The English Department Newsletter

************************************************

The University of South Dakota, August 2005
Emily Haddad, Editor

Upcoming Events

The fifth John R. Milton Writers' Conference showcases an exciting roster of award-winning authors, as well as a series of panels comprised of writers and scholars from all across the nation. Featured writers Kent Meyers, Linda Hasselstrom, Tiffany Midge, Vince Gotera, and Tricia Currans-Sheehan will give readings and book signings along with University of South Dakota creative writing professors Ed Allen, Brian Bedard, and Lee Ann Roripaugh. Conference events also include scholarly and creative presentations exploring this year's conference theme of "Frontier Nostalgia," and pop-culture panel sessions devoted to HBO's Deadwood and Joss Whedon's Firefly. A Thursday night poetry slam sponsored by the Vermillion Literary Project at the Coffee Shop Gallery will open the conference, which runs October 27-29, 2005. Registration information and the full schedule of events are available at http://www.usd.edu/engl/milton/.

This biennial conference was established in 1998 to celebrate the life and work of University of South Dakota English Professor and South Dakota Review founder John R. Milton. The conference pays tribute to John R. Milton's lifelong engagement with and commitment to Western writers and literature.

[The John R. Milton Writers' Conference is sponsored at the University of South Dakota by the College of Arts and Sciences, the English Department, Barnes & Noble, South Dakota Review, the John R. Milton Endowment of the University of South Dakota Foundation, and the Wayne S. and Esther M. Knutson Endowment under the auspices of the College of Fine Arts.]

Student Achievements

Mary Artichoker was accepted by the National Book Foundation to participate in the organization's summer retreat for writers. Mary says she had "a great time" at the retreat.

Jamie Barnett spent this summer in Boston, MA, where she had an internship in the chemistry/ psychology group at Houghton Mifflin Company. She reports also having visited Herman Melville's house.

The International Writing Centers Association and National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing has accepted "Breaking down Boundaries and Barriers: An Ecology for Writing Centers," a panel proposed by Chris Ervin, the English Department's Director of Writing, and English majors Crystal Gorden, Jamie Barnett, and Amber Wegehaupt. They will present their research in Minneapolis in October.

Holly Richard, who graduated from the MA program this month, presented a paper titled "Heed Her Cry: Hogan and LaDuke Call for Environmental Justice" at the Sixth Biennial Conference of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, held at the University of Oregon, Eugene, in June. Holly notes: "Highlights were the drive, interesting panels, hiking, Gary Snyder's reading, and a white-water rafting trip down the McKenzie River on the last day of the conference."

Alizah Solomon, an MA student, is moving to Salome, AZ, where she will teach high-school English.

In July, PhD student Annie Christain attended the Naropa University Summer Writing Program in Boulder, CO. According to Annie, the program helped her "to grow immensely as a writer because of the complete poetry immersion, the free-thinking atmosphere, and the encouragement from the students and faculty."

Doctoral student Jeremy Christensen has taken a job at Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell, SD.

Patti DiMond, a PhD student as well as an Instructor in the English Department, is the author of an entry on poet Lance Henson, to be published in the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Native Literature.

PhD student Amy Walsh has taken a full-time position as an instructional designer at Interlink Training, where she is working on accounts for Philips Sonicare European and Aventis Pharma-ceutical. "Overall," she says, "the job is interesting--I get to learn a ton about all sorts of stuff." Amy is also teaching two WebCT classes at Simpson College in Indianola, IA.

Faculty Accomplishments

Easy Six, the film based on Ed Allen's novel Mustang Sally, had its world premiere on the Showtime Network on June 8. The film was directed by Chis Iovenko, and stars Julian Sands, James Belushi, and Kate Towne. Easy Six will be shown periodically on Showtime throughout the summer, ending on August 29.

Amanda Emerson presented two papers this spring: "William Dunlap's Andre: A Double Agent of Revolution" at the Society of Early Americanists Biennial Conference, in Alexandria, VA; and "Charles Brockden Brown's Histories and the Project of Orderly Democracy," at the 16th Annual American Literature Association Conference, in Boston, MA. She also represented the U. at the Council on Undergraduate Research's Institute on Mentorship, Collaboration, and Undergraduate Research in the Social Sciences and Humanities, held in July in Bridgewater, MA.

In February, professor emeritus Tom Gasque published a review of W. Raymond Wood's "Prologue to Lewis and Clark: The Mackay and Evans Expedition" in We Proceeded On (Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation publication). He also edited Vol. 38 of Onoma, the annual publication of the International Council of Onomastic Sciences, and wrote an article on place names in the South for a new edition of The Encyclopedia of the American South, forthcoming in 2006.

An essay by Emily Haddad, " 'Better than the reality': The Egyptian Market in Nineteenth-Century British Travel Writing," will be included in a volume called Interrogating Orientalism: Contextual Approaches and Pedagogical Practices. The editors are Diane Long Hoeveler and Jeffrey Cass; the book will be published by the Ohio State University Press. Emily's paper "Family and Economic Agency in Edgeworth's Popular Tales" was read at the British Women Writers Conference in Lafayette, LA, in April.

Professor emeritus Gervase Hittle is working for Wildidea Buffalo Co. on a ranch southeast of Rapid City, SD, on the Cheyenne River, helping to produce what he promises is "the best meat you can find anywhere." He also writes for a couple of newsletters.

John Pitcher has received a contract from Palgrave Macmillan for his first book, Chaucer's Feminine Subjects: Figures of Desire in The Canterbury Tales. In March, John presented a paper called "Reading Spiritual Autobiography: The Subject of Feminism and Psychoanalysis in Medieval Studies" at the New Medievalisms conference at the University of Western Ontario. In May, he presented "Benjamin's Histories" at a Special Session on Walter Benjamin at the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University.

The featured reader at the Sioux Empire Arts Council Horse Barn poetry reading series in July was Marcella Remund.

Lee Ann Roripaugh's book, Year of the Snake, was a finalist for the 2005 Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry sponsored by The Publishing Triangle. The other finalists for the award are Adrienne Rich and Maureen Seaton. Lee Ann's short story "Amphibious Life" has been accepted for publication by North American Review. Four of her poems have also been accepted: "Disconsolate Things" in Puerto del Sol, "Things I Would Do For You" in the Beloit Poetry Journal, "Temporary Things" in Mid-American Review, and "Insect Postures" by BLOOM magazine. She received a 2005 South Dakota Arts Council Individual Artist Grant in the amount of $3,000. On April 14, she gave a poetry reading at Northern State University in Aberdeen, SD. Lee Ann also received a Research Travel Award from the U. Office of Research to support her presentation of a paper (co-authored with Susan Wolfe) at the University of North Carolina-Asheville's Sixth Scholarly Conference on GLBTQ Studies, March 31-April 2. "A Community of Femmes: Packaging Lesbians in The L-Word," an article based on this conference presentation, has been accepted for an anthology on The L-Word to be published by St. Martins Press (USA) and Tauris (UK).

In May, Dennis Sjolie was invited to read his story "Christmases" at the unveiling of the new issue of The Briar Cliff Review held at the Sioux City Art Center. The story was featured in that issue. Also this summer Dennis's story "The White Forever" appeared in Samsara. Another story, "Cold Ash," appeared in Simulacrum: The Magazine of Speculative Transformation.

Professor emerita Norma Wilson was one of twenty-two Oklahoma poets to read this July at the Woody Guthrie Festival in Woody Guthrie's hometown, Okemah, OK. Her essay, "America's Indigenous Poetry," is included in the new Cambridge Companion to Native American Literature, edited by Kenneth Roemer and Joy Porter and due out at the end of August.

Susan Wolfe's essay "The poor are different from you and me: Masculinity and Class in To Have and Have Not," has been accepted for an anthology edited by Kirk Curnutt and Gail Sinclair. Susan also co-authored a paper, "Self-Realization and True Sovereignty: The ACT Production of The Taming of the Shrew," delivered by Roberta Rude (of the U's Theatre Department) at the Popular Culture Association Conference in San Diego, CA, in March. In May, Susan attended the Third Global Conference of Monsters and the Monstrous: Myths and Metaphors of Enduring Evil, held in Budapest, Hungary, where she presented "The Monster as Protagonist/ The Boundaries of the Human." After the conference, she visited the Piliscsaba campus of the U's Hungarian exchange university, Peter Pazmany Catholic University.

Alumni Activities

In May, Tricia Currans-Sheehan (PhD) was given the Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award at Briar Cliff University, Sioux City, IA, where she is a professor of English and writing. Her first book, The Egg Lady and Other Neighbors, was published in November.

Tim Baxter-Ferguson (PhD) is about to begin his sixth year at Limestone College in Gaffney, SC where he serves as Director of Theatre, although he reassures us that he still teaches at least one English course each semester. His adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula will be performed at a theatre in Gaffney this fall. He is also the curriculum designer for the Cherokee County School District's Gifted and Talented drama program for grades 3-12.

Rebecca (Terk) Anderson (MA) has started Flying Tomato Farms, a community-supported-agriculture enterprise, in Vermillion.

After a year teaching in Kentucky, Ashley (Miklos) Atteberry (MA) has moved to Michigan, where she is the Assistant Director of Student Judicial Services at Ferris State University. She is expecting a baby this winter.

Renee Della Fave (MA) is working in New Jersey for a company called Galaxy Scientific, where she says she is "learning a lot about air traffic control systems, computers, and people." She is also writing newsletters and developing a website for a local small business. Starting in September, she will be working nights at a community college library.

Tom Gannon (MA), an assistant professor of English and Ethnic Studies at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, presented a paper at the Leaves of Grass 150th Anniversary Conference at UNL in April. The session also included Lawrence Buell of Harvard University. Tom's paper was entitled, "Complaints from the Spotted Hawk: Flights and Feathers in Whitman's 1855 Leaves of Grass."

Nikka Harris (MA) is one year shy of tenure at Rochester Community and Technical College, where she teaches primarily developmental writing and grammar courses. She has a one-year-old son, Caleb.

Sasha (Erickson) Huether (MA) is teaching online courses for National American University and has just started work as a legal secretary for Holland and Hart in Jackson, WY.

Erin Kaufman (MA) has moved to Sedalia, MO, where she has a position teaching Composition and Creative Writing.

Central Community College in Columbus, NE, has hired Jami Olson (MA) to teach composition and business communications. Jami plans to spend the rest of her time caring for her baby daughter, Valori.

At the University of Sioux Falls awards ceremony on May 8, Brenda Paulsen (MA) received the "Part-Time Faculty of the Year" award. Brenda has taught at USF for three semesters. She spent part of this summer on a walking tour of England.

Jenny White (MA) presented a paper, "Female Adolescence and the Subversion of Social Ideology in Pride and Prejudice (1813) and Marriage (1818)," at the British Women Writers Conference in Lafayette, LA in April. Jenny lives in Minneapolis.

Matt Wencl (MA) had a self-portrait entitled "self-capixulate" in the June "Portraits of Pride" show at the Seattle LGBT Community Center. He says, "The portrait was comprised of my color photography printed onto numerous transparencies and layered to create a Cubist effect and a faint image of myself looking out from the center." Matt is looking forward to his first solo show in September, at Presence: Art of Living, a gift shop/gallery in Seattle. His poem "paris, nevada" will be published in the fall issue of South Dakota Review. Matt has a new cat named Gryphon and a day job as an ad writer at World Lux. "Life is great," Matt concludes.

Kristi Widner, who almost completed an MA degree in English, is now teaching school in Virginia and working toward master's degree in Special Education.

Erin (Yoeger) Wolfe (MA) is moving to Atlanta, GA, where her fiance is about to start a graduate program in Psychology.

Barbara Baker is employed as a graphic artist at the U's Coyote Student Center. She recently showed her work in the 2005 University of South Dakota Alumni Art Exhibition and is currently working on a project for a Sioux City Art Center charity event.

Elliot Harmon is a finalist this year for the very prestigious Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship.

Melissa Houghton has just finished a year teaching English in Korea as part of the Fulbright exchange program.

Elizabeth Kary starts Law School this month.

Sarah Torretta Klock is currently pursuing her PhD in English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. She just had her first child, Jack, in June.

VLP News Desk

PhD student Annie Christain and undergraduate Sara Kniffen have been organizing, advertising, and hosting the Vermillion Literary Project's summer series of poetry slams. Ed Allen and Lee Ann Roripaugh were the featured readers in June and July, respectively. Please plan to join us for the VLP's next poetry slam on Thursday, August 25, at 7:00 p.m., at the Coffee Shop Gallery, 24 W. Main St, featuring Brian Bedard.

Dakota Writing Project

Michelle Rogge Gannon and alumna Nancy Kampfe successfully co-directed the Dakota Writing Project 2005 Summer Institute in June. Eleven teachers from around South Dakota attended the four-week institute, which included visits by Lee Ann Roripaugh, Chris Ervin, and DWP director Nancy Zuercher. Teachers wrote articles, did research, and demonstrated writing activities that they have used in their own classrooms. Their articles and other writings can be viewed online in the DWP ezine, Writing What We Know, at http://www.dakotawritingproject.org/dwpezine.

In July, Michelle and Greg Dyer (University of Sioux Falls) co-facilitated the first three weeks of the Dakota Writing Project Electronic Writing Marathon, taking a small group of DWP teacher-consultants online to explore and write in a variety of online environments. The marathon will continue in January, with teachers also trying out one or more of these technology environments with their students. The marathon was made possible through a $7000 technology grant from the National Writing Project.

With Nebraska high school English teacher Cathie English, Michelle co-directed the National Writing Project's first Writing-and-Technology Writers Retreat at Lied Lodge in Nebraska City, NE, this month. During the retreat, educators from around the country worked on professional articles and hypertexts about classroom activities involving technology and writing.

Throughout the summer, Michelle has also been a member of the National Writing Project's E-Anthology E-Team, responding to writing online submitted by educators participating in summer institutes around the country. The Dakota Writing Project has participated in the NWP E-Anthology every summer since the start of the E-Anthology back in 1996.

Comings and Goings

Patricia DiMond, Marcella Remund, and Melanie Wood, formerly the U's English instructors at USDSU in Sioux Falls, will be teaching in Vermillion starting this fall. Replacing them in Sioux Falls are Kenneth Green (who earned an MA in English from USD several years ago), Mary Johnson, and Holly Richard (who graduated with an MA this month). A heartfelt welcome to all.

Lynn Milton, the widow of former English professor and South Dakota Review editor John R. Milton, died July 27.

Undergraduate Sara Kniffen had a baby boy, Peter Joseph Kniffen, on July 9th.

The asbestos tile that had covered most English Department office floors is now gone, replaced with carpet. Special thanks to our new secretary, Melanie Westin, for organizing our space in the aftermath of the renovations, and to TAs Courtney Huse-Wika, Jennifer Moskowitz, and Ryan Schamp for helping to get the TA offices in shape.

Contributions

Since March, the English Department scholarship endowments have received contributions from Timothy and Ann Harrington, Pamela Smith Hill, Geraldine Sanford, and Lynne Young. We thank them sincerely for their support.
posted by Michelle Rogge Gannon at 9:24 AM

Everyone, join us for the Vermillion Literary Project Poetry Slam, featuring professional writer and SOUTH DAKOTA REVIEW editor Brian Bedard, on Thursday, August 25, at 7 p.m., at the Coffee Shop Gallery, 24 W. Main Street, downtown Vermillion. Prizes will be awarded to the slam winners. Slam poets should bring at least three poems. For more information about VLP poetry slams, visit http://www.usd.edu/~projlit/vlpslam.cfm .

Brian Bedard received an MFA in creative writing from the University of Montana and a PhD in English from the University of Utah. He is a professor of English at the University of South Dakota. He also directs the creative writing program at the U. and serves as editor of the SOUTH DAKOTA REVIEW.

His short stories have been published nationwide in magazines such as ALASKA QUARTERLY REVIEW, CIMARRON REVIEW, THE MACGUFFIN, NORTH DAKOTA QUARTERLY, QUARTERLY WEST, and SNAKE NATION REVIEW. His story, "News from Nevada," was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2003. His story collection, HOUR OF THE BEAST, was published by Chariton Review Press.

For more information about this event and/or the Vermillion Literary Project, visit http://www.usd.edu/~projlit or call 605-677-5229.
posted by Michelle Rogge Gannon at 1:02 AM