UW-L English Studies Blog

Beck Retirement Photos

UW-L Emerita

Annette White-Parks, faculty emerita from University of WI -- La Crosse, recently received a "Distinguished Faculty" award from her alma matre, Washington State University, in recognition of her service to the University and the community. Among her various books, special recognition was given to her biography of the Chinese North American writer Sui Sin Far/Edith Eaton, a primary study drawn upon by many scholars and stimulating continuing work. Her efforts with the Wisconsin-in-Scotland Program, creating networks and projects between scholars of Scotland and the United States, was also commended. A book on Scottish women is currently in progress. Before retiring in 2003, Dr. White-Parks taught in the English Department at UW-L.

LaCoss Presentation (5/2)

As part of the UW–L English Department’s 2007–2008 William J. and Yvonne Hyde Colloquium Series, Dr. Don LaCoss (History Dept) will present “Arabic Surrealism, German Romanticism & the British Occupation of Cairo, 1941-1946.”

The presentation takes place Friday May 2, Room 207 Wimberly Hall, 2:30pm-3:30pm.

All are welcome to attend our final colloquium this year.

David Hart
Colloquium Organizer

Steam Ticket Release (5/5)

Celebration of UWL Writing Talent! You're Invited!

• What: "Steam Ticket XI" Release Party
  Appearances by rap artist Lucas Dix, UWL creative writers, musicians and more! Door prizes! Refreshments!
• When: May 5. Doors open at 3pm, entertainment 5-7pm.
• Where: Ward room, Cartwright Center

Over the years, Steam Ticket has achieved international recognition from many of its subscribers and contributors. The journal continues to be hosted by the UW-La Crosse English Department, and commits itself to celebrating diversity in its journal selections and authors.

The release party is in honor of not only the publishing of the 11th edition but also for all the hard work and time put into the magazine by staff members. Further information about Steam Ticket can also be accessed on the Steam Ticket Internet site at www.steamticket.org.

Upcoming Events

Please mark your calendars and plan, as you have time, to attend and enjoy some or all of these activities – these are excellent opportunities to celebrate who we are and what is most important to us as a community.

Wednesday, April 23rd

• Joseph Bathanti, fiction writer and poet, will be reading from his work in Cowley 140, beginning at 5PM. Matt has circulated information on Mr. Bathanti’s work, and copies of his short story collection, The High Heart, are available for reading, in our mail room.

Thursday, May 1st

• Dick Gappa has been awarded the Murphy Library Career Achievement Award, and a reception to honor Dick will be held in Murphy Library’s Special collections/Resource Center, room 156 Murphy, beginning at 7PM.

Friday, May 2nd

• English Department Colloquium, 2:30-4:00, Wimberly 207 -- Don Lacoss (History) will present at our final colloquium of the semester. Don will discuss (what else?) Surrealism. Should be an excellent colloquium.
• The English Department Faculty/Student Spring Cook-Out and Social, 5:00 – 8:00, Myric Park (the main shelter) -- The English Club and Honors Society students will be circulating a flyer with details soon – this Spring, they have decided to change the sport to volleyball (in hopes they may do better than they did in kickball). They are also planning a spring theme for people who want to join in a celebratory reading of favorite literary works.

Wednesday, May 7th

• English Department Meeting, 3:45-5:00, 432 Wimberly. This will be our final faculty meeting for the year.

Friday, May 9th

• The English Department will host a retirement reception for Terry Beck, 2:30-4:00, in the 4th floor lounge, Wimberly Hall. Refreshments will be served, and we (and others from across the university) will come together to celebrate Terry’s exceptional career with us.

Dick Sullivan

Literary Capstone Seminar

Literary Capstone Presents:  The Dialogic Imagination

April 21

• Authorial Intervention: A Bakhtinian Analysis of Marcel Proust's Swann's Way
  Ryan Resch
• Frodo and Bakhtin Share a Pint at the Pub
  Toby Wendtland
• Reading Jodi Picoult’s My Sister's Keeper  with Bakhtin
  Katie Yurcek

April 28

• Raising Arizona and Realizing Escher's Cube: the Twist confronted by the Coens
  Kinzi Bushmaker
• An Intellectual Voice of Opposition to Oppression in Richard Wright’s Black Boy
  Chris Hoesly
• The Ethics of The Plague:  Camusian Philosophy through the Refracted Author
  Allyson Marisch
• Bakhtin’s Posited Author Theory in Sweeny Todd
  Brad Schiferl

Please contact Sharon Jessee for more information.

English Club Social (5/2)

VOLLEYBALL
POTLUCK
STORY and POETRY READINGS
MAY 2 -- 5pm-8pm
MYRICK PARK (by the cemetery)
Join us at Myrick Park on Friday, May 2nd at 5pm for English Club's semi-annual students vs. professors tournament. Bring a dish to pass and something to read to the crowd. We’ve got the big shelter reserved, so rain is not a concern. Even if you don’t want to play volleyball or read something aloud, still come and hang out with us before school lets out for the summer. Hope to see you there!

Department Open House (4/7)

All Students, Faculty & Staff:

You are cordially invited to attend the English department Open House, to be held

April 7th at
3:30-5:00 in
CWH 409.

Please click on the flyer for more information -->

Joseph Bathanti Reading (4/23)

Short story writer, novelist, poet, playwright, and creative nonfiction writer Joseph Bathanti will conduct a reading, discussion, and book signing, Wednesday, April 23,
5 p.m., Room 140, Cowley Hall, on the UW-L campus. 

Bathanti is the author of four books of poetry, two novels, a short story collection, a play, and numerous nonfiction pieces.  His most recent work, the short story collection, The High Heart, won the 2007 Spokane Prize.  His collection of poetry, This Metal, was nominated for The National Book Award.  He has been nominated for Pushcart Prizes in both short fiction and creative nonfiction.  His novel, Coventry, won the 2006 Novello Literary Award, and his novel, East Liberty, won the Carolina Novel Award in 2001.     He won the 1997 Oscar Arnold Young Award from The North Carolina Poetry Council.   His one-act play, Afomo, won The Wachovia Playwrights Prize.  He has received the Sherwood Anderson Award, the Linda Flowers Prize, and the 2007 Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Prize. 

Born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA, Bathanti moved to North Carolina as a VISTA Volunteer in 1976 to work with prison inmates.  Presently, he is Professor of Creative Writing at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. 

In this beautifully written and deeply moving collection of linked short stories, Joseph Bathanti gives us all the sad trappings of working-class life--the Rolling Rock beer, the Pall-Mall  cigarettes, the plastic lawn chairs, the beat-up Bonnevilles and Impalas. Yet the world of The High Heart never feels depressing.  It's impossible not to cheer on young Fritzy as he struggles to make sense of his eccentric parents, the ever-bickering, memorable couple  known as Travis-and-Rita.
--Rita Ciresi, author of Pink Slip and Sometimes I Dream In Italian

Karen Stuart Colloquium (4/4)

As part of the UW-L English Department's 2007-2008 William J. and Yvonne Hyde Colloquium Series, Dr. Karen Stuart will present

"Robert Musil's Essayism: Ethics and the Politics of Writing."

The presentation takes place Friday April 4, Room 207 Wimberly Hall, 2:30pm-3:30pm.

All are welcome to attend.

Trane Internship

Melinda Paulson, a Rhetoric & Writing graduate who did an internship at Trane (here in  La  Crosse) and is now working for Trane full time in St. Paul. She is currently looking to hire an intern herself.  See below for more information about the position:

• Download Intern Description

I’m looking to hire an intern in  La  Crosse  to do some of the things I started on, and wanted to reach out to you about it. If you could share this information with any students you think would be interested, I’d appreciate it!

The process to apply is through eagle opportunities / career services. I can’t see that description and I don’t receive those applications directly. They go to our HR department, which pre-screens them before sending them to me. (They make sure they meet minimum qualifications). The reason I wanted to reach out about this is that I’m a little more flexible than I believe the process will look. For instance, although it probably says minimum of 20 hours per week in 3 hour increments – we can work around that. I understand the college schedule and am thinking 10 – 20 hours per week with flexibility for midterms, etc. It probably also says minimum of 1 year and I’m thinking of a start date at the beginning of June and going through April. (I don’t expect them to work through finals / graduation unless they want to).

I do want someone that’s good with deadlines as a large part of the internship is a weekly publication. They need to be a good writer and editor. The description gives some other qualifications. It’s a paid internship at $10 / hour. The bulk is publication work and some event communications, but I’m open to offering other experience as well if time allows and there’s something specific they’d like to learn. (I do a variety of things in my position, from developing communication plans for manufacturing locations to technical writing to PR initiatives – a visibility program for our leaders at universities and promotion for customer projects).

If you could share this, I’d appreciate it!  Also, feel free to give out my contact information if anyone would like to contact me directly with questions. They’ll still need to follow the formal process, but I’d be happy to hear from them. I’d like to do in-person interviews in April, which means the sooner they apply, the better.

Melinda Paulson
Communications Project Coordinator
Trane Commercial Systems
4833 White Bear Pkwy
St. Paul, MN 55110
Tel: 651-407-3974
Mobile: 651-332-1296
E-mail: mpaulson@trane.com
http://www.trane.com

Shauna Singh Baldwin Event (3/26)

Fiction Reading, Discussion & Book Signing with Shauna Singh Baldwin

On Wednesday, March 26th at 5 pm in Port O' Call, Shauna Singh Baldwin, award-winning novelist and short-story writer will read from her latest short story collection, We Are Not in Pakistan.  Born in Canada to Indian parents, Ms. Baldwin grew up in New Delhi, and has made Milwaukee her home for the past twenty years. Her fiction has topped best seller lists in Canada, India, and elsewhere, and has earned glowing reviews in the New York Times and the Washington Post as well as high praise abroad. Her first novel, What the Body Remembers, won the 2000 Commonweath Prize for Best Book in the Canadian-Caribbean region; it has since been translated into fourteen languages. Her collection, English Lessons and Other Stories, won the 1996 Friends of American Writers prize; and her second novel, The Tiger Claw, was short-listed for the 2004 Giller Prize and shared the short list for India's 2006 Hutch Crossword Award with works by V.S. Naipaul and Salman Rushdie. The author's website: www.shaunasinghbaldwin.com

• Who: Shauna Singh Baldwin, award-winning novelist
• What: Book reading, discussion and signing
• When: 5 p.m. Wednesday, March 26
• Where: Port 'O Call, UW-La Crosse Cartwright Center
• Admission: Free

Sponsored by the UW-L English Department.
Contact: Matthew Cashion (cashion.matt@uwlax.edu).

SPEAK at the Cellar

Come to the Cellar between 8 and 10 this Wednesday to be seen (and heard) at SPEAK!
It's an open mic night and everyone is invited! Share your original (or borrowed) fiction, poetry, ramblings, musical talent, ninja skills and whatever other borderline-incriminating (however, NOT incriminating) abilities you would like the group of college kids in the intimate setting of the Cellar to witness! This week, special guest host Adam G. will hold "the paper" on which you will need to sign up to SPEAK!  Hope to see you there! SPEAK! is an event sponsored by Sigma Tau Delta and the English Club.

Katie Kaspar

ISIS Poetry Reading (3/5)

On Wednesday, March 5, CAB is bringing ISIS, a spoken word poet to campus.  Isis will be presenting herself and her poetry honestly, so all can see the beauty and scars that have made her a woman.  Her poetry explores universal themes of empowerment, reclamation, love, abuse and the mistakes we all make.  She will present our campus with a powerful message.

Liz Truax
Performing Arts Coordinator; Campus Activities Board

• Hear ISIS on MySpace

Randolph Colloquium (3/7)

As part of the UW–L English Department’s 2007–2008 William J. and Yvonne Hyde Colloquium Series, Patrick T. Randolph will present

“Conversation Analysis: The Awakening of Talk-In-Interaction Consciousness."

Friday, March 7th

Room 207 Wimberly Hall

2:30pm-3:30pm

All are welcome to attend.