Passing the Flame:
A Celebration of Women Poets, followed by an Open-Mic

Join the Vermillion Literary Project for a special Women's History Month celebration on Thursday, March 31, at 7:00-9:00 p.m., at the Coffee Shop Gallery, 24 W. Main Street, downtown Vermillion.

For this event, "Passing the Flame: A Celebration of Women Poets," the feature will consist of USD women faculty members and graduate students each reading a poem or two by women poets they particularly admire or have been inspired by. This will be followed by an open-mic, in which everyone is welcome to share 5-10 minutes of their own poetry, short fiction, or other creative works. This event is free and open to the general public and is sponsored by the Vermillion Literary Project and USD Women's Studies.

The Vermillion Literary Project is a student organization at the University of South Dakota that publishes a literary magazine and hosts literary events for the USD community and the general public. For more information about the Vermillion Literary Project, visit www.usd.edu/~projlit or call 605-677-5229.
posted by Michelle Rogge Gannon at 8:31 AM

The English Department Newsletter
__________­_____________________________________________________________
The University of South Dakota March 2005 Emily Haddad, Editor

Upcoming Events

On March 24 at 3:00 p.m., Delphine Red Shirt, a Lakota writer and teacher, will read from and discuss her work. Red Shirt is the author of two books, Bead on an Anthill: A Lakota Childhood and Turtle Lung Woman’s Granddaughter, and is currently writing a collection of essays.
[This event is cosponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences on behalf of the Women’s Studies Program.]

The next event in our ongoing Colloquium Series will be John Dudley’s talk on April 8 at 3:00. John will give a lecture entitled “’A Real Slow Drag’: Scott Joplin, Opera, and the Problem of Racial Authenticity.”

Carter Revard, an Osage poet, and his Ponca cousin, Carter Camp, a political activist and orator, will visit campus on April 11 and 12. Revard will present a reading on April 11 at 7:00 p.m. in Farber Hall, Old Main. Camp will speak on April 12 at 7:00 p.m. in Farber.
Revard's new book , "How the Songs Come Down," was recently released by Salt Publishing of London and will be available at his reading. Revard's poetry can be found in most anthologies of Native poetry and in many general poetry anthologies.
Carter Camp was a founder of the American Indian Movement and is the leader of the Movement in Oklahoma. He joined others in the desperate takeover of the village of Wounded Knee in 1973. Camp will speak about the history of the Movement.
[This event is cosponsored by the American Indian Studies Institute and the College of Arts and Sciences.]


Student Accomplishments

Christopher Bloss, a PhD student in English, will chair several panels on Southern Literature and Culture at the national Popular Culture Association conference in San Diego in March, and will read a short story, “The Dogwood Waltz.” Chris has recently accepted the position of Coordinator of Instruction at the library of Columbus State University.

On February 26, Keith Collett, who is writing his dissertation, presented a paper entitled “Bodies in the Baudrillardian Landscape of Martin Amis’s Money” at the Twentieth Century Literature and Culture Conference in Louisville.

Patricia DiMond, a doctoral student and USD faculty member at USDSU in Sioux Falls, delivered a paper called “Breaking Stereotypes by Reclaiming Indian Identity in Sherman Alexie’s Indian Killer” at the Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association conference in Albuquerque last month.

MA student Holly Richard presented a paper entitled "Crossing Boundaries: Linda Hogan's Dwellings with Nature" at the University of Missouri-Columbia 14th Annual English Graduate Conference in February.

Several graduate students will present their research at the national Popular Culture Association meeting. Jeremy Christensen’s paper is entitled “Who am I/We?” Daniel Jones will present “Every man’s ready for marriage when the right girl comes along: Gender Performance and Queer Theory in Rear Window.” Jennifer Moskowitz will deliver a paper entitled “Negotiating the Postmodern: Strategies of Narrative Resolution in the Adolescent Mystery.”


Faculty Accomplishments

Michelle Rogge Gannon will be a representative of the USD-based Dakota Writing Project at the National Writing Project’s meeting in Washington, DC, in April. Assisted by DWP alumna Nancy Kampfe, Michelle will direct DWP's four-week Summer Invitational Institute at USD, June 6 -30. The Institute is open to teachers in all disciplines from kindergarten through university. Application information appears at http://www.usd.edu/dwp.

On February 4 Lee Ann Roripaugh read poetry and spoke on South Dakota Public Broadcasting's "Food for Thought," hosted by Susan Hanson (a graduate of the USD English Department).

Dennis Sjolie has several short stories forthcoming: “Sky like Armageddon” in Happy, “Christmases” in The Briar Cliff Review, and “The White Forever” in Samsara. His story “Girls like Katie Doogan,” which appeared recently in Words of Wisdom, has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize by the editor of that publication.

In February, Skip Willman attended the Twentieth-Century Literature and Culture Conference in Louisville, where he delivered a paper on “The Marginalization of Conspiracy Theory: Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of the Dead.”

Norma Wilson's essay on the cultural influences on Carter Revard's work will be part of a volume of essays on Revard that Salt Publishing will release in 2006.

Last month at the Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Association / American Culture Association in Albuquerque, Susan Wolfe delivered a paper on “Galatea as Simulacrum: Feminine Submissiveness and Virtual Beauty in Simone ,” co-authored with Theatre professor Roberta Rude. At the same conference, Emily Haddad participated in a roundtable discussion on the teaching of captivity narratives and presented a paper, “Bound to Love: Captivity in Contemporary Harlequin Fiction.” Emily’s trip to Albuquerque was funded by a Research Travel Award from the USD Office of Research.


Alumni Activities

Rebecca Anderson (MA) reports that the University of Oklahoma Press expressed interest in publishing an expanded version of her History thesis on the Whiteclay, Nebraska executive addition to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

Leslie Goss Erickson (MA) chairs the “Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth” Area within the Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Association / American Culture Association. Leslie has completed her PhD at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and is a faculty member at Western Iowa Tech Community College in Sioux City, IA.

Sue Morrell, an alumna of the Dakota Writing Project, is a member of the National Writing Project's Rural Sites Leadership Team, and will help to lead its Rural Sites Retreat in Folsom, CA this month.

John Nelson (PhD) co-presented a paper this month at the International Conference on Technology, Knowledge and Society at the University of California, Berkeley. The title was "Implementing Wireless, Networked Learning Communities." Two of John’s poems, "Moving the Mobile Home" and "Valentine, Nebraska,” were accepted for the Winter 2004 edition of South Dakota Review. Along with fellow alumnus Justin Blessinger (PhD), John will also deliver a paper, “Teaching and Assessing Online Writing and Research,” at the South Dakota Teachers of English Conference in April.



VLP News Desk
Kari Hammer (VLP Editor in Chief), B. Anne Fanning, Jessica Larson, Melinda Obach, Lisha VonEhwegen, Crystal Gorden, Amanda Sides, Amber Wegehaupt, Tom Klett, and other students in the Vermillion Literary Project have been hard at work creating the VLP 2005 magazine, which should be available in late April.
With production by Randal Greene, the VLP has assembled Microwave Souls, a CD of spoken-word performances by poets who have participated in various VLP events. Writers include current VLP members Annie Christain, Vanessa Gorden, Kari Hammer, and Doug Murano; several USD English/VLP alumni, including Charles Anderson, Rebecca (Terk) Anderson, Elliot Harmon, Victor Singingeagle, and Matt Wencl; and Tony LaPointe, a Vermillion resident. Sales of the CD will help to fund the publication of the VLP magazine; for details, email projlit@usd.edu .
Recent VLP events include the annual Vermillion Literary Project Poetry Festival, held February 24, 2005, which was a great success. The festival included readings by Lee Ann Roripaugh and two poets from Omaha, Matt Mason and Sarah McKinstry-Brown. The VLP has also initiated a new contest, "Holidays on Ice," judged this year by Lee Ann Roripaugh, with winning entries to be published in the 2005 magazine.
The VLP's radio show, Project Radio, is now airing weekly on KAOR, 91.1 F.M., on Saturdays from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m; Kari Hammer, Doug Murano, Jake Mailander, and Eric Bliss run the show.
Jake Mailander is leading the VLP Community Writers Group, which meets once a month at its new location, the U.Brew in the Coyote Student Center. For dates/times and more information, contact Jake at jmailand@usd.edu.
Paula Burns is the new VLP webmaster and continues as the VLP's email correspondent. Visit the VLP website at http://www.usd.edu/~projlit.


Comings and Goings

Norma Wilson plans to retire May. We will miss her, and are glad that she plans to stay in Vermillion.

Emily Haddad is now Chair of the English Department, and is very grateful to Brian Bedard for his lengthy and generous service as Acting Chair.

Brian Bedard has become a grandfather, thanks to the arrival of George Groebner.

John Pitcher welcomed his first child, Noah Cole Pitcher Paris, on March 1.


Contributions

In 2004, the English Department scholarship endowments received contributions from Mrs. Ellen Buchanan, Mr. Paul Hasse, Mr. David Knudson, Dr. Susan Wolfe, and the Sioux Falls Area Community Foundation. We are honored to have the support of these kind people.
posted by Anonymous at 10:06 AM