call:  http://english.uncc.edu/sites/english.uncc.edu/files/media/2017%20EGSA%20Call%20for%20Papers%20Final.pdf

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:

Paula Connolly published a review essay in the most recent issue of the Children’s Literature Association Quarterly.  She reviewed two scholarly works about picture books:  Reading Visual Narrative:  Image Analysis of Children’s Picture Books  and Picture Books:  Beyond the Borders of Art, Narrative and Culture.

Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here is information about an upcoming event.

December 8 – The Department Holiday Party will take place from 11:30-1:30 in the faculty/staff lounge on December 8. A sign-up sheet for donated goodies is on the front reception desk.

Quirky Quiz Question — In addition to mentoring Ron Lunsford, Roy Moose was well known for teaching courses on the works of Shakespeare.  In fact, he was the first member of the English Department to win the teaching award that is now known as the Bank of America Award for Teaching Excellence.  When he won the award in 1969, however, the award reflected the name of the bank at that time.  Does anybody know what Bank of America was called then?

Last week’s answer: Professor Sprout

In the Harry Potter series, the students at Hogwarts study science, but the J. K. Rowling often substitutes her own terms when referring to these subjects.  For example, she uses the term herbology when referring to botany.  What is the name of the professor at Hogwarts who teaches herbology?

Harry Potter’s World Exhibit – A few weeks ago I received an email from Abby Moore, the Education Librarian at the J. Murrey Atkins Library.  She informed me that a traveling exhibit titled “Harry Potter’s World:  Renaissance Science, Magic and Medicine” is making a stop at the Atkins Library from the end of November through January 6, 2017, and she wanted to meet with me to brainstorm programming ideas related to this exhibit.   We met for an hour and kicked around lots of ideas for Harry Potter talks, events, and projects; Abby and her colleagues decided to implement many of them, the details of which will be announced soon.  In the meantime, however, the opening ceremony is already scheduled.  It will take place on Wednesday, November 30th from 4:30 to 6:30 in the Halton Reading Room of Atkins Library.  For more information about this exhibit, please click on the following link:  http://library.uncc.edu/HarryPottersWorldExhibit

This traveling exhibit was organized by the National Library of Medicine.  By exploring the connections between the medical sciences and and J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, the National Library of Medicine underscores the fact the medical sciences and the humanities overlap in significant ways.  This overlap can also be seen in the research of several of our faculty members.  Paula Eckard, for example, is currently working a new book that is tentatively titled The Medical Narratives of Thomas Wolfe.  At its core, this project relates to the new field of narrative medicine.  Similarly, Boyd Davis is working on several funded research projects in which she examines the importance of storytelling when working with patients with dementia or Alzheimer’s.  A third example is the research that Jen Munroe is doing on the history of medicine as it is reflected in the writings of early modern women from Great Britain.  As this examples demonstrate our English Department is very much a player in the world of medical science.

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:

Amand Loeffert, one of our graduate students, recently published a co-authored article titled “Fifteen Years of Harry Potter Movie Magic” in the Fall/Winter 2016 issue of RISE:  A Children’s Literacy Journal.  Her co-author is Julia Morris, who graduated from our MA program in 2015.

Paula Martinac recently learned that she has been awarded a 2017 Regional Artist Project Grant to support her work on a novel that is tentatively titled Clio.

Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here is information about two upcoming events:

December 2 —  The English Department meeting will take place on Friday, December 2, from 11:00 to 12:30 in the English Department Conference Room.  Gray’s Bookstore will be providing a faculty/staff appreciation luncheon in the lounge (Fretwell 248C) immediately following the meeting.

December 8 – The Department Holiday Party will take place from 11:30-1:30 in the faculty/staff lounge on December 8. A sign-up sheet for donated goodies is on the front reception desk.

Quirky Quiz Question — In the Harry Potter series, the students at Hogwarts study science, but the J. K. Rowling often substitutes her own terms when referring to these subjects.  For example, she uses the term herbology when referring to botany.  What is the name of the professor at Hogwarts who teaches herbology?

Last week’s answer: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

When I went to the event that the students in Sarah Minslow’s class organized, I was very impressed with their efforts to communicate the difficulties facing refugee children.  I came away thinking that nobody should live the life of a refugee, and that reminded me of the following line from a song:  “You don’t have to live like a refugee.”  Who recorded this song?

Boyd Davis recently learned that the Duke Endowment has funded her joint project titled “Increasing Physical Activity for Older Adults Aging in Place.”

Katie Hogan recently presented a paper titled “Decolonizing the Rural in Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home” at the National Women’s Studies Association Conference in Montreal.

Liz Miller recently published an article titled “The Ideology of Learner Agency and the Neoliberal Self” in the International Journal of Applied Linguistics.

Lara Vetter attended the Modernist Studies Association conference last weekend where she presented a paper titled “Late Modernism and the Dystopian Turn.”

Partnering with the J. Murrey Atkins Library — The Department of English and the Atkins Library have a long history of collaborating on various projects. This spirit of collaboration is clearly reflected in the upcoming special event to celebrate the Atkins Library’s Two Millionth Volume. This event will take place in the library on Thursday, November 17th, from 4:30 to 6:30, and it will celebrate the acquisition of a very rare copy of Olaudah Equiano’s famous slave narrative, Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. Julian Mason (a former chair of our English Department) and his wife, Elsie Mason (a former librarian who worked for many years at Atkins Library), are donating this volume to Atkins Library. During this event our own Paula Connolly will discuss this work from a literary perspective. For more information about this event, please click on the following link: http://library.uncc.edu/RSVP

This spirit of collaboration is also reflected in the Library’s current exhibit celebrating the 150th birthday of Beatrix Potter and the 100th birthday of Roald Dahl. Curated by the Special Collections Department of the library, this exhibit is a joint project of the library and the English Department. Valerie Bright, Sarah Minslow and I have provided the library with some of the books and artifacts that are included in this exhibit. If you are interested in seeing this exhibit, it is located on the main floor of the library near the Harry Golden exhibit.

The English Department works in partnership with many university programs and units, but as I see it, the Atkins Library is one of our key partners given that our core missions overlap in so many ways. In a way, the loving relationship between Julian and Elsie Mason parallels the the relationship between the English Department and Atkins. In both cases, it’s a perfect match.

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:

Susan Gardner, one of our emeritus faculty members, was recently appointed an affiliate for the Women’s Studies Program at the University of New Hampshire. She has also became involved with the Lakota Language Consortium’s Ella Deloria Publication Project.

Kirk Melnikoff gave the invited talk “*As You Like It*: ‘much virtue in [the] if'” this past Friday at Queens University.

Quirky Quiz Question — Julian Mason has a long-standing interest in early African American literature. He edited the definitive edition of the works by one of America’s first African American poets. Can you name this poet?

Last week’s answer: Steven Spielberg

A Week of Volunteering — My commitment to volunteering in the community can be traced back to my parents.  Both of my parents were members of the Inter-Canyon Volunteer Fire Department in the front range west of Denver.  My father served as the president of the fire department for a number of years, and my mother was among the first women to sign up as a volunteer fire fighter.  She was handicapped, so she could not do some of the activities associated with fire fighting.  However, she learned how to drive the giant tanker truck that transported water to the scene of the fires (there are no fire hydrants in the mountains).  This truck dated back to World War Two, and it had an amazing number of gears, but the truck was no match for my mother.  She not only drove the tanker truck, but she also stood up to the sexism of the men who resisted having women join the department.  As a young boy, I was very proud of my parents for serving in the volunteer fire department, and this pride lives on even though both of my parents are deceased.  In my own volunteer work in the Charlotte community, I try to measure up to the example set by my parents.

Given how highly I value volunteer work in the community, I am always pleased with the volunteer work that our students, staff and faculty regularly perform in the community.  However, last week I went from being pleased to bursting with pride in English Department’s volunteer work.  In an effort to recognize everyone in the English Department who stepped up and volunteered in the community last week, I will attempt to mention by name the people who did significant volunteer work.  If I miss somebody, please accept my apologies in advance.

It all started on Tuesday evening when Alan Rauch gave his presentation on dolphins as part of the Personally Speaking Series.  Several members of Sigma Tau Delta volunteered at this event.  They greeted the attendees, distributed the programs, and helped in many other ways.  Here is the list of the students who volunteered at this event:  Kelly Brabec, Hannah Brown, Sara Eudy, Eileen Jakeway, Chelsea Moore, and Carissa Wilbanks.

On Wednesday, Angie Williams volunteered to help with the preparations for Verse and Vino, the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation’s main fundraising event.  This is the second year in a row that Angie has volunteered for this event.

On Saturday morning, Sara Eudy volunteered to speak at Explore UNC Charlotte.  She gave a presentation to prospective students on the experience of being an English major and taking coursework in the humanities.

Also on Saturday, a large number of our students volunteered at EpicFest, the Charlotte Meckleburg Library’s literary festival for children of all ages.  Students from the English Learning Community, Sigma Tau Delta, the English Graduate Student Association, and the Children’s Literature Graduate Organization all volunteered at this event.  Here is a list of the students who helped make EpicFest such a tremendous success:  Cristtiah Baltazar,Julie Benavides, MaKalea Bjoin, Darrion Boone, Katie Clark, Nadia Clifton, Diane Gromelski, Kelsey Helveston, Katie Hughes, Amanda Loeffert, Samantha Martin, Shanon Murray, Emma Parrish, and Courtney Singleton.

All of these volunteers did an excellent job of representing our English Department and making a real difference in our community.

Honors Trip — This past Friday and Saturday, Kirk Melnikoff took a group of Honors students from both English and Theatre to a production of King Lear by the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, VA. The next morning, students attended a directing workshop led by the actresses who played Goneril and Oswald. The trip was made possible by the English Department, by the Shakespeare-in-Action Initiative, and by the Honors College.

Arrival — Paramount Pictures contacted our linguistics program ahead of their November 10 release of the movie Arrival, based on Ted Chiang’s novella Story of Your Life.  Ralf Thiede incorporated the material in LBST 2213 “Language, Mind, and Power,” which he co-teaches with Dan Boisvert from Philosophy.  The linguist, Dr. Louise Banks (played by Amy Adams), needs to twist her mind into a rather alien way of thinking to comprehend the extraterrestrials and finds herself pushing the envelope a bit too far for her mental comfort in the process.  You can have your own minds twisted, because in exchange for incorporating the movie into his lecture, Ralf got 30 free passes to an early screening tonight (Nov. 7) at 7:30 in the beautifully renovated Stonecrest Regal Theatre (7832 Rea Rd, Charlotte, NC 28277).  To download your own, go tohttp://www.gofobo.com/UNCCLing (passcode: UNCCLing).

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:

JuliAnna Ávila recently published an article “Inequitable Variations: A Review of Research in Technology, Literacy Studies and Special Education” with Jessica Pandya in Literacy(United Kingdom Literacy Association journal).

Paula Connolly recently gave a lecture at Washington University in St. Louis titled “Seeing Slavery in American Children’s Literature.”

Quirky Quiz Question — The film Arrival deals with the encounter between extra-terrestrials and humans.  Two other films that deal with such an encounter are E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  Who was the director of both of these films?

Last week’s answer: Wicked

One of my favorite witch characters is Elphaba Thropp.  Can you identify the work in which this character appears?

A Day for Witches — In the popular imagination, Halloween is often associated with witches, so I have decided to write a bit about witches in today’s Monday Missive.  Witches (and characters accused of being witches) have long played important roles in literature.   Some of these characters conform to the iconic image of the “wicked witch,” but in many cases, they don’t.  Often characters who are called “witches” are simply powerful or magical women, but they are not especially wicked.  Witch characters have attracted the attention of several members of our English Department.

In her latest blog for the Recipes Project, Jen Munroe discusses the three witches in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth.  As Jen explains in her blog post, these three witches have much in common with the women of the time who concocted medicines.  Jen shows that recipes and spells have much in common.  In her blog, she also discusses the role that these witches play in Macbeth. As she points out, these “witches are guilty of nothing more than ‘knowing’ (or foreknowing, since they merely predict his actions); they no more dictate Macbeth’s murderous ambitions than he can direct their appearances and disappearances.”  Here is the link to Jen’s blog: https://recipes.hypotheses.org/8612

In their co-authored Macbeth: A Novel, Andrew Hartley and David Henson have also turned their attention to the three witches.  As several reviewers have mentioned, the witches in this novelization of Shakespeare’s play are more fully developed than their counterparts in the play.  In Shakespeare’s original play, the three witches function much like the chorus in ancient Greek drama, but in Andrew and David’s novelization, the three witches are more complex characters.

Witches figure prominently in many famous works of children’s literature, including L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Madeline L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time, C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series.  All of us who teach children’s literature courses have included such books in our courses, and several of us have written about them in our scholarship.  Beth Gargano, for example, published an article titled “Broomsticks Flying in Circles:  Playing with Narrative in Eleanor Estes’s The Witch Family” in the American Journal of Play.

In my research on the censorship of children’s literature, I have often commented on the controversies that surround such books.  Children’s books that have characters who are labeled as witches are often often censored or challenged for various religious reasons.  Although I strongly support the free exercise of religion, I also believe children should have the right to read these books.

In my opinion, Halloween is a perfect day to read whichever witch book you wish to read.

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:

Matthew Osborn recently participated in the biannual Thomas R. Watson Conference at the University of Louisville where he gave a presentation simply titled “Surprise.” His presentation was part of a panel in which the speakers each took punctuation marks as metaphors for conceptual processes in writing and rhetoric.

Angie Williams recently returned from attending the 43rd Annual Administrative Professionals conference in Las Vegas, NV, where she participated in sessions on management practices.

Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here is information about an upcoming event:

November 1 — Alan Rauch will deliver a presentation about his book titled Dolphin on Tuesday, November 1, at UNC Charlotte Center City.  His presentation will begin at 6:30.  A reception and book-signing will follow his presentation.  His presentation is part of the Personally Speaking Series, which is co-sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the J. Murrey Atkins Library with support from UNC Charlotte Center City.  The series is open to the public without charge, but attendees are expected to register in advance.  To register for Alan’s presentation, please click on the following link:http://clas.uncc.edu/engagement/personally-speaking/dolphin

November 2 — On November 2, the Interdisciplinary Strategies of Activism will facilitate a workshop featuring AFRS faculty and affiliates, along with library staff and special collections resources.  This workshop will take place Wed. Nov. 2 from 4-6 pm in Atkins 125 and Halton Reading Room. Info and free registration are at https://strategiesconversation.eventbrite.com

Quirky Quiz Question — One of my favorite witch characters is Elphaba Thropp.  Can you identify the work in which this character appears?

Last week’s answer: Edmund Spenser

When writing All the King’s Men, Robert Penn Warren drew inspiration from The Faerie Queen?  Who wrote The Faerie Queen?

Elections and Literature — With Secretary Hillary Clinton campaigning on our campus this past weekend and with the election just two weeks away, I’ve decided to devote this week’s Monday Missive to the connections between elections and American literature.  Over the years, many authors have written stories and novels that deal with the drama and tensions associated with elections.  For today’s Monday Missive, I will comment on two:  Grace for President, a children’s book written by Kelly DiPucchio, and All the King’s Men, a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Robert Penn Warren.

Grace for President came out in 2008, and it deals with a third-grade girl named Grace who asks her teacher why the United States has never had a female president.  Grace decides to campaign for the role of president in the school’s mock election, and in the process she and her classmates learn a great deal about America’s electoral college system.  What makes this book stand out, however, is not the lessons it teaches about our system of electing presidents.  Rather, what makes this book appealing to me is the central character.  Grace is strong, funny and inspiring.  Grace for President has a special connection to Charlotte, for the Children’s Theatre of Charlotte is currently performing a musical based on this story.  This musical had its world premier here in Charlotte on October 21, and there are performances scheduled through November 6, 2016.

All the King’s Men originally came out in 1946, and it is partially inspired by the political career of Huey P. Long, a former Governor of Louisiana.  In Warren’s novel, however, the character is named Willie Stark.  In writing this novel, Robert Penn Warren reflects on the messiness of American elections.  In many ways, Stark is a cynical and manipulative politician, but he is not a two-dimensional villain.  Warren uses the backdrop of an election to reflect on philosophical and even theological concerns.  Warren shows how elections can draw out some of the underlying conflicts that shape American culture and discourse.  In 1949, the novel was made into a film, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

My guess is that I am the first person to pair up Grace for President and All the King’s Men,but as I see it both books move well beyond the nuts-and-bolts aspects of elections.  Although intended for completely different audiences, these books both explore the human side of elections, and both are great books to read during this election season.

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:

Paula Eckard recently presented a paper titled “Mountaintop Removal, Methamphetamine, and Appalachian Homeland Insecurities in The Evening Hour” at the Canadian Association for American Studies Conference in Fredericton, New Brunswick.  Matthew Rowney recently presented a paper titled “De Quincey’s Stairs” at the International Conference on Romanticism in Colorado Springs.

Lara Vetter‘s edition of H.D.’s By Avon River (2014) received a very positive review inAmerican Literary Scholarship.

Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here is information about two upcoming events:

October 28 —  The English Department meeting will take place on Friday, October 28, from11:00 to 12:30 in the English Department Conference Room.  The English Learning Community will have a faculty meet and greet in the faculty/staff lounge following the department meeting.

October 28 — The UNC Charlotte University Writing Program’s Fall Conference will take place on October 28, 2016. Here is the link to register: https://pages.charlotte.edu/uwpconference/registration-2016/

Quirky Quiz Question — When writing All the King’s Men, Robert Penn Warren drew inspiration from The Faerie Queen?  Who wrote The Faerie Queen?

Last week’s answer: Robert Zimmerman

Most people have heard of Bob Dylan, but this is not his original name.  Does anybody know Dylan’s original name?

Recollections and Reflections on Bob Dylan —  I do not usually get early morning emails from Daniel Shealy, but last Thursday I received a cryptic email from Daniel expressing his excitement about the “cool” news regarding the latest winner of the Nobel Prize in literature.  However, he didn’t tell me what the news was.  I looked it up and discovered that this year’s winner is Bob Dylan.  Well, for those of you who don’t know, Daniel is a devoted Dylan fan, so I didn’t need a weather man to know why Daniel was so excited.

Like Daniel, I grew up listening to Dylan albums, all of which I still own.  When I was in high school, my parents bought a new stereo set.  Back in those days, stereo sets were pieces of furniture.  I asked my parents for their old stereo set, and they let me move the hulking object into my bedroom.  It had a loose wire, but I discovered that if I jiggled the wire around, I could get the stereo to work most of the time.  One day I put on Dylan’s Nashville Skyline, and I reached under the turntable to jiggle the wire.  The next thing I knew I was knocked over on the floor with my arm tingling from a powerful shock.  The electric light still struck like arrows, but I managed to stand upright and be strong.  Now, you would think that after I got an electric shock from my stereo, I would have seen it from a different point of view and just turned on my radio.  But all I really wanted to do was hear my Dylan album, so I jiggled the wire again and this time it worked.   This convinced me that I could have my cake and eat it too.

This past weekend I played all of my old Dylan albums, and while I was listening to them, I thought about the significance of Dylan winning the Nobel Prize for literature.  By bestowing this award on Dylan, the selection committee helped expand out definition of literature to include song lyrics.  This development is in keeping with the expanding and evolving world of English studies.  Through our course offerings and our research, we cover topics that were not included in the English Departments of yesteryear.  These new topics include video games, reality television programs, scientific documents, road signs, board games, apps, websites, and recipe books.  I am sure there are some traditionalists who respond to these changes by attempting to seek shelter from the storm, but as I see it, we are making the right move by acknowledging that the times, they are a-changin’.

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 was an invited author at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, TN, this past weekend. She gave a reading and answered questions as part of the panel “The Rural, the Urban and the Search for Home: Navigating Landscapes in Short Stories.”

Allison Hutchcraft recently visited The Writing School at Kingston University, London, where she taught a graduate-level poetry workshop and gave a reading of her work.

Janaka Lewis recently learned that she has been nominated of a 2016 Bookie Award.  These awards recognize “extraordinary literacy and educational work being done in the Charlotte community.”

Emma Parrish, one of our new M.A. students, recently presented a paper titled “Allow it to Occur to You: Invention versus Reality in Roald Dahl” at a conference on Literature of the Hidden and Fantastic at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith.

Alan Rauch recently presented a paper titled “Novel Highways & Information Turnpikes” at the Victorians Institute Conference.

Bonnie Shishko, one of our part-time faculty members, has a successfully defended her dissertation titled “Epistemologies of the Kitchen: Art, Science, and Nineteenth-Century British Culinary Writing.”  Her defense took place on October 10, 2016, and she will be formally awarded her Ph.D. in December.  However, as far as I am concerned, she is now Dr. Bonnie Shishko.  Congratulations, Bonnie.

Lara Vetter‘s monograph, Modernist Writings and Religio-scientific Discourse (2010), is now available in paperback.

Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here is information about two upcoming events:

October 19 — Dean Nancy Gutierrez and I invite everyone in the English Department to attend a formal announcement of an important and very positive development related to our department.  This announcement will take place next Wednesday, October 19, at 10:00 a.m. in the English Department Conference Room (Fretwell 280C).  Please come if you possibly can.

October 28 — The UNC Charlotte University Writing Program’s Fall Conference will take place on October 28, 2016.  October 20 is the registration deadline. Registration is $45. Late registration will be open until the day of the conference at an increased rate of $55.  Here is the link to register: https://pages.charlotte.edu/uwpconference/registration-2016/

Quirky Quiz Question — Most people have heard of Bob Dylan, but this is not his original name.  Does anybody know Dylan’s original name?

Last week’s answer: Flipper

In Dolphin, Alan Rauch writes about the depiction of dolphins in popular culture, including a hit television series from the mid-1960s that features a bottlenose dolphin. Does anybody remember the name of this television show?