New
Publications and Productions
Patricia
R. Dyjak has published the following new poetry: “Sweet
Offering” in the poetry journal Earth’s Daughters, Volume 64 and
“Walking Home After Dinner: A Midnight
Scene,” “Daphne Escaping the Living Room,” “Aunt Francie’s Doll in a Dream,”
and “Dog Walk on May Day” in the 18th Volume of the 13th Moon.
Helen Elam’s article
“Remembering to Die”, a hypertext essay on Keats “Ode on a Grecian Urn”
appeared in Romantic Circles Praxis (October 2003). www.rc.umd.edu/praxix/grecianurn
William Kennedy recently
published a book entitled Roscoe and Me: The Specific and the Impossible. (
Alina M. Luna is
happy to announce that her dissertation, Visual Perversity: A Re-articulation
of Maternal Instinct was contracted several months ago. It will be published by Lexington Books later
this year.
“Lacan”
an article by Charles Shepherdson has just appeared in a new British
Literary encyclopedia called The Literary Encyclopedia.
Lynne
Tillman’s story “Chartreuse” is in the Winter 2004 issue of Cabinet magazine.
The
Cassandra Project is pleased to announce the
Awaken
your inner “Diva” as
Presentations
Julie
Torrant, a PHD student, presented a paper entitled “Family
Labor: Caring for Capitalism” within the
Labor Theory of Culture panel at the San Diego MLA convention.
Charles
Shepherdson gave an invited lecture on March 18 at
Announcements
Gareth Griffiths, Chair
of the English Department, is delighted to announce that the final approval is
now in place for the introduction of the new Undergraduate Curriculum. Since work on this began in 1999 it would be
difficult to list everyone involved in this but since my decision to revise and
represent the program when I arrived in January 2002 the following people
deserve special mention. Randy Craig for
Chairing the revision committee and all members that committee for their
stirling work in sifting suggestions and organizing responses to the objections
raised in the first round. To the
current officers of the department, especially Rosemary Hennessy as Undergraduate
Director and Mike Hill as Associate Chair who worked ceaselessly on the
document as the stages went through.
Finally to Helene Scheck who, both as a member of the original committee
and as Chair of the Senate Sub-Committee worked tirelessly to advise us and
them as to the nature of the program and its implementation and to address the
many queries and caveats this process always encounters. A Chair is only as good as his or her
helpers. I have been fortunate in
mine. I am sure you will all want to join
me in thanking them.
“ Tomorrow to fresh woods and pastures “
The
Graduate Advisory Committee has been working hard on devising some
suggestions for revisions to the current program and will be bringing its
suggestions for the first stage of discussion to the Department at the meeting
on March 31st. Please make
every effort to attend and support these people in their work by providing
useful comment and input.
The
University’s Writing Center announced that it will
be presenting a free film series entitled “Films Featuring Writers and
Writing.”
March
24 LC 24 Barton Fink 12:00 - 2:00
March
31 LC 19 Adaptation 12:00 - 2:00
April
14 LC 19 Shakespeare in Love 12:00 - 2:00
April
21 LC 19 8
Mile 12:00 - 2:00
Eat,
Drink and Watch Movies! You supply the food and the
The
Undergraduate Program is asking all faculty in the English Department to nominate
graduating seniors who have agreed they would like to be the speaker at the
English Department Convocation at graduation. Before submitting a nomination form, please
be sure that the student you are nominating is committed to attending
graduation. Nominees should be able to write an interesting, brief, timely
speech (no more than 1,000 words) and be good speakers. Submit a brief, typed
abstract (200 words) to the Undergraduate Director outlining the content of the
speech. There is no GPA
restriction. Deadline for submissions is
Thursday, April 1. After the
deadline, the Undergraduate Committee will review abstracts and invite five
finalists to audition. The audition will
consist of reading a brief (250 word) excerpt from an essay or speech of the
student’s own choosing. Please submit
nominations on the designated form (extras in HU 381 mail room) and return to
Rosemary Hennessy, Undergraduate Program Director, no later than April 1.
There
has been a call for submissions for the 2004 Norton Scholar’s Prize. Individual faculty might nominate one of his
or her students. Established upon the
75th anniversary of W. W. Norton & Company, it is awarded annually for an
outstanding undergraduate essay on a literary topic. The Norton Scholar will receive a cash award
of $2,500. The Norton Scholar’s nominating
instructor will also receive transportation to the 2004 meeting of the Modern
Language Association. Four runners-up
will receive a cash award of the $1,000. Entries must be postmarked no later
than April 16, 2004 and should be sent to: The Norton Scholar’s Prize, attn:
Peter Simon, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY
10110. Details are listed on FYE.
The
Graduate Program has announced that they are taking submissions for The
Eugene Garber Prize for Short Fiction. Details are listed on
FYE. For more information contact
Annette Roberts by email delta@cas.albany.edu. Submit entries to Annette
Roberts. Deadline is 4:00 pm on
Also,
for departmental graduate students, submissions are now being taken for the
fifth annual Michael Sprinker Graduate Writing Competition. Details are listed on FYE. Deadline for
submissions is
The
foreign language exam, testing doctoral students’ reading knowledge in a
foreign language, is scheduled for
The
exam will be proctored by Professor Sophie Lubensky of LLC’s Slavic and
Eurasian Studies Program. Students will be given approximately two pages of
text in the foreign language of their choice to translate into English. Currently, the exam is offered in French,
Italian, Portuguese, Russian or Spanish.
Students who wish to be tested in languages other than those listed
should contact LLC secretary Amber Hutchinson at (518) 442-4222 or ah610@albany.deu. Students are permitted to use bi-lingual
dictionaries during the exam, but no other language or grammar aids may be
used. Doctoral students interested in sitting for the exam should contact Amber
Hutchinson.
Bill
Rainbolt announced that e-zine is now available from Prof. David
Washburn’s AJRL 364 class, “Ezine: Web Magazine Publishing.” This is the first of three issues to be
published this semester; the next two will be in April and May. The April issue also will be a collaboration
between this class and Prof. Katherine Van Acker’s AJRL 364 class, “Photojournalism.” The current issue focuses
on AIDS in
13th
Moon Volume 18 is here!! We
are offering all University at
Mike Hill has announced that he is
organizing an Annual Book-Launch event to help promote and celebrate new
books published by the faculty in the last year or two. This event would be for authors in English
and invite colleagues, students, and community members to come to one of the
local bookstores. Please contact Mike
(mikehill@albany.edu) if you have a book for a late Spring event, and he will
do the same next year for 2004-05 publications.
Upcoming
Meetings & Events
On
Sunday, April 4 from 7:00 - 9:00 at the Women’s Building 79 Central
Ave., Albany, Martha Ojeda, Executive Director of the Coalition for Justice
in the Maquiladoras, will speak on Ten Years of NAFTA along with a showing
of Bill Jungels’ “Sobre Pasando La Linea/Crossing the Line,” a documentary account of NAFTA’s impact and
the organizing workers are doing to fight back.
All are welcome. For information
contact Rosemary Hennessy 449-9098.
Hennessy@albany.edu
The next event for the Form on the New
Humanities will be held on Tuesday, March 23rd, in Humanities Building
Room 354, 1:00 to 2:20 pm. Mike Hill,
Associate Professor of English will be presenting “The Multiversity’s
Diversity: Race Writing and Work in the New Humanities”. The forum is open to students, faculty and
members of the community who are invited to participate in the discussions that
will follow the main presentation.
Initiatives
in Teaching is a series of afternoon conversations for
English faculty and teaching assistants dealing with the topic of student work.
The next meeting will be on Friday, March 19 with Eric Keenaghan and Mark
Daly as presenters and one on the following Friday, April 23 from
3:00-5:00 in HU 290. All are welcome. All teaching faculty are invited.
The
next Jawbone event will be Friday March 19 at 6 pm with an
evening of poetry with Alifair Skebe and Pat Dyjak at the Fuze Box (on Central
Avenue, near Lark Street) Free pizza!
All are welcome!! See you there!! Please
come and support our English graduate students! Contact Shirlee Dufort at
ShirleeD/14@aol.com or JennMarlow at jmwege@albany.edu
The last performances of All in the
Timing, David Ives sketches will be on March 19th & 20th, Friday and Saturday, 8:00 pm Studio Theatre,
Performing Arts Center. Cost: $12/$8 for students seniors and staff. Call (518)
442-3997 for Performing Arts Center Box Office.
http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/writingsemester.html#ives.
University
Libraries Offer Symposium On Open Access Publishing and the Faculty Reward
Structure. It will be
held on April 19, UAlbany’s New Library in the Standish Room. Reservations for the symposium are due
Tuesday,
March 23rd,
NY
State Writer’s Institute Events
March 23 & 30 at 8:00 pm, Performance
Studio Theater, Digital Expression will be displaying their vitality and artistic creativity on the
UAlbany campus showcasing music, digital art, dance, and multimedia by students
and faculty from the Music, Art, and Theatre Departments. The event is
co-sponsored by the Departments of Music and Art. For tickets and directions call the PAC Box
Office at 518-442-3997.
March 24, Wednesday,
Russell Shorto journalist and nonfiction writer, discusses his latest
book The Island at the Center of the World (March 2004), the story of Dutch Manhattan and
the crucial role the Dutch played in the shaping of
Facts and Fiction: Stories and Histories
in Recent Art presented by artist, critic and curator Robert
Storr. He is kown as Rosalie
Solow, Professor of Modern Art at
NYS Writers Institute Classic Film Series will
present a film on March 19 entitled Abismos de Pasión (
On March 23, Haitian
Pilgrimage (1995, 29 minutes, color, video). The film was produced by
Robin Lloyd, is about a Haitian-American family that takes a three-week journey
to a church and waterfall shrine at Saut E’Eau in
On March 26, Halving
the Bones (United States, 1995) directed by Ruth Ozeki. Nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the
Sundance Film Festival, this playful documentary is a marvelous exploration of
Japanese-American identity. Ruth
Ozeki will read from and discuss her work on Thursday, April 1 at
4:15 pm seminar in the Assembly Hall
8:00 pm reading in the Recital Hall.
Upcoming Department Meetings
On
March 31st at 12:15 pm in HU 354, there will be a meeting about the
Graduate Program revisions.
Conferences and Workshops
Pierre Joris will
be at the annual AWP (Associated Writing Programs) conference in
Friday , March 26, 10:30-11:15 (F-209
Parlor G 6th floor) F209-What Does Translation Give the Poet? Khaled Mattawa, Annie Finch, Pierre
Joris, Tony Barnstone. Poet-translators
discuss the links between their writing and translation. Panelists will reflect on why they began
translating, how their approaches to translation have changed, and if these
changes influenced or were influenced by their original texts. They will also discuss the changes in their
writing/translation techniques that were necessary to render foreign texts into
English. Panelists using intertextual
techniques will discuss on writing strategies where translation is central to
the creation of original text.
Friday,
March 26, 1-2:15 pm: F104—Antonin Artaud’s “Poetics of Cruelty” for
Contemporary Writers. Jamerson
Maurer, Clayton Eshleman, Judith E. Johnson, Pierre Joris, Aim Ali (A very SUNY
Albany panel!). Antonin Artaud remains
an extremely marginalized figure of Modernism.
His theories on a Theater of Cruelty, his poetry, and his performance
art attempted to release the “shadows” of life, and destroy the effigies
causing the ills of society. The panel
will discuss Artaud from many points of view—translation, performance art,
poetics, modern-day influence, and the critical & theoretical discourse on
his work—and propose that contemporary writers find strong transformative
values in his poetics.
Friday,
March 26, 7:30 pm: Poetry Reading organized by Circumference
magazine to protest the fact that “The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of
Foreign Assets Control recently declared that American publishers cannot edit
works authored in nations under trade embargoes which include Iran, Iraq,
Sudan, Libya and Cuba.” Delilah’s Bar 2771 North Lincoln Ave.
Saturday,
March 27, 9 pm: “Discrete Series” Poetry Reading
at 3030
Faculty
News
Congratulations
to Jeffrey Gibson and Kate Winter recipients of the 2003-04
University at Albany Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Please submit
notices for the English Newsletter including: Publications, Presentations, News
and Events to Connie Barrett every
Friday. cbarrett@albany.edu