UW-L English Studies Blog

The Catalyst - Spring 2019 Call for Submissions

The Catalyst is now accepting submissions for Spring 2019: Poetry, Prose, Music, Art, Photography, Short Stories

Deadline: April 17, 2019

Submit To:
[email protected]

Visit us at uwlcatalyst.wordpress.com

“Habits of Mind, Movements in Writing: First-Year Writers as Learners” - Friday, March 29, 2:30-3:30pm, Wimberly 104

First-Year Writing (FYW) touches the lives of nearly every student who attends UWL. Because FYW focuses on high-impact practices and has a lower faculty-to-student ratio than other general education courses at UWL, it is a powerful space where the Habits of Mind from the Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing (metacognition, curiosity, creativity, responsibility, flexibility, engagement, persistence, and openness) converge. Not surprisingly then, studies show that a student’s performance in FYW, “even when compared to other courses in the major and other general education courses, is a particularly strong predictor of whether students persist in their education” (Garrett, Bridgewater, Feinstein). The Framework, created by the Council of Writing Program Administrators, The National Council of the Teachers of English, and the National Writing Project, is intended for instructors and administrators—but what about the voices of students? How do students' own perception of or resistance to the Framework measures signal their readiness for writing in the university? Professor Sara Heaser will share the results of a two-year, mixed-methods study of institutional and student-led data; Habits of Mind, Movements in Writing: First-Year Writers as Learners is tailored for anyone who considers or works alongside first-year students at UWL.

For disability accomodations, contact Stephanie Speer at SSpeer(at)uwlax.edu or 785-8577

“‘But Nobody Says So’: On John Ashbery’s Later Prose Poems” -- Friday, February 15, 2:30-3:30pm, Wimberly 104

On Friday, February 15, Dr. Tom Jesse will present “‘But Nobody Says So’: On John Ashbery’s Later Prose Poems” from 2:30-3:30pm in Wimberly 104.

Over the course of a career that began in the mid-1950s, American poet John Ashbery (1927-2017) published 28 collections of poems, won nearly every major award an American poet can win (including 1976’s “Triple Crown”: The Pulitzer Prize, The National Book Award, and The National Book Critics Circle Award), and attracted a large following of critics and scholars who have made his work the subject of countless reviews, monographs, journal articles, and dissertations. Comparatively little has been written, however, about his occasional use of prose forms throughout his lengthy career—and critics have been especially hesitant to engage with the prose poems published after the year 2000 (i.e., Ashbery’s “later period”). This presentation focuses exclusively on these recent prose poems to argue that, far from being an afterthought in the poet’s vast oeuvre, these texts actually represent some of Ashbery’s most innovative and entertaining experiments with language over the past twenty years. As readers and critics begin to assess the complete trajectory of Ashbery’s writing life, they can no longer afford to ignore the poet’s comedic, satiric, and—above all else—playful forays into the world of prose poetry.

“Aristotelian Rhetoric, Humanistic Studies, and the Other” -- Friday, November 16, 2:30-3:30, Wimberly 104.

Dr. Haixia Lan will present “Aristotelian Rhetoric, Humanistic Studies, and the Other” from 2:30-3:30 p.m. on Friday, November 16 in Wimberly 104.

The works of Aristotle (384-322BCE) are often interdisciplinary and sometimes misunderstood, since he inquired into matters metaphysical and physical but we today have rather distinct fields of studies. For example, Aristotle sees the connection between pursuits in the Humanities and in the natural sciences as in, among others, logic, and Aristotelian logic dominated the West for two millennia, so today the name Aristotle has often become synonymous with the label inflexibility. A case in point is his treatise Rhetoric. Neo-Platonic rhetoricians passionately resist the linear “successive generalization” (Berthoff 43b), and the neo-Sophistic rhetoricians credited Aristotle only ever so reluctantly: “as Aristotle himself insisted [as absolute and inflexible as that self was]” (28 emphasis added) that sometimes facts—the signified—needed to be hammered out by the use of signifiers. Yet, most people including many rhetoricians say little to nothing about the enthymeme, the "substance" (Rhetoric 1354a15) of Aristotelian rhetoric, and the complexity of the Greek concept techne translated as both science and art. Certainly, Aristotle is seriously limited in many ways like all thinkers are, but at a time when we emphasize diversity for the purpose of better connecting with each other, we may find Aristotelian rhetoric a way for us in the humanities to connect with the other.

The Catalyst - Fall 2018 Call for Submissions

The Catalyst is now accepting submissions for Fall 2018: Poetry, Prose, Music, Art, Photography, Short Stories

Deadline: November 15, 2018

Submit To:
[email protected]

Visit us at uwlcatalyst.wordpress.com

The UWL English Department presents the Fall 2018 Professional & Technical Writing Speaker Series

Recent alumni will offer job market tips & reflect on how their UWL experiences prepared them for exciting careers! All UWL students are welcome.

Ellie Peters (UWL '18)
Admissions Counselor
Viterbo University
Wednesday • October 17
6:30-7:30 pm • Wimberly 113

Lauren Pfaffenroth (UWL '17)
Community Relations Manager
Big Brothers Big Sisters
Tuesday • October 30
6:30-7:30 pm • Wimberly 114

Taylor Pasell (UWL '18)
Marketing & Media Specialist
Allergychoices, Inc.
Thursday • November 15
6:30-7:30 pm • Wimberly 113

Questions or accommodations needed? Contact Dr. Lindsay Steiner, lsteiner[at]uwlax.edu

 

“The Target Shoots First: Selling and Selling Out for the Columbia House Record Club” -- Friday, Oct. 19, 2:30-3:30, Wimberly 104

Dr. Chris McCracken will present “The Target Shoots First: Selling and Selling Out for the Columbia House Record Club” from 2:30-3:30 on Friday Oct. 19 in Wimberly 104.

Much of the work we do in technical and professional writing classrooms is an effort to bridge gaps between workplace and academic discourses. In this presentation, Dr. McCracken will demonstrate one of the ways he does that work in his professional writing classes by way of a fairly obscure documentary titled The Target Shoots First. This first-person documentary, directed by and featuring Chris Wilcha, focuses on Wilcha’s first year designing catalogues for the (now-defunct) Columbia House Record Club during the early-mid 1990s. The Target Shoots First is an autobiographical look at selling and selling out for the Columbia House Record Club that offers students a uniquely candid view into how writing mediates and structures professional organizations and identities. The documentary also functions as a fascinating artifact from a pivotal time when digital technologies began to fundamentally change how people collaborate.

The Target Shoots First is currently available on Vimeo for free: https://vimeo.com/58192159

UWL visiting writers series welcomes poets and editors Paula Cisewski and William Waltz - 5:30 PM, Wednesday, September 26, Wimberly Hall 102

The UWL visiting writers series welcomes poets and editors Paula Cisewski and William Waltz, who will read from their recent books and discuss their work as editors of Conduit, a leading publication of contemporary poetry and fiction. 

• Paula Cisewski's fourth poetry collection, Quitter, won the Diode Editions Book Prize. She is also the author of The Threatened Everything (Burnside Review Books), Ghost Fargo (Nightboat Poetry Prize winner, selected by Franz Wright), Upon Arrival (Black Ocean), and several chapbooks, including the lyric prose Misplaced Sinister. She has been awarded fellowships and residencies from the Jerome Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Oberholtzer Foundation, and the Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts. Cisewski lives in Minneapolis, where she teaches, collaborates with fellow artists and activists, and serves on the editorial staff of Conduit. 
  
• William Waltz is the author of Adventures in the Lost Interiors of America (Cleveland State University Poetry Center), Confluence of Mysterious Origins (Factory Hollow Press) and Zoo Music (Slope Editions). He is the founder and editor of Conduit. Waltz lives with his family in Saint Paul, Minnesota, near the Mississippi River and its fossil strewn bluffs.

Wednesday, September 26
5:30 PM
Wimberly Hall 102

"Modernizing Misogyny in Shakespeare’s Shrew" - Friday, September 21, 2:30-3:30, Wimberly 104

"Modernizing Misogyny in Shakespeare’s Shrew" by Dr. Natalie Eschenbaum

UWL English Department's William J. And Yvonne Hyde Colloquium Presentations 2018-2019.

An NPR review of Vinegar Girl (Hogarth 2016) states that Anne Tyler’s modernization of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew is a “fizzy cocktail of a romantic comedy, far more sweet than acidic.” This presentation by Dr. Natalie Eschenbaum considers how Tyler’s novel adopts and adapts the critical debate concerning the play’s misogyny. Social historians have helped to contextualize the shrew-taming plot, some claiming that Shakespeare’s tale is similarly “romantic” and “sweet” when read in context. Students push back against such conclusions, however, arguing that teaching Shrew and its informing histories reinforces the patriarchy and risks normalizing misogyny. Dr. Eschenbaum's presentation responds to students’ concerns and is informed by girlhood and cultural studies.

Free and Open to the Public. All are welcome to attend. 

Friday, September 21
2:30-3:30
Wimberly 104

 

La Crosse Luna Storytelling's "Story Slam" - 7:00pm, June 2 at Pearl Street Brewery

La Crosse Luna Storytelling's "Story Slam":

$5.00 if you prepare a 5 minute story on the theme SWEET and put your name in the hat to compete for a prize.

$8.00 admission for listeners.

June 2
7:00pm
Pearl Street Brewery

Sponsored by the La Crosse Storytelling Festival
For more information visit: www.lacrossestoryfest.com or themoth.org/about/programs/the-moth-storyslam