Georgia College

The DoER

The Department of English & Rhetoric Newsletter

9.1 December 2016

Program Notes

 

The Creative Writing Program has enjoyed a busy fall semester.  At the undergraduate level, the Red Earth Reading Series has been standing room only, and undergraduates in the creative writing concentration have been participating in the new monthly Black Market Creative Slam Radio Show, that will collaborate with Rhetoric this spring.  Entries for the Margaret Harvin Wilson Writing Award reached robust levels, and the Peacock's Feet editors are busy preparing for their annual spring release.  Two undergraduate creative writing students, Leslie Peterson and Emily Exner, have served as interns in the creative writing program office; they’ve been publicizing undergraduate activities with a Facebook page, Twitter, and Instagram accounts. Students have also redone the undergraduate bulletin boards, and the Peacock's Feet is now entered in an annual consideration for the national anthology Plain China.  Undergrads have been encouraged to submit for publication in other venues, and we've just heard that Lizzie Perrin's story, "Television Room," is forthcoming in Runestone Literary Magazine.  Several students have applied to graduate programs, and space has been reserved for a spring reading to celebrate undergraduate creative writing achievements.

 

At the graduate level, Laura Caron's hours were increased in August to a more full-time status; we're grateful for her presence in our office.  This year also marked the release of a revised MFA handbook with a thesis requirement section, and lately creative writing has been in full recruiting mode; our web pages have been updated, and for the first time our program hosted a webinar in October for interested MFA candidates.  Alexandra McCloughlin has been maintaining an MFA blog, and she and Abbie Lahmers have kept our Facebook page, and our Twitter and Instagram accounts current.  This fall the Arts & Letters Store debuted on the GCSU Exchange, helping to contribute to increased sales, and in terms of submissions, our summer Unclassifiables contest entries increased from 119 last year to 344 this year, while submissions for regular publication are 325 ahead of where we were at this same time last November.  Graduate students have been publishing in many places: Flash Fiction Press, Cactus Heart Review, Poetry Pacific, Offbeat Scholarly Magazine, 3288 Review, Heavy Feather Review, FOLIA Magazine, ImageOutWrite, The Good Men Project, Flyway, Beechers, and elsewhere.  Alumnus Miller Oberman announced the forthcoming publication of his book, The Unstill Ones, by the Princeton Series of Contemporary Poets.  The graduate student reading series, The Munch, provided enthusiastic audiences with many good works, and faculty members Cecilia Woloch, Peter Selgin, and Kerry Neville gave readings to appreciative crowds this fall for our Visiting Writers Series.  Fall faculty announced publication or forthcoming work in: Rattle, The Colorado Review, Ploughshares, and The Gettysburgh Review.  Faculty members Martin Lammon, Laura Newbern, and Alice Friman had poems appear in a GCA anthology, Inspired Georgia, and commitments have been secured with the Georgia College Art Department for the photography exhibit that accompanies this anthology to be displayed here in October, 2017, which will include a reading and reception.

 

The Literature Program congratulates Dr. Beauty Bragg on her appointment as the 2016-2017 Provost Fellow and welcomes Dr. Hali Sofala-Jones, a Georgia College BA graduate, who is teaching World Literature and Contemporary Black Women Writers as well as Bridge courses and America’s Diverse Cultural Heritage in other programs. At the Provost's Faculty Scholarship panel, Dr. Mary Magoulick and Dr. Katie Simon presented the results of their summer research. Dr. Magoulick discussed tricksters in Louise Erdrich's work and Dr. Simon presented on race and the body in antebellum literature. Dr. Mary Magoulick gave a Literature Faculty Talk on trickster figures in Louise Erdrich's work. Dr. Katie Simon and Dr. Jennifer Flaherty received a MURACE (Mentored Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors) Departmental Grant to research best practices for infusing undergraduate research experiences into the literature concentration of the English major. This fall, they are conducting research on comparable and aspirational institutions, surveying faculty, and hosting focus groups with students, in order to provide recommendations for changes in the capstone requirements.

 

In news from our student organizations, Literary Guild held book discussions on The Book Thief, Ender's Game, and Bossypants, hosted book adaptation movie nights for Gone Girl and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and held its second Book Bonanza, a philanthropic event that sells and trades books and donates a portion of the leftover books to Better World Books. In this wildly successful year, Literary Guild was fortunate enough to raise $400. Shakespearean Circle read Richard II, The Merry Wives of Windsor, and Julius Caesar. Members of Sigma Rho, the Georgia College Chapter of the International English Honor Society, Sigma Tau Delta, collected approximately 240 used textbooks and shipped them to the Better World Books charity organization. Ten members made the annual pilgrimage to Shakespeare's Tavern in Atlanta to enjoy a professional performance of Macbeth. In student news, spring BA graduate Sarah Beth Gilbert, who is serving Americorps as a teaching assistant and tutor at Great Oaks High School in Newark, New Jersey, presented a section of her undergraduate BA thesis on gender and sexuality in Doctor Who at the Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Association Culture Association conference. Graduate students Catherine Bowlin presented on Flannery O'Connor and Jaemon McLeod presented on the erasure of masculinity in the trans community at the South Atlantic Modern Language Association conference; and Sammy-Jo Watt presented on television heroes and villains at the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association in the South conference. Recent MA graduate Melissa Hardman and current graduate student Catherine Bowlin both accepted full-time faculty positions teaching English at Central Georgia Technical College.

 

The Rhetoric Program sponsored a couple of events for the campus this fall. Under the direction of Dr. Jan Clark's course, students sponsored and hosted the 2016 Presidential Debate Watch for the first Presidential debate. The event was held on front campus and was open to the campus and Milledgeville community. Those same students helped sponsor and sign people up for the annual Mark Vail Bone Marrow Drive. The event is an annual one in honor of our late beloved colleague Dr. Mark Vail.

Friman, Alice. "The Acolyte." [Poem] The World Is Charged: Poetic Engagements with Gerard Manley Hopkins. Ed. Daniel Westover and William Wright. Clemson, SC: Clemson UP, 2016. 31. Print.

---. "Ambrosia Revisited." [Poem] A Quiet Courage May 2016. Web.
https://aquietcourage.wordpress.com/2016/05/23/ambrosia-revisited/

---. "Anthropology 101" and "What Lowell Said." [Poems] Hamilton Stone Review 35 (Oct. 2016). Web. http://www.hamiltonstone.org/hsr35poetry.html#friman

---. "At the Dealership" and "Self to Self and Not Getting Anywhere." [Poems] I-70 Review 10 (Summer/Fall 2016): 55-56. Print.

---. "At the Gates." [Reprinted poem] Vox Populi 28 Mar. 2016. Web.
https://voxpopulisphere.com/2016/03/28/alice-friman-at-the-gates/

---. "At the Rothko Chapel," "Getting Serious," "The Night I Saw Saturn," "Red Camellia," "Seeing It Through," and "Tracing Back." [Reprinted poems] I-70Review May 2016. "Featured Poet" page includes Friman's statement "On Style." Web. http://i70review.fieldinfoserv.com/featuredpoet2.html

---. "Donatello's Prophet" and "Reading Boccaccio." [Poems] Ekphrasis 7.4 (2016): 12, 19. Print. [Ekphrasis nominated "Donatello's Prophet" for a Pushcart Prize.]

---. "The Engagement Ring" and "Once Upon a Time." [Poems] The Gettysburg
Review 29.3 (Autumn 2016): 442-43. Print.

---. "Five Gold Leaves," "The Red Oxalis," "Dicholomy," "Midas Country," and    "Driving like Jerry." [Poems] Innisfree Poetry Journal 23 (Fall 2016). Web. 
http://authormark.com/artman2/publish/Innisfree_23ALICE_FRIMAN.shtml

---. "Frame It" and "When Did We First." [Poems] Subtropics 20/21 (1916): 81-83. Print.

---. "Knee High." [Reprinted poem] Vox Populi 2 Mar. 2016. Web. https://voxpopulisphere.com/2016/03/02/alice-friman-knee-high/

---. "The Night I Saw Saturn." [Reprinted poem] Shining Rock Poetry Anthology and Book Review 4 (Fall 2016). Web. http://www.shiningrockpoetry.com/-
the-night-i-saw-saturn-by-alice-friman/

---. "The Poet on the Poem: Alice Friman." Interview by Diane Lockward, on the reprinted poem "Coming Down." The Crafty Poet II: A Portable Workshop.   Ed. Diane Lockward. West Caldwell, NJ: Terrapin, 2016. 208-12. Print.
---. "Postcard from Home." [Poem] The American Journal of Poetry 1 (2016). Web. http://www.theamericanjournalofpoetry.com/p-friman.html

---. "Taking a Turn with Sappho." [Poem] Spillway 24 (2016): 23. Print.

---. "Tracing Back." [Reprinted poem] Inspired Georgia. Ed. Judson Mitcham, David Murphy, and Karen L. Paty. Athens: U of Georgia P and Georgia Council for the Arts, 2016. 13. Print.

Gentry, Marshall Bruce. "Flannery O'Connor Is Capable of Anything: Gilgamesh and the Woods of Andalusia." Blog posting for Andalusia website. 21 Oct. 2016. http://andalusiafarm.blogspot.com/2016/10/flannery-oconnor-is-capable-of-anything.html  

---. "O'Connor's Legacy in Stories by Joyce Carol Oates and Paula Sharp." [Reprinted article] Short Story Criticism: "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates. Columbia, SC: Layman Poupard, Oct. 2016. Print.

---. Rev. of Witnessing Sadism in Texts of the American South:Women, Specularity, and the Poetics of Subjectivity, by Claire Raymond.  Flannery O'Connor Review 14 (2016): 126-28. Print.

Knapp, Georgia. [Story] "What to Bring to a Funeral." Exit 271: Georgia Writers Resource (2016): 52-61. Web.

---. [Essay] "Stormy Seas." The 3288 Review 1.4 (2016): 22-28. Print.

Lammon, Martin. "What We Feel in Our Bones." [Reprinted poem] Inspired Georgia. Ed. Judson Mitcham, David Murphy, and Karen L. Paty. Athens: U of Georgia P and Georgia Council for the Arts, 2016. 97-98. Print.

Newbern, Laura. "Landscape and Elegy." [Reprinted poem] Inspired Georgia. Ed. Judson Mitcham, David Murphy, and Karen L. Paty. Athens: U of Georgia P and Georgia Council for the Arts, 2016. 115. Print.

Simon, Katie. "Affect and Cruelty in the Atlantic System: The Hauntological Argument of Henry Davide Thoreau's Cape Cod." ESQ: A Journal of Nineteenth-Century American Literature and Culture 62.2 (2016): 245-282. Print.

Stefani, Debora. "Inventing Literary Dialogues: Students as Creators and Distributors of Knowledge." Teaching Literature with Digital Technology. Ed Tim Hetland. Boston: Bedford-St.Martin's, 2016. Print. 

Tomko, Seth. "Surrogate Fatherhood in Video Games." Hubpages.com. July 7, 2016. Web. http://hubpages.com/games-hobbies/Surrogate-Fatherhood-in-Video-Games http://www.critical-distance.com/2016/07/11/may-june-roundup-childhood-parenthood/

Woloch, Cecilia. "Reign of Embers." [Poem] The American Journal of Poetry (Summer 2016). Web.

---. "Self-Pity." [Poem] Rattle (Summer 2016). Print.

---. "Four Poems in Hungarian Translation: "Burning the Doll;" "In Warsaw;" "On Faith;" "East India Grill Villanelle." Amerikai Koltok/American Poets at the Turn of the Second Millennium. Ed. Dr. Istvan Bagi. Budapest, Hung.: Kapitalis Kft., 2016. Print.

Blazer, Alex E. "'This is Chuck's Happy Ending': Fight Club 2 and Authorial Anxiety." Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association. Tropicana Casino & Resort, Atlantic City, NJ. 4 Nov. 2016. Conference Presentation.

Bowlin, Catherine. [MA Student] "Erasing Annie Lee Jackson: O'Connor in Iowa." American Literature Association Annual Conference. Hyatt Regency, San Francisco, CA. 27 May 2016. Conference Presentation.

---. "'The Misery He Had Was a Longing for Home': Flannery O'Connor and Hazel Motes." South Atlantic Modern Language Association Annual Conference. Hyatt Regency, Jacksonville, FL. 6 Nov. 2016. Conference Presentation.

Friman, Alice. Reading. Lost Keys Literary Festival. Macon, GA. 8 Oct. 2016,

---. Reading and panel presentation. Other Words Conference. Florida Literary Arts Coalition, St. Augustine, FL. 5 Nov. 2016. Reading.

Knapp, Georgia. [MFA student] "We Need to Talk: The Dos and Don'ts of Writing Effective Dialogue." Steel Pen Conference. Radisson Hotel, Merrillville, IN. 12 Nov. 2016. Lecture.

McLeod, Jaemon. [MA student] "Have All the Men Gone Missing: The Erasure of
Traditional Masculinity in the Trans Community." South Atlantic Modern Language Association Annual Conference. Hyatt Regency, Jacksonville, FL. 6 Nov. 2016. Conference Presentation.

Simon, Katie. "Something Akin to Freedom: Race, Space, and the Body in Antebellum U.S. Literature." Faculty Scholarship Support Program. Georgia College & State University, Milledgeville, GA. 28 Sept. 2016. Panel Presentation.

Watt, Sammy-Jo. [MA student] "Love Makes You Crazy: Transitions of Heroes and Villains." Television Transitions: The Legend of Korra, Once Upon a Time, and Grimm. Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association in the South. Nashville Airport Marriott, Nashville, TN. 14 Oct 2016. Conference Presentation.

Woloch, Cecilia. "Reading from 'Reign of Embers' & Earth." Chapman University, Orange, CA. 15 Sept. 2016. Reading.

---. Reading from 'Reign of Embers.' Men Stopping Violence Benefit. Emory University, Atlanta, GA. 22 Sept. 2016. Reading.

---. "Reading from Tsigan: The Gypsy Poem." International Festival Romaii, Sibiu, Rom. 1 Oct. 2016. Reading.

---. "Poetry Reading and Discussion." Sibiu University, Sibiu, Rom. 3 Oct. 2016. Reading.

----. "The Life of a Poet in the U.S." American Shelf. Astra Library, Sibiu, Rom. 4 Oct. 2016. Lecture and reading.

---. "Reading from Earth and Carpathia." SUNY Plattsburgh, Plattsburgh, NY. 17 Nov. 2016. Reading.

---. "Reading from Earth and Carpathia." St. John’s University, Queens, NY. 21 Nov. 2016. Reading.

---. "Reading from Earth and Carpathia." Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY, New York, NY. 22 Nov. 2016.  Classroom discussion and reading.

Catherine Bowlin [MA student] has accepted a position as a full-time English instructor at Central Georgia Technical College.

 

Alice Friman's poem "The Interview," nominated for a Pushcart Prize by The Southern Review, is listed in the "Special Mention" section of Pushcart Prize XLI: Best of the Small Presses, 2017.

 

Melissa Hardman [MA graduate] has been hired as a full-time faculty member
teaching English at Central Georgia Technical College.