Job Opening: Lecturer in Composition and Technical/Professional Writing

We offer one, possibly two non-tenure track, renewable Lecturer appointments. Required: MA or other relevant graduate degree in English or a related discipline; academic specialization or significant professional experience in technical or professional writing; two years or more of post-secondary teaching experience in composition and technical and professional writing. Preferred: experience developing and teaching online courses in writing; experience with writing internship programs and other outreach to the professional community.  The University is especially interested in candidates who can contribute to diversity through their teaching, research, and service. Teaching load 4/3. Teaching includes core curriculum courses in composition and technical/professional writing and upper division topics courses in professional writing and rhetoric as determined by the program’s needs and the candidate’s interest and experience. See our website for more information about our Core Writing, Professional Writing, and Internship Programs:  www.unm.edu/~english/. 

For best consideration, please apply no later than January 7, 2011 at https://unmjobs.unm.edu/applicants/Central?quickFind=60576. This position is contingent upon final budgetary approval. UNM is an AA/EEO employer.

Link out: Favorite Books of 2010

Looking for a last-minute present (or, as we all do, shopping for yourself as well)? Here's a blog post on some excellent books from 2010 that you might not even have heard of. Blog.drawn.ca is a blog primarily for illustrators and graphic designers but even for our non-visual rhetoric people it's worth a look - full of inspiration and creativity.

Visual Rhetoric: Choosing Fonts

Smashing Magazine has a helpful guide to the sometimes intimidating process of choosing fonts. Read it here.

Call for Papers: Film (General) for the PCA/ACA

PCA/ACA & Southwest/Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Associations Joint Conference
April 20 – 23, 2011
San Antonio, TX
http://www.swtxpca.org
Proposal submission deadline:  December 15, 2010
Conference hotel:  Marriott Rivercenter San Antonio

Proposals are now being accepted for the Film (General) Area at the 2011 SW/TX PCA/ACA Conference. 

20-minute presentations about contemporary and classical film, ranging from critical essays to analyses employing recognized research methodologies, are sought.

For individual presentations, submit a proposal with the following items:

• 100-250 word abstract, including paper/presentation title
• current curriculum vitae 
• working bibliography for your paper
• contact information: name, address, and email.

Proposals for panels of 3-4 presenters are also welcome.  To propose a panel, submit the following:

• Panel Title
• Name, address, and email information about the Panel Chair
• Titles and Abstracts of each paper
• Contact Information for each presenter

Submit all proposals to:
Richard Crew
Film (General) Area Chair
Dick.crew@gmail.com

Additional conference information is available at: http://www.swtxpca.org

Deadline for proposals is December 15, 2010.

Faculty News: Anita Obermeier

Anita Obermeier published the entries on “J. M. Manly" and “F. N. Robinson,” the two most influential Chaucer editors of the 20th century, in the Handbook of Medieval Studies: Terms, Methods, Trends (Ed. Albrecht Classen. 3 vols. Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, 2010. 3: 2511-15 and 2594-99).

English Department Colloquium: Susan Romano

Please join us in the Department Lounge at 12:30 on Thursday, December 2nd for Professor Susan Romano's presentation, "Rhetorics of Purity and Corrosion: Girls, Indians, and Teachers in Colonial Mexico."

Job Opening: Tenure Line Assistant Professor

The English Department of the University of New Mexico seeks a tenure-line assistant professor who specializes in American, Chicano/a, and southwestern literary and cultural studies from the Progressive Era (1910s) to the present. Desirable secondary qualifications include expertise in interdisciplinary methodologies and critical regionalisms, though we prefer projects that are decidedly literary.

The teaching responsibilities associated with this position will include—but not be strictly limited to—our Chicano/a literature sequence (sophomore- to M.A.-level courses), as well as our lower-division American Literature surveys (both early and late) and upper-division historical survey of literary criticism and theory. Courses typically taught by members of UNM’s literature faculty range from sophomore level introductions to Ph.D. seminars. The teaching load is 2/2. The appointment will be in a probationary position leading to a tenure decision.

The search committee will begin to review applications on December 7, 2010 and continue the screening process until the position is filled. Preliminary interviews will take place by telephone. Please upload a letter of application, curriculum vitae, and scholarly writing sample (of not more than 25 pages) at https://unmjobs.unm.edu/applicants/Central?quickFind=60322.  Please submit 3 letters of recommendation directly to Dr. Gary Scharnhorst, Search Committee Chair, at gscharn@unm.edu or to University of New Mexico, English Department, MSC03 2170, Albuquerque, NM 87131.

The appointment date is August 2011, and the successful candidate must have a Ph.D. in hand by that date.  Minimum qualifications for this position are a Ph.D. in Chicana/o Literature or related discipline.  Preferred qualifications include:  2 years of college or university teaching experience, scholarly publications or professional presentations, and knowledge of and ability to teach general courses in American Literature, Southwestern American Literature, interdisciplinary studies, and/or literary criticism and theory.

This position is contingent upon final budgetary approval.

UNM is a Carnegie Very High Research institution, a federally-designated Hispanic-serving institution, and an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. The University is especially interested in candidates who can contribute to diversity through their teaching, research, and service.

Jesse Aleman: Elected to the American Literature Section Advisory Council

Dr. Jesse Alemán has been elected to serve on the MLA's American Literature Section Advisory Council for a three-year term, beginning January 2012. The American Literature Section represents the largest of the constituent parts of the MLA. It sponsors two of the field's most important journals--American Literature and American Literary Scholarship, the latter edited by our very own distinguished professor, Gary Scharnhorst; it elects the editorial board of American Literature; coordinates the MLA's plenary sessions and American literature awards; and oversees all of the MLA's American Literature divisions. It is one of several posts that Alemán has held in the MLA, including serving on the Delegate Assembly and sitting on the executive committees of the Division on Chicana/o Literatures and the Division on Ethnic Approaches to Literature, which he recently chaired.

Gary Scharnhorst: Mark Twain Biography

Dr. Gary Scharnhorst's Biography of Mark Twain, Twain in His Own Time: A Bio­graph­i­cal Chron­i­cle of His Life, Drawn from Rec­ol­lec­tions, Inter­views, and Mem­oirs by Fam­ily, Friends, and Asso­ciates, was published by the Uni­ver­sity of Iowa Press, this month.

You can read much more about this book and other work by Dr. Scharnhorst in a recent article featured in UNM Today: Scharnhorst Reveals Mark Twain.

Dr. Scharnhorst's work is particularly timely as Mark Twain's own autobiography, unpublished for 100 years at his own request, has been released this year. 

A poetry reading by Benjamin Friedlander

Ortega Hall
third floor reading room,
Wednesday, 17 November, @ 5:00

Dr. Friedlander is author of five volumes of poetry, Citizen Cane (forthcoming, Salt), The Missing Occasion of Saying Yes (Subpress), A Knot Is Not a Tangle (Kruspkaya), Algebraic Melody (Zasterle), and Time Rations (O Books), two volumes of criticism, What Words Share: Essays on Poetry and Experience (forthcoming, Chax) and Simulcast: Four Experiments in Criticism (Alabama), and several chapbooks. He has edited the work of Robert Creeley, Larry Eigner, Charles Olson, and is currently editing that of David Melnick, and Ezra Pound. He has published critical essays in PMLA, The Emily Dickinson Journal, Poetics Today, Qui Parle, Postmodern Culture, Arizona Quarterly, and many other venues. He is Associate Professor of English at the University of Maine, Orono.

Carolyn Woodward: Presentation on Sarah Fielding

Carolyn Woodward has just returned from Chawton Library in England, where she as one of thirteen participants in a 300-year celebration of the writing of Sarah Fielding,
presented "The Cry (1754): Sarah Fielding's Adventures in Metafiction."

Reminder - Department Colloquium Featuring David Dunaway

Please join us in the Department lounge today, November 11 from 12:30-1:45 for the semester's third colloquium, "Public Humanities," presented by Professor David Dunaway.

Professor Dunaway describes his presentation as follows:

Public History, Public Folklore, and Public Sociology--but Public English? The former are recognized sub-disciplines, emphases which highlight the opportunities and responsibilities scholars have to return findings from their fields to the public which funds their work. What, then, would a career whose compass points toward the public look like? What opportunities and challenges face those who take this as a mission? This discussion will examine the presenter's career as a commercial author, a radio producer, public history consultant, among other roles--and what issues and prejudices such a career path takes.

Upcoming Lectures

Dr. Mary S. Hartman, Rutgers University, Emerita
“The State of Women’s Leadership: Storm Clouds and Silver Linings”
Friday, November 5th
2:00-3:00 pm
SUB, Cherry/Silver

Krista Comer, Rice University
“West & Postwest: Surfing Subcultures, Gender, Critical Regionalism”
Friday, November 12th
1:30 pm
Ortega 335

Celebration of Student Writing Videos

Explore the Celebration of Student Writing:



And for those who missed the Lady Gaga Cover that everyone has been talking about, check out the video:

West and Postwest: Surfing Subcultures, Gender, and Critical Regionalism

Dr. Krista Comer, Rice University
Friday, November 12, 2010—1:30pm
Ortega 335—Refreshments to follow in the lounge

This talk will present materials from Dr. Comer’s new book, Surfer Girls in the New World Order (Duke UP), followed by a discussion about how the topic of surfing subcultures and girlhood raise questions about critical regionalism and studies of the contemporary west. The book locates female surf culture in the crossroads between a multi-billion dollar consumer surf industry and surfing’s local and global culture. Through ethnography and analysis of cinematic and literary representations of surfing, Comer argues that women and girl surfers bring critical perspectives to the norms of femininity and women’s relations to material places. Her research suggests the connections between western studies with gender, borderlands, and Latin American studies, as well as methods of engaged research and public humanities.

Krista Comer is Associate Professor of English at Rice University. She received her PhD from Brown University in 1996 in American Studies. Her interests as a scholar concern issues of geography, power, and identity in the literature and culture of the American West. She is the author of Landscapes of the New West: Gender and Geography in Contemporary Women’s Writing (1999) and Surfer Girls in the New World Order (2010), a study of gender, globalization, and the subculture of surfing. Her lecture will focus on critical regionalism as a developing rhetoric for a range of critical practices in literary studies/critical theory; western and postwestern scholarship; and gender studies.

Sponsored by the English Department; American Literary Realism; the Center for the Southwest; the History Department; the American Studies Department; the Feminist Research Institute; and support from the Spanish and Portuguese Department and the English Graduate Student Association.

Adam Nunez and Bonnie Arning Altamirano: Poetry contest winners

Congratulations to Adam Nunez and Bonnie Arning Altamirano who won 2nd and 1st place in the “Champion Poet of the Dead” Contest of New Mexico in conjunction with the 2nd Annual Smithsonian Institution Latino Virtual Museum Dia de los Muertos Avatar Event. Adam won $50 for 2nd place and Bonnie won $100. They read two of their poems at the event.

Colloquium: Greg Martin Presentation now on YouTube

Greg Martin's Colloquium presentation, Memoir and Transgression, is now available as a seven part series on Youtube:

Part One

Part One


Part Two


Part Three


Part Four


Part Five


Part Six


Part Seven

Lecture: David Bevington on "Religion and Shakespeare"

To mark the retirement of our colleague Barry Gaines after thirty years of teaching at UNM, the noted  Shakespeare scholar David Bevington will speak on Tuesday, November 9 at 4 p.m.  His talk is entitled  "Religion and Shakespeare."

David Bevington has taught at the University of Chicago since 1967 and is currently the Phyllis Fay Horton Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in the Humanities; Professor in English Language and Literature and Comparative Literature; Chair of Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities; and Chair of Theater and Performance Studies.  He is among the most respected Shakespeare scholars in the world and has written or edited more than thirty volumes on Shakespeare and his contemporaries.  In 1979 he was honored with the  Llewellyn John and Harriet Manchester Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, a coveted  award based on student nominations.  Twenty-eight years later he received the Norman Maclean Faculty Award given by the University of Chicago Alumni Association.  Last May, he received the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Centennial Medal from Harvard University, where he received his AB and PhD degrees.

Poetry Reading: Gary Jackson, Lauren Camp & Richard Vargas

Poetry Reading - Triptych
3:00 pm Saturday 10/30/2010
The Kosmos
1715-5th Street NW
$5 suggested donation
Books available for sale.
Coffee, too!!!

Gary Jackson’s poetry manuscript Missing You, Metropolis—which revolves around comic book characters—was selected by Yusef Komunyakaa as the winner of the Cave Canem Prize and published by Graywolf Press, 2010. Gary is a recent graduate of the MFA program and has been living in South Korea for the last year. This will be his first event back in the country and the official release of Missing You, Metropolis.

Lauren Camp juggles a visual art career, teaching creative writing workshops, tutoring English, and producing the music/poetry program "Audio Saucepan" for KSFR-FM. Last year, one of her poems was selected Editors' Choice by Rhino, and other poems have appeared recently in Thema, J Journal and Sin Fronteras. She is the author of This Business of Wisdom (West End Press, 2010).

Richard Vargas has two books published: McLife and American Jesus. He was born and raised in L.A./O.C., and graduated from Cal State Univ, Long Beach. He is currently enrolled in the Creative Writing MFA program, and has launched a new poetry magazine titled The Mas Tequila Review.

Reminder - Celebration of Student Writing and the Inaugural Anaya Lecture

Don't forget that there are two major and exciting events taking place today.

Head over to the SUB Ballrooms A, B & C for the Celebration of Student Writing between 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Nearly 700 of our core course students will be displaying visual representations of their writing projects.

This evening don't miss the inaugural Rudolpho and Patricia Anaya Lecture given by Simon Ortiz, renowned author and expert on Native American literature. The lecture will be held inGeorge Pearl Hall, Room 101 starting at 5:30 p.m.

Anita Obermeier: Publication News

Anita Obermeier and Georgiana Donavin published Romance and Rhetoric: InHonour of Dhira B. Mahoney [title italics]. Disputatio 19. Turnhout: Brepols, 2010. Obermeier also has an essay on the medieval Grail in the
volume.

Learn more here.

UNM English Graduate Students Present at RMMLA

Several UNM English graduate students presented this past weekend at the 2010 Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association Convention in Albuquerque:

• Christine Kozikowski, “Charlemagne and the Creation of English Identity.”
• Lisa Myers, “Malory’s Forest of Irrational Love.”
• Bruce A. Carroll, “Laid Down and Broken: Law in Malory’s Morte D’Arthur.”
• Annarose Fitzgerald, “‘So I Will Tell You This’: Auricular Confession in Charlotte Mew’s ‘Saturday Market’ and ‘Ne Me Tangito’.”
• Gregory Evans, “Holy Crap, it’s a Coup!” and "Hermeneutics in the Classroom: Collaborative, Student-Centered Learning for the Twenty-first Century."
• Douglas Ryan VanBenthuysen, “The Old French Word ‘Mortaise’ in the York Play of the Crucifixion.”
• Paul Formisano, “A River of Voices: Confluences and Cross-Currents in the Literature of the Colorado River.”
• Marisa Sikes, "Appropriating Joan: The Saint in Christine de Pizan’s Ditié de Jehanne d’Arc and The Legend of Billie Jean."
• Carolyn Kuchera, "American Primitives."
• Katherine Marie Alexander, "Collapsing the Boundaries Between Two Worlds: Language and Mourning in Mary Shelley."
• Ying Xu, "A Body of Troubled Site/Sight: Re-signifying Double Consciousness in Yung Wing’s My Life in China and America."
• Leah Sneider, "Gender, Genre and Self-Determination in Winnemucca's Life Among the Piutes."
• Bonnie Altamirano and Richard Vargas read during the "Readings by Poets from the University of New Mexico" session.

Session Chairs:

• Jen Nader: American Nineteenth-Century Literature - I & American Nineteenth-Century Literature - II
• Douglas Ryan VanBenthuysen was elected chair for the Old and Middle English sessions at the 2011 RMMLA Convention in Scottsdale, AZ.
  

MEGSE Blog Migrating to UNM English Blog

The Medieval Graduate Students in English (http://megse.unm.edu) are currently migrating their blog to the English Department main blog. Medieval Studies related blog posts will be viewable through the main blog site.

Rudolfo and Patricia Anaya Lecture: The Literature of the Southwest - Details

The UNM English Department has established the annual lecture series through a gift from the renowned fiction writer Rudolfo Anaya and his late wife Patricia Anaya. "Emerita Professor Rudy Anaya was a wonderful teacher and creative writer in our department,” says Professor Gail Houston. “We feel privileged to have received his generous donation, and we are honored that the first lecture will be given by distinguished poet, writer, and scholar Simon Ortiz. There is no better venue for celebrating Southwest literature than the University of New Mexico English Department. We look forward to sharing this free event with everyone at UNM and in the community.”

Currently a professor at Arizona State University, Simon Ortiz received an honorary doctorate from the University of New Mexico in 2002.  He is widely regarded as a foundational figure in Native American literature and is the author of 15 books of poetry, fiction, essays, and children’s literature, including Going for the Rain (1976), Woven Stone (1992), Men on the Moon (1999), and From Sand Creek (2000), plus the collection A Ceremony of Brotherhood, 1680-1980, co-edited with longtime friend Rudolfo Anaya. Ortiz will speak on the connections among indigenous cultures, Southwest studies, and global literature.

UNM campus map (PDF)

visitor parking:
George Pearl Hall (building 195) is located at Central and Cornell, facing the UNM Bookstore. Visitor parking is available at the Redondo parking structure (building 198) across from Popejoy Hall.

Central Ave NE Albuquerque, NM
1. Head west on Historic U.S. 66 W toward Louisiana Blvd NE 2.9 mi
2. Turn right at Stanford Dr NE 187 ft
3. Turn left at Redondo Dr NE Destination will be on the left 187 ft

George Pearl Hall Albuquerque, NM 87106


View Larger Map

David Dunaway: Vox Populi Award

Professor David Dunaway has been named as the 2010 "Voice of the People" award recipient,  presented for outstanding achievement in the collecting and use of oral histories. This award is given to individuals and organizations whose life work has contributed to change for a better world.

The review committee expressed that they were impressed by Dr. Dunaway's comprehensive and broad research, in particular his sustained history of contributions to the field. First, the ability to document the life and work of Pete Seeger (oral history as biography) in How Can I Keep From Singing? Second, connecting the oral histories in Singing Out: An Oral History of America's Folk Music Revivals to a wider historical inquiry about the importance of protest/political songs of America's folk music revivals. Last, but not least, his ability as curator to preserve and place oral histories at the Library of Congress Folklife Center, which will prove useful and valuable to oral historians and scholars more generally.

Dr. Dunaway will be presented with the award by Stetson Kennedy (the only living subject of a Woody Guthrie song)  in Atlanta on October 30, 2010.

2010 Celebration of Student Writing

Nearly 700 students from 32 sections of English 101 and 102 will display visual representations of their writing projects to share their thoughts and ideas  with the UNM general campus and with the Albuquerque community. Instead of reading the students' written texts, you'll see their work represented through art installations.

Thursday, October 21st, 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
UNM SUB Ballrooms A, B &C

Sponsored by the Dean of Students Office, CAPS (the Center for Academic Program Support), Writing Across Communities, and the English Department

Download the event flier here (pdf)

1st Annual Rudolfo and Patricia Anaya Lecture: The Literature of the Southwest

Renowned poet, writer, and scholar Simon J. Ortiz will give the inaugural Rudolfo and Patricia Anaya Lecture.

Thursday, October 21, 5:30 p.m.
George Pearl Hall, Room 101

Presented by Rudolfo Anaya, the UNM Regents' Speaker Fund, the Department of English, University Libraries, and the College of Arts & Sciences.

English Department Colloquium: David Jones

Please join us next Wednesday, October 6 for the second English Department Colloquium of the fall.  Professor
David Jones will present "Integrating the American Theatre--the 1920s."

Where: English Dept. Lounge, Humanities 235
When: Wed., October 6 at 12:30

Lecture: Leigh Johnson

The Feminist Research Institute invites you to a lecture:

"Historical Romance and Representation: Jovita González and Eve  Raleigh’s Collaboration and Correspondence"

Leigh Johnson,
Wednesday, October 6th
12:00- 1:00 pm
SUB, Cherry/Silver

Jovita González and Eve Raleigh (Margaret Eimer) coauthored the 1934  novel Caballero, yet critics continue to assign most of the content to  Gonzàlez. The historical romance features relationships between  Tejanos/as and Anglos that signify changes in the political climate of  South Texas. Letters from Eimer to González suggest a collaborative  effort unrecognized by scholars. Leigh Johnson will discuss the  letter, politics of collaboration, and what recognizing collaboration  means for Chicana studies.

Readings: Casandra Lopez and David Rubalcava

Best Of September's Duke City DimeStories included "When Later Means Love" by Casandra Lopez (MFA candidate) and "EFF You OK Cupid" by David Rubalcava (MFA candidate). Selected from the 18 stories shared at the September 15 event, audio of these two stories along with a story from local writer Georgia Santa Maria are posted on the website at:
http://dimestories.org/live-events/albuquerque/

Past Open Mic selections have included Larry Geockel (creative writing faculty), Annarose Fitzgerald (PhD candidate) and Lisa Gill (recent MFA grad).

A chapter of the nation-wide DimeStories Theater, Duke City DimeStories hosts monthly open mic events in Albuquerque every third Wednesday (details online).

Richard Vargas: Editor's Selection for Outstanding Poem from New Mexico

The editors for the anthology New Poets of the American West awarded eleven $200.00 prizes, one each to a contributor from each of the eleven states represented in the anthology. The poem, "Baby Brother's Blues" by UNM English Department student Richard Vargas, was selected as the editors' selection out of all the poems published from New Mexico, which included poetry by Jimmy Santiago Baca, Joy Harjo, Leo Romero, Carol Moldaw, Jon Davis, and several others.

Poetry Reading: In Honor of Hector Torres and Stefania Gray

Thank you to all the poets who read last night as the closing event for the Gray-Torres Conference on Domestic Violence and Stalking. It was a moving and inspiring event.

Our particular thanks go to Jim Burbank who organized and MC'd the evening.

If you were unable to attend, keep an eye out here on our blog as we recorded the readings and will be posting the video once it's edited.

Remember that donations are still being accepted to benefit the Hector Torres UNM Fund and Stefania Gray's children.

English Department Colloquium: Greg Martin

Professor Greg Martin will be presenting his talk, "Memoir and Transgression" on Thursday, September 23rd in the Department Lounge from 12:30 - 1:45.

Mark your calendars now for the semester's subsequent speakers:

October 6th: Professor David Jones
November 11th: Professor David Dunaway
December 2: Professor Susan Romano

Amy Beeder: Publication News

Amy Beeder has work currently in the Kenyon Review and forthcoming in Virginia Quarterly Review and Threepenny Review.  Her second book, Scarab Poetica, will be out from Carnegie Mellon in 2011.

Gray-Torres Conference on Domestic Violence and Stalking: Agenda

Conference is OPEN and FREE. Participants are welcome to drop into any session they find interesting. 

Monday, September 27, 2010

8:30-9:00   SUB BALLROOM B
   Registration
   Silent Auction Opens
   Safe Room Opens
   Information Tables Open

9:00-10:30 SUB BALLROOM B
  Opening Remarks
   Plenary: No More Secrets: Opening a Campus Conversation
   about Domestic Violence and Stalking.

Cameron Crandall, Lisa Broidy, Edna Sprague, Quintin McShane (AFAC/NMSP)

10:00 SUB MOVIE THEATER, LOWER LEVEL
   Film: Generation M

10:30-10:45 Break

10:45-12:00 Concurrent sessions:
   Literary and Historical Perspective on Domestic Violence
      MIRAGE/THUNDERBIRD
   Sorting Dirty Laundry: Domestic and Sexual Violence in African American Families and Communities
      SUB BALLROOM B
   Domestic Violence Investigations
      SPIRIT/TRAILBLAZER

12:00-1:00 Lunch on Own

1:00-2:45 SUB BALLROOM B
   Community Resources Panel

1:30 SUB MOVIE THEATER, LOWER LEVEL
   Film: Tough Guise

2:45-3:00 Break

3:00-4:45 SUB BALLROOM B
   By-stander Training

3:00 SUB MOVIE THEATER, LOWER LEVEL
   Film: The Pornography of Everyday Life
Tuesday, September 28, 2010

8:30-9:00 SUB BALLROOM B
    Registration
    Silent Auction Opens
    Safe Room Opens
    Information Tables Open

9:00-10:30 SUB BALLROOM B
   Creating a Coordinated Community Response at UNM Working Group

10:30-10:45 Break

10:45-12:00 Concurrent Sessions:
    Personal Safety 101
      SPIRIT/TRAILBLAZER
    APD Stalking Profiler
      SUB BALLROOM B
    “Romancing Violence: American Entertainment’s Encouragement of Visual Pleasure in Female Victimization” and “Domestic Violence in Art”
      FIESTA A&B

12:00-1:00 SUB BALLROOM B
   Orders of Protection and Other Civil Legal Responses to Interpersonal Violence

Legal Aid Lunch—BROWN BAG LUNCH

1:00-2:45 SUB BALLROOM B
   NMSAFE TEEN- Teen Dating Violence

2:45-3:00 Break

3:00-4:45 SUB BALLROOM B
   Creating a Statewide Impact through Legislation and Policy: Bringing the UNM Community to the Table

4:45
   Silent Auction Ends
   Safe Room Closes
   Information Tables Close

7:00-9:00 SUB SATELLITE
   Poetry Readings


Proceeds from the Silent Auction and Poetry Readings will benefit the daughters of Stefania Gray and the Hector Torres Memorial Fund in the Dept. of English

Research Lecture: Poetic Vocabulary, BASIC English, and the Art of Robert Creeley

The Department of English and the English Graduate Student Association Present:

Poetic Vocabulary, BASIC English, and the Art of Robert Creeley
A Research Lecture Delivered By:Dr. Matthew Hofer, Assistant Professor of English

Monday, September 20, 2010
1:00pm-2:00pm
SUB—Acoma Rooms A&B

“Every revolution in poetry,” as T. S. Eliot declared, “is apt to be, and sometimes to announce itself to be a return to common speech.” Robert Creeley, a major twentieth-century American poet who earned his M.A. at UNM, aimed to be the author of just such a revolution. This lecture will reveal what Creeley’s enormously influential early style owes to I. A. Richards and C. K. Ogden’s stripped-down artificial language, BASIC English. Hardly designed to be a medium for literature—the acronym stands for British, American, Scientific, Industrial, Commercial—this 850-word vocabulary nevertheless has surprising modernist credentials: in the 1930s it briefly captured Ezra Pound’s imagination and was used to translate James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake. Dr. Hofer’s lecture will make the case for why BASIC English fascinated Creeley, elucidate what it made possible for an innovative poet after World War II, and explain how the art of a common language matters for literary criticism and history.

The event is free and open to the public.

Contact: Dr. Jesse Alemán

Poetry Reading

 the poet Carolyn Forche will speak and read from her work at UNM Medical School on Thursday, September 16, from noon to 1 p.m. in Dominici 3010.

Gray-Torres Conference on Domestic Violence and Stalking

On September 27-28, 2010, the Gray-Torres Conference on Domestic Violence and Stalking will occur in the SUB Ballrooms, with talks, a silent auction to benefit the children of Stefania Gray children and the Hector Torres Memorial Fund, legislators and non-profit groups, all of which will provide information about Domestic Violence and Stalking and how to help those who are in violent situations.


A finalized agenda will be available later this week.

This event is sponsored by English, Feminist Research Institute (FRI), Women's Studies (WS),Women's Resource Center (WRC), Foreign Language and Literature (FLL), History and other important groups, with participation from the Second Judicial District Attorney.

Richard Vargas: Poetry Journal Inaugural Publication

The Más Tequila Review, edited by MFA student Richard Vargas, will celebrate its inaugural publication at Albuquerque’s newest independent bookstore in the NE Heights, Alamosa Books, (8810 Holly NE, Ste. D, 505-797-7101.) The event is scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 19, 2-5 PM. Free and open to the public.
Poets from throughout New Mexico will be reading, and will include: Lisa Gill, Marilyn Stablein, Mitch Rayes, E.A. “Tony” Mares, Ken Gurney, Dale Harris, Gary Brower, Richard Vargas, John Macker and Mary McGinnis (Santa Fe) and Amalio Madueño (Taos.) There will also be an open mic (subject to time available.)

Los Angeles poet Michael C Ford wrote: “…I paged slowly thru Mas Tequila and assimilated what turned out to be total ambrosia… not a false note in these poems, practically seamless integrity of language… a lesson all who do indie publishing should learn: only print the words which have the ring of truth.”

Poet and retired UNM professor E.A. “Tony” Mares writes: "In the Malpaís Review, the words of poetry turn the badlands of the heart and of the disappearing natural landscape into fertile vistas for a better world, for the good lands we all desire."

Learn more about The Más Tequila Review at the website here.

Carrie Cutler: Poetry Publication

Carrie Cutler's poem, "A Shadowy Socialite," was selected for publication in the anthology, Brainstorms, the second book in the series titled "expressions of depression." The anthology is out of a UK press, Little Episodes. A second poem, "beautiful," has been selected to appear on the Little Episodes website as an editor's pick. The anthology's scheduled release date is October 28th of this year and the web publication should occur around the same time.

Poetry Reading: In Honor of Hector Torres and Stefania Gray

On Tuesday evening, Sept. 28, 7-9 PM, fourteen of Albuquerque's most prominent poets will gather to read in the UNM SUB Old Higher Ground space. The reading is the final event of the Gray-Torres Domestic Violence and Stalking Conference held on Monday and Tuesday, Sept. 27-28.

The poetry reading celebrates the life and scholarship of English Dept. Professor Hector Torres and Englsih Dept. TA, Stefania Gray who were killed last spring in a domestic violence incident.

The reading will feature works by Lisa Gill, Levi Romero, and Margaret
Randall as well as other Albuquerque and New Mexico poets. The reading is to raise money for Professor Torres's UNM Fund and to benefit Stefania Gray's children.

Greg Martin: Publication and Keynote Address

Greg Martin's new essay, "Two True Stories about Breathing" was recently published on Kenyon Review Online.  Visit the website here.

Also, he has been invited to deliver the keynote address in October at The Literature of the American West conference in Vittoria, Spain, and while there, he'll also be participating in the U.S. Embassy's Speaker Series, giving readings and talks in Madrid and Bilbao.

Greg Martin and Sharon Oard Warner: Publication News

Greg Martin and Sharon Oard Warner both contributed short articles to the September 2010 issue of THE WRITER magazine. You can read an online version at The Writer website here.

Gary Harrison: Plenary Lecture

Gary Harrison gave one of the invited plenary lectures at the 40th Anniversary Wordsworth Summer Conference in Grasmere, England, 28 July to 7 August 2010.  Harrison’s lecture, “Wordsworth, Clare, and the (Eco) Poetics of Acknowledgment” develops a way of thinking about how poetic language—specifically in Dorothy Wordsworth’s journals and in John Clare’s poetry—may influence readers’ disposition to the natural world.  Other lecturers at the conference included Wordsworth biographer Kenneth Johnston, University of Indiana; Angela Esterhammer, University of Zurich; Jeffrey Cox, University of Colorado, Boulder; Alan Richardson, Boston College; and Seamus Perry, Balliol College.  One of the conference’s highlights was a poetry reading by Seamus Heaney on Sunday evening at St. Oswald’s church in Grasmere. The conference is unique in combining lectures and research papers with hikes, walks and excursions around the Lake District.

Pat Smith - Memorial Exhibit

An exhibit honoring the memory of Pat Smith may be viewed in the lobby of Zimmerman Library through the third week of fall semester. As one enters from the Plaza and walks toward the stairs, it’s on the right. Many thanks to Steven Harris (Director of Collections & Acquisitions Services), Subject Librarian for English, for pulling books (including one beauty from Special Collection, Pat’s first book of poetry Talking to the Land with a cover to knock your socks off!) and for helping arrange things in the exhibit.

Gail Houston - Publication News

Professor Gail Houston has a number of publications appearing over the next several months:

A Review of "Young Victoria" for Victorian Literature and Culture, forthcoming spring 2011

"‘PRAY DON’T FORGET ME MY SWEET LITTLE THING’: CHARLOTTE BRONTË’S RELATIONSHIP WITH ANN COOK," forthcoming April 2011, Bronte Studies

“'Pretend[ing] a little': The Play of Musement in Dickens’s Little Dorrit." Dickens Studies Annual, vol. 41, summer 2010

A Book review of Kathleen Blake's Pleasures of Benthamism, for Journal of British Studies, forthcoming 2011.

Ferenc Szasz - a Celebration of Life

A service to celebrate the life of UNM History Professor Ferenc Szasz will be held Friday, August 27 from 2:00 - 4:00 P.M. at the Rodey Theatre inside Popejoy. Immediately following the service there will be a a reception in the History Department common room, 1104 Mesa Vista Hall.

A fellowship has been established on behalf of Professors Ferenc Szasz and Margaret Connell-Szasz to support scholars pursuing advanced degrees in Social and Intellectual History. Contributions can be made to the UNM Foundation; please make checks payable to the UNM Foundation and indicate "Szasz PhD fund" on the memo line.

12th Annual Taos Summer Writers' Conference

Congratulations to Sharon Warner, Barbara van Buskirk and the dedicated staff of graduate students who worked so hard to make this year's Taos Summer Writers' Conference a success. The conference received glowing reviews from participants and had a fantastic write up in several New Mexico papers.

Read the full article in the Las Cruces Sun-News online here.

In Memory of Patricia Smith

There will be a Memorial Service for English Department Professor Emerita Patricia Clark Smith on Tuesday, July 20, at 5 pm in the UNM Alumni Chapel. 

Patricia (Pat) Smith died peacefully at Women’s Hospital in Albuquerque Sunday evening, July 11. She had been admitted four days earlier and died of successive organ failure. She was surrounded at death by her husband John Crawford, her two sons Joshua and Caleb, members of her extended family, and her friends. She is survived by her two brothers, Mike Clark, 64, and James Clark, 61, and her two sons, Joshua Smith, 43, and Caleb Smith, 40. A memorial service will be held at the University of New Mexico chapel at 5 o’clock Tuesday, July 20. The public is invited to attend.

Patricia was born on Valentine’s Day in Holyoke, Massachusetts in 1943 and lived with her mother,
grandmothers, and aunts while her father was serving in the Army Air Corps. When her father returned from the service and the war ended, the family moved to Hampshire Heights, a project on the outskirts of Northampton, Massachusetts. While she was later renowned as an accomplished scholar, poet, and teacher, she always stayed close to her working-class Irish, French Canadian, and Micmac Indian roots. Her childhood friends from Hampshire Heights, whether or not they left New England, remained close to her to the end.

Following the war her two brothers were born: Mike, later a sea captain, and Jim, later a musician. Patricia
graduated from Deering High School in Portland, Maine in 1960. She attended Smith College as a scholarship student, graduating with a B.A. in 1964, and Yale University from 1964 to 1970, when she was awarded a Ph.D. in English. Meanwhile she married Warren Smith in 1963 and had two sons, Joshua in 1966 and Caleb in 1970. She and her husband taught at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa from 1969 to 1971.

 From the beginning she attracted the attention of helpful and kindly mentors. The distinguished English professor W.K. Wimsatt, his wife Margaret, and their family befriended her during the Yale years and thereafter. In 1971 her husband Warren was offered a position in the Classics Department at University of New Mexico and Pat followed, soon joining the regular English faculty. She taught English at UNM for thirty-two years, from 1971 to 2003. Early in her career at UNM she also taught at schools connected to several Navajo Indian reservations (Ramah and Sinosti) in New Mexico with a new mentor, pioneering New Mexico early childhood teacher Lenore Wolfe.

In the late 1970s she and Warren Smith were divorced. She taught courses in Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman as well as American literature and creative writing. She began to expand her interests in Native American studies. One of her early Ph.D. students, Laguna Pueblo author Paula Gunn Allen, published a revised version of her doctoral dissertation as The Sacred Hoop, a groundbreaking approach to feminist studies in Native American literature, in 1986. Among Patricia’s companions throughout this period were Native American writers Joy Harjo, Leslie Marmon Silko, Simon Ortiz and Luci Tapahonso. She published the first book of her own poems, Talking to the Land, in 1979.

She married teacher and small press publisher John Crawford in 1987. She published her second book of poems, Changing Your Story, in 1991. She and her husband joined UNM Professors Paul Davis, David Johnson, and Gary Harrison in editing and publishing Western Literature in a World Context, a two-volume college anthology, in 1995. She also published As Long as the Rivers Flow: Stories of Nine Native Americans, with Paula Gunn Allen in 1996; On the Trail of Older Brother: Glous’gap Stories of the Micmac Indians, with Michael RunningWolf in 2000; and a younger reader’s biography, Weetamoo: Heart of the Pocassets, for Scholastic Publishers in 2003.

Those who have known her deeply—and there are many—have praised Patricia’s generosity, her ability to bring out the best in others, and her gift of encouragement. She has started many a young writer or scholar on his or her career. Her advocacy for women scholars, multicultural writers, and especially Native American students has moved the teaching profession powerfully in this region. She hasalso befriended many people she recognizes as her own kind—waitresses, nurses in hospitals, receptionists,clerks in stores.

Arrangements are being made for gifts to be donated toNative American educational funds

eWords: Sir Ken Robinson on TED

Creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson gave a presentation at a May, 2010 TED conference calling for a revolution in education:



You can learn more about TED here.

eWords posts will crop up now and then with links to blog posts, editorials, online articles etc. that might be of interest to our UNM English community. If you'd like to suggest something for Ewords please send me an email at mlva@unm.edu. 

Noreen Rivera: Fellowship Award

Congratulations to Noreen Rivera who received the Hector Torres Fellowship from Center for Southwest Studies in amount of $15,000.

New Course Sections

We have added a section of English 418, Proposals and of English 320, Advanced Expository Writing. Students are strongly urged to sign up for these sections early as these courses fill quickly.

For course descriptions and times please see our Courses page here.

Community Writing Initiatives by Students - Grant Award

The Albuquerque Community Foundation has awarded  $9500 to the service learning project, Community Writing Initiatives by Students, submitted by Wanda Martin, Valerie Thomas, and Kyle Fiore. 

Prof. Ferenc Szasz (History) died on Sunday of leukemia. There will be a memorial service for him next Wednesday, June 30th at 1:00 p.m. in the Congregational Church at the corner of Girard and Lomas. Many of you knew him and his daughter Maria Szasz, who received a Ph.D. from the English Department. Our condolences go out to the family.

eWords: Sweet Juniper

A blogger in Detroit has been documenting the city in words and pictures over the last several years. Among his most striking images are what he terms "feral houses." He has posted a new set of photos here, but you might want to check out a few earlier posts as well:

Feral Houses (first post)

Seed Bombs with the Kids of the Georgia Street Neighborhood

I Scrapper (rescuing abandoned books from a school library)

eWords posts will crop up now and then with links to blog posts, editorials, online articles etc. that might be of interest to our UNM English community. If you'd like to suggest something for Ewords please send me an email at mlva@unm.edu.

Nobel winning author Jose Saramago dies

Portuguese novelist Jose Saramago, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1998, has died at the age of 87, his publisher has announced.

Read the article here.

Queen Eadgyth's remains found

Scientists have revealed that they think bones found in a German cathedral are those of one of the earliest members of the English royal family. Read the BBC news article here. Find more details here.

Todd Tietchen - Publication News

Former MA student Todd Tietchen has a forthcoming book, The Cubalogues: Beat Writers in Revolutionary Havana, University Press of Florida (September 28, 2010). You can read more about the book at Amazon.com here.

Todd F. Tietchen is assistant professor of English at Union County College in Cranford and Elizabeth, New Jersey.

Universal Grammar - Challenging Noam Chomsky

May 2010 New Scientist has a fascinating article on a new linguistic theory put forward by linguists Nicholas Evans (Australian National University) and Stephen Levinson (Max Plank Institute for Psycholinguistics) which states that language diversity is the "crucial fact for understanding the place of language in human cognition."

Read the entire article, in PDF format, here.

Aeron Hunt: Keleher Award

Congratulations are in order for Aeron Hunt, 2010 recipient of the Department Keleher Award (for assistant professors who demonstrate a strong commitment to teaching on the undergraduate level).

Julie Shigekuni: Wertheim Recipient

The department is happy to announce that Julie Shigekuni is the 2010 recipient of the Department Wertheim Award (for faculty who have made outstanding contributions to the profession.)

English Department Convocation Keynote Address

A British playwright of considerable fame wrote, “There is a tide in the affairs of…”, well, you know the rest of the quotation.  The tide in my affairs seems to have borne me, inexorably, to the English Department at the University of New Mexico.  My first encounter with one of its graduates came early in my career when I taught with a senior colleague named Gilbert Neiman.  Gilbert, who earned his PhD at UNM, published a rather well-reviewed novel entitled THERE IS A TYRANT IN EVERY COUNTRY.  Unfortunately, it appeared in the same publishing cycle as Henry Miller’s TROPIC OF CANCER.  You can imagine what ensued.  But Gilbert remained connected to the writers of the time.  For years, he exchanged correspondence with Anais Nin, the Spanish-born, scandalous, avant-garde writer who held such fascination for all of us.  His closest friend was Robert Creeley, who visited him regularly and appeared frequently at our campus.   Another friend was Richard Wilbur, who also visited and gave readings for our students.  When Gilbert died, a colleague and I were asked to organize his papers and categorize his library.  We found personal letters and notes of thanks from virtually all of the Beat writers, as well as signed first editions of their works—Kerouac and Ferlinghetti included.  Memorably, there were letters of gratitude from Henry Miller who had lived at Gilbert’s house during periods of poverty—at the time we would have said, “crashed at his pad” on Lead, near UNM.  Near the end of our survey, we found documentation that Gilbert had been married for a time to Gene Tierney, one of the gorgeous film actresses of the day.  With that, I concluded that the UNM English Department must be a very glamorous place!

As my literary interests expanded, I learned that Scott Momaday, the first Native American novelist to win a Pulitzer Prize, is an English Department graduate; that Leslie Marmon Silko, considered by many the most influential contemporary Native American fiction writer, holds a BA from this department; that Paula Gunn Allen, whose book THE SACRED HOOP, with its confluence of Feminist theory and Native American aesthetics, educated a generation of us, earned a PHD from UNM.

The tradition of creativity and accomplishment from graduates of this department continues in the present.  Recently I served on Cynthia Segura’s dissertation committee.  She wrote a cutting-edge study of poetry in computer languages.  Cynthia went on to earn a second PHD in Computer Science, joined the State Department, and, this coming week, will be posted to Sidney, Australia.

You who are graduating today are borne along by a great tradition.  Your predecessor-alumni have established a tremendous tide of success.

Theirs is not the only great tradition from which you benefit.  Some years ago, at an MLA convention in New York, I listened to a panel on “Transformations of the Bildungsroman in Contemporary Literature.” (doesn’t that sound like a title  English professors would create?)  The first paper, by Carlota Cardenas de Dwyer of the University of Texas, began by asserting, “For millions of young Americans, Bless Me Ultima is a more significant reading experience than Oliver Twist.”

Imagine my response as a confident young specialist in British Victorian literature!

Thus I discovered Rudolfo Anaya, and through reading him, a whole group of exciting Chicano/a writers who were quite new to me.  He, to my surprise, taught at UNM.  That was only the beginning. For part of my career, I drew on Hugh Wittemyer’s book on George Eliot for my own scholarship and teaching. He was a UNM English professor. When I was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities grant for study in contemporary literary theory, I found that my director would be Morris Eaves, a UNM professor who was also editor of the Blake Quarterly, making him a major power in nineteenth century studies.  A few years later, I was awarded a Pennsylvania Faculty Research Grant for postdoctoral study in Native American fiction. Time and again, those I consulted about where to use the grant told me that Other Destinies, by Louis Owens, was the definitive critical work on the subject. Logically, I thought I should study with him.  And what did I find? Louis was a member of the UNM English Department.

That tradition of faculty scholarship and productivity in this department continues in the present.  Were I to begin to list the accomplishments of your English professors, I would far exceed the time I am allotted (Not to mention that I would almost certainly forget someone, who might be sitting behind me at this moment) .

You graduates have been prepared for today by the latest in a tide of important scholars, critics, theorists, and writers. I can speak this boast because I am IN the English Department, but not OF it.  Your professors are barred by modesty and academic tradition from such boasting.  No modesty need restrain my expression of their remarkable work.

During these days you are no doubt hearing many declarations about your brilliant futures and your potential to transform our society, to rejuvenate its institutions, and to solve its problems.  But I am a professor of Victorian literature, and so you won’t be surprised to hear very different messages from me!

First, I want to convey to you a burden of guilt.  You have so much to live up to, both to justify your place in the flow of your predecessors and to pass on the UNM tradition to those who follow.

Second, I wish to generate in you a sense of obligation.  You owe so much to those who have trained you in your field and to those, sitting behind you, who have supported you, encouraged you, and paid the bills.

As a Victorianist, I am thinking now of another quotation.  In “Ulysses,” Tennyson writes, “Yet all experience is an arch wherethro’ / Gleams that untravelled world….”

Your “tide” has brought you to that arch, at the entrance to that untravelled world (the first benefit of my retirement is the freedom to mix my metaphors, as I just did, with no fear of reproach from my colleagues). Since I am retiring, I stand with you in that arch. While I bequeath to you those Victorian gifts of guilt and obligation, I do have three other gifts for you:

1.       My respect—it has been wonderful to spend these ten years with UNM students.  You have taught me the justice of this state’s claim to diversity.   You have delighted me with your intelligence, your curiosity, and your politeness, after years of more hard-edged, cynical students from the Northeastern cities.

2.       My gratitude.  I have learned so much from you—in discussions, conferences, papers, MA and PHD committees (Imagine how much I had to learn to work with a study of poetry in computer languages!)

3.       And one other gift. I look out today at many familiar faces. I recall the many students I have admired here in the UNM English Department.  And now I approach the most dangerous moment of this talk.  It is always dangerous for an aging Victorian to become emotional, but the moment cannot be avoided.  In addition to my respect and my thanks, you will carry through that arch, wherever your tide takes you,        MY LOVE

Ron Shumaker

Carrie Cutler: Publication News

Graduate student Carrie Cutler has seven poems accepted for publication. In the upcoming Adobe Walls, she will publish the poem "Into the Bayou". Watch for more news later this summer on the publication date. (They're still looking for submissions. Find details at their website here.) Her poem "Penance, the Penitent" will appear in an upcoming issue of the Chiron Review, and in the August 1st issue of the online publication Contemporary American Voices, she will publish the following five poems, "Filling & Emptiness"; "Alice and I"; "Lucky Me"; "Proscription is the Oldest Language" and "Wintering, 2005." She will be appearing with alumnus Sari Krosinsky

EGSA Awards Ceremony

Join us this Friday, May 14 at the Hibben Center from 6:00-9:00pm for EGSA's Second Annual Awards Ceremony and Graduation Reception. We will be honoring our graduating
MA, MFA, and PhD students as well as announcing the EGSA awards and First-Year Teaching Awards. This is a great way to wrap up the semester and have some food and drinks with your colleagues! We hope to see you all there!

UNM Teaching Awards

Don't forget to attend the UNM Teaching Awards this Thursday, May 6, at 2:00 p.m. Four members of our department will be honored there:

Marissa Greenberg as an Outstanding Emerging Teacher

Sam Tetangco, one of five Susan Deese-Roberts Outstanding
Teaching
Assistants from across UNM

Dan Darling, also one of five Susan Deese-Roberts
Outstanding Teaching
Assistants

Leah Sneider, Arts & Sciences Award for Teaching
Excellence, the sole TA
chosen from across the departments of the College of Arts
& Sciences.

Alumni News - Karmen Lenz

English alumna Karmen Lenz has learned that her dissertation, now turned
book Christian Conversion in the Meters of Boethius has been accepted by
Rodolpi, and she has signed a contract.

Leah Sneider - Arts & Sciences Award for Teaching Excellence

Leah Sneider has been chosen to receive the 2009-2010 Arts and Sciences Award for Teaching Excellence. This award, made to a single Teaching Assistant from among all the departments of the College of Arts and Sciences, recognizes the awardee's excellence in the classroom and as a colleague in the program, the department, and the university.

Jim Burbank - Outstanding Faculty Recognition Award

Congratulations to Jim Burbank who has received the American Indian Student Services Outstanding Faculty and Staff Recognition Award in recognition of valuable contributions to the UNM Native Student community. He has also been elected Vice President of the UNM Chapter of the AAUP.

Academy of Poets Prize Winners Announced

Academy of American Poets Prize, 2010 Winners

We are pleased to announce the winners and honorable mentions of the 2010 Academy of American Poets Prize Competition! 39 UNM poets participated in both the grad and undergrad contests. Winners
each receive $75. Thanks to everyone who submitted work!

Dana Levin, Contest Coordinator

Graduate Competition:

Winner: Tommy Archuleta, for "Jack's Creek Soliloquy"
Hon Mention: Erika Sanchez, for "Earthquake"

Judge: Amy Beeder

Undergraduate Competition:

Winner: Katlyn McKinney, for "Water Passing"
Hon Mention: Oakley Merideth, for "Vulgar Latin"

Judge: Lisa Chavez

Transparency Statement:
All submissions were presented to judges with identifying marks removed. The contest coordinator did no pre-screening, ranking or evaluation, added no commentary on submissions, and engaged in no conversation with the judges regarding submissions. For more information on the contest and the Academy of American Poets, see the organization web page.

Reading: May-lee Chai

Tonight! April 30th, 7 p.m.
Humanities 108

May-lee Chai is the award-winning author of six books, including Hapa Girl: A Memoir, Glamorous Asians,  and The Girl From Purple Mountain. She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Grant in Literature Fellowship in Prose. She has published short stories and essays in many journals, magazines and anthologies, including Seventeen, Missouri Review, North American Review, and The Jakarta Post Weekender Magazine. Her new novel, Dragon Chica, is coming out this fall.

Anglo Saxon Manuscripts Digitized

The Parker Library, held at Corpus Christi College in Cambridge, has been digitized and can now be seen on the internet. The collection of over 550 manuscripts includes the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, the earliest written history in English.

Visit the Parker Library website here.

History Department Colloquium Event: Dr. Maria Lane

You are invited to Dr. Maria Lane's presentation of her work "Water, Technology, and
the Courtroom: New Mexicans Resist the Reclamation Era" as the final History Department Colloquium Event for Spring 2010.

Friday April 30th. 
Time: 2-4 pm,
Location: History Department Commons Room, Mesa Vista Hall.

Works in Progress Seminar: Geoffrey R. Russom

Tuesday, May 4, 12:45 - 2:00 PM
Mesa Vista Hall 1104 (History Department Commons)

Ancient Poems and Universalist Poetics
With Dr. Geoffrey R. Russom, Brown University, Visiting Scholar in Medieval Scandinavian Studies

Refreshment will be served

Greg Evans: Future Faculty Award

Congratulations to Rhetoric and Writing student Greg Evans who has won the Future Faculty Award from OGS, which supports summer coursework, research or development opportunities not available at UNM that prepare students for higher education careers.

With his award, Greg will work at the Jefferson Library and Hannah Arendt Center focusing on hermeneutic and
post-process pedagogies for teaching critical thinking.

Royal Shakespeare Company PBS Broadcast of Hamlet

PBS to broadcast Hamlet - Wednesday 28 April at 8pm EST

In 2009 a film company called Illuminations recorded the Royal Shakespeare Company's award-winning 2008 production of Hamlet, directed by RSC Chief Associate Director Gregory Doran, for broadcast on national UK television for the BBC.

The play was shot on location with the original cast including David Tennant and Patrick Stewart and using all the original costumes and props. The RSC now confirm that this filmed version of Hamlet will be broadcasted on PBS on Wednesday 28 April.

Lecture: Anglo-Saxon Visiting Scholar Dr. Jo Buckberry

Place: Dane Smith Hall, room 233

Time: Thursday, April 22, 2:00 - 3:15 PM

Last week, Anthro had the annual meeting of Physical Anthropologists in Albuquerque; some of the attendees are Europeans who are now stranded for a while.

One of them is Dr. Jo Buckberry, a Lecturer in Physical Anthropology at the University of Bradford. She has generously agreed to give a lecture in the Medieval Archaeology course (ANTH 420) that Jim Boone & Osbjorn Pearson are teaching this semester.  To see an abbreviated vita:
http://www.brad.ac.uk/AGES/Research/index.php/Staff/DrJoBuckberry   Much of her work focuses on Anglo-Saxon health (from bones) and burial rituals from archaeology).

Dr. Buckberry's talk will be on Anglo-Saxon burial archaeology from the period of conversion to Christianity.

Reading: Suzan Shown Harjo

Monday, 4/26
1:00 - 2:00
Humanities 108

Suzan Shown Harjo is a poet, writer, lecturer, curator and policy advocate, who has helped Native communities recover more than 1,000,000 acres of land and numerous sacred places. Harjo (Cheyenne and Holdugee Muscogee) is President of the Native rights organization The Morning Star Institute, a Founding Trustee of the National Museum of the American Indian, a recipient of the Dobkin Native
American Artist Fellowship from the School of American Research, and the first Vine Deloria, Jr. Distinguished Indigenous Scholar at the University of Arizona. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals and several anthologies, including Reinventing the Enemy's Language, The Remembered Earth, and Third World Women.

Dig for Shakespeare: Archaeology Project at Stratford-Upon-Avon

The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust is conducting an archaeological dig in three locations around Shakespeare's house. You can follow their blog and read about the project at the Dig for Shakespeare website here.

Marissa Greenberg - Teaching Award

Congratulations to Marissa Greenberg who has been named by OSET as one of three recipients of the 2009-2010 New Teacher of the Year Award.

Alumni News - Eileen Garvin reading

Eileen Garvin will read from her memoir, How to Be a Sister: A Love Story with a Twist of Autism. The book explores the simultaneously awkward, hilarious, and heartbreaking situations she experienced as a younger sister to Margaret, diagnosed with severe autism at age 3.

How to Be a Sister begins when Eileen, after several years in New Mexico, has just moved back to the Pacific Northwest, where she grew up. Being 1,600 miles away had allowed Eileen to avoid the question that has dogged her since birth: What is she going to do about Margaret? Now, Eileen must grapple with this question once again as she tentatively tries to reconnect with Margaret. How can she have a relationship with someone who can't drive, send email, or telephone? What role will Eileen play in Margaret's life as their parents age, and after they die? Will she remain in Margaret's life, or walk away?

This is a rarely explored relationship, and for anyone interested in the human experience, this story reveals a bewildering and beautiful world that will dismantle regular notions of normalcy, family and acceptance.

"A marvelous, harrowing, life-affirming book. In looking to forge a meaningful relationship with her severely autistic sister, Eileen Garvin finds a simpler way of being in, and extending, every moment. Isn't that what we're all after? I loved this book. And boy, can she write!"
-Abigail Thomas, author of A Three Dog Life: A Memoir

Location:

Bookworks
4022 Rio Grande Blvd NW#Flying Star Plaza
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87107-3157

Samantha Tetengco & Dan Darling: Teaching Excellence

Congratulations to Sam Tetangco and Dan Darling who have won the Susan Deese-Roberts TA Teaching Awards for 2010.

Tanaya Winder: Poetry Award

Tanaya Winder has won First Prize for the A Room of Her Own (AROHO) Foundation's Orlando Poetry Prize for her poem "The Impermanence of Human Sculptures."

BBC article: Were the 'Mad' Heroines of Literature Really Sane?

BBC News published an interesting article over the weekend talking about a new BBC Radio4 documentary about insanity in female characters in literature. You can read the full article here.

Leigh Johnson: Amerian Association of University Women Dissertation Fellowship

Leigh Johnson, a doctoral candidate in American Literary Studies, has received the 2010-2011 American Association of University Women’s $20,000 dissertation fellowship for her dissertation, “Domestic Violence and Empire: Legacies of Conquest in Mexican American Writing.” The AAUW supports and advances educational opportunities for women, and its competitive dissertation fellowship is part of the AAUW’s mission to “recognize outstanding women around the globe” and fund “pioneering research” related to women. The award is based on scholarly excellence, teaching experience, and active commitment to helping women through service in their communities, professions, or fields of research.

Leigh’s dissertation project, which is directed by Dr. Jesse Alemán, spans the nineteenth-century to the present and examines how Mexican American writers represent and critique domestic violence as it occurs 
in the home but also as a form of colonial violence that implicates Mexican and US forms of patriarchy in the treatment of women. Her project examines writers such as María Amparo Ruiz de Burton, Maria Cristina Mena, Sandra Cisneros, and Demetria Martínez, to name a few, and portions of it have already been published in peer-reviewed journals. Leigh’s work corresponds with her commitment to combine her interests in literary studies, women’s studies, and Chicano/a studies in the classroom and in her scholarship.

Professors Tey Diana Rebolledo (UNM—Spanish), Barbara Reyes (UNM—History), and Sonia Saldívar-Hull (UT-San Antonio—English) also serve on Leigh’s dissertation committee, and Leigh plans to use the one-year tenure of the AAUW fellowship to complete and defend her dissertation in Spring 2011.

Blue Mesa Review - Issue 23

Announcing the publication of Issue 23 of Blue Mesa Review. You can take a sneak peak at the contents on the Blue Mesa Review website here, or order your copies using the information on this page.

Blue Mesa Review is the English Department's annual national literary magazine and is edited and produced entirely by our Creative Writing students. Congratulations to the Blue Mesa staff:

Editor in Chief
Samantha Tetangco

Managing Editor
Suzanne Richardson

Production Editor
Dan Darling

Poetry Editor
Jennifer Krohn

NonFiction Editor
Nari Kirk


Copyeditor
Marisa P. Clark

Editorial Assistants/Interns
Production: Kimberly Keller
Poetry: Bob Sabatini
Prose: Joe Byrne, Aaron Espinosa, Lenore Gusch, Cody Jones, Monet Maloof, and Sarah Yasmin Osman
UNM Press Liason: Carmela Starace

Readers
Colleen Bazemore-Colclough, Randi Beck, Elizabeth Delorenzo, Aaron Espinosa, Casey Frank, Kathryn Hickling, Rachel Hill, Cody Jones, Cassandra Lopez, David Madan, Katlyn McKinney, Samuel Montoya, Delaine Mottershead, Victoria Brooke Rodrigues, Francesca Shirley, Jennifer Simpson, Elizabeth Tannen, and Tanaya Winder

Faculty Advisor
Marisa P. Clark