The newsletter is published biweekly throughout the academic year.
The next issue will appear on 7 October 2009.
The Advising Workshop proposed at the last department meeting will be held in
KH 313 on Tuesday, 29 September during Bengal Pause. All English Department faculty are welcome. If you wish to attend, please come up one or two examples of each of the following topics, and if possible send them to Lisa Berglund by Monday, 28 September.
Topics for Workshop: 1) Problems that come up repeatedly; 2) Problems you have solved that would be useful for other people to know about; 3) Pieces of advice you regularly give students that you think should be part of everyone’s spiel; 4) Specific questions you have about requirements, courses, exceptions, exemptions, &c.; and 5) Specific problems related to Degree Navigator.
Max Wickert will be reading from his new translation of Torquato Tasso’s The Liberation of Jerusalem on Sunday, October 4 at 2 pm in the Burchfield-Penney Auditorium. David Lampe has offered to talk to classes, groups of students and colleagues about the translation if you’d like to give your students a primer.
A 7th edition of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers has been published; it includes significant changes in formatting. For more information see the library blog. Copies of the new text are available in the library; the library also will retain copies of the old sixth edition until the end of the semester. If your students are using the library to understanding the formatting rules and guidelines, please make sure they understand if they should be using the sixth or the seventh edition. For a quick answer to basic formatting questions, visit the OWL at Purdue, http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/01/.
Ed Taylor read at Niagara Falls Book Corner on September 19 as part of Slipstream magazine's publication party for its 29th annual issue, and his work will appear in the magazine's 2010 (30th) edition.
Susan Leist spent her summer vacation in a variety of ways. She is dealing with an illness in her family, so she went to Virginia four times. Susan ALSO presented at a conference in Barcelona where she and Chuck spent ten days and had a WONDERFUL time. Then in August, she went to California to spend two weeks with her son and daughter-in-law where she got to participate in a focus group preview of a new movie in one of the theaters at the SONY lot in Culver City - interesting and funny!
Ann Colley went to London and did not see the Queen, but saw some good exhibitions; went to Transylvania and did not see Dracula, but saw where he supposedly lived; went to Nova Scotia and saw the rain. All in all a good summer for writing and thinking but not resting.
How Ralph Wahlstrom spent his summer vacation: Annual Reports; Ann Colley; Anne Frank; two courses; two papers; two conferences; too much rain; two visits; deux Oliviers; two sailors; and, four days in Estes Park.
Kim Chinquee spent most of the summer training for a marathon, recovering from it, and training for another. She also worked on a novel, edited her collection, and taught a course on the Contemporary Novel.
Kim’s flash fiction "You Look Good" was accepted for publication in Quick Fiction, and "Lake Effect" in Anemone Sidecar. Other recent publications: the short story "One Below" in Noo Journal and flash pieces "On the Wheel," "We Decided Not to Give Them Faces," and "I Was There for the Team" in the inaugural issue of The Collagist. Kim was interviewed at The Collagist and will be judging The Collagist's first flash fiction contest.
Kim was selected to be guest editor for the January 2010 issue of the Mississippi Review, and will speak on a panel at the &Now Conference on October 16 in Buffalo; her topic is “Telling: Making Narratives with Borrowed Characters, Familiar Settings, Classic Plots, Mimicked Modes and Reclaimed Themes.” Finally (!), Kim’s panel proposal, “The Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction, a Field Guide for Teachers, Editors and Writers,” was accepted for the AWP Writers' Conference, April 7, 2010, in Denver.
Lisa Berglund just has to quote a wonderful letter she received today from a former (pre-Buffalo State) student: “Dear Professor Berglund, I was recently wondering how you were doing after I found myself in a fight about heroic couplets on an internet message board (I'm not sure how that idiot thought that fourteen syllables per line could be read as iambic pentameter, but I put him in his place). …I got married in 2005, and we have an eighteen-month-old daughter named Charlotte, but we call her Charlie. I have tried reading some of Alexander Pope's work to her, but she ends up getting impatient and goes off to do something else before I can get through anything.”
Just published: The Advance Guard, a fantasy novel by graduate student Don Martinez. “The ageless paladin knight…woman warrior in a cat’s body… modern dragon with a tortured soul… These agents of supernatural power will face down an enemy of immense evil, with the fate of the world itself in the balance…” Buffalo State students and faculty can receive a 20 percent discount off the cover price by visiting tinyurl.com/AdvGuard and using the discount code Q3JQG8JB. The novel also is available from amazon.com.
Bev Caplan BS ’78 writes: “I am teaching high school English at North Miami Senior High School in Florida. Did you know that public school teachers today spend over $1,200 a year of their own money to support their classrooms? Dade County, Florida teachers have not had their raises in over two years and last year we had to take 2 days off without pay to help save the school system's budget. “There is an organization called Adopt-a-Classroom where people can go to donate money to any classroom teacher who is registered. Of course, I'd like people to donate to me so I can stop supporting my own classroom with funds from my own pocket, but any registered teacher could be a recipient.” To learn more about the program, visit Adoptaclassroom.com.
We also heard from John N. Serio BS ’65: “I’ve been teaching literature at Clarkson University since 1974. Recently I just published my fifth book on the poet Wallace Stevens.” John sent us a link to Clarkson University’s website, which features a nice article about both his recent work and his career since graduating from Buffalo State.
Alumni!—We want to share your news! Send updates and weblinks to Lisa Berglund or Maureen Lougen.
On-line giving: Each year the English department produces workshops, poetry and prose readings, scholarly presentations, student scholarships, and student publications. Alumni are always welcome to participate in department events, and even a small donation can help. To donate online to your English Department, visit the Buffalo State English Department Giving; under School, Department, and Specific Funds choose the ENGLISH DEPARTMENT FUND. You may also choose to support a specific department project. If you have any questions please contact Maureen Lougen
Sigma Tau Delta -Alpha Pi Chi is open to ALL majors in the English Department. We are working very hard to put together programming that speaks specifically to the needs of all of our majors: English Education, Writing, and Literature. If you have questions, or would like to be more involved, please contact Lorna Perez.
English Department Newsletter
Buffalo State College
Compiled by Lisa Berglund
berglul@buffalostate.edu
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