{"id":1539,"date":"2018-08-13T11:52:40","date_gmt":"2018-08-13T15:52:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/?p=1539"},"modified":"2018-08-13T11:52:40","modified_gmt":"2018-08-13T15:52:40","slug":"monday-missive-august-13-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/blog\/2018\/08\/13\/monday-missive-august-13-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday Missive – August 13, 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Great American Read<\/i><\/b>\u00a0— The English Department is not alone in its efforts to promote the love of reading. This point was underscored for me last week when I participated in the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library’s kick-off event related to PBS’s eight-part series titled\u00a0The Great American Read.\u00a0\u00a0<\/i>This series celebrates 100 of America’s best-loved novels as chosen in a recent national survey.\u00a0 The kick-off event took place at the Main Library on August 9, and it involved a screening of the two-hour launch episode.\u00a0 At various points during the screening, the organizer of the event hit the pause button, and I then led a group discussion about some of the novels featured in the episode.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I thoroughly enjoyed watching this episode of\u00a0The Great American Read\u00a0<\/i>and talking about it with the librarians and members of the public who came to the event.\u00a0 We were a very diverse group, but we were brought together by a shared love of stories.\u00a0 Often our discussions veered off in unexpected directions, but they always had some connection to the 100 novels covered in the series.\u00a0 For example, when we were discussing James Baldwin’s\u00a0Another Country\u00a0<\/i>(one of the novels on the list),\u00a0<\/i>we started talking about the jazz scene in Paris during the 1950s and ’60s.\u00a0 However, since jazz figures in the story, this detour still added to our understanding and appreciation of Baldwin’s novel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The kick-off event is but one of a series of events that the Main Library is sponsoring in conjunction with\u00a0The Great American Read.<\/i>Starting on\u00a0September 13<\/span><\/span>, the library will screen the other episodes in the series each\u00a0Thursday<\/span><\/span>\u00a0during lunch time.\u00a0 For more information about these screenings, please click on the following link:\u00a0\u00a0https:\/\/www.cmlibrary.org\/blog\/read-watch-discuss-and-vote-great-american-read<\/a><\/p>\n

As I drove home from the kick-off event, I reflected on the fact that this program involved a three-way partnership: the Public Broadcasting System, Charlotte’s public library, and the English Department of Charlotte’s public university.\u00a0 All three of these partners are committed to serving the public, and all recognize the importance of reading and the power of well-told stories.<\/p>\n

Kudos<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0\u2014\u00a0As you know, I like to use my\u00a0Monday<\/span>\u00a0Missives<\/span>\u00a0to share news about recent accomplishments by members of the English Department.\u00a0 Here is the latest news:<\/p>\n

Janaka Lewis<\/b>\u00a0recently published an essay titled “Why This\u00a0<\/i>Book?:\u00a0 Authorship, Genre, and Reader Reception in\u00a0Tobe”<\/i>\u00a0in a collection titled\u00a0Why Does No One in My Books Look Like Me?:\u00a0 Tobe and Ongoing Questions about Race, Representation, and Identity.\u00a0\u00a0<\/i>Ashli Quesinberry Stokes edited this collection, which was published by UNC Charlotte’s Center for the Study of the New South in collaboration with the Charlotte Teachers Institute.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Matthew Rowney<\/b>recently presented a paper titled “Plastic Nature: The Albatross and the Anthropocene” at the Coleridge Conference held at The University of Cambridge.<\/i><\/p>\n

Upcoming Events and Meetings\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>Here is a list of upcoming events and meetings related to the start of the fall 2018 semester:<\/p>\n

–University Convocation<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Thursday,\u00a0August<\/span><\/span>\u00a016\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0 8:30am reception in Lucas Room\/9:30am-11:00am Convocation in McKnight Hall<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
–Classes Begin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Monday<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>,\u00a0August<\/span><\/span>\u00a020 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>Classes begin at\u00a05:00pm<\/span><\/span>\/First day of daytime classes is on\u00a0August 21<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

–CLAS All Faculty Mtg\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0 Friday,\u00a0August<\/span><\/span>\u00a024\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a08:30am-12:00pm<\/span><\/span>\u00a0in McKnight Hall<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

–English Department Mtg<\/b> \u00a0\u00a0 Friday,\u00a0September 7<\/span><\/span><\/b>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a011:00am-12:30pm<\/span><\/span>\u00a0in Fretwell 280C (English Department Conference Room)<\/p>\n

Quirky Quiz Question<\/b>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Another Country\u00a0<\/i>is James Baldwin’s third novel. His first novel came out in 1953 and is an example of autobiographical fiction.\u00a0 Does anybody know the title of Baldwin’s first novel?<\/p>\n

Last week’s answer: Bloomsbury Publishing<\/strong>
\nScholastic is the American publisher of the Harry Potter series.\u00a0 Do you know the name of the British publisher of the Harry Potter series?<\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Great American Read\u00a0— The English Department is not alone in its efforts to promote the love of reading. This point was underscored for me last week when I participated in the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library’s kick-off event related to PBS’s eight-part series titled\u00a0The Great American Read.\u00a0\u00a0This series celebrates 100 of America’s best-loved novels as chosen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monday-missive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/202"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1539"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1542,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1539\/revisions\/1542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}