Writing Internships: Presentation Session Tuesday, April 26

As you may or may not know, the English department offers a recurring Writing Internship course (English 497), during which students gain practical work experience, make professional connections, and reflect on the nature of careers open to those proficient in the study and use of language. This year, nine of our students are completing their internships, and will be presenting an informational and poster session on the work they have done in their positions and in the course.

The presentation will take place on Tuesday, April 26 from 6-7 p.m. in Trimble Forum. If you’ve ever wondered “What can I do with an English major?” or “How can I help prepare myself for an exciting post-graduate career?,” you owe it to yourself to stop by. Come help celebrate the achievements of this outstanding group of student interns.

Suzanne Warren Reading: Weds., April 20

Please join us for a reading by Suzanne Warren, Doctoral candidate at the U of Cincinnati and a candidate for the English Department’s Visiting Assistant Professorship in Creative Writing. Ms. Warren will be reading “Peachface: Short Fiction,” from her collection Nora Halpern, at 4 p.m., Weds., April 20, in Wyatt 313. In addition to the reading, there will be snacks and time for questions.

Department reading: Monday, April 18

Please join us at 4 p.m., on Monday, April 18 in Wyatt 313 to hear Renee Simms, adjunct professor at Arizona State University and candidate for Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing, discuss contemporary African American literature and read from her story collection, Necessity of Wings.

Poetry on Vashon for Memorial Day

Department faculty recently received this invitation to what sounds like a wonderful event:

April 4th, 2011

Greetings & Happy National Poetry Month!

I’d like to cordially invite you and your students to attend the second biannual weekend-long poetry festival happening Memorial Day weekend, May 27th-30th!

Two years ago, under the leadership of Ron Irvine, owner of the Vashon Winery, we held the first Poetry Fest. The 2009 Festival was highly successful—Sam Green, then poet-Laureate of Washington State, was the featured poet, and stayed through the weekend to offer a workshop and participate in an ‘open mike’ event blending Island and off-Island poets. With him we had a strong range of performers/presenters and well-attended workshops over the weekend of Memorial Day.

Our overall theme/title for the weekend is ‘A Passport to Poetry’ to point to poetry’s power to cross and erase borders and boundaries. Everyone attending the readings and workshops will hold a passport (which we are designing).

Our mission is to bring to Vashon Island from our Northwest region an ongoing, shifting kaleidoscope of poetic styles and voices, bringing the full energy and force of poetic imagination and language to life in our community.

Sam Hamill and Tess Gallagher are our two featured poets who will be attending the festival along with numerous other talented writers. The three-day weekend will consist of many incredible workshops, seminars, and performances.

Times of events, restaurants, and accommodations are available at the Poetry Fest website or you can drop us an email @ info@vashonpoetryfest.com

We look forward to sharing the power of poetry with you, your friends, and family!

Sincerely,

Mel Michaels (PR) & Vashon Poetry Fest

Department Reading: Karin Lin-Greenberg

Please join us on Wednesday, April 13, at 4 p.m., in Wyatt 313 for a reading by Karin Lin-Greenberg, Visiting Assistant Professor at The College of Wooster and candidate for the position of Visiting Assistant Professor in Creative Writing. She will be reading “Prized Possession,” from her collection Those We Miss When They Are Gone. There will be refreshments, of course, and a chance to ask questions of our candidate.

There are months, and then there are months

If April is, as Eliot famously notes, “the cruelest month,” it is also, perhaps in compensation for nature’s vagaries, National Poetry month. Today, local NPR affiliate KUOW featured conversation about poetry with former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins and local poet Elizabeth Austen. It’s well worth a listen, especially their discussion of ambiguity as the thing that frustrates novice readers but provides the richness and complexity that characterize mature poetry and reward careful scrutiny; Austen pointed out that excessive emotional “clarity” is the hallmark not of poetry, but of sentimentalism.

In other poetic news, local poet and teacher Josie Emmons Turner will be inaugurated as Tacoma’s next Poet Laureate in a free public ceremony and reading on April 28, 2011, from 7-8:30 p.m. at Bellaballs, 747 S. Fawcett St., Tacoma.

Emmons Turner’s two-year term follows those of William Kupinse, Antonio Edwards Jr., and Tammy Robacker. More information on the Poet Laureate program can be found at TacomaCulture.

Emerging Stories of the Puget Sound

According to KOMO News, Kali Kucera is attempting to evoke and preserve what he describes as “fantastilicious” tales of South Sound folklore. PapaKali, Kucera’s website, solicits and provides exposure for local lore and legends, and aims to practice old-style community, built around shared tales, through 21st-century media.

Submit your work for departmental awards!

Today is the last day to submit your work for the departmental writings awards–the Heuston Prize (for a literary/analytical essay at the 400 level), the Handy award (one poem of <50 lines), and the Wagner prize for fiction (one story of <25 pages). Details are posted throughout the department on Wyatt's 3rd floor. All currently registered students are eligible. Submit your work in the department office, 335 Wyatt, before the end of the day.