N. Scott Momaday to teach at UNM in Fall 2014

The English Department is very pleased to announce that a premier writer of our time N. Scott Momaday will be a Visiting Professor in our Creative Writing and American Literary Studies Programs during the 2014-15 academic year. Specializing in poetry and the Native oral tradition, in fall 2014 he will teach 487/587 The Native American Oral Tradition.

He received the National Medal of Arts in November 2007 ‘for his writings and his work that celebrate and preserve Native American art and oral tradition.’  In addition to the National Medal of Arts, he has received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his first novel, House Made of Dawn, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Institute of Arts and Letters Award, the Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement, the Premio Letterario Internazionale “Mondello”, Italy’s highest literary award, The Saint Louis Literary Award, the Premio Fronterizo, the highest award of the Border Book Festival, the 2008 Oklahoma Humanities Award, and the 2003 Autry Center for the American West Humanities Award.  UNESCO named him an Artist for Peace in 2003, the first American to be so honored since the United States rejoined UNESCO.  He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and holds 20 honorary degrees from colleges and universities including Yale University, the University of Massachusetts, the University of Oklahoma and the University of Tulsa in his home state of Oklahoma, Blaise Pascal University (France) and his alma mater, the University of New Mexico.

A member of the Kiowa Nation, Momaday has written the following books: The Complete Poems of Frederick Goddard Tuckerman (Oxford University Press), House Made of Dawn (Harper and Row), The Way to Rainy Mountain (University of New Mexico Press), Angle of Geese (David R. Godine), The Gourd Dancer (Harper and Row), The Names (Harper and Row), The Ancient Child (Doubleday), In the Presence of the Sun (St. Martin’s Press), The Man Made of Words (St. Martin’s Press), In the Bear’s House (St. Martin’s Press), Circle of Wonder:  A Native American Christmas Story (University of New Mexico Press), Les Enfants du Soleil (Le Seuil, Paris), and Four Arrows and Magpie (Hawk Publ. Group).

Daniel Worden Publishes In Background Readings for Teachers of American Literature

Daniel Worden’s co-authored essay on “Postmodernism, Then” has been reprinted in Background Readings for Teachers of American Literature.

Originally published in the “Postmodernism, Then” special issue of Twentieth-Century Literature, Daniel Worden’s essay “Introduction: Postmodernism, Then” (co-authored with Jason Gladstone) has been reprinted in the 2nd edition of Background Readings for Teachers of American Literature, edited by Venetria K. Patton.

With chapters that address literary and social movements, questions of identity, the geopolitical aspects of American literature, and classroom approaches, Background Readings for Teachers of American Literature, Second Edition, provides an overview of changes in the field of American literary studies and a survey of its popular themes. The twenty-seven readings include important scholarship, critical essays, and practical ideas from working teachers. This professional resource offers support to instructors using The Bedford Anthology of American Literature.

More information about the book is available here: http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/Catalog/product/backgroundreadingsforteachersofamericanliterature-secondedition-patton

Andy Bourelle Publishes in Encyclopedia of Educational Theory and Philosophy

Andy Bourelle contributed three entries to the recently published Encyclopedia of Educational Theory and Philosophy from SAGE Publications. The entries make up the encyclopedia's coverage of classical Roman rhetoric: "Cicero," "Quintilian," and "Rhetorical Canons."

Alumnus Diane Schmidt Wins Writing Award

Diane Schmidt got her MA in Creative Writing from UNM, in Spring 2002. Her MA Thesis was The Collected Works of Earnestine Thebad.

Attached is an article from the Gallup Independent, June 24, 2014.

"Freelance writer wins national award for enterprise reporting"
By Kyle Chancellor, News intern

GALLUP - An Independent columnist exposed a con man working in New Mexico and won a top award from The National Federation of Press Women.

Diane Schmidt won the first place award for enterprise reporting from The National Federation of Press Women for her articles "Who you gonna call, Ghostbusters?" and "Con man who posed as Native fooled merchants, media" which both ran in the Independent.

The first of the two stories appeared in the Independent on April 20, 2013, as the spiritual perspectives column after Schmidt received an irate call from a Native community member. The individual stated that David Rendon, at the time known as David RedFeather, who had recently been featured in the Navajo Times as a Native American healer, promoter, and savior for the merchants of the Old Town business district and who had recently been elected president of the Old Town Merchants Association, was in fact not who he was claiming to be.

The individual claimed that RedFeather was not a Lakola healer as he was claiming and also had an extensive criminal record including a civil complaint in Ramah from 1998 where Rendon was accused of failure to pay rent. The first story didn't name Rendon explicitly because Schmidt could not get absolute confirmation to match the man to the police records.

Through further investigation, Schmidt uncovered an extensive criminal past for Rendon in Utah, Colorado and New Mexico and finally confirmed that it was indeed the same David Rendon. Schmidt reported that the man had conned around $50,000 from people that believed he was a successful businessman, healer, roadman and mystic. What he really was, was a crook, who would prey upon peoples vulnerabilities, taking their hard earned money and bouncing out of town before the boys in blue could catch up to him. The second of the two stories ran on the front page of the Independent on Aug. 21, 2013.

Schmidt submitted the stories to the New Mexico Press Women, where they won first place in enterprise reporting and advanced to the National Federation of Press Women where it also won first place for the same category. The judges commented on the story by saying the stories were a "Great example of enterprise reporting with impact for the community."

Diane says, "The story was a lot of work and cost ten times more time and money than I would ever get paid, as this sort of work always does, so this was sort of my 'reward.'

"The real payback was a call I got some months later from a gal who was helping Rendon where he had resurfaced in the Carolinas, and saw my stories online about him and I was able to advise her to contact the police there instead of her trying to 'save' him."

Richard Vargas' Guernica,revisited Reviewed

This review of Guernica,revisited was just published on Cultural Weekly, an ezine out of L.A. if you haven't had a chance to check it out, this gives you an idea. they also featured three poems from the book.

review
http://www.culturalweekly.com/coming-home-guernica-revisited-richard-vargas/

featured poems
http://www.culturalweekly.com/richard-vargas-three-poems/

Marisa Sikes to teach Middle English at Austin Peay

In April, Marisa Sikes, PhD in Medieval Studies, accepted a tenure-track position at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee, one of the Tennessee state universities. She will be joining their faculty as the Middle English specialist with secondary responsibilities in History of the English Language and World Literature. We wish you all the best, Marisa, and a wonderful career.
~Dr. Obermeier

Rudolfo Anaya wins Gold for Popular Fiction from Benjamin Franklin Independent Book Awards

The Department is pleased to announce . . .
Benjamin Franklin Independent Book Awards for Popular Fiction Gold Winner:
The Old Man’s Love Story, by Rudolfo Anaya, University of Oklahoma Press
This is just one of numerous awards and accolades our emeritus Rudy Anaya has received over the years.  Many kudos and good wishes to our good friend and colleague.