English Department News and Events

News

 

English Department Visiting Lecturer Dr. Lucas Dietrich’s book, Writing Across the Color Line: U.S. Print Culture and the Rise of Ethnic Literature, 1877-1920, will be published on June 26 and available for purchase after July 1. Here is the link from UMass Press: https://www.umass.edu/umpress/title/writing-across-color-line

 

Dr. Dietrich will be giving an online book talk through The Library Company of Philadelphia’s “Fireside Chats” series on Thursday, July 9 at 7:00 p.m.  Here is the Zoom registration link:   https://librarycompany.org/upcoming-fireside-chats/

 

Thomas Maye, a senior English major with a Journalism concentration who was The Gatepost’s Op/Ed Editor for most of this academic year, has been named a national Mark of Excellence Finalist in Column Writing for small schools by the Society of Professional Journalists.  Earlier this spring, he won a first-place Mark of Excellence award for column writing in SPJ’s Region 1 (the New England and mid-Atlantic states).  The Mark of Excellence Awards honor the best of collegiate journalism, and SPJ recognized material published during the 2019 calendar year.  The Society of Professional Journalists, founded in 1909, is the “nation’s most broad-based journalism organization, dedicated to encouraging the free practice of journalism and stimulating high standards of ethical behavior.”

 

Here is a link to the announcement of the national Mark of Excellence winners:

 

https://www.spj.org/moe19.asp#Newspapers

 

Here are links to his award-winning columns from The Gatepost’s website:

 

4/5: http://fsugatepost.com/2019/04/05/can-we-stop-acting-like-therapy-is-easy/

4/12: http://fsugatepost.com/2019/04/12/the-college-admissions-scandal-is-more-important-than-aunt-becky-gone-wild/

10/18: http://fsugatepost.com/2019/10/18/im-coming-out-from-the-spectrum/

 

 

Professor Ani Gjika, a Visiting Lecturer in the English Department, has published two translated books of poems: Kosovar poet’s  Xhevdet Bajraj’s Emergency Exit, and Julia Gjika’s Memories Pretend to Sleep.  Xhevdet Bajraj has lived in exile in Mexico since the Kosovo war in 1997.  Julia Gjika, Professor Gjika’s mother, belongs to the first generation of Albanian women poets.  The first of her four poetry collections, Birthday, was published in 1971.  Julia Gjika has lived in the United States since 1996.   

Here is a link to the publisher’s website: http://www.laertesbooks.org/egret-chapbooks

 

The Boston Globe recently published an article about Professor Gjika’s translation of her mother’s poems, Memories Pretend to Sleep.  Here’s a link to the article:

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bostonglobe.com/2020/04/30/arts/new-short-stories-translating-your-mother-an-online-poetry-community/%3foutputType=amp

 

 Dr. Kristen Abbott Bennett and Andrew Jeromski, an M.A. candidate in the English graduate program, co-wrote a peer-reviewed exhibit, '"The Glory of Our Sexe": Elizabeth I and Early Modern Women Writers," for Northeastern University's "Women Writers in Context" series.  This project is part of the NEH-funded Intertextual Networks Project.   Dr. Bennett has been a contributor to the project since October, 2016.

 

Here is a link to the exhibit: https://wwp.northeastern.edu/context/#bennett.glory.xml

 

 Professor David Blair, a Visiting Lecturer in the English Department, has just published his latest book of poems, Barbarian Seasons (MadHat Press).  The cover design is by Art Professor Stephanie Grey.  Here’s a link to the announcement: 

 

https://madhat-press.com/products/barbarian-seasons-by-david-blair

  

This is Professor Blair’s fourth published collection of poems.  Last year, he also published his first collection of essays, Walk Around: Essays about Poetry and Place. 

 

 Professor Jennifer De Leon has won the 2020 Juniper Literary Prize in Creative Nonfiction for White Space: Essays on Culture, Race, & Writing.  Her collection of essays will be published by the UMass Press in 2021. 

 

Here’s a link to the announcement:  https://www.umass.edu/umpress/2020juniperwinners

 

 Dr. Rachel Trousdale co-edited a special issue of Nabokov Studies—a festschrift for her mother, Dr. Priscilla Meyer, who retired as a Professor in the Program of Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at Wesleyan University in 2018.   An essay by Dr. Trousdale, “My Scheme was a Marvel of Primitive Art: Durable Pigments in Lolita,” is also published in the volume.   

 

Here is a link to the issue:   https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/41799

 

Dr. Bartholomew Brinkman has been selected as an M. C. Lang Fellow in Book History, Bibliography, and Humanities Teaching with Historical Sources.  In the letter announcing Dr. Brinkman’s selection to this two-year fellowship, Laura Perrings, writing on behalf of the M. C. Lang Fellowship Selection Committee, praised him for his “dedication to teaching book history as well as to building a bibliographic community” at Framingham State.  As an M. C. Lang Fellow, Dr. Brinkman will be participating in a seminar, “Book History, Bibliography, and Humanities: Teaching with Historical Sources,” at the University of Virginia in June.

Teen Vogue published a chapter from Professor Jennifer De Leon’s forthcoming YA novel, Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From, along with the book cover and a link to Professor De Leon’s website.  Teen Vogue, a digital publication, draws 11.6 million unique U.S. visitors.  Here’s a link:

 

https://jenniferdeleonauthor.com/news/teen-vogue-announces-cover-reveal-of-dont-ask-me-where-im-from/

 

Professor Patricia Horvath’s short story, “Griswold,” was published in the 2020 issue of the literary journal descant.  According to the descant website, it is “one of the oldest continuously published small literary journals, featuring some of the country’s best writers.”  Additionally, Professor Horvath’s essay, “Diligence,” was nominated for the Pushcart Prize.  Published in the Spring 2019 issue of F(r)iction, “Diligence" is from a series of linked essays on the seven deadly sins/seven cardinal virtues as they relate to issues of cancer and caretaking.

 A performance by Professor Adam Stumacher, a Visiting Lecturer in the English Department, aired on the World Channel/WGBH program “Stories from the Stage” on November 11.

 

English Professor Emerita Dr. Miriam Levine has just published her fifth book of poems.   Here is a review of Saving Daylight published in The Boston Globe on August 25:  

Poet Miriam Levine turned 80 in December, and her latest collection “Saving Daylight ” throbs with an engagement to living. Levine, a former poet laureate of Arlington who now splits her time between New Hampshire and Florida, writes with a vital sensuality – alert to touch, loss, myth, and natural rhythms. “Petals wheeled / from the hub’s soft button. / And there seemed no end of you.” Orpheus and Eurydice appear, as do Aphrodite and Emily Dickinson. She writes of witch hazel, asters, cattails, and bees; and she reminds us what beauty there is in the world, amidst changing seasons and stories told and re-told. “Better the far scene,” she writes, “the small spume, pink, breath-hush rosettes, pinwheels / spun to extinction . . . The long view saves my neck tonight.” 

Dr. Levine was interviewed about Saving Daylight on New Hampshire Public Radio on August 2.  Here is a link to this engaging conversation about these beautiful and inspiring poems about loss and consolation:

 

https://www.nhpr.org/post/bookshelf-miriam-levines-poetry-loss-and-consolation

 

 

The Folger Shakespeare Library recently published "The Four Points of Character Analysis," an in-class activity Dr. Kristen Abbott Bennett developed in her ENGL 220 Shakespeare class.  This activity complements both the Folger Digital Texts online platform and its application program interface features found here: https://www.folgerdigitaltexts.org/api

Professor Colleen Coyne’s poems, "Some Remarks on the Great and Unusual Darkness" and "The Reluctant History of a Natural Suburb," were published in Sou'wester (Spring 2019).

Another poem, "Understory," originally published in TAB: The Journal of Poetry & Poetics, has been reprinted in Another Chicago Magazine (https://anotherchicagomagazine.net/2019/07/11/understory-by-colleen-coyne-with-art-by-mary-farmilant/).

 

Additionally, a pedagogical reflection, "'True to How the Real World Would Operate': Incorporating Narrative Practices into a Service-Learning-Based Professional Writing Course," was published in Watchung Review 3 (August 2019), the "Contemporary Humanities" issue.

 

English Professor Jennifer De Leon’s commentary, “Finding Hope and Humanity at the Border,” was featured on WBUR’s Cognoscenti ideas and opinion page on September 5.  Here is a link to the site:  

 https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2019/09/05/migrant-stories-from-mcallen-texas-jennifer-de-leon

Professor Eamon Cunningham’s article, “The Sound of Silence: The Role of Silence in the Teaching of Writing,” will be published in Issue 124 (September 2019) of English Teaching Professional (Pavilion Publishing Group), an international publication on the teaching of English based in the UK.

Dr. Bartholomew Brinkman delivered a talk, "Big-Shouldered Magazines: Chicago Modernism in Poetry and The Little Review," at the annual American Literature Association meeting held in Boston in May.

He also delivered a paper, "Yellowstone Scrapbooks and the Mediation of American Cultural Identity," at the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing (SHARP) conference held in Amherst in July.

Dr. Rachel Trousdale’s poem, “The Reef,” was published in The Yale Review.  Here is a link to her poem: https://yalereview.yale.edu/reef

English Professor Emerita Dr. Miriam Levine’s poem, “On the Steps of the Miami Beach Cinematheque,” was published in the online journal Vox Populi.  Here is a link to her poem:https://voxpopulisphere.com/2019/07/20/miriam-levine-on-the-steps-of-the-miami-beach-cinematheque/

Dr. Kristen Abbott Bennett contributed a peer-reviewed blog post to Northeastern University’s Women Writer’s Project, “The Preposterous Publication History of Elizabeth I’s ‘Golden Speech,’” May 21, 2019.

Her book review of Tara Williams’ Middle English Marvels: Magic, Spectacle, and Morality was published in the Summer 2019 issue of Renaissance Quarterly, Cambridge UP.

Dr. Bartholomew Brinkman’s essay, "Women’s Poetry in the Modern British Magazines: A Case for Medium Reading," was published in Women, Periodicals and Print Culture in Britain, 1890s-1920s: The Modernist Period (The Edinburgh History of Women's Periodical Culture in Britain Series).  Here is a link to the publisher’s announcement:  https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-women-periodicals-and-print-culture-in-britain-1890s-1920s.html

Professor Mona Awad, a visiting creative writing professor during the fall 2018 semester, has just published her second novel, Bunny.

Rob Renaud, an English M.Ed. student, published a poem, "Lunch in the Park," in the journal Alluvian.  Rob is also an alumnus of the English epartment.  Here is a link to his poem: http://alluvian.space/lunch-in-the-park-rob-renaud

Professor Patricia Horvath's essay, "Diligence," was published in F(r)iction, the  literary journal of the Brink Literacy Project.  "Diligence" is from a series of linked essays on the seven deadly sins/seven cardinal virtues as they relate to issues of cancer and caretaking.

Professor Liz Banks received the 2019 Judith Vance Weld Brown Spirit of Journalism Award from the New England Society of News Editors (NESNE) on Thursday, May 2.  The award recognizes “the accomplishments and pioneering spirit of an outstanding woman in journalism,” according to NESNE; it is the top honor for women journalists in New England.  Professor Banks is being recognized for her 30-year career as a reporter and editor.  She served as a Regional Editor for GateHouse Media from 2001 to 2012 and then as Managing Editor of The Milford Daily News until her retirement in January, 2015.  She was a pioneer in reporting about AIDS during the 1980s, and received awards from the New England Consortium for AIDS Education and Beacon Communications for her work.  During her career, she also received awards for editorial writing and for investigative reporting from the New England Press Association. 

Dr. Rachel Trousdale’s poem, “Notre Dame, Burning,” has been published on the website, “Poets Reading the News.”  Here’s a link to her poem:

http://www.poetsreadingthenews.com/2019/04/rachel-trousdale-notre-dame/?fbclid=IwAR3vINZSBxJgBJ45rhjdUbVDrhu9WuEIXOEuuQAhh0atT42SM289zEWh8QE

Professor Karen Druffel and Dr. Lynn Parker presented a paper, “A 21st Century Response to a 19th Century Problem: Social Networks and Sweatshops,” at the University of Pennsylvania Law School’s Journal of Business Law’s annual symposium.  The focus of this year’s symposium was “Harmonizing Business Law.”  The presentation examined corporate social responsibility in the apparel industry such as anti-sweatshop efforts, which are connected to the ethics of Victorian textile mills.  The presentation contrasted the Victorian model of corporate social responsibility through “captains of industry” to modern-day philanthrocapitalism and systems of crowd-sourced and financial performance-based ethics, comparing the lack of substitutes for law and government in achieving those ethical goals.

Ani Gjika, a Visiting Lecturer in the English Department, was one of seven finalists for the International and Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize for her translation of Luljeta Lleshanaku’s Negative Space.  The authors of the seven shortlisted books—four International and three Canadian—were invited to read in Toronto at Koerner Hall at The Royal Conservatory in the TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning on June 5.  Here are links to the announcement: http://www.griffinpoetryprize.com/the-griffin-poetry-prize-announces-the-2019-international-and-canadian-shortlist/ and http://www.griffinpoetryprize.com/awards-and-poets/shortlists/2019-shortlist/ani-gjika/#excerpt

Professor Eamon Cunningham, a Visiting Lecturer in the English Department who is Chair of the English Department at Milford High School, was selected as a semifinalist for Massachusetts Teacher of the Year.  Each of the semifinalists and finalists for Massachusetts Teacher of the Year was honored at the State House in Boston on June 20, 2019.  The ten honorees were selected from a pool of all nominated teachers in each of the 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts.  Here is a link to the announcement in the DESE Commissioner's Newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/doe.mass.edu/commissioners-weekly-update-4-5-19-mcas-teacher-recruitment-teacher-of-the-year-finalists-and-semifinalists?e=fbf1e6819a

The Gatepost received eight Mark of Excellence Awards from the Society of Professional Journalists at the organization’s “Region 1” conference, hosted by Northeastern University in Boston on April 6.  The Mark of Excellence Awards honor the best of collegiate journalism.  Region 1 is comprised of the New England and mid-Atlantic states, and the awards recognized material published during the 2018 calendar year.  The Society of Professional Journalists, founded in 1909, is the “nation’s most broad-based journalism organization, dedicated to encouraging the free practice of journalism and stimulating high standards of ethical behavior.”    

Here is a link to the Mark of Excellence Awards announcement:  https://www.spj.org/news.asp?REF=1636

Professor Emeritus Dr. Bernard Horn’s poems, “To My Wife,” and “Above Leuk,” were published in Mad River Review (Vol. 4, Issue 1).   Here is a link to the poems: https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/mrr/vol4/iss1/4/

Professor David Blair has published a book of essays: Walk Around: Essays on Poetry and Place.  Here is a link to the announcement from the publisher, MadHat Press: https://madhat-press.com/products/walk-around-by-david-blair

Dr. Rachel Trousdale’s poem, “The Second Baby Explains the Unthinkable,” was published in The Nation.  Here’s a link: https://www.thenation.com/article/the-second-baby-explains-the-unthinkable/

Dr. Rachel Trousdale’s article, “The Right to Smile: Humor and Empathy in Prufrock and Other Observations,” was published in the 2019 issue of the T. S. Eliot Studies Annual.

Dr. Kristen Abbott Bennett presented a paper, "Collaborative Bibliodigigogy: Teaching Bibliographical and Critical Digital Literacies," at the invitation of the "Teaching and Researching the Early Modern with Digital Tools" Roundtable organizers at the Renaissance Society of America conference in Toronto on March 20.  She also gave a talk, "Using Folger Digital Texts API to Conduct the Four Points of Character Analysis," at The Folger Shakespeare Library's workshop, "Digital Tools for the College Classroom," on April 17.  Additionally, she presented a paper, “'The Lap[se?] of Error”': Reconsidering the title of Elizabeth I’s 'Golden Speech,'” at The Shakespeare Association of America’s annual meeting on April 19 in Washington, D.C.

Professor Eamon Cunningham’s article, "An Archetypal Approach to Teaching Walden," was recently published in Teaching American Literature: A Journal of Theory and Practice (Fall 2018, vol. 10, no. 1). This edition was just published online: http://www.cpcc.edu/taltp/fall-2018-10-1

Professor Jennifer De Leon’s short story, “House Keepers,” has been published in the Fall 2019 issue of The Iowa Review.

Professor Eamon Cunningham’s article, “Teaching Invention: Leveraging the Power of Low-Stakes Writing,” has been published in the Winter/Spring 2019 edition of Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education (Western Michigan University).

Professor Ani Gjika’s translation of Negative Space, a double-volume of poetry by the Albanian writer Luljeta Lleshanaku, was one of five finalists shortlisted for a PEN Translation Prize. Here’s a link to the announcement:   https://pen.org/2019finalists/

Professor Patricia Horvath’s story, "Accident," has just been reprinted in the literary journal 580 Split's 20th-anniversary anthology.  Here is the link: https://580split.org/issue/anthologia/#accident

An interview with Dr. Kristen Abbott Bennett about her Kit Marlowe Digital Project is featured on the website of The Council on Undergraduate Research, Arts & Humanities Division.  Here is the link: http://curartsandhumanities.org/2018/10/19/kit-marlowe-project/

Dr. Claudia Springer was interviewed by the BBC World Service for the segment, “Cool: Sunglasses, Style, and American Counterculture,” on the radio program, “The Forum.”  It was broadcast worldwide on October 6 and it’s now available on the BBC’s “The Forum” website.  Here is a link to her interview: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cswpsm

Visiting Lecturer Eamon Cunningham’s essay, "Authentic Questioning as a Form of Inquiry: Writing in the Dialogic Classroom," published last year in the Journal of Teaching Writing (32.1), was selected for reprint in the anthology, The Best of Rhetoric and Composition 2018, published by Parlor Press.  The articles selected for reprint in The Best of the Journals in Rhetoric and Composition series are chosen because they “showcase the innovative and transformative work published in academic journals in the field of Rhetoric and Composition.”

In addition, his textbook, Understanding Rhetoric: A Guide to Critical Reading and Argumentation (Brown-Walker Press), is scheduled to be available in print/e-book format in mid-October.  

Finally, Professor Cunningham’s article, “Rhetorical Listening: The Role of Silence in the Teaching of Writing,” has been accepted for publication in the annual research journal, The Primer (Massachusetts Reading Association).

Visiting Lecturer Ani Gjika will be participating in the Boston University Translation Seminar Alumni Panel at the Translation Now: Conversations on the Art of Literary Translation conference.  The conference is organized by the World Languages & Literatures Department at BU, and all panels are free and open to the public.  Professor Gjika’s panel is on September 29th from 3:30-5:00.     http://www.bu.edu/wll/translation/translationnow/?platform=hootsuite

Professor Patricia Horvath will be giving a reading with the actress Amber Tamblyn at Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn, NY on June 27, 2018.  Ms. Tamblyn had solicited proposals from writers whose work addresses areas of difference, including disability issues, as a way of promoting their work and raising awareness about social issues. 

Sandy Hartwiger, whose team, Boneyard, won the 2018 World Masters Ultimate Club Championship, held in Winnipeg, Canada between July 29 and August 4.  Boneyard competed against 20 other teams from around the world.

Professor Sam Witt’s poem, “The First Law of Entanglement: From the Swimming Pool Where You Drowned, to an Underworld Hospital, to Your .357 Magnum Sinking Down Forever to the Harbor Bed,” was published on the Poem-a-Day website on June 6, 2018.   Poem-a-Day is a “daily digital poetry series featuring over 200 new, previously unpublished poems by today’s talented poets each year,” according to the website of poets.org.   Each day’s poem is distributed electronically to over 350,000 readers.

Professor Witt’s poem is now archived on the Academy of American Poets’ website:  https://m.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/sam-witt

Dr. Rachel Trousdale’s essay, “Transnationalism,” has just been published in Vladimir Nabokov in Context, edited by David Bethea and Siggy Frank (Cambridge University Press, 2018).  

Dr. Richard Cunningham, one of the longest-serving and most beloved members of the English Department, will be retiring at the end of the spring semester in May 2018.

Dick earned his Ed.D. from the University of Massachusetts/Lowell in 1993 and worked as an English teacher at Ashland High School from 1969-2004—serving as department chair for the last decade of his high school teaching career.  He has been a visiting lecturer in our English Department since 1984.  Over the years, he has taught Expository Writing, American Short Story, American Writers I, and American Writers II.  Additionally, he taught graduate courses in the Framingham State Educational Leadership and International Education programs for many years; he also served as a Humanities Advisor for the Liberal Studies degree program for 10 years.  Dick’s son Eamon, Chair of the English Department at Milford High School, joined his dad as an FSU English Department visiting lecturer in 2016. 

Dick is a proud member of the Framingham State Class of 1969.  As an undergraduate, he served for three semesters as Editor-in-Chief of The Gatepost and played on the 1967-68 men’s basketball team—the school’s first men’s athletic team.  In March, 2018, the team was inducted into the FSU Athletic Hall of Fame on its 50th anniversary.  

Dr. Carolyn Maibor’s essay, “Teaching the Practical Emerson Through the Sermons and the Early Lectures,” has been published in The Modern Language Association’s Approaches to Teaching the Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, edited by Mark C. Long and Sean Ross Meehan (April, 2018).   Because this is a definitive volume on best pedagogical approaches, Dr. Maibor’s essay will reach a wide audience for many years to come.   

Dr. Rachel Trousdale’s essay, “Teaching Comic Narratives,” has just been published in the volume, Teaching Narrative, edited by Richard Jacobs (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).  

Emily Robinson, ’18, has accepted a position as the Graphic Design and Marketing Coordinator for the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children in Washington, D.C.  Emily has been studying and interning at the Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars this spring.  Last year, Emily was The Gatepost’s Design Editor and Editor-in-Chief of The Onyx.

Bailey Morrison ’19 and Jillian Poland ’19 have been selected to participate in Wiley’s Future Leaders of Wiley Internship Program this summer.  Jillian will work as an Editorial Analyst Intern and Bailey as an Editorial Assistant Intern for the publishing company.  Bailey was elected Editor-in-Chief of The Gatepost for the 2018-19 academic year, and Jillian was elected Associate Editor by their peers at the newspaper. 

Erin Dempsey, Class of 2018, has been offered a full-time job as a grant writer for the Boys & Girls Club of Brockton. 

Professor Emeritus Dr. Bernard Horn’s poem, “Cinderella,” is in the current issue of Dime Show Review at http://www.dimeshowreview.com/cinderella-by-bernard-horn.  Another poem, “My Father Speaks,” is forthcoming this spring in an anthology from Blue Thread Press.  His 1982 article, “Ahab and Ishmael at War: The Presence of Moby-Dick in The Naked and the Dead,” has been reprinted as a “Classical Interpretation” in The Mailer Review: Tenth Anniversary Issue.

Professor Christine Payson, a visiting lecturer teaching first-year writing in the English Department since the fall 2016 semester, defended her dissertation, Providential Defiance: Women Contesting Theocracy in American Historical Fiction 1827-2008, on March 16, 2018.  She will graduate with a Ph.D. from Tufts University in May, 2018. 

Dr. Jessica Gagnon, Class of 2004, an English Major with a Concentration in Journalism who earned a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Sussex, has published her first single-authored article.  “’Bastard’ Daughters in the Ivory Tower: Illegitimacy and the Higher Education Experiences of the Daughters of Single Mothers in the UK,” was published in the March 2018 volume of Teaching in Higher Education.   Dr. Gagnon is a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Education and Childhood Studies at the University of Portsmouth. 

Ashley Barry, Class of 2010, has been accepted to the University of New Hampshire’s Ph.D. program in English: Composition. 

Professor Emerita Catherine McLaughlin’s first novel, Blue Collars, will be published next month by Spinner Publications.  The novel is the coming-of-age story of Fiona “Finn” Kilroy and depicts life in a close-knit, working-class Irish-American family during the 1950s and 1960s.   

Professor Emeritus Dr. Alan Feldman’s new book of poems, The Golden Coin, has just been published by the University of Wisconsin Press: https://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/5698.htm#pk. Dr. Feldman read from his book and participated in a panel, “Bread on the Waters,” focused on volunteer teaching in the community, at the Association of Writers & Writing Programs conference in Tampa, March 2018. 

Dr. Lucas Dietrich, a visiting lecturer in the English Department, has been awarded a William T. Buice III Scholarship from the University of Virginia's Rare Book School. The award will allow him to attend a week-long Rare Book School summer course at no cost.   He plans to enroll in “The History of the Book in Antebellum America,” taught by UT-Austin’s Michael Winship and the Library Company of Philadelphia’s James Green.

Professor Jennifer De Leon’s novel, Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From, will be published by Atheneum/Simon & Schuster in January, 2020. 

Professor Sam Witt’s new collection of poems, Little Doomsday Clock (Carolina Wren Press, 2017), is one of a number of recent books reviewed positively in Jennifer Rane Hancock’s essay, “The Body Apocalyptic: Recent Books from the Anthropocene,” in the Winter 2017 volume of Spoon River Poetry Review: http://www.srpr.org/files/42.2/review_essay_42.2.pdf

Dr. Elaine Beilin’s essay, "Transmitting Faith:  Elizabeth Tudor, Anne Askew, and Jane Grey," has been published in A History of Early Modern Women's Writing, edited by Patricia Phillippy (Cambridge University Press, 2018).

Professor Patricia Horvath’s essay, "Diligence," from an essay collection in progress, was accepted by the literary journal F(r)iction and will be appearing in the fall 2018 issue. Her memoir, All the Difference, was recently reviewed in the literary journal Hippocampus:
http://www.hippocampusmagazine.com/2017/12/review-all-the-difference-by-patricia-horvath/

English Professor Emeritus Dr. Alan Feldman served as the Guest Editor of Common Threads 2018, a publication of Mass Poetry.  The volume, Born to be Lonely: Massachusetts Poets on Connection and Disconnection, is available as a free PDF and as a $10 hardcopy through Harvard Book Store and features a guide to reading and discussing the poems, videos of the poems being read (by the poets themselves when possible), a list of poets who are available to help facilitate a discussion group, and corresponding outreach to libraries, senior centers, book clubs, and more, to facilitate hundreds of poetry discussion groups throughout the state in an effort to broaden the audience for poetry.

Professor Patricia Horvath’s book, All the Difference, was the featured book on New York City’s Books on the Subway Twitter:

https://twitter.com/BooksSubway/status/955869609487298560?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

Professor Colleen Coyne’s poems, "The Sound of Them Loosening" and "(T)here nor (T)here," have been published in TINGE Magazine (http://www.tingemagazine.org).  Additionally, she has been invited to be a Partnering Poet for Mass Poetry's 2018 Common Threads program.

Professor Sam Witt has been invited to give a number of poetry readings in Portugal in December 2017.  Additionally, he will be a speaker on a panel about the collision of twenty-first century technology and literature at the Fundaceo de Cidade de Lisboa Cultural Center. 

Dr. Rachel Trousdale’s edited collection, Humor in Modern American Poetry, has just been released by Bloomsbury Academic.

Dr. Kelly Matthews is the 2017 recipient of the Golden Bridges Award for Irish Literature.  The Irish Echo’s Golden Bridges Awards honor those forging transatlantic partnerships in business, education, or arts and culture initiatives between Ireland and the United States. 

Robert Renaud, ‘18, has been informed that Junto Magazine will be publishing his short story, “Birdsong.”   He wrote the story in Professor Patricia Horvath’s ENGL 411 Seminar in Prose Writing class last spring.

Jonathan Golden, ‘15, is a first-year Ph.D. student in Library and Information Science at Simmons College.  He is the Library Director at St. Mark’s School.  

Dr. Elaine Beilin’s entry on Anne Askew has just been published in the online Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy.

Dr. Lucas Dietrich’s article, “’At the Dawning of the Twentieth Century’: W.E.B. Du Bois, A. C. McClurg & Co., and the Early Circulation of The Souls of Black Folk,” has just been published in Volume 20 of the journal Book History.

Dr. Chu’s essay, "Sea Urchins and Circuses: The Modernist Natural Histories of Jean Painlevé and Alexander Calder," has been accepted by Modernist Cultures and will be published in a 2018 issue.  

Dr. Claudia Springer’s article, "Shadow Films: Picturing the Environmental Crisis," has been accepted for publication by Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media

Alexandra Gomes, ’17, an English major with a concentration in Journalism who was Editor-in-Chief of The Gatepost last year, has been hired as a full-time reporter for The Sun Chronicle.  

Carla Hauck ’18, published a contribution to the forum, “Teacher Commentaries,” in Peabody Journal of Education (volume 92, Issue 4, 2017).  

Professor Eamon Cunningham’s article, “Authentic Questioning as a Form of Inquiry: Writing in the Dialogic Classroom,” has just been published in The Journal of Teaching Writing (Indiana University – Purdue University: Vol. 32 No 1). 

Dr. Alexander Hartwiger was a member of the Men’s Masters Ultimate Frisbee team representing the United States at the Beach World Championships in Royan, France from June 18 to June 23.  The U.S. beat France in the finals 13 -7 to win the gold medal. 

Dr. Evelyn Perry’s poem, “Blitz Poem,” has been published in the 2017 Crosswinds Poetry Journal.  The poem is from her manuscript, Johnny and Maggie, a verse retelling of “Hansel & Gretel” concerning the child evacuation in Britain during World War II.  .

Dr. Kelly Matthews’ article, "Brian Friel, the BBC, and Ronald Mason," has been accepted for publication in a special issue on writing from Northern Ireland by the peer-reviewed journal Irish University Review, which is based in Dublin.  Additionally, she gave a paper on Brian Friel at the recent American Conference for Irish Studies meeting in Kansas City, where she also introduced a keynote speaker.  She was also invited to speak about her work at an Irish Studies colloquium hosted by Boston College on April 8.

Dr. Rachel Trousdale’s article, “Salman Rushdie and Islamophobia,” has been published online by The Journal of Commonwealth Literature.  It is scheduled to appear in hard copy as part of a special issue on Rushdie. 

Dr. Lisa Eck was named Framingham State’s 2017 “Phenomenal Woman of the Year.”

Former English Department Chair and Professor Emeritus Dr. Alan Feldman is the winner of the 2017 Four Lakes Prize from the University of Wisconsin Press for his poetry collection The Golden Coin, which will be published by the press in 2018.  Alan was a previous recipient of the Four Lakes Prize in 2015 for his book Immortality, which also won the 2016 Massachusetts Book Award for Poetry.

Professor Colleen Coyne's poem, "Tricks for the Camera Owner," will appear in LUMINA Vol. XVI: Borders and Boundaries.

Dr. Bartholomew Brinkman’s book, Poetic Modernism in the Culture of Mass Print, has been published by Johns Hopkins University Press.

Former English Department Chair and Professor Emerita Dr. Miriam Levine’s poems, "White Asters at Candlewood" and "Orpheus and Eurydice: Revising the Old Story," appear in the winter 2016 issue of The Southern Review;  Also published  in winter 2016, the additional poems "Golden Cosmos," "Iris Germanica," "The Shave," and "John's Story," in Constellations; "Star Magnolia," in Valparaiso Poetry Review; "Filthy Pleasure" and "Teens," in Broad Street; and "On the Steps of the Miami Beach Cinematheque,” in South Florida Poetry Journal

Professor Patricia Horvath’s essay, “Wrath,” which was published in The Los Angeles Review last year, was named a Notable Essay of 2015 in the 2016 edition of The Best American Essays, which was edited by Jonathan Franzen.

Former English Department Chair and Professor Emeritus Dr. Alan Feldman’s book, Immortality, is the recipient of the 2016 Massachusetts Book Award in Poetry. The Massachusetts Book Awards program, administered by the Massachusetts Center for the Book in association with the Massachusetts Library Association, recognizes significant works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and children's/young adult literature written by Commonwealth authors or about Commonwealth topics. The books become part of the permanent collection of the Massachusetts State Library and are promoted in libraries throughout the Commonwealth.

President and Professor Emerita Dr. Helen Heineman’s article, “Mother and Son: The Writing Trollopes,” has been published in The Midwest Quarterly: A Journal of Contemporary Thought (Summer 2016, Volume LVII, No. 4).

Professor Colleen Coyne’s ENGL 377 Business Writing class completed a number of projects during the spring 2016 semester for Framingham Downtown Renaissance (FDR), a 501 c3 nonprofit guiding the revitalization of downtown Framingham. On the last day of class, Professor Coyne’s students presented FDR Executive Director Holli Andrews with four completed documents: Framingham Business Guide: The Complete Steps to Starting a Small Business in Framingham; An FSU Student’s Guide to Downtown Framingham (a directory of restaurants, services, and retail outlets); FDR Social Media Handbook: Best Practices and Platforms for Branding and Success; and Framingham Downtown Renaissance: Intern and Volunteer Handbook

Professor Suzanne McDonald’s ENGL377 Writing for Online and Social Media class created an integrated social media plan during the spring 2016 semester for Opportunity Works Connecticut (OWC), a nonprofit which enhances the lives of people with disabilities through meaningful and gainful employment services. Professor McDonald’s students presented their plan to OWC board member Bill Scully, CEO of Digital Marketing Fuel, and OWC Marketing Director Suzanne Aude on the last day of class.   

Dr. Alexander Hartwiger’s essay, “The Postcolonial Flâneur: Open City and the Urban Palimpsest,” was published in Postcolonial Text (Vol. 11, No 1, 2016).

Senior English major Melina Bourdeau’s poems, “An Open Note to the Girl Who Wanted to Wait Until Marriage,” “O-,” and “The Rabbit” were published in Sigma Tau Delta’s eastern region publication, Mind Murals (2016).  Sigma Tau Delta is the international English Honor Society. The FSU chapter is advised by Dr. Carolyn Maibor.  

Dr. Kristin Comment has been appointed to the Massachusetts Commission on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Questioning Youth. Dr. Comment teaches English at Belmont High School, where she co-advises the Gay Straight Alliance. She has been a Visiting Lecturer in the English Department since 2001.

Professor Sam Witt’s book of poems, Little Doomsday Clock, has been accepted by Carolina Wren Press, and will be published in early 2017. 

Dr. Rachel Trousdale’s article, “Mrs. Dalloway and The Defense,” translated into Russian, was published in Nabokovskii Sbornik [Nabokov Collection] (St Petersburg: Nabokov Museum, 2015).

Professor Colleen Coyne was awarded a 2016 Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellowship in Poetry.   The award was given to seven poets (there were 342 applicants).  

Dr. Alexander Hartwiger’s essay, “Shifting Proximities: A Case for Global Reading in US Higher Education,” was published in the journal New Global Studies (Vol. 9, No. 3, December 2015).

Professor Colleen Coyne’s poetry chapbook, Girls Mistaken for Ghosts, was published by Dancing Girl Press in December 2015. 

Dr. Rachel Trousdale’s book of poems, Antiphonal Fugue for Marx Brothers, Elephant, and Slide Trombone, was published by Finishing Line Press in November 2015.  

Dr. Elaine Beilin’s essay, “Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke: A Discourse of Life and Death,” was published in The Ashgate Research Companion to the Sidneys, 1500-1700, Volume 2 (2015).  

Professor Patricia Horvath’s essay, “Patience,” part of a collection-in-progress, was published in The Massachusetts Review (Vol. LVI, No. 4, 2015).

Dr. Claudia Springer’s book, Acting, co-edited with Julie Levinson, a Professor of Film at Babson College, was published by Rutgers University Press as a volume in the Behind the Silver Screen series in August 2015.  One of the book’s chapters, “Classical Hollywood (1928-1946),” was written by Professor Emeritus Dr. Arthur Nolletti, Jr.