VLP Summer Reading Series Begins Thursday, May 29th

The Vermillion Literary Project will hold a summer reading series on the
last Thursday of every month, May through August. These combination
open-mic readings/poetry slams will be held at the Coffee Shop Gallery,
24 W. Main Street. They are free and open to the public. Everyone is
invited to share their writing or just come and listen.

7 p.m. Open-mic. Writers can share their poems, short stories, and other
creative works.

Approx. 8 p.m. As soon as the open-mic ends, the poetry slam, a
competition for poets, will begin. Bring at least two poems if you plan
to participate. Note: the open-mic may end early, so be prepared if the
poetry slam starts early.

The Schedule of Summer Readings:
May 29th,
June 26th,
July 31st,
August 28th.

For more information, call 677-5229 or email the VLP at mrogge@usd.edu.

posted by Michelle Rogge Gannon at 8:24 AM

English Accomplishments/News

English major Elliot Harmon has been recognized with an honorable mention in the Associated Writing Program's INTRO competition, an award open only to undergraduate and graduate students. This marks the first time a USD student has been recognized by the AWP.

Professor Brian Bedard's short story, "News from Nevada," appears in The Briar Cliff Review 2003, which came out on April 24. Bedard's essay, "Christmas Letter 1997," which originally appeared in the Winter 1997 issue of South Dakota Review, has been accepted for reprint in an anthology entitled Christmas on the Northern Plains, to be published by University of Iowa Press in 2004.

Professor Lee Ann Roripaugh is the recipient of a 2003 Bush Artist Fellowship in literature. As a Bush Artist Fellow, she will receive a one-year grant of $44,000 to work exclusively on her writing. Roripaugh was one of fifteen fellowship recipients selected from over 250 applications in the fields of film/video, music composition, script-works, and literature.

Lee Ann Roripaugh has been asked to serve as a judge for the 2003 Asian American Literature Awards. Also, Roripaugh will travel to Columbus, Ohio, May 13-14 to serve onthe Ohio Arts Council Literature Advisory Panel.

Professor Norma Wilson read her poetry at a session of the Dakota Conference, Augustana College, Saturday, April 26. "Poetry of a Prairie in Decline" also featured Brad and Jennifer Soule and Jerome Freeman.

USD English M.A. Graduate ('92) and adjunct English faculty member Tom Gannon graduated with a Ph.D. in English from the University of Iowa in May. In addition, he received the Dean's Achievement Award. Gannon's dissertation is entitled, "The Avian as Native and Natured Other: Re-Imagining the Bird, From British Romanticism to Contemporary Native American Literature." Gannon will begin a full-time, tenure-track position as an assistant professor in English and Ethnic Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln this coming fall.

M.A. graduate Amy Potter will be teaching at Briar Cliff University in the fall of 2003. She will teach English composition and a few one-credit basic writing courses.
posted by Michelle Rogge Gannon at 8:20 AM

USD English Students, Faculty present at PCA/ACA Conference

Professor Norma Wilson and Ph.D. students Cecilia Ragaini, Patricia DiMond, and Victor Singingeagle presented a session on Contemporary American Indian Poetry at the Popular Culture/American Culture Conference held in New Orleans, on April 16. Wilson chaired the session; Ragaini presented "Carter Revard and Lance Henson: Two Oklahoma Voices Celebrate Native Traditions"; DiMond presented "Climbing Into a new World: The Poetry of Wendy Rose"; Singingeagle presented a reading of his work. Patrick LeBeau, an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Reservation, who directs Native studies at Michigan State University, also read poetry at the session, and the entire group enjoyed dinner afterward on a balcony inthe French Quarter overlooking Preservation Hall. Later in the evening Singingeagle and Wilson read their poetry at the conference's Beatnik Café.

Norma Wlson presented a reading of her "Poems from Mojacar" at the New Orleans PCA/ACA Conference on April 17, 2003.

Chris Bloss, of the I.D. Weeks Library faculty, who is also a Ph.D. student in English, presented an essay, "Examining Change in Flannery O'Connor's 'The Violent Bear It Away' (1960) and Lewis Nordan's 'Wolf Whistle (1993)," at the New Orleans PCA/ACA Conference on April 17.
posted by Michelle Rogge Gannon at 8:01 AM