Department News

October 2021

The Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series presents a fiction reading by Jessica Anthony.
Thursday, October 14th at 5:30 P.M.

You can tune in on the Edwards Facebook Page or attend the event live via Zoom(followed by a brief Q & A with the author):

Link: https://ccuchants.zoom.us/j/96334648009?pwd
=ZHZKYTQzVHFONFJ0ZWhWTlVwejJldz09

Meeting ID: 963 3464 8009
Passcode: 75113212

Jessica Anthony is the author of The Convalescent (McSweeney’s/Grove). and Chopsticks (Penguin/Razorbill), a multimedia novel created in collaboration with designer Rodrigo Corral. Chopsticks, called a “21st Century Novel” by the Los Angeles Times, was an Amazon Book of the Month, won App of the Year, and was featured in a Wall Street Journal article on digital publishing. Anthony’s books have been published in several countries, and her short stories can be found in Best New American Voices, Best American Nonrequired Reading, McSweeney’s, The Idaho Review and elsewhere. She is the inaugural winner of McSweeney’s “Amanda Davis Highwire Fiction Award,” and has recently received fellowships from the Creative Capital Foundation for Innovative Literature, the Bogliasco Foundation in Bogliasco, Italy, and the Maine Arts Commission. Her most recent novel, Enter the Aardvark, was published to acclaim from LA Times, the LA Review of Books, the Guardian, and Time Magazine and others.

November 2020

Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series Presents Q & A with John Poch, November 12

John Poch for (VWS) English (added 9/17/2020) MCD The Words to Say It Visiting Writing Series, together with Edwards Live, present a poetry reading and Q & A with author John Poch on November 12^th, 2020 at 5:30 PM. The event can be accessed at https://www.facebook.com/CCUCulturalArts.

John Poch is the author six collections of poetry, two which were published in 2019: Texases (WordFarm Press) and Between Two Rivers (TTU Press—with photographer Jerod Foster). His work has been published in Poetry, Paris Review, the Nation, Yale Review, and other journals. He teaches at Texas Tech University in Lubbock.

October 2019

James Brubaker to speak for the Words To Say It Visiting Writers Series, Oct 23

The Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series presents a fiction reading by the novelist James Brubaker on Wednesday, Oct 23, at 5:30p in the Johnson Auditorium (Wall 116). This reading is free and open to the public, and a small reception and book signing will follow.

Brubaker’s works range in subject matter from time travel to television to music journalism, full of humorous characters and strange, memorable moments. Brubaker is author of the novel The Taxidermist’s Catalog and short fiction collections Black Magic Death Sphere: (Science) Fictions, Liner Notes, and Pilot Season. He is an Associate Professor in the English Department at Southeast Missouri State University where he also is director of Southeast Missouri State Press, and he is an editor for the journal Big Muddy.

Edwards College Film Series presents Some Like it Hot, Oct 8

As part of the Edwards College Film Series, the Department of English presents a screening of Some Like it Hot, Tuesday, Oct 8, at 5pm in the Coastal Theater located in the Lib Jackson Student Union. Admission is free and open to the public.

Billy Wilder’s 1959 black-and-white, award-winning comedystars Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon. After witnessing a mob murder, two male musicians flee Chicago for Florida disguised as members of an all female band. Following the screening, English professors Dr. Christian Smith and Dr. Anna Oldfield will lead a discussion on the historical and cultural context of the film.

September 2019

Wendy Rawlings to speak for the Words To Say It Visiting Writers Series, Sept 26

The Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series presents a fiction reading by the novelist, essayist and critic Wendy Rawlings on Thursday, Sept 26, at 5:30p in the Johnson Auditorium (Wall 116). This reading is free and open to the public, and a small reception and book signing will follow.

Rawlings earned an MFA in Creative Writing at Colorado State University and a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Utah. She is the author of the short story collections Come Back Irish and Time for Bed and the novel The Agnostics, which won the Michigan Literary Fiction Award. She directs the MFA. program at the University of Alabama.

Lara Hrabota to speak for the English Futures Speaker Series, Sept 19

The English Futures Speaker Series (EFSS) presents a talk by Norton Senior Sales Representative Lara Hrabota on Thursday, September 19, form 5pm-6:30pm in the Alford Ballroom (Wall 116). Light refreshments will be served.

Lara Hrabota works as a Regional Recruiter, Trainer, and Senior Sales Representative for W.W. Norton Inc, America’s largest independent and employee owned publisher. Lara graduated (cum laude) from Wofford College with bachelor’s degrees in both English and Philosophy. She then obtained a MA in Writing, Literature, and Publishing from Emerson College while working as a regional publicist for The History Press in Salem, MA. Lara next worked as a national publicist for Da Capo Press before moving to Charleston, SC to join W.W. Norton as a sales representative in 2011.

By bringing in a speaker with an English degree who is working a job other than teaching, the EFSS is designed to provide our English majors with a richer sense of how a degree in English can be put to work in the world outside the academy. Each EFSS talk will end with a question and answer session to help our English majors plan a career powered by a CCU English degree.

Edwards College Film Series presents Duck Soup, Sept 10

As part of the Edwards College Film Series, the Department of English presents a screening of Duck Soup, Tuesday, Sept 10, at 5pm in the Coastal Theater located in the Lib Jackson Student Union. Admission is free and open to the public.

This 1933 musical comedy starring the Marx brothers and directed by Leo McCarey is set against the backdrop of two fictional countries on the brink of war. As the sixth-highest grossing film of the year, this masterwork is credited for its quick-fire comedy and sharp banter. Following the screening, English professors Dr. Christian Smith and Dr. Anna Oldfield will lead a discussion on the cultural context of the film.

August 2019

Sommersill Tarabek to speak for the EFSS, Aug 29

The English Futures Speaker Series (EFSS) presents a talk by Production Assistant Sommersill Tarabek on Thursday, August 29, form 5pm-6:30pm in the Alford Ballroom (Wall 116). Light refreshments will be served.

Sommersill Tarabek works as a Production Assistant in Animation at Blue Sky Studios (a feature-length animation studio producing films such as Ice Age, Rio). She works in production support to the animation department, currently working on Spies in Disguise starring Will Smith, and she provides a variety of managerial and logistic support regarding issues of department workflow and efficiency. Sommersill graduated (summa cum laude) from Coastal Carolina University Honors College in 2015 with two bachelor’s degrees in English and Communication and was selected as the Most Distinguished Student of her graduating class. She then obtained an MFA in Film and Television from the Savannah College of Art and Design.

April 2019

Terry Wooten to speak for the EFSS, Apr 18

The English Futures Speaker Series (EFSS) presents a talk by Federal Judge Terry Wooten on Thursday, April 18, form 5pm-6:30pm in the HTC Center Hospitality Suite #207. Light refreshments will be served.

The honorable Terry Wooten was nominated by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the US Senate in 2001 as chief US district judge of the US District Court for South Carolina. Wooten received a BA in English from the University of South Carolina in 1976 and a Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1980. Before becoming chief judge, Wooten was a chief counsel in the US Senate Judiciary committee from 1986 to 1991 and an assistant US attorney for South Carolina from 1992-1999.

Edwards College Film Series presents Seven Samurai, Apr 16

As part of the Crisis of Faith, Identity, and Society series, the Department of English presents a screening of Seven Samurai, Tuesday, April 16, at 5pm in the Coastal Theater located in the Lib Jackson Student Union. Admission is free and open to the public.

This 1954 landmark Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa focuses on veteran samurai Kambei, who answers a village’s request for protection from bandits. He gathers six other samurai to help him protect the village while teaching the villagers to defend themselves. As the final battle commences, the samurai and villagers come together to fight the invaders and save their home. Following the screening, English Professors Dr. Anna Oldfield, Dr. Christian Smith, and Dr. Emma Howes, will discuss the culture context of the film. This film is not rated, and will be shown in Japanese with English subtitles.

Caki Wilkinson to speak for the Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series, Apr 4

The Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series presents a poetry reading by Caki Wilkinson on Thursday, April 4, at 5:30p in the Johnson Auditorium (Wall 116). This reading is free and open to the public, and a small reception and book signing will follow.

Wilkinson is the author of the poetry collection Circles Where the Head Should Be, which won the Vassar Miller Prize, and The Wynona Stone Poems, which won the Lexi Rudnitsky Editor’s Choice Award from Persea Books. Wilkinson’s recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Nation, The Yale Review, and Kenyon Review. Wilkinson lives in Memphis, TN, and direct the creative writing program at Rhodes College.

March 2019

Zach Lamm to speak for the English Futures Speaker Series, Mar 21

The English Futures Speaker Series (EFSS) presentes a talk by Product and Design Researcher Zach Lamm on Thursday, January 24, at 5p-6:30p in Johnson Auditorium (Wall 116).

Zach Lamm works as a Product and Design Researcher as the San Francisco based company SoFi where he has gained a wide range of experience in qualitative and quantitative methods. Prior to joining SoFi, he worked at Lending Club as Senior Design Researcher and Cars.com as Lead Experience Researcher. Zach completed his undergraduate degree (English major, Philosophy minor) at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. While he did graduate work in English, he chose not to follow the academic career path but has taken his skills to the highly lucrative professional world of IT and UX research.

From his background in the Humanities, Lamm brings strong analytical and verbal skills, which he has combined with technical proficiencies in user research methodologies and user experience evaluation. He brings these experiences to bear on a wide range of project including: usability research, concept and product testing and development, insights and innovation research, brand development and management, messaging, and naming. Lamm will be discussing how he uses his English and literary analytical skills every day in his work.

Jon Chopan to speak for the Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series, Mar 5

The Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series presents a fiction reading by Jon Chopan on Tuesday, March 5, at 5:30p in the Johnson Auditorium (Wall 116). This reading is free and open to the public, and a small reception and book signing will follow.

Jon Chopan is the author of short story collection Veterans Crisis Hotline which won the 2017 Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction. He also published the collection Pulled from the River, and his fiction and nonficiton have appeared in Glimmer Train, Hotel Amerika, Post Road, Epiphany, the Southhampton Review, and elsewhere. Chopan is an Assistant Professor of creative writing at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida.

The Edwards College Film Series presents Solaris, Mar 5

Part of the Crisis of Faith, Identity, and Society series, the Department of English presents a screening of Solaris, Tuesday, March 5, at 5pm in the Coastal Theater located in the Lib Jackson Student Union. Admission is free and open to the public.

Solaris is directed by Andrei Tarkovsky and based on the 1961 novel by Stanislaw Lem. This 1972 Russian film is a psychological tale of space exploration and the nature of human and alien intelligence. The Solaris mission has established a base on a planet that appears to host some kind of intelligence, and after the mysterious death of one of the scientists at the base, Kris Kelvin is sent to replace him. At the base, Kelvin encounters his wife who has been dead for ten years as he begins to appreciate the baffling nature of the alien intelligence. Following the film, English professors Dr. Anna Oldfield, Dr. Christian Smith, and Dr. Emma Howes will discuss the cultural context of the film.

February 2019

Hanif Abdurraqib to speak for the MAW Spring Speaker Series, Feb 13

The Master of Arts in Writing Spring Speaker Series presents a reading by poet, essayist, and cultural critic Hanif Abdurraqib, on Wednesday, Feb 13, at 5:30p in Johnson Auditorium (Wall 116). The reading is free and open to the public, and a small reception and book signing will follow.

Abdurraqib's poetry has been published in Muzzle, Vinyl, PEN American, and various other journals. His essays and music criticism have been published in The FADER, Pitchfork, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. His poetry collection The Crown Ain’t Worth Much was named a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Book Prize and nominated for a Hurston-Wright Legacy Award. Abdurraquib’s first collection of essays, They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us, was named a book of the year by Buzzfeed, Esquire, NPR, Oprah Magazine, and The Los Angeles Review. Abdurraqib is a Callaloo Creative Writing Fellow, an interviewer at Union Station Magazine, and a poetry editor at Muzzle Magazine. He is a member of the poetry collective Echo Hotel along with poet/essayist Eve Ewing.

January 2019

Parris Booker to speak for the English Futures Speaker Series, Jan 24

The English Futures Speaker Series (EFSS) presentes a talk by attorney Parris Booker on Thursday, January 24, at 5p-6:30p in Johnson Auditorium (Wall 116).

Parris Booker is an attorney practicing in Asheville, N C. Booker received a BA in English with a minor in Pre-Law from Coastal Carolina University in 2014 before graduating from the Wake Forest University School of Law in 2017. Booker’s areas of practice are criminal defense and family law, with her primary interest in providing legal services for lower income defendants. Booker currently works for the non-profit Pisgah Legal Service in Asheville, NC where she helps victims of domestic violence obtain protective orders, child custody, divorces, and other family related orders. Prior to that she worked for the non-profit Mi Casa Servicios Hispano-Latinos in Winston Salem, NC, where she provided legal services to lower income Spanish speaking clients, in addition to running her own law firm, The Law Office of Paris L. Booker, focusing on these same issues.

The EFSS springing from the English faculty’s desire to provide our English majors with a richer sense of how a degree in English can be put to work in the world outside the academy. Each EFSS talk will start informally with food and casual conversations with your fellow English majors and your English Department professors. Then the invited speakers will explain specifically how an English degree helped them land their current job and how our students can go about entering a similar career. Finally, each talk will provide ample time for a question and answer session with the speaker to provide English majors with ample opportunities to gain valuable information for planning your future career powered by a CCU English degree.

September 2018

Tessa Fontaine to speak for the Words to Say It Visting Writers Series, Sep 18

The Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series presents a reading by author Tessa Fontaine, on Tuesday, September 18, at 5:30p in the Johnson Auditorium (Wall 116). This reading is free and open to the public, and a small reception and book signing will follow.

Tessa Fontaine is the author of The Electric Woman: A Memoir in Death-Defying Acts, A New York Times Editor’s pick, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick, Amazon Editors’ Best of the Month featured debut, and an Amazon Best Books of 2018. Tessa spent the 2013 season performing with the last American traveling circus sideshow, the World of Wonders. Her essays based on that experience won the 2016 AWP Intro Award in Nonfiction. Her work has appeared in The Rumpus, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Glamour, The Believer, Creative Nonfiction, The Normal School, and Brevity. Raised outside of San Francisco, Tessa earned her MFA from the University of Alabama and is currently a doctoral student in creative writing at the University of Utah.

August 2018

Edwards College Film Series presents Harold and Maude, Aug 28

The Department of English presents a viewing of Hal Ashby’s Harold and Maude, Tuesday, August 28, at 5pm in the Coastal Theater located in the Lib Jackson Student Union. Admission is free and open to the public.

Ashby’s 1971 award-winning film is a classic of American cinema that emphasizes the absurdity of contemporary life. Harold Chasen is a young man obsessed with death who pulls away from the life his mother has envisioned for him. He meets Maude, a 79-year-old woman with a lively spirit and enthusiasm for adventure, and the two develop a strong friendship that builds into a romance. Following the screening, Department of English Professors Dr. Christian Smith and Dr. Anna Oldfield lead a discussion on the film, drawing on Camus’ “The Myth of Sisyphus” and the conceptual importance of absurdity in 20th century continental philosophy.

April 2018

Nicky Finney gives Keynote for the Joyner Institute, Apr 20

Poet Nicky Finney will give the keynote lecture for the inauguration of the Charles Joyner Institute for Gullah and African Diaspora Studies, on Friday, April 20th at 7pm in the Wall Boardroom (Wall 222). This event is free and open to the public.

Finney’s national acclaim includes a 20-year tenure as the Guy Davenport Endowed Professor of English at the University of Kentucky; since 2013, Finney has been the John H. Bennett Jr. Endowed Professor of Creative Writing and Southern Letters at the University of South Carolina, with appointments in both the Department of English Language and Literature and the African American Studies program. Her 2011 acceptance speech for the National Book Award for Poetry — awarded for Head Off & Split — has become nationally renowned and is on display along with her work in both print and video form at the African American Museum of History and Culture in Washington, D.C.

The Joyner Institute examines the historical migration and scattering of African populations to local geographical areas and the subsequent evolution of blended cultures, specifically Gullah. The work of the institute provides students with experiential learning opportunities, both at home and abroad, that center on interconnections among local, national, and global peoples and their societies.

Madison Rahner Wins Spring 2018 Paul Rice Broadside Contest, Apr 6

The Coastal Carolina English Department is pleased to announce the winner of the Spring 2018 Paul Rice Poetry Broadside Series Contest. The final judge, poet Julie Funderburk, selected “Sea Glass” by Madison Rahner as the winner. Madison, a graduating Senior in the English Department, will receive a $100.00 prize and 25 copies of the broadside, which will be produced in an edition of 100 numbered copies.

Commenting on the winning poem, Funderburk writes: “This poem explores an intricate extended metaphor in a poem with interesting end-rhymes. The narrative is image-rich. The poem transforms the broken glass that caused harm into a smooth and beautiful object; in the second stanza, the speaker becomes the glass undergoing a process that might allow the self to ‘unlearn being cruel.’ The poem turns to direct address and an apology, but there is nothing easy here about this late apology that perhaps remains mostly an unspoken wish for the self.”

Funderburk also awarded honorable mention to Rachel Currie’s “After Neglect,” and Justin Joy’s “Faith.”

Those wishing to acquire a copy of the broadside of “Sea Glass” (or previous Paul Rice contest winners) should contact Jason Ockert. The deadline for the Fall 2018 contest in the Paul Rice series will be announced early next semester.

Peter Rabinowitz to speak for the MAW Program, Apr 5

Narrative theorist Dr. Peter Rabinowitz presents a lecture entitled “Out of context, in your heart: Some thoughts on narratology of the moment” on Thursday, April 5, at 6pm in Johnson Auditorium (Wall 116). This lecture is sponsored by the Master of Arts in Writing Program and the Department of English. Admission is free and open to the public. Dr. Rabinowitz is the Carolyn C. and David M. Ellis Distinguished Teaching Professor of Comparative Literature at Hamilton College in Clinton, NY.‌

This talk explores what Rabinowitz calls “narrative flavor” – those favorite moments we all have in novels (and films and music) to which we return again and again. Traditional academic practice insists on the priority of the whole; a moment is considered to have value only in the context of a larger narrative structure. As a result, we tend to treat these favorite bits as guilty pleasures. However, Rabinowitz attempts to liberate some of those beloved passages in an attempt to understand why certain moments affect us the way they do. His emphasis is on a group of moments that provide a special kind of temporal vertigo, but his argument allows for analysis of other moments as well.

March 2018

Dr. Boyle presents the “Digital Polarization Project,” Mar 31

Dr. Jen Boyle presents the “Digital Polarization Project” as part of the Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts Board of Visitors Lecture Series, “Real or Fake: News and Writing in Contemporary Times.” The presentation is on Saturday, Mar 31, at 10am in the Myrtle Beach Education Center (79th Avenue North). The presentation is free and open to the Public.

The project addresses the ways that digital modalities have changed how society receives and engages with news. This presentation will allow participants to get some hands-on experience in how to trace where digital news comes from and how to check its accuracy and origins. The presentation/workshop will actively look at articles and consider some strategies for understanding where they originate from and how they seek to influence us.

Ira Sukrungruang to speak for the Words to Say It Visting Writers Series, Mar 29

The Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series presents a reading by author Ira Sukrungruang, on Thursday, March 29 at 5:30pm in Johnson Auditorium (Wall 116). This reading is free and open to the public, and a small reception and book signing will follow.

Ira Sukrungruang is the author of the memoirs Southside Buddhist and Talk Thai: The Adventures of Buddhist Boy, the short story collection The Melting Season, and the poetry collection In Thailand It Is Night. He is the coeditor of two anthologies on the topic of obesity: What Are You Looking At? The First Fat Fiction Anthology and Scoot Over, Skinny: The Fat Nonfiction Anthology. He is the recipient of the 2015 American Book Award, New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Nonfiction Literature, an Arts and Letters Fellowship, and the Emerging Writer Fellowship. His work has appeared Post Road, The Sun, and Creative Nonfiction. He is one of the founding editors of Sweet: A Literary Confection, and teaches in the MFA program at University of South Florida.

Jen Boyle gives HTC Distinguished Teacher Scholar Lecture, Mar 20

Dr. Jen Boyle gives the HTC Distinguished Teacher Scholar Lecturer entitled “Observations Upon a Blazing World: Reading, Writing and Creating in the Digital Age” on Tuesday, March 20, at 7 p.m. in the Johnson Auditorium (Wall 116). Dr. Boyle was the winner of the Distinguished Teacher Scholar Award from Horry Telephone Cooperative which is given annually to a faculty member who demonstrates outstanding teaching through scholarship and mentoring.

The lecture focuses on the core aspects of Boyle’s research and teaching: how transformations in media make knowledge possible. The talk emphasizes how moments of significant media transformation should be understood in historical context, and how such re-contextualization can lead to innovative interventions in our own digital age.

Dr. Boyle is professor of English at Coastal Carolina University and director of the new Digital Culture and Design Program which she designed. She was awarded the College of Humanities and Fine Arts Award for Distinguished Scholarship in 2011 and the Sigma Tau Delta Professor of the Year Award in 2014-2015. Dr. Boyle earned her MA in Comparative Literature and her Ph.D. in English from the University of California, Irvine. She was a Carol G. Lederer Fellow at Brown University from 2006-2007 and taught at Hollins University for six years prior to coming to CCU.

English Department Faculty honored for book publication, March 16

Three members of the English Department will be recognized at the Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts Spring 2018 Authors' Reception. The reception is Friday, Mar 16, 4p-5:30p in the Rebecca Randall Bryan Art Gallery.

Jen Boyle for her edited collection The Retro-Futurism of Cuteness coedited with Wan-Chuan Kao and for The Routledge Research Companion to Digital Medieval Literature coedited with Helen Burgess
Becky Childs for her edited collection Data Collection in Sociolinguistics: Methods and Applications coedited with Christine Mallinson and Gerard Van Herk
Joe Oestreich for his creative non-fiction collection Partisans: Essays

January 2018

Dr. Boyle wins HTC Distinguished Teacher Scholar Award, Jan 5

Dr. Jen Boyle, Professor of Early Modern Literature and Coordinator of the Digital Culture and Design major, wins the 2018 HTC Distinguished Teacher Scholar Lecturer Award. Each year, this award is given to a CCU faculty member who demonstrates outstanding teaching and who brings about student learning through scholarship and mentoring. As part of the award, Dr. Boyle will present a lecture to the public on March 20th on the transformative effects of digital technology on American life titled “Observations Upon a Blazing World: Reading, Writing and Creating in the Digital Age.”

Dr. Boyle designed and spearheaded the new Digital Culture and Design program, a cross-disciplinary major already popular among students in its first year due to her innovative teaching style and ability to connect and engage with the students she teaches and advises. She continues to explore new approaches to digital scholarship, and her work that incorporates new digital media and concepts into the critical examination of early modern literature is breaking new ground in her field. She is the author of Anamorphosis in Early Modern Literature: Mediation and Affect: Literary and Scientific Cultures of Early Modernity and the co-editor of two boosk, Digital Medieval Literature and Culture: A Routledge Handbook and The Retro-Futurism of Cuteness.

Dr. Albergotti Named Kearns Palmetto Professor, Dec 15

Dr. Dan Albergotti, Professor of Creative Writing, has been has been named CCU’s Kearns Palmetto Professor, a five-year endowed professorship granted to a CCU faculty member who has demonstrated outstanding skills as a teacher and scholar, service to the University and their profession, and who has enhanced Coastal’s national and international reach.

Dan is a two-time Pushcart Prize award winner and the author of the poetry collections Millennial Teeth, The Use of the World, and The Boatloads. His poems have appeared in The Cincinnati Review, Five Points, The Southern Review, and The Virginia Quarterly Review.

ENGL Modern Narratives Film Series presents Fences, Dec 5

The Department of English Modern Narratives Film series presents a viewing of August Wilson and Denzel Washington’s film Fences, Tuesday (Dec 5) at 5pm in the Lib Jackson Student Union Theater. The event is free and open to the public.

Fences is based on August Wilson’s 1985 play which won both a Tony Award and a Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1987. Denzel Washington directs and stars in this 2016 adaptation which takes a hard look at race and opportunity in America. Troy Maxson is a sanitation worker in 1950s Pittsburgh who had hoped to become a pro baseball player but was considered too old when the league began admitting black athletes. His bitterness over his own life pours over into his family when he faces his son’s chance to meet a college football recruiter. Veronica Gerald, Assistant Professor of English, leads a discussion and cultural critique of the film following the screening.

September 2017

Benjamin Percy to speak for the Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series, Sept 21

The Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series presents a fiction reading by author Benjamin Percy, on Thursday, September 21 at 5:30pm in Johnson Auditorium (Wall 116). This reading is free and open to the public, and a small reception and book signing will follow.

Percy is a two-time Pushcart Prize winner and author of novels The Dark Net, The Dead Lands, Red Moon, and The Wilding; two books of short stories, Refresh, Refresh and The Language of Elk; and a craft book, Thrill Me: Essays on Fiction. He writers the Green Arrow and Teen Titans series for DC Comics and James Bond for Dynamite Entertainment. His fiction and nonfiction have been published in Esquire, GQ, Time, The Wall Street Journal, Tin House, Ploughshares, Glimmer, Train, McSweeney’s, and The Paris Review. His other honors include a National Education Association fellowship, the Whiting Writer’s Award, The Plimpton Prize and inclusion in Best American Short Stories.

ENGL Modern Narratives Film Series presents Moonlight, Sept 19

The Department of English Modern Narratives Film series presents a viewing of Barry Jenkins’ Academy Award-winning film Moonlight, Tuesday (Sept 19) at 5pm in the Lib Jackson Student Union Theater. The event is free and open to the public.

Moonlight is a challenging, thoughtful, and riveting chronicle of Chiron, a young black man growing up in Miami. As Chiron passes through childhood and adolescence into adulthood, he confronts critical issues of sexuality, identity, and the confusion of being a human in a difficult world. Dr. Tripthi Pillai, associate professor of English, leads a discussion following the screening of the film.

August 2017

ENGL Modern Narratives Film Serices presents Get Out, Aug 29

The Department of English Modern Narratives Film series presents a viewing of Jordan Peele's Get Out, Tuesday (Aug 29) at 5pm in the Lib Jackson Student Union Theater. The event is free and open to the public.

Get Out is a suspense thriller that digs deeply into the fractured American psyche as it shows a young African American man visiting his white girlfriend’s estate, where he becomes trapped in a terrifying labyrinth of hypnosis, mind control, and murder. Dr. Christian Smith, assistant professor of Rhetoric, leads a discussion and cultural critique following the film.

APRIL 2017

Laura Kochman and Zachary Tyler Vickers to speak for the Words to Say it Visiting Writers Series, Apr 13

The Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series presents a poetry reading by Laura Kochman and a fiction reading by Zachary Tyler Vickers, on Thursday, April 13 at 5:30pm in the Johnson Auditorium (Wall 116). This reading is free and open to the public, and a small reception and book signing will follow.

Laura Kochman is the author of Future Skirt (dancing girl press, 2013) and The Bone and the Body (BatCat Press, 2015). She is originally from New Jersey, but currently lives, writes, and feeds her cat in Philadelphia. She received her MFA from the University of Alabama, where she was the poetry editor for Black Warrior Review, and her recent work can be found in Pith, inter|rupture, Gigantic Sequins, Entropy, Quarterly West, The Atlas Review, and others.

‌Zachary Tyler Vickers is the author of the story collection, Congratulations on Your Martyrdom! which George Saunders praised: “A debut full of heart and energy, by an intense, fervent writer whose dedication shows in every line.” He is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop where he was the Provost's Fellow. He is the recipient of the Richard Yates Prize, and his stories have appeared in numerous journals.

March 2017

English Week, Mar 28-29

Come learn what CCU's English Department has to offer as we kick off English Week‌, our week-long celebration of the English Major.

English Trivia and Ice Cream Sundaes: On Tuesday (Mar 28) team up with your fellow English Majors and your favorite English Professors in a fun-filled trivia competition featuring English Studies questions. Prizes will be awarded. From 4:30pm-6:00pm in the Johnson Auditorium (Wall 116).

English Major Bazaar: On Wednesday (Mar 29) gather with the entire English Department to share dinner and information about the upcoming fall 2017 English courses. Additionally, hear presentations on internships and future job opportunities specifically for English Majors. From 4:30p-6:30p in the Edwards Courtyard.

For more info contact Dr. J. Daniel Hasty.

Elena Passarello to speak for the Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series, Mar 30

The Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series presents a creative nonfiction reading by author Elena Passarello, on Thursday, March 30 at 5:30pm in Johnson Auditorium (Wall 116). This reading is free and open to the public, and a small reception and book signing will follow.

Elena Passarello is the author of the essay collections Let Me Clear My Throat and Animals Strike Curious Poses. She won the Independent Publishers’ gold medal for nonfiction and was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award for Let Me Clear My Throat. Her essays on pop culture, music, performing arts, and the natural world have recently appeared in Oxford American, Creative Nonfiction, Virginia Quarterly Review, Slate, Iowa Review, and Normal School as well as the anthologies After Montaigne and I’ll Tell You Mine. Originally from Charleston, SC, Passarello is an assistant professor of English at Oregon State University.

February 2017

Scholars' Symposium, Feb 2

Join us Thursday, February 2nd in Edwards 164 from 2p-4p for our first Scholars' Symposium of 2017. We will have one presentation by Dr. Anna Oldfield on censorship in the former USSR and how it can both repress and encourage artistic expression using the example of epic singers in Soviet controlled Azerbaijan. We will have an additional presentation by one of our advanced undergraduate students Zach Thomas who will explore the rhetoric of multilingualism and code switching in the work of Richard Lanham.

The English Department Scholars' Symposium highlights the expertise and ongoing research of faculty and students of the English Department. Scholars' Symposia are held several times a semester, and usually include presentations by two English professors, graduate students, or undergraduate students. For more information on past, current, and upcoming Symposia including abstracts, photos, and video clips, see the Scholars' Symposium website or contact Dr. J. Daniel Hasty.

December 2016

Torry ‌Green Wins 21st Paul Rice Broadside Contest, Dec 9

The Coastal Carolina English Department is pleased to announce the winner of the 21^st Paul Rice Poetry Broadside Series Contest.

The final judge, poet Alan Michael Parker, selected “Sonnet for a Sick Mother” by Victoria Green as the winner. Victoria will receive a $100.00 prize and 25 copies of the broadside, which will be produced in an edition of 100 numbered copies.

Commenting on the winning poem, Parker writes: “The overlapping and inlaid syntax of ‘Sonnet for a Sick Mother’ work beautifully together to create a complex portrait of ambivalence and love. There’s friction and fractiousness here, loss and lament, and the form complements the content spectacularly. I’m moved by the results. A terrific poem!”

Parker also awarded honorable mention to Hallie Bond’s “Separate Transactions,” and Alice Kitchen’s “The Monument of a Memory.”

Those wishing to acquire a copy of the broadside of “Sonnet for a Sick Mother” (or previous Paul Rice contest winners) should contact Jason Ockert. The deadline for the 22^nd contest in the Paul Rice series will be announced soon.

Scholars' Symposium, Dec 8

Join us Thursday, December 8th in Edwards 164 from 2p-4p for our December Scholars' Symposium. We will have one presentation by Dr. Alan Reid discussing his study of metacomprehension, metacognition, and student calibration. Additionally we will have a presentation by Dr. Cindy Port who will lead a collaborative discussion of the end goal of age studies and the tensions between studying and helping the population.

November 2016

Scholars' Symposium, Nov 17

Join us Thursday, November 17th in Edwards 164 from 2p-4p for our November Scholars' Symposium. We will have one presentation by Dr. Tripthi Pillai discussing Contagion Theory within Shakespeare’s Othello. Additionally we will have a presentation by Jeremy Griffin (MFA) as he reads to us from his new creative nonfiction work.

Johnathan Fink to speak for the Words to Say it Visiting Writers Series, Nov 10

The Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series presents a poetry reading by author Johnathan Fink, on Thursday, November 10 at 5:30pm in Johnson Auditorium (Wall 116). This reading is free and open to the public, and a small reception and book signing will follow.

Johnathan Fink will be reading from his poetry collection The Crossing and his book of sonnets Barbarossa: The German Invasion of the Soviet Union and the Siege of Leningrad. Fink is associate professor and director of creative writing at the University of West Florida, and his poems and essays have appeared in Poetry, The New York Times Magazine, New England Review, The Southern Review, and Virginia Quarterly Review. He has received the Editors’ Prize in Poetry from The Missouri Review and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and Emory University.

ENGL Dept Film Series presents Rashomon, Nov 1

The English Department Film Series presents a viewing of Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon (1950) Tuesday Nov 1 at 5pm in the Lib Jackson Student Union Theater. An informal discussion of the film will follow. This event is free and open to the public.

Rashomon has been described as “a riveting psychological thriller that investigates the nature of truth and the meaning of justice.” In this film, four people testify with contradictory versions of a man’s murder and the assault of his wife. Following the film, Dr. Anna Oldfield and Dr. Christian Smith lead a discussion on the film’s cinematic style and historical significance.

October 2016

October Scholars' Symposium, Oct 20

Join us Thursday, October 20th in Edwards 164 from 2p-4p for our October Scholars' Symposium. This month we have have a special meeting. We will have one presentation from Dr. Denise Paster, Dr. J. Daniel Hasty, and Dr. Becky Childs discussing composition theory and sociolinguistic theory in the development of some of the Digital Badges here at CCU and how they can support linguistic diversity and uphold the CCCC and NCTE Students' Rights to Their Own Language position statement. Additionally, we will have 3 presentations from MAW students Nick Powell, Tom Minton, and Rhonda Taylor from their individual final projects.

Sonya Huber to speak for the Words to Say it Visiting Writers Series, Oct 20

The Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series presents a creative nonfiction reading by author Sonya Huber, on Thursday, October 20 at 5:30pm in Johnson Auditorium (Wall 116). This reading is free and open to the public, and a small reception and book signing will follow.

Sonya Huber is the author of five books, including three books of creative nonfiction: Opa Nobody, Cover Me: A Health Insurance Memoir, and Pain Woman Takes Your Keys (forthcoming in 2017). Her work has been published in literary journals and magazines including The New York Times, Creative Nonfiction, Brevity, Fourth Genre, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and the Washington Post Magazine. She teaches in the Department of English at Fairfield University and in the Fairfield Low-Residency MFA Program.

September 2016

Michael Martone to speak for the Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series, Sept 22

‌The Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series presents a fiction reading by award-winning author Michael Martone, on Thursday, September 22 at 5:30pm in Johnson Auditorium (Wall 116). This reading is free and open to the public, and a small reception and book signing will follow. A question and answer session for CCU undergraduate and graduate students and faculty will be held with the author at 4:00pm in Edwards 164 before the reading.

Michael Martone is professor of English at the University of Alabama. His most recent books are Winesburg, Indiana, Four for a Quarter, Not Normal, Illinois: Peculiar Fiction from the Flyover, and Double-wide. Martone has won two fellowships from the National Education Association and a grant from the Ingram Merrill Foundation. His stories have won awards in the Italian Americana fiction contest, the Florida Review Short Story Contest and the Story magazine Short Story Contest.

ENGL Dept Film Series presents Sholay, Sept 20

The English Department Film Series presents a viewing of Sholay Tuesday, September 20^th at 5pm in the Lib Jackson Student Union Theater. Sholay is being presented by Dr. Tripthi Pillai. An informal discussion of the film’s cinematic style and cultural significance will follow. This event is free and open to the public.

Regarded as one of Bollywood's epic films, Sholay (1975) is an action-adventure story that follows two criminals, Jai and Veeru, hired by the village head, Thakur, to capture a merciless bandit named Gabbar Singh.

Cornel West speaks at inauguration of the IGADS, Sept 16

Dr. Cornel West presents the keynote address at the inauguration of the Institute of Gullah and African Diaspora Studies (IGADS) on Friday, September 17, at 7pm in Wheelwright Auditorium. IGADS was established in Spring 2016 at CCU to foster interdisciplinary examinations of Gullah culture and to explore local and global effects of the African Diaspora as they relate to contemporary issues. The work of the institute centers upon the interactions and interconnections among various local national and global actors, peoples and their societies, and provides students with experiential learning opportunities both locally and abroad. Admission is free and open to the public, but a ticket is required. For more information contact Veronica Gerald Direction of IGADS. Sponsored by the Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts and the Nancy Smith Distinguished Visiting Lecturer series.

Dr. West is professor of philosophy and Christian practice at Union Theological Seminary and Professor Emeritus at Princeton University and has written more than 20 books, most notable Race Matters and Democracy Matters.

September Scholars’ Symposium, Sep 15

Join us Thursday, September 15th in Edwards 164 from 2p-4p for our September Scholars' Symposium. We will have a special presentation from Dr. Steve Hamelman, Dr. Ray Moye, and Dr. Anna Oldfield as they each discuss their experiences teaching this summer abroad in China .

March 2016

March Scholars' Symposium, Mar 31

Join us Thursday, March 31th in Edwards 164 from 2p-4p for our March Scholars' Symposium. We will have a joint presentation by Dr. Emma Howes and Dr. Christian Smith and another presentation by Dr. Keagan Turner.

The English Department Scholars' Symposium highlights the expertise and ongoing research of faculty and students of the English Department. Scholars' Symposia are held several times a semester, and usually include presentations by two English professors, graduate students, or undergraduate students. For more information on past, current, and upcoming Symposia including abstracts, photos, and video clips, see the Scholars' Symposium website or contact Dr. Tripthi Pillai.

Sarah Navin wins 20th Paul Rice Broadside Contest, Mar 21

The Coastal Carolina English Department is pleased to announce "Persephone's Handmaidens" by Sarah Navin as the winner of the 20th Paul Rice Poetry Broadside Series Contest. This poem was selected by the final judge poet Adam Vines (University of Alabama, Birmingham). Sarah will receive a $100.00 prize and 25 copies of the broadside, which will be produced by the end of the semester in an edition of 100 numbered copies.

Commenting on his selection of the winning poem, Vines writes, "Sarah Navin's "Persephone's Handmaidens" creates a distinct yet subtle movement from innocence to an early formation of mature identity. The voice, while building anxieties, resists inflation and cheap tricks within this devalued mythos, while deftly capturing the dangers and excitement of enticement."

Vines also awarded honorable mention to Victoria Greene's "A Sestina for Spring" and Mike Kane's "Dubiety and Doré."

The broadside of "Persephone's Handmaidens" will be available by the end of the semester. Those wishing to acquire a copy of the broadside (or previous Paul Rice contest winners) should contact Hastings Hensel. The deadline for the 21th contest in the Paul Rice series will be announced early in the fall semester 2016.

English Week, Mar 14-18

Come learn what CCU's English Department has to offer as we kick off English Week‌, our week long celebration of the English Major as well as recruitment initiative. During the day, visit our table in the Edwards lobby to get ENGL Dept. swag and talk to some of our majors to learn more about the English Major, our various Minors, and our upcoming course offerings. Then, each night join us for a special event including food. (click here for pictures of last year's English Week)

For more info contact Joan Trupiano

Monday: Words to Say It Reading. Join us for a reading by critically acclaimed creative-nonfiction writer Meghan Daum. A book signing and light reception will follow. Beginning at 5:30p in the Johnson Auditorium (Wall 116).

Tuesday: Ice Cream and a Movie. Hang out with fellow majors and ENGL Dept. faculty as we build our own ice cream sundae and then stick around as Dr. Howes presents the film Born in Flames. A panel discussion will follow. Beginning at 5:00p in the Student Union Rotunda.

Wednesday: Team Trivia. Team up with your friends and your favorite ENGL Dept. faculty in a fun-filled trivia competition featuring English Studies questions submitted by ENGL Dept. faculty. Prizes will be awarded. Beginning at 5:00pm in the Black Box Theatre (Edwards 117).

Thursday: Talent Night. Join us as ENGL Dept. students and faculty present their many talents in the first ever English Talent Night hosted by Dr. Hasty. Beginning at 5:00pm in the Black Box Theatre (Edwards 117).

Call for submission to the 20th Paul Rice Poetry Broadside Series Contest, March 4

The English Department is pleased to announce the 20th Paul Rice Poetry Broadside Series contest. The Paul Rice Poetry Broadside Series (named in honor and memory of Paul Rice, professor of English at CCU 1987-2004) is a poetry competition open to current Coastal Carolina undergraduate students. Poems must be submitted through email to Hastings Hensel, Interim Coordinator of Creative Writing, by Friday, March 4th. Poems can be no more than 40 lines long. There is no restriction regarding subject, style, or form. The winning poem will be selected by an outside judge to be named at a later time. The winning poet (to be announced Monday, April 4th) will receive $100, and the poem will be published as a broadside in an edition of 100 copies and will be considered for publication in Archarios. For a complete list of rules and example poems from past winners, see the Paul Rice Poetry Broadside Series website. Contact Hastings Hensel with any further questions.

AHGEP Fulbright Lectures by Dr. Saliou Dione, Mar 3

As part of CCU's Arts and Humanities Global Experience Program, we announce the next Fulbright scholars visit with two lectures by Dr. Anna Sanina on Tuesday, January 19, 2016. Dr. Saliou Dione is Distinguished Professor of African and Postcolonial Studies at the Department of Anglophone Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences in Dakar. He is a founding member of the African and Postcolonial Studies Laboratory. Dr. Dione's chief research and teaching interests are: African culture; Gender and Sexuality studies; African literature (Oral and Written Literatures) and civilization (Continental Africa and the Diaspora/Africana Literature and Civilization); Identity in the contexts of migration; Globalization; Postcolonialism/Postcoloniality; Afrocentrism and Eurocentrism. Dr. Dione is presently a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the Center for African Studies, Department of Women's and Gender Studies, at Rutgers, where he is conducting research for the manuscript of his upcoming book on Gender, Sex, Sexuality(ies), Sexual Orientations and Sexual Identity(ies) in Postcolonial Africa.

Dr. Dione’s first talk, titled “Female Migritude as a Challenge to Masculinity(ies) in Postcolonial Africa,” will take place from 10:30a-11:30a on Thursday, March 03 in the James J. Johnson Auditorium (Wall 116). This talk is open to the CCU and HGTC communities and to the public.

Dr. Dione’s second talk, titled “Roots and Routes of Pan-Africanism: Cross-Influences and New World Challenges” will take place from 5:00p-6:00p on Thrusday, March 03 in Edwards College Recital Hall (Edwards 152). This talk is open to the Coastal and HGTC communities and to the public, and there will be a brief reception that will follow the evening talk.

If you have any questions about Dr. Dione’s visit or future AHGEP Fulbright Lectures, please contact Dr. Tripthi Pillai.

February 2016

February Scholars' Symposium, Jan 28

Join us Thursday, February 25th in Edwards 164 from 2p-4p for our February Scholars' Symposium. We will have one presentation by Dr. Steve Hamelman and another presentation by Dr. J. Daniel Hasty.

ENGL Dept. Film Series presents Local Hero, Feb 18

The English Department presents a viewing of Local Hero Thursday, February 18th at 6pm in the Lib Jackson Student Union Theater. This is the next installment of the English Department Film Series, and Local Hero is being presented by Dr. David Kellogg. An informal discussion of the the themes presented in the film will follow. For more information on the English Department Film Series contact Dr. Christian Smith.

Bill Forsyth’s 1983 film Local Hero is a film so charming, so quietly funny and unassuming, that viewers may realize only later what it has done. Watching it, we know the protagonist has been transformed, but weeks later we realize that we have been changed as well. Possibly the first and greatest movie of globalization, Local Hero arrived during a time of binaries and blockbusters—the year Ronald Reagan declared the Soviet Union “The Evil Empire” as well as, not coincidentally, the year the Star Wars saga concluded (we all thought) with Return of the Jedi.

Local Hero is not a blockbuster: it’s a “sleeper” film that has acquired a growing following over time. With a tight script and direction by Forsyth, gorgeous cinematography, solid lead performances by Peter Riegert and Burt Lancaster, a soundtrack by Mark Knopfler, and the first film role for Peter Capaldi (currently starring in Doctor Who), Local Hero offers loads of immediate satisfaction. It also, however, quietly and humorously dismantles every precious sentiment we thought we held. They all go. National and political identity, language, gender, culture, even species divisions and the distinction between the natural and the built world — they all slowly, beguilingly fall apart.

To be replaced with—what? That’s up to you, up to us. Come for the movie satisfaction. Stay for the transformation. —Dr. Kellogg

Jessica Lee Richardson to speak for the Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series, Feb 10

The Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series presents a fiction reading byJessica Lee Richardson on Wednesday, February 10, at 6pm in Johnson Auditorium (Wall 116). This reading is free and open to the public, and a small reception and book signing will follow.Jessica Lee Richardson is Visiting Assistant Professor of creative writing at Coastal Carolina University. Her first book of stories, It Had Been Planned and There Were Guides won the Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize and is on the longlist for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Award. Her short stories and poems have won awards from the National Society of Arts and Letters and the F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald museum and have been featured online at The Short Form, Ploughshares, and the Authonomy Sunday Shorts Series by Harper Collins. Her fictions have appeared in the Atlas Review, the Collagist, Hobart, the Indiana Review, Joyland, the Masters Review, and Western Humanities Review among other places.

January 2016

January Scholars' Symposium, Jan 28

Join us Thursday, January 28th in Edwards 164 from 2p-4p for our first Scholars' Symposium of the semester. We will have a presentation by Dr. Becky Childs and a co-presentation by English major Ashley Canter and Dr. Denise Paster.

The English Department Scholars' Symposium highlights the expertise and ongoing research of faculty and students of the English Department. Scholars' Symposia are held several times a semester, and usually include presentations by two English professors, graduate students, or undergraduate students. For more information on past, current, and upcoming Symposia, see the Scholars' Symposium website or contact Dr. Tripthi Pillai.

ENGL Dept Film Series Fellini's Satyricon, Jan 21

The 1960s peaked as they ended, which is when the film that best embodies the staggering artistic wealth of that decade, Fellini Satyricon (1969), was released. In the hands of the supreme Italian auteur Federico Fellini, this picaresque (not picturesque) fever dream of vignettes set during the reign of the mad Roman emperor Nero immerses the viewer in a narrative at once unholy and resplendent, indecent and sublime. Fellini offers no saving graces, homilies, or bromides in this panorama of lechery and deviance, where even celluloid color bursts the bounds of propriety. Enter the labyrinth of repressed desire, in which, gripped by fear, all human beings stumble blindly, and emerge with Fellini into a landscape where cruelty, lust, gluttony, and godless humor run free in a delirium of visual poetry. Return to 1969, return to ancient Rome, return to the root of your secret wishes: seeFellini Satyricon! —Dr. Hamelman

AHGEP Fulbright Lectures by Dr. Anna Sanina, Jan 19

As part of CCU's Arts and Humanities Global Experience Program (AHGEP), we announce the first of four Fulbright scholars visiting CCU this semester with a visit by Dr. Anna Sanina on Tuesday, January 19, 2016. Dr. Sanina (Ph. D. Sociology) is an Associate Professor of Public Policy and Administration at St. Petersburg and is on Fulbright residency at Indiana University, Bloomington. An expert in political sociology, Dr. Sanina's current work focuses on digital cultures of activism among the youth of Russia. Her recent publications include articles and book chapters on digital culture and political and cultural identity in Russia, youth culture and visible and invisible forms of resistance, cultures of loyalty and patriotism in contemporary Russia, and economic crises and formation of state identity.

Dr. Sanina's first talk, titled "Visual Irony in Digital Culture: Field Study of Social Media in the Age of Globalization," will take place from 10:30a-11:30a on Tuesday, January 19 in the James J. Johnson Auditorium and is open to all CCU and HGTC students, faculty and staff.

Dr. Sanina's second talk, titled "Patriotism and Patriotic Education in Contemporary Russia" will take place from 5:00p-6:00p on Tuesday, January 19 in Wall 309. A brief reception will follow the evening lecture, when light refreshments will be served. The lectures are free and open to the public.

If you have any questions about Dr. Sanina's visit or future AHGEP Fulbright Lectures, please contact Dr. Tripthi Pillai.

December 2015

Ice Cream and a Movie with the English Department, December 1

The English Department invites all English majors and minors, as well as students interested in becoming a major or minor, to hang out with the English Professors and fellow English majors for Ice Cream and a Movie. The ice cream will be served in the Lib Jackson Student Union Rotunda starting at 4pm, and a showing of The Seventh Seal by Ingmar Bergman will follow at 6pm in the new Student Union Theatre. This event is free and open to all interested in English Studies at Coastal Carolina University.

November 2015

Reading by author Ron Rash, Nov 18

The English Department in conjunction with the Burroughs Fund for Southern Studies, the Waccamaw Center, the Master of Arts in Writing program, and the Words to Say It series announces the upcoming reading by award winning and New York Times best selling novelist, poet, and short story writer Ron Rash on Wednesday, November 18 in Johnson Auditorium (Wall 116) at 5:00pm. The reading is free and open to the public. For more information contact Dr. Daniel Cross Turner (843) 349-2432.

Ron Rash is one of the preeminent writers of the contemporary American South. Born in the South Carolina upcountry, Rash grew up in the western North Carolina mountains, and his writing centers around both historical and contemporary stories of the southern Appalachians.

Rash is the author of The New York Times bestselling novel The Cove (2012) in addition to five other highly acclaimed novels, Serena (2009 PEN/Faulkner Award finalist), One Foot in Eden, Saints at the River, The World Made Straight, and the newly released Above the Waterfall (2015). He has also published four collections of poetry and five collections of short stories, among them Nothing Gold Can Stay, Chemistry (2008 PEN/Faulkner Award finalist), and Burning Bright (2010 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award winner). Rash has twice won the prestigious O. Henry Prize, has received the James Still Award from the Fellowship of Southern Writers, and was inducted into the South Carolina Academy of Authors in 2010. He is Parris Distinguished Professor of Appalachian Studies at Western Carolina University.

November Scholars' Symposium, Nov 10

Join us Tuesday, November 10th in Edwards 164 from 1:30p-3:30p for our third Scholars' Symposium of the semester. We will have a presentation by Dr. Jen Boyle and a co-presentation by Dr. Ray Moye and Dr. Anna Oldfield.

The English Department Scholars' Symposium highlights the expertise and ongoing research of faculty and students of the English Department. Scholars' Symposia are held several times a semester, and usually include presentations by two English professors. For more information on past, current, and upcoming Symposia, see the Scholars' Symposium website or contact Dr. Tripthi Pillai.

Mickayla Smith wins 19th Paul Rice Broadside Series Contest, Nov 9

The Coastal Carolina English Department is pleased to announce "the Truth in war" by Mickayla Smith as the winner of the 19th Paul Rice Poetry Broadside Series Contest. This poem was selected by the final judge poet Jonathan Fink. Mickayla will receive a $100.00 prize and 25 copies of the broadside, which will be produced by the end of the semester in an edition of 100 numbered copies.

Commenting on his selection of "the Truth in war," Fink writes, "'the Truth in war' navigates well the many challenges of the sestina form. The poet chooses strong and specific repeating words for structural integrity in the poem and also demonstrates a creative and flexible mind by utilizing slight variations in the repeating words depending on the context of each stanza. (Perhaps my favorite moment in the poem is the choice of 'tear our' as the repetition of 'terror.') Most of all, I appreciate the ways in which the poem approaches the subject of war from the persona’s subjective experience. 'Soldiers are dreamers,' the poet Siegfried Sassoon wrote, and, in 'the Truth in war,' war returns as both dream and terror."

Fink also awarded honorable mention to Veronica Good’s "Let’s Not Talk About the Girl," and Lindsey Hilburn’s "Snowcone Ceiling Tiles."

The broadside of "the Truth in war" will be available in the next few weeks. Those wishing to acquire a copy of the broadside (or previous Paul Rice contest winners) should contact Jason Ockert in the Department of English. The deadline for the 20th contest in the Paul Rice series will be announced early in the spring semester 2016.

October 2015

Sigma Tau Delta Creative Writing Mixer, Oct 22

Sigma Tau Delta (the English Honors Society at CCU) presents the Creative Writing Mixer, a creative writing reading and contest taking place October 22 at 5:30pm in Johnson Auditorium (Wall 116). Undergraduate students wishing to read their creative work and participate in the contest should sign up with Sigma Tau Delta advisors Dr. Anna Oldfield (Edwards 204) or Dr. Cynthia Port (Edwards 290) or in the English Department Office(Edwards 224) by October 16. There will also be five late entries allowed at the night of the event. A panel of judges will evaluate the creative works, and prizes will be awarded. Students may perform any creative piece but are asked to keep pieces to a 3 page maximum for time constraints. Students reading a piece should arrive at 5:00pm to get organized before the event. All are welcome to attend. For more information email Sigma Tau Delta.

Roundtable Discussion on the Writing of Ron Rash, Oct 15

In anticipation of the upcoming readings by preeminent contemporary Southern writer Ron Rash, members of theEdwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts at Coastal Carolina University will hold a roundtable discussion and audience question and answer session entitled “Tales of the Ragged Mountains: A Celebration of the Writing of Ron Rash.” The roundtable, moderated by Dr. Daniel Cross Turner, will take place Thursday, October 15 from 6p-7:30p at the Carolina Forest Public Library. This roundtable is free and open to the public.

Roundtable discussion to include the following:

Dr. Amanda M. Brian, Associate Professor (European History), “World War I at Home: The Great War and Southern History in Ron Rash’s The Cove”
Dr. J. Daniel Hasty, Assistant Professor (Linguistics), “But You Can’t Take the Mountains Out of the Boy: Appalachian Identity and the New South”
Mr. Hastings Hensel, Lecturer (Creative Writing), “A ‘Song More Sustained’: Ron Rash’s Poetry, and the Poetry of His Fiction”
Dr. Emma Howes, Assistant Professor (Appalachian Studies), “The Hill of the Mill: Southern Appalachian Representations in Eureka Mill”
Dr. Tripthi Pillai, Assistant Professor (Renaissance Literature), “Doom and Gloom in Ron Rash: Something Rich and Strange About Unlocked Spaces and Times”
Dr. Daniel Cross Turner, Associate Professor (Southern Literature), “The Appalachian Book of the Dead: Ron Rash’s Tales of the Mountain South”

In conjunction with the Burroughs Fund for Southern Studies, the Waccamaw Center, the Master of Arts in Writing program at CCU, and the Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series, Ron Rash will be reading at Coastal Carolina University on Wednesday, November 18 in Johnson Auditorium (Wall 116) at 5:00pm. For more information contact Dr. Daniel Cross Turner.

October Scholars' Symposium, Oct 13

Join us Tuesday, October 13th in Edwards 164 from 1:30p-3:30p for our second Scholars' Symposium of the semester. We will have two presentations. Hastings Hensel will be reading from his current poetry collection. Next, Dr. Alan Reid will be sharing work from his most recent scholarly project.

The English Department Scholars' Symposium highlights the expertise and ongoing research of faculty and students of the English Department. Scholars' Symposia are held several times a semester, and usually include presentations by two English professors. For more information on past, current, and upcoming Symposia, see theScholars' Symposium website or contact Dr. Tripthi Pillai.

Joe Oestreich and Scott Pleasant to speak for the Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series, Oct 8

The Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series presents a creative non-fiction reading by Joe Oestreich and Scott Pleasant on Thursday, October 8, at 6pm in Johnson Auditorium (Wall 116). This reading is free and open to the public, and a small reception and book signing will follow.

Joe Oestreich is an Associate Professor of Creative Nonfiction in the English Department at Coastal Carolina University and Scott Pleasant is the Director of the Writing Center at Coastal Carolina University. Oestreich and Pleasant will read excerpts from their new book Lines of Scrimmage: A Story of Football, Race, and Redemption. The book chronicles the 1989 Conway High School football boycott, in which 31 of the team's 37 black players walked away in protest, sparking a larger movement in Horry County's African American community. After the reading, Nelljean Rice (Dean of University College at CCU) will moderate a discussion.

Call for submission to the 19th Paul Rice Poetry Broadside Series Contest, Oct 1

The English Department is pleased to announce the 19th Paul Rice Poetry Broadside Series contest. The Paul Rice Poetry Broadside Series (named in honor and memory of Paul Rice, professor of English at CCU 1987-2004) is a poetry competition open to current Coastal Carolina undergraduate students. Poems must be submitted through email to Professor Jason Ockert, Coordinator of Creative Writing, by Friday, October 16. Poems can be no more than 40 lines long. There is no restriction regarding subject, style, or form. The winning poem will be selected by an outside judge to be named at a later time. The winning poet (to be announced Monday, April 6) will receive $100, and the poem will be published as a broadside in an edition of 100 copies and will be considered for publication in Archarios. For a complete list of rules and example poems from past winners, see the Paul Rice Poetry Broadside Series website. Contact Jason Ockert with any further questions.

September 2015

Author Erica Dawson to speak for the Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series, Sept 16

The Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series presents a poetry reading by Erica Dawson on Wednesday, September 16, at 5:30pm in Johnson Auditorium (Wall 116). This reading is free and open to the public, and a small reception and book signing will follow.

Erica Dawson is the author of of two collections of poetry: The Small Blades Hurt and Big-Eyed Afraid. Her work has appeared in Best American Poetry, Birmingham Poetry Review, Crab Orchard Review, Harvard Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, and other journals and anthologies. Erica is an assistant professor of English and Writing at the University of Tampa, and she serves as Director of UT's low-residency MFA in Creative Writing.

English Department Scholars' Symposium, Sept 15

Join us Tuesday, September 15th in Edwards 164 from 1:30p-3:30p for our initial Scholars' Symposium of the semester. We will have two presentations. Dr. Tripthi Pillai and Dr. Dan Turner will share work from their book chapter on Ron Rash and William Shakespeare. Next, Assamzhan Zhaparova, a visiting scholar from Kazakhstan who is completing her Ph.D. under Dr. Anna Oldfield’s supervision, will present work on metaphor and translation focusing on the works of 19th century Kazakhstani poet Abay Kunanbay.

The English Department Scholars' Symposium highlights the expertise and ongoing research of faculty and students of the English Department. Scholars' Symposia are held several times a semester, and usually include presentations by two English professors. For more information on past, current, and upcoming Symposia, contactDr. Tripthi Pillai.

Dr. Dan Turner publishes new scholarly work, Sept 9

Associate Professor Dan Turner has published a new scholarly work entitledUndead Souths: The Gothic and Beyond in Southern Literature and Culture, (Louisiana State University Press). Turner coedited the essay collection with professors Eric Gary Anderson (George Mason University) and Taylor Hagood (Florida Atlantic University).

Undead Souths is a field-defining work that explores diverse forms of haunting and horror associated with the American South. Depictions of the undead in the South comprise a wide variety of media and historical periods, from current depictions of vampires in True Blood and zombies in The Walking Dead; to well-known authors like Edgar Allan Poe, Faulkner, and Flannery O'Connor; to Civil War battlefield daguerreotypes and Confederate ghosts; to the haunted architectures of old New Orleans; and to vintage horror films like White Zombie. Along with these physical manifestations, southern undeadness also appears in symbolic, psychological, and cultural forms, including the social death endured by enslaved people, the Cult of the Lost Cause that resurrected the fallen heroes of the Confederacy as secular saints, and mourning rites revived by Native Americans forcibly removed from the American Southeast. The result is an engaging, inclusive collection that establishes cultural crossings between the South and other regions within and outside the U.S.

Announcing upcoming reading by author Ron Rash, Nov 18

The English Department in conjunction with the Burroughs Fund for Southern Studies, the Waccamaw Center, the Master of Arts in Writing program, and the Words to Say It series is pleased to announce the upcoming reading by Ron Rash on Wednesday, November 18 in Johnson Auditorium (Wall 116) at 5:00pm. The reading is free and open to the public. For more information contact Dr. Daniel Cross Turner (843) 349-2432.

August 2015

The English Department welcomes Jessica Richardson as Visiting Assistant Professor, Aug 17

The English Department is excited to welcome Jessica Lee Richardson as Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing specializing in fiction. Jessica earned her MFA in fiction from the University of Alabama in 2013 and taught at Rutgers University before coming to CCU. Her short story collection, It Had Been Planned and There Were Guides, won the 2014 Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize and will appear in Fiction Collective Two this fall. Jessica's work has won awards from the National Society of Arts and Letters and the F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum. Jessica's fiction and poetry have appeared or are forthcoming from The Short Form, Ploughshares, and the Authonomy Sunday Shorts Series by Harper Collins, the Atlas Review, BOMB Magazine, Big Lucks, the Collagist, Hobart, Indiana Review, the Masters Review, Joyland, and Western Humanities Review among other places. She is currently working on two new collections and two new novels. You can read some of her stories at her website.

April 2015

Author Jason Ockert to speak for the Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series, April 23

The Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series presents a faculty showcase fiction reading by Jason Ockert on Thursday, April 23, at 4:30pm in Johnson Auditorium (Wall 116). This reading is free and open to the public, and a small reception and book signing will follow.

Jason Ockert is the author of Wasp Box, his debut novel, and two collections of short stories: Neighbors of Nothing and Rabbit Punches. Winner of the Dzanc Short Story Collection Contest, Jason has also been honored by the Atlantic Monthly, the Mary Roberts Rinehart Award, and the Shirley Jackson Award. His work has appeared in several journals and anthologies, including New Stories from the South, Best American Mystery Stories, Oxford American, The Iowa Review, One Story, and McSweeney’s. Jason is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina.

Scholar's Symposium, April 16

Join us Thursday (April 16) in Edwards 164 from 1:30p-3:30p for our final Scholars' Symposium of the semester. Dr. Dan Albergotti and Dr. Keaghan Turner will each be sharing their recent work with us. Coffee, tea, and cookies will be provided.

The English Department Scholars' Symposium highlights the expertise and ongoing research of members of the English Department. Scholars' Symposia are held several times a semester, and usually include presentations by two English professors. For more information on past, current, and upcoming Symposia, contact Dr. Tripthi Pillai.

Author Tim Mayers to speak for the MA in Writing Program, April 13

The Coastal Carolina University MA in Writing program presents a talk entitled “(Re)Writing Craft: Ten Years later” by Dr. Tim Mayers on Monday, April 13, at 6pm in Edwards 256. This talk is free and open to the public.

Tim Mayers’s work focuses on the past, present, and possible future states of English studies; more specifically, he explores points of overlap and contention between composition studies, creative writing, and literary criticism. Mayers’s 2005 book (Re)Writing Craft: Composition Creative Writing and The Future of English dealt with the gap that exists in many English departments between creative writers, compositionists, and literary scholars. Mayers, himself a compositionist and creative writer, explores the connections between creative writing and composition studies programs, which currently exist as separate fields within the larger and more amorphous field of English studies. If creative writing and composition studies are brought together in productive dialogue, they can, in his view, succeed in inverting the common hierarchy in English departments that privileges interpretation of literature over the teaching of writing.

Dr. Mayers is an Associate Professor of English at Millersville University in Pennsylvania where he teaches composition, creative writing, and literary criticism.

March 2015

Nick Powell wins 18th Paul Rice Broadside Series Contest, March 31

The Coastal Carolina English Department is pleased to announce “Ars Poetica” by Nick Powell as the winner of the 18th Paul Rice Poetry Broadside Series Contest. This poem was selected by the final judge, poet Tarfia Faizullah of Detroit, Michigan. Nick will receive a $100.00 prize and 25 copies of the broadside, which will be produced by the end of the semester in an edition of 100 numbered copies.

Commenting on her selection of “Ars Poetica,” Faizullah said, “It is a challenge to write an ars poetica that does the dual work of describing the act of creation while being an act of creation itself. The images and music in this poem tumble into each other into until the final and gorgeous revelation.

Faizullah also awarded honorable mention to Victoria Green’s “May 6, 2007” and Maggie Nichols’s “Délabré.”

The broadside of “Ars Poetica” will be available in the next few weeks. Those wishing to acquire a copy of the broadside should contact Cara Blue Adams. The deadline for the 19th contest in the Paul Rice series will be announced early in the fall semester 2015.

Scholars' Symposium, March 26

Join us Thursday (March 26) in Edwards 164 from 1:30p-3:00p for our second Scholars' Symposium of the semester. Associate Professor Joe Oestreich will be sharing a portion of one of his recent creative projects with us. Coffee and cookies will be provided.

English Department Faculty honored for book publication, March 5

Three members of the English Department to be recognized at the Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts Spring 2015 Authors' Reception.

Dan Albergotti (Professor and Department Chair) for his poetry collection Millennial Teeth published in 2014 by Southern Illinois University Press.
Jason Ockert (Associate Professor) for his novel Wasp Box published in 2015 by Panhandler Books.
Jeremy Griffin (Teaching Associate) for his short story collection and novella A Last Resort for Desperate People: Stories and a Novella published in 2012 by Stephen F. Austin University Press.

Poets Chad Davidson and Gregory Fraser to speak for the Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series, March 5

The Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series presents a unique double poetry reading featuring Chad Davidson and Gregory Fraser on Thursday, March 5, at 5:30pm in Johnson Auditorium (Wall 116). This reading is free and open to the public, and a small reception and book signing will follow.

Chad Davidson is the author of From the Fire Hills (2014), The Last Predicta (2008), and Consolation Miracle (2003), all from Southern Illinois UP. Davidson is also co-author with Gregory Fraser of Analyze Anything: A Guide to Critical Reading and Writing (Bloomsbury, 2012) and Writing Poetry: Creative and Critical Approaches (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2009). He is currently a Professor of literature and creative writing and director of the School of the Arts at the University of West Georgia near Atlanta.

Gregory Fraser is the author of three poetry collections: Strange Pietà(Texas Tech University Press), Answering the Ruins, and Designed for Flight (both from Northwestern University Press). As stated above, he is co-author with Chad Davidson of the textbooks Writing Poetry andAnalyze Anything. His poems have appeared in The Paris Review, The Southern Review, and The Gettysburg Review, among others. Fraser is the recipient of a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and serves as a Professor of English and creative writing at the University of West Georgia.

February 2015

English Week, Feb 23-27

Come learn what CCU's English Department has to offer as we kick off English Week‌. During the day, visit our table in the Edwards lobby to learn more about the English Major, our various Minors, our upcoming course offereings, and special programs. Then, on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoon starting at 4:30pm join us for a special event.

Tuesday: Faculty Q&A. Learn more about English Studies and careers for English Majors, as well as little-known facts about English faculty in an open forum Q&A. Beginning at 4:30pm in Edwards 256. Refreshments will be served.

Wednesday: Team Trivia. Team up with your friends and favorite English Faculty in a fun-filled English trivia competition. Beginning at 4:30pm in The Black Box Theatre (Edwards 117). Refreshments will be served.

Thursday: Readings and Reception. Come listen to readings from the creative works of English Faculty and English Students, followed by a meet and greet with English Department Faculty. Pizza will be served. Beginning at 4:30pm in The Black Box Theatre (Edwards 117).

Scholars' Symposium, Feb 19

Join us Thursday (Oct 19) in Edwards 164 from 1:30p-3:30p for this semester's first Scholars' Symposium. Dr. Becky Childs, Dr. J. Daniel Hasty, and Graduate Student Brooke Parker will present their collaborative work on language variation and change in modern Appalachia. Coffee and cookies will be provided.

Call for submission to the 18th Contest in the Paul Rice Poetry Broadside Series, Feb 10

The English Department is pleased to announce the 18th Paul Rice Poetry Broadside Series contest. The Paul Rice Poetry Broadside Series (named in honor and memory of Paul Rice, professor of English at CCU 1987-2004) is a poetry competition open to current Coastal Carolina undergraduate students. Poems must be submitted through email to Professor Cara Blue Adams, Coordinator of Creative Writing, by Monday, March 2. Poems can be no more than 40 lines long. There is no restriction regarding subject, style, or form. The winning poem will be selected by an outside judge to be named at a later time. The winning poet (to be announced Monday, April 6) will receive $100, and the poem will be published as a broadside in an edition of 100 copies and will be considered for publication in Archarios. Please contact Cara Blue Adams with any questions.

November 2014

Author Dan Albergotti to speak for the Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series, Nov 13

The Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series presents a poetry reading by our very own Dr. Dan Albergotti on Thursday, Nov 13, at 7pm in Johnson Auditorium (Wall 116). This reading is free and open to the public, and a small reception and book signing will follow.

Dan Albergotti is the author of Millennial Teeth (Southern Illinois University Press, 2014) and The Boatloads (BOA Editions, 2008), as well as a limited-edition chapbook, The Use of the World (Unicorn Press, 2013). His poems have appeared in The Cincinnati Review, Five Points, The Southern Review, The Virginia Quarterly Review, and Pushcart Prize XXXIII, as well as other journals and anthologies. A graduate of the MFA program at UNC Greensboro and former poetry editor of The Greensboro Review, Albergotti is a Professor of English and Chair of the English Department at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina.

Mikaella Victoria Antonio wins 17th Paul Rice Broadside Series Contest, November 3

The Coastal Carolina English Department is pleased to announce “We Are Ugly” by Mikaella VictoriaAntonio as the winner of the 17th Paul Rice Poetry Broadside Series Contest. This poem was selected by the final judge, poet Matthew Olzmann of Asheville, North Carolina. Mikaella will receive a $100.00 prize and 25 copies of the broadside, which will be produced by the end of the semester in an edition of 100 numbered copies.

Olzmann also awarded honorable mention to Nicholas Powell's "A Good Memory with You” and Gabriel Miller's “Communion.”

The broadside of “We Are Ugly” will be available in the next few weeks. Those wishing to acquire a copy of the broadside should contact Cara Blue Adams. The deadline for the 18th contest in the Paul Rice series will be announced early in the spring semester 2015.

October 2014

Scholars' Symposium, Oct 23

Join us Thursday (Oct 23) in Edwards 164 from 1:00p-3:00p for this semester's first Scholars' Symposium. Dr. Kate Faber Oestreich and Dr. Alan Reid will present their work to us. Dr. Oestreich is a literature professor specializing in British Literature of the long 19th century, and Dr. Reid is a composition and rhetoric professor specializing in metacognition and self-regulation in new media. Coffee and cookies will be provided

Author David James Poissant to speak for The Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series, Oct 23

The Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series presents a creative non-fiction reading by David James Poissant on Thursday, Oct 23, at 7pm in Johnson Auditorium (Wall 116). This reading is free and open to the public, and a small reception and book signing will follow.

David James Poissant's short story collection The Heaven of Animals was published by Simon & Schuster on March 11, 2014, and he is currently working on a novel Class, Order, Family to be published by Simon & Schuster. His writing has been awarded the Matt Clark Prize, the George Garrett Fiction Award, the RopeWalk Fiction Chapbook Prize, and the Alice White Reeves Memorial Award from the National Society of Arts & Letters, as well as awards from The Chicago Tribune and The Atlantic and Playboy. Poissant's stories and essays have appeared in The Atlantic, The Chicago Tribune, Glimmer Train, The New York Times, One Story, Playboy, Ploughshares, The Southern Review, and in the New Stories from the South and Best New American Voices anthologies. Poissant teaches in the MFA program at the University of Central Florida and lives in Orlando with his wife and daughters.

September 2014

Call for submission to the 17th Contest in the Paul Rice Poetry Broadside Series, Sept 19

The English Department is pleased to announce the 17th Paul Rice Poetry Broadside Series contest. The Paul Rice Poetry Broadside Series (named in honor and memory of Paul Rice, professor of English at CCU 1987-2004) is a poetry competition open to current Coastal Carolina undergraduate students. Poems must be submitted through email to Cara Blue Adams, Coordinator of Creative Writing, by Wednesday, October 15. Poems can be no more than 40 lines long. There is no restriction regarding subject, style, or form. The winning poem will be selected by an outside judge to be named at a later time. The winning poet (to be announced Monday, November 3) will receive $100, and the poem will be published as a broadside in an edition of 100 copies. Please contact Cara Blue Adams with any questions.

Author Aisha Sabatini Sloan to speak for The Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series, Sept 11

The Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series presents a creative non-fiction reading by Aisha Sabatini Sloan on Thursday, Sept 11, at 7pm in Johnson Auditorium (Wall 116). This reading is free and open to the public, and a small reception and book signing will follow.

Aisha Sabatini Sloan's essay collection, The Fluency of Light: Coming of Age in a Theater of Black and White was chosen as a finalist for the 1913 First Book Contest in 2011, and published by the University of Iowa Press in 2013. Her essays have been named notable for the Best American Non-Required Reading and Best American Essays anthologies of 2011, nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and published in Ninth Letter,Identity Theory, Michigan Quarterly Review, Terrain.org, Callaloo, The Southern Review, and Guernica. Aisha earned an MA in Cultural Studies and Studio Art from the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at NYU, and an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the University of Arizona. Aisha is currently teaching courses in literature and creative writing at Carleton College and is a contributing editor for Guernica: A Magazine of Art & Politics.

August 2014

English Department Welcomes New Faculty, August 18

Emma Howes joins the Department of English as an assistant professor. She recently completed her Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Composition at the University of Massachusetts. Her dissertation examines literacy campaigns as they were incorporated into industrial welfare work in Carolina cotton mill villages around the turn of the 20^thcentury. She has received fellowships and grants from the American Association of University Women, Duke University, and the University of Massachusetts, and she has presented her research at the Conference on College Composition and Communication.

Alan Reid joins the Department of English as an assistant professor. He completed his Ph.D. in Instructional Design & Technology at Old Dominion University in 2013. His work has appeared in Immersive Environments, Augmented Realities and Virtual Worlds: Assessing Future Trends in Education, and he has already been instrumental in designing the new digital badge initiative associated with the redesign of the first-year writing program at CCU.

Christian Smith joins the Department of English as an assistant professor. He completed his Ph.D. in Composition and Rhetoric at the University of South Carolina in May 2014 with a dissertation titled “From Capture to Care: Attention, Digital Media, and the Future of Composition.” He has presented his research regularly over the past few years at the Conference on College Composition and Communication and the Rhetoric Society of America Conference.

Keaghan Turner joins the Department of English as an assistant professor. She completed her Ph.D. in English literature at the University of South Carolina in 2006 with a dissertation on representations of nursing in four British women’s novels from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century. She has recently presented her scholarship at the Victorians Institute and the Nineteenth Century Studies Association Conference, and her work has appeared in South Writ Large: Stories, Arts, and Ideas from the Global South.