Spring 2012 EMW Intern Best of Seanna

Spring 2012 EMW Internship

Seanna Wilhelm, Terence Elliott

Creative Commons - BY -- 2012

Dedication

This is dedicated to all of the wonderful people who helped andsupported me this, and to the English Department for making itpossible–you’re amazing.

Table of Contents

Guest Bloggers 2

Guest Columnist 2

Guest Blogging Tips 2

My Internship with the English Department 3

Minutes 5

Is Standard Grammar Important? 6

Dear English for Secondary Teachers majors: 9

English 412: Theory and Practice of Rhetoric 12

Meet Dr. Elizabeth Alsop 14

Celebrating the Work of Robert Penn Warren—a Kentucky-bornLiterary Giant

15

Sigma Tau Delta Report 18

News and Things 20

National Poetry Month 20

First Patch of Alumni Updates and Advice 21

Second Batch of Alumni Updates and Advice 23

Third Batch of Alumni Updates and Advice 24

Third Batch of Alumni Updates and Advice 24

Fourth Batch of Alumni Updates and Advice

25

Final Batch of Alumni Updates and Advice 26

Our Library 28

The Ashen Egg

29

Bowling Green, KY Internship Opp 29

Are you continuing your studies after you get your undergrad degree?29

Hodge-Podge-ing-ness 30

Readings 30

Sarah Gorham 30

Eric Goodman Reading

33

Goldenrod Poetry Festival 2012 37

Writing Contest 43

Writing Contests & Opportunities 43

EMW Writing Contest 46

Details on EMW Writing Contest 48

First Batch of Sample Twitter Shorts 49

Second Batch of Sample Twitter Shorts 50

Third Batch of Sample Twitter Shorts 50

Final Batch of Sample Twitter Shorts 51

EMW Writing Contest Winners

52

Meet the EMW Writing Contest Winners 53

The EMW and I 54

About 54

My SRC Experience 56

English Majors' Toolbox 57

The End

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Guest Bloggers

Guest Columnist

Guest Bloggers

Guest Columnist

The English Majors’ Weblog is accepting guest bloggers. Ouraudience is looking for information that includes ‘English’ happeningsboth inside and outside of WKU—events and experiences both offand on campus. What’s happening in the world of English majors,their personal experiences, words of encouragement, tips—whateverhelps give our readers insights into an English major’s life.

Please read the guidelines and checklist below before submitting.

Submissions should be sent to [email protected] with the subjectline “Guest Blogger”. Pieces should be saved in .doc or .docx format.

1. We reserve the right to edit submissions before publication toensure that they are appropriate for the English Majors’ Weblog. Ifneeded, posts may be edited for grammar and spelling. The piece willthen be returned to the author for rewrite until both parties aresatisfied.

2. Length should be no more than 1000 words. In regards tolanguage, keep in mind that you are not writing a scholarly paper.

language, keep in mind that you are not writing a scholarly paper.Please maintain your own voice (minus profanity).

3. Media (images, videos, audio, etc) are accepted where reasonablyplaced. They MUST have attribution.

4. Links are also accepted, and encouraged. Show our readerswhere you got your information or where they can read further on thetopic. You may also link back to the English Majors’ Weblog. (Theremay be times when we add these ourselves.)

5. You are not required to reply to comments made on your post, butare welcome do so.

6. At the beginning of the post, we will provide a brief introduction ofthe author and topic. This will occur on the first time that you guestblog with us; we can link back to that original post if you join usagain.

Guest Blogging Tips

1.) Did you read the guidelines?

2.) Did you use spellcheck and/or review your work?

3.) Word count?

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Guest Blogging Tips

4.) Did you use any links?

5.) Did you include any sort of media? If so, did you use attribution?

6.) Also in regards to attribution–if you quoted anybody else’s work,did you give them attribution? The EMW uses MLA as that is whatour discipline uses.

7.) Is your piece “appropriate”? Keep in mind that you’rerepresenting the English Majors’ Weblog.

8.) Did you include a photo and information about yourself for yourinitial post?

9.) Did you make sure to select what categories your post fallsunder? There is a list of these on the right hand side. Feel free touse more than one category.

10.) Did you give your piece a title? Scroll through the EMW andsee what sorts of titles that we use. Make sure that it issomething that fits. Don’t tell our readers about whether you

something that fits. Don’t tell our readers about whether youprefer marker boards over the old chalk ones and title your piece“Grape Jelly”.

My Internship with the English Department

The following is a guest post written by WKU undergraduate AmyLindsey about her internship experience.

My name is Amy Lindsey. I’m majoring in English for Secondaryteachers and Biological Anthropology. I also have two minors:Criminology and Creative Writing.

I plan to teach English to high school students and, hopefully, Ican do something with my Anthropology degree as well. I’m asenior, but I still have about 4 semesters left. I am married andhave a 6-year-old daughter.

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During the Fall 2011 semester, I had an internship through the Englishdepartment here at WKU. I was one of the two teaching assistants(TA) for English 299, with Dr. Ted Hovet as my advisor. In additionto this being a great and exciting experience, it also counts as a 3credit hour course (English 369), which is taught by Dr. AngelaJones. Since I am an English for Secondary Education major, being aTA in an undergraduate classroom was an excellent opportunity forme. You do not have to major in English education to be a TA.

The other TA for the second section of English 299 was a literaturemajor. There are different teachers for English 299, so you may notend up with Dr. Hovet if you choose this kind of internship.

During the course of my internship, I acted as second in command toDr. Hovet. There were even two opportunities where I was able totake over the class. One of which, Dr. Hovet had to go to aconference, so I was on my own. The students were work-shoppingpapers that day, so I just made sure they stayed on track and gavethem advice when they needed it. The second time, Dr. Hovet waspresent but, I was in charge of teaching the class. I decided to teach

present but, I was in charge of teaching the class. I decided to teachthem some Robert Frost poems. Dr. Hovet acted as my teachingassistant that day.

The workload of a teaching assistant includes:

helping create the syllabus

reading the books that will be used in the class

creating handouts and quizzes

revising and adding to writing assignments

grading quizzes and commenting on student papers

advising students

inviting and scheduling guest speakers

disciplining off-task or sleeping students by emailing them to let themknow how it will affect their grade

helping the teacher come to a final decision on student participationgrades It seems like an exhausting workload, but that isn’t everythingthe internship entails. English 369 is a separate class from theinternship, which has its own workload and requirements. I would notrecommend taking more than two English classes or other classeswith huge workloads while doing an internship. I had a total of 17hours with 3 English classes and a foreign language class, so I oftenfelt overwhelmed and completely stressed out. Even though I felt likeI was going insane, I somehow managed to keep my grades up, but Iwould suggest taking a light course load with few writing or literaturecourses.

Over the course of this internship, I was unable to manage my time. Ibarely got any sleep and my family time was extremely diminished.My work for other classes was also affected, but I did manage tokeep my grades up. I suggest that future interns learn timemanagement skills before attempting an internship and a lighter courseload would help with this as well.

This experience proved to be very helpful and motivational to myfuture career plans, and it looks good on a resume. Learning throughexperience is definitely the best way to learn. It helped me realize thatI have made 3

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the right decision to become a teacher. I learned more about teachingfrom my internship than from any of my education classes. It took awhile before I became comfortable acting as teacher instead ofstudent; it also took a while to revert being a student for my otherclasses, especially if some of my students were in that class as well.

The most helpful experiences were my days that I controlled the classand when I had to “discipline” the students who were sleeping inclass. It isn’t like I was able to send them to the principal’s office, soI had to let them know, through email, that there grades would beaffected by this. It would not only affect participation grades, but theirother grades as well, since they could not learn if they did not payattention. I also suggested different ways they could help themselvesstay awake, like coffee or standing. It worked and these students didnot sleep in class again. This related to my future career plansbecause students will fall asleep in high school classrooms as well.

One of the most important things I learned was how to be morehelpful when commenting on student papers and creating a mixture ofeasy and difficult questions for quizzes. I learned from my evaluationat the end of the internship, that I was sometimes too mean with mycomments on papers. I wish I had learned this earlier in my internshipas it would have helped me to evaluate what I said and to give betteradvice.

The thing that surprised me most in my internship was my inability toget over my anxiety. I was so nervous that I was unable to be asactive in classroom activities as I had wanted. I wish I had been morehelpful in leading class discussions and answering student questions.At times it felt as if I were observing the class instead of helping toteach it. I will definitely need to work out these issues before I get myown classroom.

In addition to teaching assistant internships, there are otheropportunities available. Dr. Jones has even sent one student to NewYork to work with a talk show host. The possibilities are endless.

To learn more about internships with the English Department, visittheir website or talk to Dr. Jones in Cherry Hall, room 115 for an

their website or talk to Dr. Jones in Cherry Hall, room 115 for anapplication.

Minutes

At our last meeting, some of our members went through a few writingprompts in an effort to get a jump start on the annual GoldenrodPoetry Competition. All submissions will be due this Friday. If you’reinterested, there are fliers all over Cherry Hall advertising the event.The reading will be on the 9th of March in Cherry Hall 125. Therewill be a dinner for the English Club before the reading with the guestjudge Stacia Fleegal, although the location of this dinner has not yetbeen settled upon. At our next meeting, we’ll settle on a place to eatfor the 23rd and we’ll go through all the poetry submissions tonarrow down the top ten.

Just as a reminder, 20/20, the PCAL event, will be in Cherry Hallnext weekend from 8pm-11pm. In the grand tradition of 20/20parties, you can dress in something from either 20 years ago, or 20years in the 4

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Minutes

future. There will be dancing, coffee, and other planned events. Forthose who have poetry they’re just popping to read, there will be asignup sheet for an open mic.

This year is the 15th annual Gender and Women’s Studies writingcompetition. They are accepting poetry, fiction, and nonfictionsubmissions that relate to gender and feminist issues. Your writing canrelate to gender either directly or indirectly. The deadline is the 6th ofApril.

See you next week on Monday at 4:45 in 124!

Michael Miller

Is Standard Grammar Important?

The following is a post from one of our own professors, Dr. ElizabethWinkler.

I grew up in southeastern Ohio, accounting for my “special”English. In college I traveled to Mexico to take care of mylanguage requirement and fell in love with the people and thelanguage. After college, I joined the Peace Corps and servedthree plus years on the Dominican-Haitian border. I mostlyworked in rural development in a small village. I organizedreforestation and agro-forestry projects as well as serving as theco-director of a center for malnourished children. In one village,we built a local food cooperative.

After Peace Corps, I returned to the States to get a Master’sdegree in Linguistics, and then left the country to teach at auniversity in Mexico for three and one-half years. While there, Idiscovered caving and since then have spent most of my freeweekends and vacations bouncing pits or exploring and mapmaking in Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave. I even met my husbandin Mammoth Cave. After getting my doctorate in Linguistics, Ilived in Georgia and taught linguistics at Columbus StateUniversity. Next we moved to Tucson, Arizona where I taught atthe University of Arizona for several years. In 2006, I became aprofessor at Western, finally living above the world’s largestcave and teaching at a great school.

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I teach ENG 304, a survey of English grammar. Despite what manythink, an understanding of grammar is of practical use. For example,an analytical understanding of grammar is crucial to the acquisition ofa second language. I struggled with language classes preciselybecause I did not understand the grammatical terms used. In addition,if you are going to be a teacher, either of native or nonnativespeakers, you need to be conversant with grammar terms andunderstand why it is so difficult to learn. Many people incorrectlyassume that because they write well, they can teach grammar.

People spend their lives communicating. They vary their languagedepending upon the context of a conversation. Language is an act ofidentity. For example, I use my “proper voice” at work (though notalways, as grammar mavens point out to me!). In my personal life, I

always, as grammar mavens point out to me!). In my personal life, Iuse the dialect that is most real for me, a variety of AppalachianEnglish. I can’t imagine talking to my friends the way I talk tocolleagues. I’d be shunned at best. I use my professional voicebecause I may be discriminated against if I do not.

Grammar mavens are compelled to FIX “bad” grammar. Althoughthey may have the best of intentions, they generally end up makingpeople dislike grammar. (“We have met the enemy, and he is us ,”Pogo comic) Many students have told me they correct friends andfamily, as well as strangers, in casual conversations.

Why? What is more normal to ask a friend: “With whom did you goto the party?” or “Who did you go to the party with?” Although thelatter breaks two rules—use of who/whom and ending a sentence in apreposition—it is the sentence that most people say.

English does not have only one form. Great literature is full ofsentences that would be unacceptable in an ENG 100 paper.Shakespeare regularly used double negatives, split infinitives andended sentences in prepositions. More recent authors do the same.To limit the spirit and creativity of writers to classroom English is anappalling idea. The overly regulated language that is part of academiaand a few other limited social contexts has its place. To insist on iteverywhere is inappropriate.

People obsessed with “correct English” are often ignorant of what itis. They have ideas about what constitutes proper grammar that arenot from grammar books that have been written by authorities. Onthe Internet there are answers to many grammar question; however,most sites are simply someone’s opinion.

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How do you decide whether or not that opinion is authoritative?

When I ask students to list grammar rules, most are quite common:Don’t end a sentence in a preposition. No double negatives.However, they come up with rules that most have never heard ofincluding myself. This semester one discussion concerned the use ofdone and finished. According to four people, these words are notinterchangeable. I have a grammar book with over 650 pages thatdoes not even mention the debate, though I have found comments onthe Internet that are not attributed to any academic source. When Iqueried the English faculty, none thought this was a rule. Here are acouple of their comments:

“I’ve heard this “rule,” and it’s received some bemused attention onthe Internet. But as far as I’m concerned it’s just grammaticalfolklore–a prejudice someone dreamed up and passed on as gospelto some unlucky but retentive students.”

“Rule-following for the sake of rule-following is pointless. Someonewho understands the basic functions of the language can chooseappropriately when to follow a prescriptive rule or ignore it.” It issimply impossible to know all of the rules. In fact, there is no oneplace where all of the rules of English are listed. At best, those of uswho are schooled in grammar learn a percentage of these rules, whichwe do not always put to use. I have collected examples of “badgrammar” uttered by US Presidents, network news announcers,university professors (including myself) and a broad selection ofpeople who “should have known better”.

There are some broad truths about language. None of us use perfectgrammar all the time. Second, what grammar is appropriate dependson the context of the utterance. Being an effective writer or speakermeans understanding your audience. Why pick on your friend’sgrammar during a debate about the Grammy’s?

It’s not a paper or a job interview. I also find completely baffling the

need to correct personal text messages you receive. The whole pointof texting is to take advantage of the very short format. The moreshortcuts, the more information you can pack into a message.

People who obsess about grammar run the risk of alienating friendsand family. If they become teachers, they may turn students off towriting through excessive criticism. Unfortunately, because we oftenteach grammar and literature in the same classes in public schools, wemay be turning students off to literature. Nevertheless, 7

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teachers should help students improve their language skills. Whatshould you teach so students do not become victims of linguisticdiscrimination?

Linguists have performed grammaticality judgment tests that show thegrammar errors people are most likely to notice or to react tonegatively. The results are not surprising. People notice doublenegatives and incorrect verb forms (He had went there). They aremuch less likely to notice split infinitives, lack of whom, andpreposition stranding. Teachers need to pick their battles. Start withitems that will get the most notice and later teach more subtle things.Consider also the context of correction and how to teach instead of

Consider also the context of correction and how to teach instead ofcriticize. It is obvious that students need access to a standard dialectif they are going to leave their local areas or apply for certain jobs.However, our attitude needs to be additive, not subtractive. Peopledo not have to give up their local variety to use a more standardvariety of English. Most of the world is at least bilingual; there is noreason we can’t be bi-dialectal as well.

Dear English for Secondary Teachers majors:

My name is Bethany Riggs, and I’m an English for SecondaryTeachers (EST) major at WKU. I am currently student teachingat Warren Central High School, and will be leaving in less than amonth to complete this internship in Derbyshire, England. I amvery excited, and I’ll be back just in time for graduation!

I was very honored to receive the EST major of the year awardrecently, as a senior graduating in May. I am a proud member ofthe Honors College, and I recently defended my thesis so I willsoon be a graduate from the Honors College as well. I amcurrently employed at The Writing Center through theDepartment of English, where I get to tutor students in any andall aspects of writing. I love my job, I love campus, and I will bevery sad to graduate. Hopefully, though, I will be moving on toanother job that I will love just as 8

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much! Any questions, feel free to contact me:[email protected] When your student teachingsemester arrives, you are probably going to be excited, nervous,anxious, and constantly wondering what to expect. These are allnormal emotions. If you dread it, have nightmares about it, hate theprospect of teaching, or hate kids…why are you even in this major?You should probably reconsider a new career, ASAP. Although, ifyou have made it this far, hopefully there is something driving you toteach, besides your parents or your love of money. (Ha—A little

teach, besides your parents or your love of money. (Ha—A littleteacher humor for you).

Even if you feel extremely prepared for your internship semester, Ihave some bad news for you.

Unfortunately, you will be constantly caught off guard by unexpecteditems on your agenda—things that no one lets you know, things thatyou have to figure out for yourself, and things that you are going todesperately wish someone would have told you ahead of time.Luckily, I am going to try to give you a few tips and hopefully somehelpful advice that will relieve just a little bit of that stress that will hityou during the semester. This will be the first of my useful posts. Thenext one will probably be “The Top 10 Things I Learned WhileStudent Teaching.” I’m sure you are already counting down the daysto read this.

Today’s post is about the process that happens before studentteaching. If you haven’t attended a teacher admissions orientation yet,or you are just out of the loop, this may be the first time you’ve heardthis.

First, and this should be especially useful for the underclassmenmajors, the process that happens before student teaching is somethinglike this:

1) You will first submit your application to student teach. Look forfliers posted about this in Gary Ransdell Hall, or call the Office ofTeacher Services to find out the due date. They are usually due withinthe first few weeks of the semester before you student teach. Theyare processed on a first-come, first-served basis. This being said, youshould get your application in as soon as you possibly can, especiallyif you are planning on staying in Warren County. Most studentteachers stay here, so if there are not enough spots, you will be 9

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placed in another county. I have had friends in the past who have hadto commute over an hour total on a daily basis. That would not befun.

Important Note: You will not be able to file an application or studentteach at all whatsoever if your student admissions file is not complete.No one is going to tell you this; call, email, or visit the Office ofTeacher Services (GRH 2052) to find out what you are missing andwhat needs to be completed. Don’t be that person that has to stay anextra semester because you find out too late that your file isincomplete. That would not be fun, either.

2) You will find out your student teaching placement in a few monthsafter you submit your application. This is a very exciting day. Theywill not tell you over phone or in person; you will receive your veryown letter.

It’s basically like finding out you’re going to Hogwarts—only theletter isn’t delivered by an owl and you aren’t really a wizard, so onsecond thought, that probably isn’t the best comparison.Nonetheless, it is a pretty big moment. I lucked out and was placedwith an absolutely wonderful teacher and at a very close school. Thefirst thing I did was stalk my teacher’s website to find out what hisclasses were. All teachers in Warren County, and actually mostteachers in other districts in the state, should have their own websites.We were told not to contact our teachers until we completed studentteaching orientation, so I did not send an email until we wereinstructed to do so. Orientation usually takes place during the middleof finals week, though, and they recommend you sit in on one of yourcooperating teacher’s classes before the semester you are there. Thisdoes not leave much time. Therefore, if you are dying to know moreabout your teacher and what you will be teaching in the upcomingsemester, you can probably get permission to contact them throughthe Office of Teacher Services.

In some cases, your teacher will contact you before you have achance to contact them; this was the case for some of my friends.

chance to contact them; this was the case for some of my friends.However, for most people, at student teaching orientation, they willgive you a list of what to include in that first email to your teacher.The reply from your teacher will hold the key, or the

“golden ticket,” as ol’ Charlie would say, to your next semester. Youwill find out what texts you’ll be teaching, what grade levels you have,your new daily schedule, and (drum roll)…where to park during thesemester. As unimportant as that last detail seems, it is something youwill absolutely need to know before your first day. Don’t be thatembarrassing person driving around in circles looking for an openspot, not having a clue where to go, or park somewhere only to haveto go move your car. It is very important to be 10

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professional in everything you do, so make sure you make a goodfirst impression!

I hope this provides a little bit of insight about the semester beforestudent teaching. Next time, I’ll talk about the real deal. Get excited.

P.S. While I’m at it, I will give a pitch for the Student Teach Abroadprogram. You’ll get a chance to indicate interest for this on yourapplication for student teaching. There are a few interest meetings anda selection process, but, of course, I’m going to encourage you to doit. I’m leaving for Derbyshire, England, in just a few weeks. You’ll

it. I’m leaving for Derbyshire, England, in just a few weeks. You’llhear more about this soon, as well.

-Bethany

English 412: Theory and Practice of Rhetoric

Dr. Jeffrey Rice provides us with some information about a class he’llbe taking over next semester.

A native to the gray midlands of Ohio, I came to Western in thefall of 2011 as the newest Professional Writing faculty member.For the past three years, I served as the First-Year WritingCoordinator at the University of Florida, where I taught writingclasses, trained graduate teaching assistants in compositionpedagogy, performed program assessment, and developed asymposium on rhetoric and pedagogy.

During my brief time at WKU, I have found some interesting,driven, and incredibly inspiring students. Their writing has mademe laugh out loud, given me pause, and haunted my thoughts fordays on end. More importantly, they have challenged mypedagogical philosophy and given me the courage to teachwriting in radically different ways. In many ways, I consider mystudents my colleagues, and they influence my research 11

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accordingly. To that end, I am currently working on a fewprojects, including a new business writing textbook and anarticle that rethinks what the rhetorical concept of logos meansin contemporary digital writing environments.

On a more personal note, I am somewhat of a “foodie,” andlove to travel to new places and partake in new gastronomicadventures. These interests culminated this past summer when Ispent time in the Florida Keys snorkeling, diving, and eating allkinds of new food (Don’t worry, Hemingway’s multi-toed catswere not harmed in any of these pursuits). Unfortunately, thesehobbies can also have repercussions. After I told another Ohioanthat I thought “Skyline Chili was overrated,” I was promptlyasked to never return to the state. Similarly, strangers in

asked to never return to the state. Similarly, strangers inmetropolitan airports often mistake me for “that guy onMythbusters.” My apologies to those who have tried to sell myautograph on eBay.

ENG 412: Theory and Practice of Rhetoric

Fall 2012

MWF 9:10 am-10:05 am

Dr. Jeffrey (J. A.) Rice

Rhetoric, or the systematic study of persuasion, is really about themyriad of relationships we have with language. Accordingly, we’llspend half of our time in ENG 412 reading theories of rhetoric anddetermining how our relationships to language shape–and are shapedby–politics, love, religion, technology, industry, and culturalconvention, to name a few. We’ll spend the remainder of our timeapplying these theories to our writing, and specifically to developingdesktop publishing practices. In this applied section of the course,we’ll learn how to write persuasive documents (essays, pamphlets,newsletters, manuals, primers, etc.) for a variety of purposes andaudiences by frequently workshopping, peer-reviewing, andpresenting on our work.

Required Texts (available through WKU bookstore orAmazon.com): Aristotle, The Art of Rhetoric

Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid, Rhythm ScienceJoseph M. Williams, Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace

Recommended Texts (available through Amazon.com):

Cedric Gemy, Scribus 1.3.5: Beginner’s Guide

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Meet Dr. Elizabeth Alsop

I’m arriving at Western after a ten-year stint in New York, which I’vespent working in book and magazine publishing, and more recently,completing my Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at the CUNYGraduate Center. Before that, I lived in Providence, RI, where Ireceived a B.A. from Brown University, and before that, inWashington, DC, where I grew up about ten blocks from the Capitol.

I could not be more excited to be joining the English department atWKU, and in particular, to begin teaching. I had the chance to sit inon two courses during my visit to campus in February, and I leftfeeling so energized by what I saw and heard in Dr. Langdon’s andDr. Hovet’s classrooms. As a teacher, one of my primary goals is toengage my students in active and ongoing dialogue – with me, witheach other, and with the texts, artifacts, and authors that weencounter. Because my dissertation research explores the function ofdialogue in modernist fiction, I am particularly interested in the diverseways conversation unfolds, both in 13

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Meet Dr. Elizabeth Alsop

the classroom and beyond it – in online spaces and blogs, just likethis one.

Within the department, I’ll be teaching courses in Film, WorldLiterature, and British Literature – including English 457 next Fall. I’mthrilled to have the opportunity to teach in both the English and Filmmajor.

During my visit to Dr. Hovet’s Film 201 class, students asked me toname my favorite movie. This is still an impossible question, but nowat least I can provide a longer answer! Here are a few, in noparticular order: Paisà, Pather Panchali, Jeanne Dielman, AWoman under the Influence, Mulholland Drive, The Lady Eve,Spirited Away, Kiss Me Deadly, Scenes from a Marriage, andAmarcord.

If I’m not reading, writing, or watching something, I’m often cooking.I smiled when I saw Dr. Rice’s comment below – because I’msomething of a “foodie,” too. After college, I worked as an assistantto a food critic, a job whose highlights included a trip to Italy toresearch mozzarella, and a story on fried chicken, which required meto fry – and taste – at least three batches a day for two weeks. (Youcan read about that

grueling experience here.) I’m hopeful that in Bowling Green, I mayfinally have the chance to develop my currently nonexistent skills as ahiker, camper, and gardener. I also look forward to more outdoorcooking, and to living in an apartment larger than a very ample closet.

ENG 457: British Literature since 1900

Fall 2012

MWF 1:50-2:45

Prof. Elizabeth Alsop

This course will survey British literature from 1900 to the present day.We’ll cover the major literary movements, from modernism topostmodernism, with particular attention to the shifting notions ofpersonal and national identity that emerge within our chosen texts.We will read work by some of the century’s major writers, includingfiction by Joseph Conrad, E.M. Forster, Virginia Woolf, JamesJoyce, Jean Rhys, and Zadie Smith; poetry by W.B. Yeats, T.S.

Joyce, Jean Rhys, and Zadie Smith; poetry by W.B. Yeats, T.S.Eliot, and Philip Larkin; and plays by Samuel Beckett and Brian Friel.Our goal throughout the semester will be to combine close textualanalysis with equally close study of cultural and historical contexts. Tothis end, we will consider additional critical readings by Freud,Lukács, and Said, among others, and screen selected films. Studentswill be asked to contribute regularly to

discussions in class and on our course blog; to write several essays,including an essay-based final exam; and

to make at least one oral presentation.

Required Texts (additional readings will be posted online ordistributed in class):

• Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (1902)

• E.M. Forster, Howards End (1910)

• Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway (1925)

• Samuel Beckett, Endgame (1957)

• Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea (1966)

• Zadie Smith, White Teeth (2000)

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Celebrating the Work of Robert Penn Warren—a Kentucky-born

Celebrating the Work of Robert Penn Warren—a Kentucky-bornLiterary Giant Celebrating the Work of Robert Penn Warren—aKentucky-born Literary Giant Dr. Wes Berry, Coordinator oftheRobertPennWarrenCenterat WKU, gives us details about theRobert Penn Warren room.

Wes Berry teaches American literature, specializing in Southernstudies, Kentucky literature, and environmental humanities. Inspring 2012 he finished researching and writing a comprehensivebook about Kentucky barbecue while eating at over 140barbecue places in the Commonwealth and interviewing thepitmasters and patrons met during his travels. The book, “SweetDreams of Kentucky Barbecue,” will be published in spring 2013by the University Press of Kentucky. This year he’ll settle into anew role as Graduate Advisor in English at WKU.

On April 19-21, 2012, the Robert Penn Warren Circle—a group ofscholars devoted to studying the literary legacy of this famous writerborn and raised in Todd Co., Kentucky—once again made thepilgrimage to cave country for a weekend of celebration and bookdiscussions. They came fromTexas, Massachusetts,Washington,D.C., and elsewhere as they’ve done every April since1991 when the first Robert Penn Warren Circle meeting was held atWestern Kentucky University.

It’s a good time for a symposium in south centralKentucky. T. S.Eliot called April “the cruelest month” in his famous modernist poem“The Waste Land.” Perhaps Eliot would have changed his tune ifhe’d been dwelling in the land of redbud and dogwood, when babybluebirds and robins are hatching and the colors burst from thehillsides, everything waking up after the long nap. Of course Eliot,scribbling his melodic verse, could have even made Derby Day—fullof loud hats, roses, and mint juleps–sound depressing.

The theme for this year’s symposium was “Robert Penn Warren andPolitics, History, and the Politics of History.” Much of Warren’sprodigious literary output dwells on historical events, and his mostfamous work, All the King’s Men (1946), still ranks as a 20thcentury masterpiece and one of our best political novels.

Scholars at the symposium discussed Warren’s book-length poemBrother to Dragons (structured as a dialogue between the poet andThomas Jefferson); Warren’s literary portrayals of Abraham Lincoln;the long 15

Guest Bloggers

Celebrating the Work of Robert Penn Warren—a Kentucky-bornLiterary Giant poem Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce (a criticaltreatment of the U. S. government’s violent campaign against the NezPerce Indians); and the novels The Cave (grotesque psychologicalfiction centered around a man who gets trapped in a cave in a smallTennessee hillbilly town) and A Place to Come To (Warren’s lastnovel, dealing with a man from Alabama who leaves his homeland foran academic life in the Midwest, who tries to escape his past but cannever quite shake it).

And speaking of shaking it, this last novel begins with the narrator,Jed Tewksbury, telling the story of his father who died while taking aleak off a wagon pulled by a team of mules. Drunken, the fatherpitched forth from the wagon and the mules pulled the wagon rightover his neck. When Jed’s father is later found stiffened by rigormortis, he’s still holding on to his, ahem, dong (Jed’s words). That’squite a past to shake off, as you can see.

One thing I’ve enjoyed aboutWarren’s work over the years: the manhas a massive intellect and philosophical vision, as evidenced by hisobsessive ponderings on Time and death, the puny brevity of humanlife, but he mixes these serious subjects with comic exaggeration anda folksy voice. I like that clash of style and subject, using thegrotesque to explore the serious.

After a Friday of book talks, symposium participants met in theRobert Penn Warren room in Cherry Hall for a reception honoring

Robert Penn Warren room in Cherry Hall for a reception honoringthe winner of the 2011 Warren-Brooks Award for OutstandingLiterary Criticism. One of our rare “People of Letters,” Warrenpublished in multiple genres, including poetry, the novel, short fiction,drama, biography, and literary criticism. Each year the AdvisoryGroup of the Robert Penn Warren Center offers the Robert PennWarren-Cleanth Brooks Award to an outstanding work of literaryscholarship or criticism published in that year that exemplifies in thebroadest sense the spirit, scope, and standards represented by thecritical tradition established by Warren and Cleanth Brooks, anotherKentucky-bred scholar who collaborated with Warren on importanttextbooks useful to students of American literature. In particular, theaward is intended to recognize and honor work that employs in asignificant way the methods associated with “close reading” of thetexts.

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Guest Bloggers

Celebrating the Work of Robert Penn Warren—a Kentucky-bornLiterary Giant On the Friday afternoon of the April symposiumweekend, the winner of award usually presents a lecture, butunfortunately this year’s winner, Professor Richard Strier of theUniversityof Chicagofor his book The Unrepentant Renaissance:From Petrarch to Shakespeare to Milton, had prior obligations.We celebrated anyway, toasting Robert Penn Warren’s legacy andnibbling on delicious cheeses crafted by Kenny’s Farmhouse Cheesein neighboring Barren County (home stomping ground of anotherfamous Kentuckian, Wes Berry, and also the birthplace of journalistDiane Sawyer).

What? Who said that? Okay, okay. Not famous yet. But maybe byspring 2013, when my book Sweet Dreams of Kentucky Barbecueis published, I’ll be famous in my own household, which is something.(You can get an appetizer of said barbecue book on a little-knownsocial media site called “Facebook” started by

another famous Kentuckian named Zuckerberg–Wes Berry’sKentucky Barbecue Adventures.) The Center for Robert PennWarren Studies–host of the annual symposium and sponsor of thebook award–exists to honor the achievements ofAmerica’s first poetlaureate, the only person awarded Pulitzer Prizes for both poetry and

laureate, the only person awarded Pulitzer Prizes for both poetry andfiction. The Center wishes to preserveWarren’s regional heritagewhile promoting his considerable international reputation. The Centerhouses some personal items of Robert Penn Warren; the mostvaluable of these and 2,400 books from Warren’s personal libraryare in the Warren Collection located in the Kentucky MuseumBuilding on the Western Kentucky University Campus. JonathanJeffrey, Director of Special Collections, is in charge of this collection.

The Warren Center coordinates the Warren Library, collects Warreninterviews, and catalogues popular culture treatments of the author’sworks, such as film and television productions. The Center alsocollects materials focused onWarrencountry, including familymemorabilia, private letters, local reminiscences, and cultural orhistorical material associated with the region. The items are availablefor public viewing during library hours. The Warren Library is anexcellent resource for students wishing to pursue in-depth studyofWarren’s work. A huge amount of bibliographic material isavailable, and fans of Warrencan peruse rare family photographs.

Sigma Tau Delta Report

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Guest Bloggers


I really appreciate the funding from the PCAL dean’s

office, the English department, and the Honors College that enabled

office, the English department, and the Honors College that enabledour students to attend the International

English Honor Society Convention in New Orleans last month. Ourgroup of five–Shawna Felkins, Madelyn

Gates, Audrey Gearhart, Amanda Mitchell, and RosemarieO’Connor–successfully presented papers in three different genres:original drama, literary criticism, and original fiction. Additionally,some of the students also gained experience from chairing sessions.For the majority, this was their first acquaintance with a scholarlymeeting…and surely not the last.

The convention itself was huge, with around a thousand participantsfrom approximately 200 colleges and

universities worldwide. The featured speakers this year were poetNaomi Shihab Nye, fiction writer Anthony

Doerr, and Pulitzer-Prize-winner Natasha Trethewey, whom weparticularly enjoyed, for her book entitled Bellocq’s Ophelia was thisyear’s Common Reader. Also making a presentation was songwriter

Tom Kimmel, who has written compositions that have been recordedby Linda Ronstadt, Johnny Cash, Joe

Cocker, Randy Travis, and a host of others.

Outside the convention, we had the obligatory late-night coffee andbeignets at the famed Cafe du Monde, squeezed in a self-guided tourof the French Quarter early one morning, took pictures of the place inPirates’ Alley where Faulkner lived in 1925, rode the St. Charlesstreetcar to the Garden District, and even walked about that area untilwe located Anne Rice’s former house.

The tourist areas–meaning Jackson Square, the French Quarter, andmuch of Canal Street–were splendid.

But on our way back to Bowling Green, we drove by the NinthWard in order to comprehend the otherNew Orleans, the areadevastated by Hurricane Katrina. The devastation is still very much inevidence with houses boarded up, buildings abandoned, andneighborhoods vacant. It was not a pretty picture, but we all felt thatit was important to observe as a corrective and alternative to theMarriott world. Both worlds exist side by side inNew Orleans, don’tthey?

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Guest Bloggers


Cordially,

Walker Rutledge

News and Things

National Poetry Month


Did you know that April is National Poetry Month? Well, it is! Thisyear is the 16th celebration of National Poetry Month.

Thursday, April 26 is Poem in Your Pocket Day. Be sure to haveyour favorite poem in your pocket all day, 19

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either from your favorite poet or one of your own rendering. Tweetthe title and writer of your poem with the hash-tags #pocketpoemand #EmwWku to share with us and the National Writing Project.

The 10th Annual Poetry and The Creative Mind Gala will be onThursday, April 5. You can purchase tickets by following this link.

Something that’s going to be occurring all month long is 30 Poets, 30Days. Every day of the month, a different poet will Tweet her or histhoughts for the full 24 hours. Check out this page for the schedule of

poets, and follow Poets.org on Twitter.

Something else that will last the entire month is Poem-A-Day, which Ijust signed up for. If you subscribe, you will receive a poem everyday in your inbox during April.

Poetry.org also has a FREE Poem Flow App for iPhones.

Here’s the link to Kentucky’s contribution to the world of poetry.And the map of the US if you’re interested

in any other state’s happenings.

The EMW would like to celebrate as well. I want to start off mystating that this is not a competition. This is a call for poems. In honorof National Poetry Month, send one original poem [email protected], we’ll be publishing these submissionsthroughout the month. This is open to all WKU students, faculty, andstaff.

First Patch of Alumni Updates and Advice

Holly Edwards

Since graduating from WKU in 2002, I moved to South Korea toteach English in December of that year. I was there intermittently forsix years where I taught English as a second language to studentsbetween the ages of 5 to 65. In 2004, I returned to Bowling Greenand taught at WKU’s ESLI before returning to Seoul in 2005. Nearthe end of my career in Seoul, I taught mostly adults and found thatthis was my passion.

When I returned permanently (or at least for the time being) to theUnited States in 2009, I moved to San Diego, without a job or aplace to live with my fingers crossed that my future might be as brightas I had heard the California sunshine would be. Because I had sevenyears’ experience under my belt, it was easy for me to start subbingat various ESL schools until I finally got a job at Intrax (fka IntraxInternational Institute).

I’ve been working there since September 2009–two years as ateacher–and I was recently promoted to Academic Supervisor. AsAcademic Supervisor, I help students with their classes and oversee ateaching staff of just under 20.

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If you had asked me when I graduated what I would be doing withmy English degree, I wouldn’t have been able to answer you. If arecent English grad can’t answer the same question, explore byteaching English as a second language in another country. Even if youthink you don’t want to be a teacher (and trust me, I never did), it’s agreat way to explore the world until you find what you want to do.

Frank Muller

I am very happy with my current work. I am a Registration Specialistat the US Copyright Office, which is part of the Library of Congress.My job involves using my English major all day, every day — I am anexaminer in the Literary Division of the Office (other divisions includePerforming Arts (working with music, motion pictures, etc.) and

Performing Arts (working with music, motion pictures, etc.) andVisual Arts (working with sculpture, jewelry design, paintings, etc.)).I examine copyright applications by determining whether works arecopyrightable and whether the legal and formal requirements of thecopyright law have been met. I am in constant contact with authors,agents of authors, attorneys, and publishing industry representativesto resolve registration issues. I also make selection decisions,determining which books the Library will keep in its collections (theCopyright Office was incorporated into the Library of Congress as away of bolstering its collections).

The Literary Division reviews a wide variety of “nondramatic literaryworks,” including not only novels, stories, and poems, but alsocomputer programs, databases, websites, blogs. The challenges weface are making the registration system work with these lesstraditional literary works. The law has always moved much slowerthan technology, but this is especially the case now in the “digitalage.” I am involved with drafting a revision of Copyright Officeregistration practices that tries to wrangle with these more difficulttypes of works. These types of problems, though difficult, areextremely satisfying to work with. The aim of the Office, as directedby the Constitution, is to “promote the progress of science and theuseful arts,” and it is very rewarding to work toward increasingcreativity by being an advocate for authors and authors’ rights.

Working at the Library of Congress has been wonderful — Librarystaff are allowed to borrow books from the collections, so I haveaccess to nearly every book ever published in the US (and in theworld, to some extent). That’s been extremely nice. (Though lastsummer when I took out a copy of Ulysses around Bloomsday theygave me the 1934 US First Edition, which is a $500-$1000 book. Igave it back and got a newer edition. The collections are accessibleonly by a few “searchers” who send the books to various locationsthroughout the Library on an elaborate conveyor belt system, so younever know what you’re going to get. It’s Charlie and theChocolate Factory-esque). Also, there are always lectures,concerts, film screenings, and other interesting things happening everyday here (e.g. there’s a Langston Hughes birthday celebration andreading today at noon). It’s been very good for my brain.

WKU’s English program gave me an understanding of tone, form,and style and that I use every day in my current job. I have to write toa wide variety of applicants daily — I have to adjust my tone andstyle according to my audience. For instance, my letters to copyrightattorneys adopt a formal tone that assumes a fairly high level of

attorneys adopt a formal tone that assumes a fairly high level ofknowledge of the copyright law. My letters to authors assume alesser level of knowledge, and provide more explanation of both thelaw and the rationale behind the law’s requirements.

WKU English professors’ guidance gave me a sense of control overmy writing that has served me extremely 21

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well.

Second Batch of Alumni Updates and Advice

Marci (Kacsir) Babula

I’m currently an Editorial Project Manager at Hammock, Inc. inNashville. We are a custom publishing company that producesseveral newsletters, magazines, etc. It’s custom content marketing,rather than advertising, so we actually write and produce qualitycontent instead of just advertisements (which is what I used to do).

My role is equal parts writing/editing, project management, andcustomer service. I’m in charge of a monthly newsletter that getsproduced in a national version and then is customized by 56participating hospitals. So there are 57 different versions of thenewsletter to edit and keep track of. The writing and editing I waswell prepared for from my education, both because of theEnglish/poetry degrees and the journalism major.

Project management, on the other hand, is sort of a by-product Ipicked up from my experience teaching in grad school. It helped meprepare for organizing, planning, tracking, and reporting on severalproject types. I do that now, just with a different end goal. You couldalso say that learning how to write a term paper helped me with this,too – so much of project management is having a plan to begin with. Ithink learning how to write a strong thesis statement helps peoplelearn how to plan properly and outline a road map.

The last component of my job is one I can’t really say I learned frommy English courses themselves, but I learned customer service skillsfrom a lot of places. Teaching, selling shoes and working retail,

from a lot of places. Teaching, selling shoes and working retail,networking when I was unemployed, and probably because I’m anaturally talkative person. However, I will say that a large part ofcustomer service is listening well and paying attention. I’ve alwaysbeen nosy – I think a lot of writers are – but English and journalismcourses taught me how to pay closer and better attention to details.

P.S. Also! The ability to take quality, well-organized notes is NOT tobe sneezed at. This is a skill I honed in my English courses andcarried over to the rest of my life. I am now a compulsive note-taker.I don’t know how many times I ended up being in charge of aparticular project or initiative simply because I was the one takingnotes. I didn’t ask for the role, but I was the one who paid the mostattention, so I was often asked to delegate and follow-up on things. Itseems small, but apparently most people never make the effort tolearn how to do it right. Oddly enough, just the ability to take notessaid to other people that I was serious, responsible, and worthy ofbeing a leader. Who knew?

Sam Ford

I graduated from the English Department with an emphasis in writingin May 2005. From there, I went straight into a Master’s program inComparative Media Studies at MIT. While there, I helped launch a22

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Second Batch of Alumni Updates and Advice

research group called the Convergence Culture Consortium, whichsaw grad students and academics studying the media and pop culturesharing work and collaborating with major media companies andbrands from Viacom and Turner Broadcasting to Fidelity Investmentsand Petrobras. After graduating from MIT, I stayed on to manage theConsortium project.

In 2008, I went to work for Peppercom Strategic Communications,where I am their Director of Digital Strategy. I also co-edited thebook Survival of Soap Opera, which came out in 2011, and am co-author of Spreadable Media, which is coming out in Fall 2012.

Today, I work from home here in Bowling Green; teach on occasionwith the Popular Culture Studies Program; write regularly for Fast

with the Popular Culture Studies Program; write regularly for FastCompany; and continue both academic writing and consulting withcompanies about how they use digital communication to reach theiraudiences. My time with the English Department provided the keyfoundation for where my career has headed, and I am happy andproud to continue to stay connected to WKU and the EnglishDepartment today.

Third Batch of Alumni Updates and Advice

Amanda Ford

After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in English (literature) fromWKU, I went to work in university administration. I first worked forthe Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology and then for the Program in Comparative Media Studiesat MIT.

Today, I live inBowling Greenand work from home as anadministrative assistant to Dr. Henry Jenkins throughtheAnnenbergSchoolfor Communication and Journalism attheUniversityofSouthern California.

Henry writes regularly about digital culture and pop culture, mediaand entertainment and is a pioneering scholar in the field of fanstudies. I rely heavily on my degree and time at WKU to help Henryprepare for presentations, proofread manuscripts, prepare letters ofrecommendation and prepare materials for his classes, as well ascommunicate with scholars and fellow colleagues across the globe.

Gretchen Light

I just finished an internship in counseling back in August, and I amworking a couple of jobs, waitressing and categorizing a sexologist’sbook collection a couple days a week while I am looking for a newclinic placement. Both jobs, I would argue, use my skills as an Englishmajor.

Waiting tables in Portland(a total foodie city) requires a flair fordescription, and makes selling the food much more enjoyable.

As someone connected to the sex therapy field in town, I picked upan extra job with a sexologist colleague 23

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Third Batch of Alumni Updates and Advice

who needed help filing her extensive book collection and enteringthem in the Goodreads database, which is a wonderful program everyEnglish major would love to know about if they don’t already(goodreads.com).

Every room in her house has shelves and shelves of books, and I amsystematically going through to place them in appropriate categories,and enter all their information if it does not already exist in thedatabase.

Knowing my way around a citation has been crucial for doing a goodjob.

Not quite as recently, I was also picking up editing work for doctoraldissertations that required consistent formatting and regular citations,which Chris [Lively, her husband and another WKU English alum]and I worked on together. This was also possible for us due to ourbackground as English majors. Math majors just don’t pick up thatkind of side work often. Counseling also uses my skills as an Englishmajor. Just chatting with clients uses them regularly, as I have to beable to tailor my words to the appropriate audience, so to speak.Writing charts and notes is sticky business, as clients have a right totheir session notes and one may need to defend a client diagnosis toinsurance companies. Knowing how best to be clear withoutoffending a client while also making sure it is strong enough to defenda diagnosis is a skill that requires total command of one’s words. Ifeel I am especially equipped to rise to these occasions as an Englishmajor.


Emmett Barton

I’m a user experience designer at a digital creative agencyinAustin,TX. What this means is that I design the interactions andoverall experience a person or group of people have with a website,a piece of software, or an app. User Experience Design, InteractionDesign, or IxD as it’s called by those in the know, is a discipline thatcame out of a collusion of efforts from practitioners in human-computer interaction, human sciences, and visual design. It’s the most“academic” of design professions in digital. I’d say half of my work

“academic” of design professions in digital. I’d say half of my workinvolves good, old-fashioned research: interviewing the people whowill use the thing I’m designing, documenting their experiences, andconducting critical heuristic analysis of existing material.

Analyzing a digital product is really similar to analyzing a text; in fact, Ithink my education in Film Studies and English really give me anadvantage in design because it’s taught me about narrative, audience,and context–all things absolutely crucial when designing anything,especially a digital product someone’s trying to use to make their lifeeasier. The other half of my job involved making stuff. It’s always agroup effort, starting with design sessions with the client and mycolleagues, sketching out ideas on a whiteboard, and then moving tosketches on paper, and the finally taking the ideas into AdobeIllustrator or some other program and bringing them to life. Theclosest analog to my job is that of an architect; I literally draw theblueprints of a digital product.

How does English really help with this? The way I was taught to readtexts, synthesize my thoughts into a structured critique and expressthem to a group and defend my ideas has given me a kind ofsuperpower when it comes to design. The study of literatureencourages you to look at ideas from many different 24

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perspectives and reconcile them with society in context; it forces youto communicate your thoughts in a rational way, backed up withsecondary research from great minds; and writing papers teaches youto defend your ideas. I do this every day as a designer.

Melissa Messer

Since leaving WKU in 2007, I’ve interned at a literary agency inNYC, been a barista at Starbucks inSan Antonio, taught EnglishinJapanand become a copywriter at an advertising agency inAustin. Ihave some free advice: Try everything and anything. New careers arebeing invented all the time. Nothing is irrelevant to an Englisheducation. I started writing for advertising then went back to schoolfor a Master’s in Art Direction at theUniversityofTexasand haveduring this time been a creative lead and art director.

I still use the critical thinking skills I learned in Cherry Hall perhapsmore than I use my Master’s in Advertising. Here’s what you’relearning: to make ideas from the connections you see. You read a textand have the ability to pull from it social context, history, politics,artistic influences, parallels and arguments, and you can know whatwork that text went on to influence later. You’re a cultural detective,and in a service economy of technological connections and rapidconversation changing, this education gives you the means to be notsimply the mental colleague of your contemporary heroes but aculture maker yourself.

Final Batch of Alumni Updates and Advice

Bobby Deignan

It was never about accumulating data, memorizing formulas, orlearning the routine of a mere vocation. We got into English for theroving insight not particular to one discipline or a single calling. Weare students of aesthetics, history, rhetoric, and philosophy. We readthe likes of Joyce, Faulkner, and Yeats because only writers of thatcaliber can penetrate to the marrow of our minds. Had we but worldand time enough to take in every typeset page, and what would bethe worth of study if it didn’t, as Emerson said of the Americanscholar, lead to action?

I found possibility in a graduate-level study of Literature, which tookme to the southeastern coast where the interstate narrows to ahighway, the highway a road, and the road a gravel lot at the batteryfor loading and unloading fishing boats–in short, the furthest I couldgo. Realizing this was symbolic of my formal education, I finished mydegree and lit out for a job market that had no niche for a poetryponderer. Until then, I saw the worth of my study reflected in agraduate school acceptance letter, a successful first day of teachingcollege writing, and an exciting thesis defense; however, my breakwith academics and foray into a job market revealed one of thegreatest benefits of my education–versatility. We have all the fruits ofa decisive major–analysis, introspection, structured argument–withnone of the impediments, as when a former zoology student strugglesto explain the relevance of their work to a hiring manager of a lawfirm.

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My perspective is this: you are poised for study and for life, andwhether you choose inveterate scholarship or spontaneous defection(I use the word humorously as an apostate myself), you can and willflourish. After all, at one time Melville was a customs inspector andEliot worked in the basement of a bank.

Josh Riddle

I’ve been pretty busy since graduation, but not entirely in the Englishvein. My degree was a B.A. in English/Secondary Education with aminor in creative writing. After graduation I continued to work as aninstructor at the Sylvan Learning center in Bowling Green, where Ihave since taken the Director of Education position. I love teachingon a small scale where I can have a huge impact on individualstudents, but my true passion is in my music.

I have been playing with a band called The Lost River Cavemen since2006

<http://lostrivercavemen.com/>. In the last year and a half we havetoured from the Gulf of Mexico to New York City and played inalmost every state east of the Mississippi. We are currently workingon our third studio album, and we are touring to California in April. Imainly play drums in the band, but I also get to use my ninja-likeEnglish skills in the business side of things: emails, promotion, design,sales.

We pride ourselves on being a true D.I.Y. band; we don’t rely on amanager, booking agent, promoter, or any of the other staples of themusic industry. We’ve been lucky enough to play with some prettybig names like Ghostland Observatory, Keller Williams, and FleetFoxes, and we’re working on setting up some shows with TheFarewell Drifters. And, of course, our good friends in Cage theElephant have been very supportive of us and the wholeBowlingGreen music scene. I don’t really think we will ever become famous,but I do think we will be able to play music on a scale that allows usto live comfortably while we do what we love.

Molly Koeneman

I graduated from WKU in May 2011 with degrees in English

I graduated from WKU in May 2011 with degrees in EnglishLiterature and International Business, and I moved toChicagoinOctober. Currently, I earn salary as the E-Marketing Specialist atMedia Tec Publishing while repping iWish events at night andteaching creative writing camps in the suburbs.

The story on how I got here started with an uncomfortableconversation with my daddy my sophomore year.

It began with, “What can you do with an English degree?” I don’t likesaying, “I don’t know.” I would rather lie. So even though I reallydidn’t know, I rattled off various occupations I could be interested in—paralegal, personal assistant, marketer, journalist. The conversationended with me exclaiming that I was also going to get a businessdegree.

To complete a business degree, one must have an internship. Thesemester before my senior year, I was freaking out, and I wasapplying to every internship the business school and the Englishdepartment sent my way. One such application came from a smallstationery store in a wealthyChicagosuburb. Theresa Patton, ownerof TT Patton, gave the application to her husband’s best friend whoworks for theUniversityofKentucky, and the application made theshort, viral journey to my WKU inbox by some 26

News and Things


means or another.

In Barrington, I designed and started up a summer creative writing

In Barrington, I designed and started up a summer creative writingprogram for middle schoolers. Theresa and I became very close, andI visited her and her husband several time over the next year. She andher stationery store even hosted a book signing when my short story,“The Age of Maturity,” was published in Dr. Bell’s and Dr.McCaffrey’s 2010 Commutability. After graduation, with no otherjob prospects, Theresa invited me back to run the summer writingcamps. This second summer in the area I was determined to meetmore people, so I took a sketching class at a local communitycollege.

In class I met Tad Waddington, author of Last Contribution. He and Istruck up a friendship. So when former colleges of his, JerryProchazka and Stacy Boyle, needed a research temp, Tad gave themmy information.

The 20-hour-a-week job at Media Tec Publishing was just what Ineeded to forget my reservations about moving toChicagopermanently. I picked up shifts at Theresa’s store and startedworking for the event company iWish to supplement my income.Money was very tight for a few months, but when the position of E-Marketing Specialist opened up at Media Tec Publishing, I was rightthere, eager for the opportunity.

My story is unconventional and contains a bit more struggle than I’veset to this page, and it would certainly be a great feat to recreate.From my six months of post-graduation, I have this advice: 1. Doyour best work at every job, even the unglamorous ones like myresearch job pushing around information in Excel, because you neverknow who is watching.

2. Be versatile with your skills and experiences.And always arguewhen someone condescendingly asks you what can be done with anEnglish degree.

Our Library

How many of you have actually been to our library? And I don’t

mean running in for a coffee from Java City, socializing in said cafe, orplaying on the computers.

Personally, I’ve been in the library only a handful of times to actuallyutilize the books it holds.

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Our Library

Considering the fact that I am an English major, you’d think that I’dbe in there fairly often for research papers, but our university isunique.

As you probably already know, we have this amazing databasesystem where we can access numerous journals, many of them in fulltext.

Also, our library offers something called Interlibrary Loan. If you’redoing a research project and WKU

doesn’t have a particular book you’re looking for, they can loan itfrom another library in the United States.

Something you can be sure of finding in the library itself is a personwho is an expert in your field of study, maybe even on your researchproject–a library liaison. They can help you with your research.

Besides all this, books are amazing, so go read something.

The Ashen Egg

Submissions for our undergraduate journal, The Ashen Egg, are dueby the end of finals week. The following is taken directly from thesubmission form, these can be found in the English office.

Submission guidelines: Any current WKU undergraduate studentmay be nominated by an English Department faculty member tosubmit scholarly work to The Ashen Egg. The nominating facultymember confirms the submission as a piece produced for one of thefaculty member’s courses and endorses it as worthy for publication.The Ashen Egg is an annual journal publishing critical essays onliterature, rhetoric, linguistics, film, and popular culture. Manuscriptsmay range from 750 to 3000 words, though exceptions may be madefor submissions of stellar quality. Essays must follow the ModernLanguage Association style guidelines as defined in the MLAHandbook for Writers of Research Papers (latest edition). Allsubmissions must be in Times or Times New Roman 12-point font,double-spaced, with one-inch margins on all sides, and be free of

double-spaced, with one-inch margins on all sides, and be free oftypographical and grammatical errors.

Bowling Green, KY Internship Opp

Flair Magazine of our own Bowling Green, KY has an internshipopportunity. In an email to Dr. Jones, Sarah

McCullum, who is currently the intern of Flair Magazine, says that“Each year they bring in an English or journalism student to writeseveral feature stories per issue for them. The student would beresponsible for brainstorming story ideas, arranging and conductinginterviews, and of course writing her assigned stories.” If you’reinterested, contact Belinda Saltzman [email protected] 28

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Are you continuing your studies after you get your undergrad degree?

Are you continuing your studies after you get your undergraddegree?

Next Wednesday, April 25, from 3:00-4:00 pm in Cherry Hall 121there will be round-table and Q and A discussions about graduateschool. Professors Alison Langdon, Wes Berry, Jane Fife, TomHunley, and Jeff Rice will be leading discussion.

Hodge-Podge-ing-ness

Wordplay: Helping Writers Become Authors: Do You Know theTwo Ingredients in a Perfect

Ending?

A Picture of Language – NYTimes.com

The Politics and Poems of Adrienne Rich – NYTimes.com

BBC News – London 2012 Festival: ‘Visceral’ Crow puppet showunveiled

About Us – Kentucky Shakespeare

Literary Style: 15 Writers’ Bedrooms | Apartment Therapy

Four Ways To Organize Your Writing (Or Not) Before You SitDown To Write – Writer’s Relief,

Inc.

How to reorganise your bookshelf using the honesty system | Books |guardian.co.uk

Foods For Creative Writers: Eat To Nourish The Mind!

What To Include In Your Query Letter To Literary Agents

Readings

Sarah Gorham

Remember the reading that I told you about last week? Well, mycamera and I were in attendance last night,

and for those of you who didn’t come (shame on you!), here’s a bitof a recap.

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Readings

Readings

Sarah Gorham

The reading took place in Cherry Hall 125, where, unless I’mmistaken, all of our readings take place. I always get to places superearly, but especially to events like these. Dr. Cherry on the left lookswonky because I’m not a photographer; I’ll try again at the nextreading. I managed to sit up front with Brittany Cheak (co-presidentof the English Club), Michael Miller (secretary of the English Cluband a weekly guest here), and Andrew Bergman (WKU alum).

Note: Always try to arrive early at these readings early becausethey fill up super fast and you want to be able to get a seatwhere you can best see the reader.

Ms. Gorham shared about 10 of her poems and one lyric essay withus. The poems came from her latest book Bad Daughters.

I can’t explain what a lyric essay is quite the way that she did, but Itook it to be an essay which uses language more in a poetic sense.Here is Purdue OWL’s definition.

Fun Fact: Did you know that Ms. Gorham is the founder ofSarabande Books? She founded it in March 1994.

The following is a bit of a photo montage of the evening.

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Readings

Sarah Gorham

After some technical difficulties were resolved (somehow the boxwhose power source our microphone depends on was locked for thefirst time in Cherry Hall history), Dr. Dale Rigby introduced Ms.Gorham to us. He also made some English Departmentannouncements. Dr. Rigby reminded us about Zephyrus deadlinesand made sure that we knew about the Research Conference’sinclusion of the arts this year.

This is Ms. Gorham reading poetry from her book, Bad Daughters. Ionly took two pictures of her, and this one is my favorite. I’d plannedon taking more, but then a voice in the back of my head said“wouldn’t you be distracted with a camera flash in your eyes?” Ms.Gorham had a wonderful speaking voice and an obvious passion forher work.

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Readings

Sarah Gorham

I bought one of her books, which she gave those of us at her readinga discount on. Be sure to check out the

book trailer for it, in which the character on the cover is brought tolife.

Ms. Gorham signed my book after Dr. McCaffrey introduced me toher. We talked for a few moments, I bugged a couple of our Englishdepartment professors, and then I made my way home.

It was a lovely evening.


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Readings


Wednesday night, Eric Goodman visited Cherry Hall and read fromhis book Twelfth & Race. I’m going to give you a brief photo-basedrecap like I did for our last reading.

First of all (thanks to daylight savings time) it was actually light outwhen I arrived at Cherry Hall, so I did a better job of capturing Dr.Cherry on camera. What do you think?

The reading was in CH 125 again, and as last time, I sat with BrittanyCheak and Andrew Bergman. This time, we didn’t have anytechnological issues–that I know of.

Professor Goodman teaches English at Miami University and is thedirector of their creative writing program.

The novel that he shared with us is his fifth. Visit his website to learnmore about his works and the man himself.

He shared two different sections from Twelfth and Race with us andended with an informative question and answer session.

Fun fact: Did you know that Dr. Goodman is a rock lyricist?

Now, onto the photo montage.

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Readings


Dr. David Bell introduced us to Professor Eric Goodman after Dr.Dale Rigby reminded us of the Goldenrod, Gender and Women’sStudies Writing Contest, and EMW Writing Contest’s due dates.

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Readings


Here is Professor Goodman himself, sporting his Twelfth and RaceT-shirt and tow of our English Department buttons. As he read fromhis novel, he made the characters come to life and his audience regretthat they couldn’t hear more about them.

I bought the book that he was reading from and can’t wait to seewhat happens.

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Readings


He was kind enough to sign said book for me.

I also bought one of his T-shirts; aren’t I good at self-portraits?

It was a wonderful evening.

Goldenrod Poetry Festival 2012

Goldenrod Video 2012

So, for the last two readings I attended as intern, I created a picturepost for you of the event. Well,

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Readings


Monday’s reading was the English Club’s annual Goldenrod PoetryFestival. I wound up taking about 20

pictures, which would be torturous in a single blog post, so I decidedto create a video with Windows Movie Maker. WordPress imbedesthings in strange ways sometimes, so click the link above to watch thevideo; I’m sorry you can’t simply watch it on this post.

Anyways, Goldenrod is different from our other readings

because it is the culmination of the English Club’s poetry contest. TheEnglish Club selects 10 finalists who get to have a workshop with theyear’s guest poet–Stacia M. Fleegal this year.

After the workshop, they all went out to dinner before returning toCherry Hall. At 7:00 pm, the festival began.

All 10 finalists read the poems that they were selected for, and theydid a beautiful job. I’m so proud of each of them.

After the students read, Fleegal picked her three winners: KrystolStinson in third, Maddey Gates in second, and Isiah Fish in firstplace. Congratulations!

Then, Fleegal shared a number of her poems with us followed by a Qand A and book signing. She was wonderful, so, yes, I bought abook again. It was magnificent evening, and I’m glad that I had achance to meet Fleegal and support friends. Here are Isiah, Maddey,and Krystol’s poems. Stanza breaks will be denoted with a / until Ican figure out how to make WordPress cooperate.

Here is Isiah Fish’s poem “Catch Up”:

If I see you in a grocery store ten years from now

I’ll duck behind a bin of fresh tomatoes to avoid you,

and stay there until the store closes to guarantee not getting caught isa status I once read on a social networking site

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Readings


which made me think about what I would do if I saw

you at a grocery store ten years from now.

Maybe I would ask you to dinner, a catch-up dinner

where we would fill in the holes we created

when we decided to go our separate ways last decade.

You’re married? Oh, that’s so great

I’ll lie, silently thanking you for not asking if I want to meet yourhusband.

Me? I’m committed, lie.

But how can I tell you I’m steadfastly single, you’ve got kids on theway you say, You’re going to adopt a beautiful Korean baby, and tothink I bit the head off one of those Korean dolls just last Thursday.

Did I tell you I joined the circus for a few years?

I was recruited for my unusual talent of dissecting

cadavers to further understand how people love.

I fell in and out of love with a Yugoslavian trapeze artist

and one time I shared a bunk with a lion named Ted Bundy.

You touch my hand as we laugh, as we allow our third glasses

of wine to slip us back in time briefly, and then propel us forward allin the seconds it takes to flutter eyelashes.

Hey do you want to grab lunch tomorrow? I’m in town for anotherday.

At lunch you ask if I want some ketchup for my fries,

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Readings


but I don’t eat ketchup on anything I say,

because ketchup reminds me of blood,

and fries are like slender humans.

You laugh, but seriously,

look down at your plate, look at all those people

You just murdered.

Maddey Gates’ poem “Get me a Six Pack of Sestina and a Fifth ofCherry Burnett’s” The streets were slick with snow and broken glass.

We spilled across the hill, our clothes dark in case

anyone was looking. February wind poured one last drink

between my chapped lips. I curled my legs around Kevin’s back “Ican walk” while Calvin fixed the back of my dress, put a cap

on my words, on the night like I was the last drained bottle.

/

In a house in the belly-curve ofPark Streetwe shared a bottle

of Jim Beam and I told you I could smell home from the rim of myglass.

Suddenly rooms full of strangers poured in around us. I dropped thecap, said fuck, and you smiled while I cried my weathered case

for feeling dizzy and why all my small-talk was hiding in a can ofwarm Bud Light. You stashed the bourbon in a cabinet, found me asofter drink.

/

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Readings


In your bedroom the night we pressed together, began to drink

the breath from one another as we shared spiced rum from your redwater bottle, I felt myself stand above us shaking my head while ourbodies cried: “yes we can!” and for a moment my churning mind wasan hourglass

frozen on a slant, before the metaphor shattered and the case

against us did too—the past was just a tooth-bent bottle cap.

/

Onto the vodka-swamped garage floor I dropped someone’sbaseball cap while you helped me onto the washing machine. I triedto drink

from the musty air a draught of memory strong enough to last in caseyou had to carry me home. My mother prays over her bottle

of organic soymilk every morning that I stay away from the bath ofbroken glass, daddy keeps a bottle-cap cross over the mantle andsmiles to the angel in his beer can.

/

One night we walked around the city to remind ourselves we can

slip through the night, skipping cracks in the sidewalks and cap off

slip through the night, skipping cracks in the sidewalks and cap offsemesters with thoughtless flights into each others arms. The sky wasglass, fogged with storms from rising breaths. Sometimes the drink

goes down smoother from the truth. You walked in a shadow whileour last bottle of unspoken words hit the pavement without cracking.I asked my brother to buy us another case.

/

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Readings


You gave me twenty dollars for a cheap case

of Highlife to share and said keep the change. I said “you can

have anything you want tonight,” opening my jeans like the first chilledbottle.

Last winter the cold had wicked hands—snow forced me under mycap and into so many arms, none of them yours. I made up my mindto drink the past away through a bendy straw. In August I found yougrinning on the rim of my glass.

/

In any case like ours someone is bound to find the missing cap

under the table, or one that can do the job—keep the last drink fromgoing loose, or empty bottle from turning roadside glass.

and Krystol Stinson’s poem “The Valiant”

In the front seat of our while Valiant, we left theMethodistChurch,turned right onEast Maintowards the only stoplight in town,

the family Bible was between us—always between us

just as the impact of our car hitting the preacher’s becomes larger andmore severe in the memory grown from a little girl.

/

The spidered windshield tracked from my hairline,

mangled glasses hung from one ear; blood left warm tracks

as it pooled on my upper lip then leapt onto the ruffles

of my Easter dress. My mama cried, not for me, but for the Bible—

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Readings


still between us held in place by a hand I could not find.

/

There I was, looking through the glass,

wanting so badly to insert the Bible between us

deep into the red veins of my mother, wanting to heal,

to feel what it was like to be inside of her belief. I

wanted to take her hand, but the Bible sat between us.

Writing Contest

Writing Contests & Opportunities

The

English Majors’ Weblog will be having its own

writing contest once a semester, but we’re still working out the nitty-gritty details for it. They will arrive here as soon as we know them.

This page will be devoted to writing contests and opportunities bothon and off campus.

Zephyrus

Submission Deadline: February 20, 2012

Pick up a cover sheet and guidelines in Cherry Hall 135

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Writing Contest


About

Past Publications

Goldenrod Poetry Festival and Contest

The festival will be on April 9 at 7:00 pm this year. It will take place

The festival will be on April 9 at 7:00 pm this year. It will take placein Cherry Hall 125.

Submission Deadline: March 23

Pick up a cover sheet in CH 135, or print this pdf

About

The East India Press Short Story Contest

Submission Deadline: March 1, 2012

About

Cash prize and publication

Request for Stories

Lynwood Montell is looking for stories from nurses about theirexperience, other nurses’, or patients for a book he’s writing on. Ifyou’re interested, contact him at [email protected]

Kentucky Arts Council

Check out this part of their website for writing opportunities.

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Writing Contest


Tarcher Writing Contest

Tarcher-Penguin is having a National Creativity Competition tocelebrate Julia Cameron’s The Prosperous

Heart .

Fiction or non-fiction 10 page piece

Cash prize and work reviewed by editor

Deadline: March 2, 2012

Make sure that you check out their official rules.

WKU Henry Fiction Award

Deadline: Wednesday, February 29, 2012

For guidelines and details see this post

Cash prize

WKU Student Research Conference

Deadline for abstract submissions: Friday February 24, 2012

The conference this year will be Saturday March 24, 2012

Information

Flo Gault Student Poetry Competition

Entries Accepted: October 1-December 1, 2012

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Writing Contest


Cash prizes, publication for first place

Details and submission guidelines

The EMW Twitter Shorts Writing Contest

Information here

15th Annual Gender and Women’s Studies Creative WritingContest Deadline: 4:00 pm Friday, April 6

Cash award

Submit to Dr. Dale Rigby via email or in Cherry Hall 110A

Details and submission guidelines

The Ashen Egg

Deadline: the end of finals week, which is May 7-11

Submission forms can be picked up in CH 135

EMW Writing Contest

The English Majors’ Weblog would like to introduce a new writingcontest to our campus. This intern hopes that it will be carried out bythe next, and will occur as an every semester contest.

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Writing Contest

EMW Writing Contest

The reason we’re doing a Twitter creative works contest is that it’ssomething different. And it’s an intellectual challenge. You haveexactly 140 characters. which includes spaces, punctuation, andnumbers, to write a short story, poem, piece of non-fiction, or drama.(If you can do the later, I just may hunt you down in order to give youa cookie).

Submissions limited to one piece

Send them to [email protected]

Every work will be published on the EMW while the top 3 will bepublished on our Facebook and Twitter accounts as well

Deadline: Tuesday, April 3

Winners will be announced Tuesday, April 17

Submissions will be accepted from any current Western KentuckyUniversity student; both undergraduate and graduate students areencouraged

Titles are not required, but if you feel your work wants one, it willcount when we add up the characters of your Twitter short

If you decide to submit a poem, you should denote line breaks withslash marks I like cheese/it is good food/except when it stinks

This poem is 54 characters, if I counted right, to give you an idea ofwhat you’re working with Do not use my cheese poem please andthank you

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Writing Contest

EMW Writing Contest

Feel free to ignore the conventional rules of grammar andpunctuation. U won’t be penalized if u write w/

text or note taking language as long as we can understand u. If wecan’t interpret your creative work, we will contact you forclarification.

Within reason, anything goes. “Within reason” meaning that we won’tpublish something inappropriate on the EMW. Yes, “appropriate” is

publish something inappropriate on the EMW. Yes, “appropriate” isa loose term defined by those using it; in this case it will be defined bythe EMW’s standards.

Because this isn’t exactly a well known art, we’ll be providing youwith sample works up until the deadline.

Details on EMW Writing Contest

Last week, we gave you an idea of what we were planning on.Today, I’m going to give you

the definite plan.

The reason we’re doing a Twitter creative works contest is that it’ssomething different. And it’s an intellectual challenge. You haveexactly 140 characters. which includes spaces, punctuation, andnumbers, to write a short story, poem, piece of non-fiction, or drama.(If you can do the later, I just may hunt you down in order to give youa cookie).

Submissions limited to one piece

Send them to [email protected]

Every work will be published on the EMW while the top 3 will bepublished on our Facebook and Twitter accounts as well

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Writing Contest

Details on EMW Writing Contest

Deadline: Tuesday, March 27

Winners will be announced Tuesday, April 3

Submissions will be accepted from any current Western KentuckyUniversity student; both undergraduate and graduate students areencouraged

Titles are not required, but if you feel your work wants one, it willcount when we add up the characters of your Twitter short

If you decide to submit a poem, you should denote line breaks withslash marks I like cheese/it is good food/except when it stinks

This poem is 54 characters, if I counted right, to give you an idea ofwhat you’re working with Do not use my cheese poem please andthank you

Feel free to ignore the conventional rules of grammar andpunctuation. U won’t be penalized if u write w/

text or note taking language as long as we can understand u. If wecan’t interpret your creative work, we will contact you forclarification.

Within reason, anything goes. ”Within reason” meaning that we won’tpublish something inappropriate on the EMW. Yes, “appropriate” isa loose term defined by those using it; in this case it will be defined bythe EMW’s standards.

You have roughly a month to submit, so during this time we will besharing samples of Twitter shorts. Good luck and happy writing!

First Batch of Sample Twitter Shorts

Yesterday, I mentioned that we’d be providing examples of whatTwitter shorts are. Here’s the first batch.

“In retrospect, the cat’s warning should’ve alerted me. He normallydoesn’t speak English. But I thought he

was joking about the giant mouse.” ~shortfiction

“I made fun of Kim’s wooden shoes but during the party she fell offthe boat and they floated to the surface.

They were all I had left of her” ~VeryShortStory

“Back on shore, where her screams no longer pained my ears w/their urgency. If she truly loved the ocean, 48

Writing Contest

First Batch of Sample Twitter Shorts

she’d love its bottom too.” ~shortfic

Second Batch of Sample Twitter Shorts

This first one is the EMW’s own Mr. Terry Elliott: Thinking aboutyou. Googling you. Oh. You have a blog. Oh, you have a baby.Oh…no.

This one is from Ben White, who uses a Twitter account to writeshort fiction: Years after the surgery he still wasn’t used to hearing thesound of his own voice.

DeadEndFiction: My kitchen kept my sins and virtues. Demons in thefridge with cake and cans of beer. Angels in the oven, on full heat,burned to a cinder.

Short Fiction:

Six minutes too late. Six minutes sooner, and he’d still have a son.

Six Word Stories, Tasha is the author: Wax wings, High hopes. Longfall.

And I’ll leave you with my creation:

“Call me Ladybug.” & I did, not knowing she’d get eaten by a lizardwhen she changed. Rule #1 to relationships: never date a werebug.

14 days left to submit an original Twitter short.

Third Batch of Sample Twitter Shorts

This is from William Brazill: He had the staring look of a man wholived on another plane. Unfortunately, her plane was parallel, notintersecting.

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Writing Contest

Third Batch of Sample Twitter Shorts

Flashfictions:

Garden gnomes raided his fridge again. Somehow they evaded hisdog, avoided his traps and still had time to write swear words in thebutter.

Seven By Twenty this is a tanka written by Kala Ramesh:

the multitude / of facial expressions / shoulder to shoulder / ourwaiting / at the zebra crossing

Marc Orbito:

He’d miniaturize them with gamma rays and place them meticulouslyin jars on a shelf. “I’ve got friends in all the right places,” he said.

Rebekah Webb:

“You’re the first person to smile at me,” she said to the stranger tiedup in her garage. “That’s why I had to bring you home.”

There is a book of Twitter Shorts too!

7 days left to submit an original Twitter short.

Final Batch of Sample Twitter Shorts

The deadline is midnight tonight; this means that (if this published at4:00am as I scheduled it, and if I’ve done my math correctly) youhave 20 hours to write and submit an original Twitter short to us.

This first short is from our own Dr. Molly McCaffrey:

MISSIONARY WORK: Married 5 years. 3 kids. Affair w/missionary. Prayed hard 4 forgiveness. Saved by Jesus. Yeah, right.http://www.mainstreetrag.com/MMcCaffery.html

This next one is from our own Dr. Tom Hunley:

At the used book store: / women I’d like to talk to, / books I’venever read.

And this one is from Dr. David Bell:

When Mom died, I read the will. I found out I have a sister I didn’tknow about. I can’t talk to Mom. I just 50

Writing Contest

Final Batch of Sample Twitter Shorts

have to live with it. Forever.

Short Stories:

Students partying late into the night. Some were peeing in frontgarden. Disgruntled neighbor bombards them with her baby’s dirtydiaper.

WhatsWriting:

She rushed to the dance floor, and looked for a suitable partner. Justwhen she was about to ask someone, a deep voice surprised her.

Madeline:

When midnight came,she reversed the day and watched the secondstick back.59 58 57.Back and back, until before she was born. Shepressed stop


The day has finally arrived. It is time to announce the three victors ofour 140 word challenge! Thank you to

all of the beautiful people who participated. Everyone’s Twitter shortcan be seen on this page LINK. You will also be able to find our topthree on our Facebook and Twitter pages.

Creating a cohesive and well written creative work in 140 charactersis a daunting task, but 19 people were able to write masterpieces.This being said, it was difficult to name just three of them as ourwinners.

Especially hard because this intern knows a number of the friendlyfaces and minds that wrote these pieces.

But we set up a system that enabled us to judge these fine pieceswithout knowing their respective creators.

Either it’s called blind judging, or I’m making the phrase up in myhead…

I digress (I’m rather good at that for some reason). Here are thissemester’s three winners: In First Place is Timothy Phelps

I spent a year hiding in the closet. You can’t cross stitch, she said.It’s gay. So she slept, & I got high sewing platitudes on pillows.

In Second Place is Abbey Piersma

Alpen glow turned to snow/glacier ice, castle lights/cheap wine,mountain climb/italian view, swiss 51

Writing Contest


fondue/more cheese, no plane ride please

In Third Place is Rachel Grindstaff

“I could just see her tipping her head back to take the last gulp ofbeer and you smiling in the low light.

When did she become your everything?”

Congratulations!

Thank you again to those of you who submitted to the EMW WritingContest! And thank you to Mr. Terry Elliott, Dr. Molly McCaffrey,Dr. Tom Hunley, and Dr. David Bell for sharing sample Twittershorts.

Happy writing, everyone! Don’t forget to challenge yourself in yourwriting.

Meet the EMW Writing Contest Winners

Remember our Twitter short contest that ended last month? You canread all of the submissions, including our three winners, on this page.

Timothy Phelps, in first place, shares that

I keep a file on my computer called “What If.” Whenever an ideacomes to me, whether it be a fully-formed concept or just a singleinteresting line I overheard, I put it in my “What If” file. It’s where I

interesting line I overheard, I put it in my “What If” file. It’s where Igo if I need some inspiration to get my creativity working. I learnedabout the EMW contest and looked through my file for something Icould turn into a miniature story.

I got the idea for my Twitter story from a real event. My mom hadtaught me how to cross-stitch, but I hadn’t done it since I was sevenor eight. Last Christmas, my eleven-year-old daughter was trying tofind something to give her friend. We found a little cross-stitch set inthe craft store, and when I started to help her with it, I discovered itwas kind of fun. I jokingly told my wife how I was going to take upthe craft, and she told me in return how completely unsexy that wouldbe.

So, while I didn’t return to the needle and thread, I did get a goodidea for a character. I imagined a man who wanted to cross-stitch sobadly that he was willing to hide it from his disapproving wife. Andwhat better place to keep your secrets than in the closet? It was aneasy choice from the “What If” file for the contest.

My time as an English Major at WKU has been incredible. I enjoyevery aspect of English, writing and reading, so I feel blessed to havethe supportive family and opportunity to pursue my goals. I lookforward to completing my degree in a couple semesters, but I alsoknow how much I’ll miss coming to school and being 52

Writing Contest

Meet the EMW Writing Contest Winners

in that environment every day. Maybe I’ll cross-stitch a giant pictureof Cherry Hall for my home to remind me of it.

Abbey Piersma, in second place, tells us that

My piece is a summary of my study abroad in Switzerland lastsummer. By being limited to 140 characters that was what I was ableto come up with to summarize my time over there. I was fortunateenough to be able to study abroad with Dr. Davies last summer andstudy Swiss Literature. It’s something that I will never forget.

I am currently a senior Creative Writing major and will graduate inDecember 2012, a semester ahead of schedule. I have had thepleasure of being co-president of English Club this 2011-2012 school

pleasure of being co-president of English Club this 2011-2012 schoolyear. I also served as an editor of Zephyrus for 2 years. Working inthe English Department has allowed me to become very involved withthe department and build relationships with professors outside of theclassroom. Though I’m ready to graduate, I will hate to say goodbyewhen the time comes.

The EMW and I

About

Image not found

Our goal is to provide a place for information and community for andwith English majors. Here you’ll find a variety of English major typethings (internship and job opportunities, writing contests, English clubupdates, etc.). We also are seeking to hear from you.

We need a few like-minded students willing to explore what it meansto be an English major at Western Kentucky University. Thisvanguard of the “blog”-etariat will lead an online community ofpractice along with a few permanent English majors (real teachersand students). They will, as civil rights activist Miles Horton oncesaid, make this road by walking it.

We hope that this will become a conversation that opens here, spillsout into the lively hallways of Cherry Hall, joins the world work andideas, and perhaps wend its way back here on a regular basis. Ornot. We are not certain about where this will lead. Let’s find out.

If you are interested in sharing this writing space and in being a part ofthis experiment, let us know by registering or by contacting TerryElliott or Seanna Wilhelm.

For guest blogger guidelines visit this page.

What Do You Want From Us?

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The EMW and I

About

Hello, Lovely English People,

I’ve been working as the EMW’s intern for about two months now,and I’d like to take this time to reflect.

But, before you decide to stop reading and pull up your latestFacebook addiction (mine is currently Triple Town), know that thispost isn’t going to be focused on me.

This post is about the blog itself, and most importantly, you, Reader.

My experience with the EMW actually isn’t the first time that I’veworked on a blog; it’s the fourth if you count abandoned blogs thathave been left to the oblivion of the internet. I thought that bloggingsounded like fun, so I decided to get my own. But I didn’t reallyknow what I was taking until I took Dr. Jeffrey Rice’s writing andtechnology class, which you should take, by the way. The blog thatwas birthed from this class, I

Breathe Words, became one of my favorite things to do.

I’ve had to put this on hold this semester, but the EMW has becomemy current favorite, so I’m good with that. Anyways, the point of thatdetour is that I’ve never done a blog like this. I am, in a way,representing the English Department, and it’s a scary thought.

One of the main parts of blogging is knowing your audience andpurpose. This is something that I tried to start working onimmediately. But I soon discovered that this is a ongoing process.

My audience right now, though I don’t think this will change unless itgrows, is WKU English students

Undergraduates

Graduates

WKU English department faculty and staff

WKU English Alumni

My purpose right now, which is where you come in, is to

share information about English-y events I find

internship opportunities

writing contests

job opportunities

54

The EMW and I

About

make connections

with guest bloggers

and projects like the Alumni updates and advice one starting nextWednesday provide a challenging writing contest, deadline April 3

What I want to know is whether or not I’ve been accomplishing this.Have I made this a place that you find useful? Is there anything that Ican add to my purpose or audience? If you feel that you have moreto say than would fit well in a comment, please email me [email protected] This blog is made for you, so you should get asay in what I do.

My SRC Experience

On Saturday, REACH week culminated in the 42nd Annual WKUStudent Research Conference. It was an all day affair lasting from7:30am till 6:30pm that evening. Hundreds of students participated inthis event.

The Research

The Research

Conference took place at Gary Ransdell Hall, which

is truly beautiful. I wish that I’d taken the time to capture my ownphotos, but I had a rare moment of socialbleness. (And, yes, I didjust make up that word).

I think that my favorite part was the staircases that you see as soon asyou walk in.

I arrived at about 8:30 am so that I could see Brittany Cheak presenther paper “One Size Fits All: Media Portrayal of Women and theMovement for Change”. Upon entering the building, I discovered aline of people for registration. I wasn’t sure if I needed to register so Igot in line; they couldn’t find my name. But they cheerfully gave me aschedule anyways! After the papers were done in that session (atabout 9:30am), we spent time on some couches with her boyfriend,Andrew Bergman, reading and playing on Brittany’s computer.

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The EMW and I

My SRC Experience

We had lunch when they uncovered the buffet at about 11:45 or so.The fact that we were on the second floor near the food meant thatwe avoided the massive crowd attacking the food.

Something new this year was the student spotlight that occurred afterlunch. President Gary Ransdell introduced all of us one by one aftertelling us about the conference itself. Before the spotlight started, I gotthe chance to actually meet our president.

The event started off with Lusie Cuskey and Vicky Siegristperformed short one-act plays, which they wrote and stagedthemselves. Lusie performed ”Finding the Words”, and Vickyperformed “The Ties That Bind”.

This was followed by four creative writers: Brittany Cheak with herpoems “Cord Stretched Tight” and

“Daddy’s Answer to Everything”, Samantha Starr with her short

“Daddy’s Answer to Everything”, Samantha Starr with her shortfiction piece “Listen Closely”, myself with my poems“Claustrophobia” and “Fade Away”, and Tracy Jo Ingram with hershort non-fiction piece “How to Manage at Your First PretentiousPoetry Award Ceremony”.

If you know me personally, you know that I hate public speaking andhave been avoiding that general education class like the plague. Anhour before the reading, my hands became ice and I started sweating.

When it was my turn to read, I leaned against the table behind meand it clutched with my left hand while the right held my poems on themusic stand in front of me. I literally zoned out while reading, but wastold I did well and looked calm.

It wouldn’t have been as easy if it wasn’t for the friendly faces in theroom.

Besides my fellow readers and friends, my mom and boyfriend werealso able to make it, along with a number of my professors. And I’dlike to take this opportunity to thank them. Thank you to Dr. TomHunley for selecting me for this honor, for being my faculty mentor; toProfessors David Bell, Tom Hunley, and Molly McCaffrey forhelping me fine-tune my poems and figure out how to read withoutpanicking; along with the three above, to Professors Ann Ferrell,Alison Langdon, Mary Ellen Miller, and Dale Rigby for being there tosupport us; to Dr. David Lee, Dean of Potter College for shaking myhand and telling me

“good job”; and to Dr. Molly McCaffrey for not telling me about allof the people who were present before I read so that I didn’t faint.

I’m so blessed to know so many different wonderful people and tohave been a part of this spotlight. Don’t hesitate to submit abstractsto next year’s research conference; it’s an amazing experience.

English Majors' Toolbox

There are certain tools that every English major needs to helpher/him through their life, both in and beyond their studies atWKU. We’re making a toolbox, here, of what we feel everyEnglish Major needs.This is going to be a continuous work inprogress. Contributions are accepted and encouraged. Tell uswhat you would like to see here by either commenting oremailing us at [email protected].

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1. Connections with fellow English majors, faculty members, andpeople/companies that work in your field.

2. Books are, naturally, important for English majors. It’s a goodidea to keep a hold of books that you find useful and/or interesting toyou from the classes you take in your major.

3. Writing Skills should be easily picked up from your Englishclasses. Finding young people that know how to appropriately formata Memo, or even a formal email, isn’t exactly an easy thing to doanymore.

Most people allow their text speech to carry over into all of theirwriting. Know that your writing abilities will be something employerswill look at.

4. Websites

Western Places

Western Kentucky University’s English Department

WKU’s Writing Center

Western Kentucky University

Topper Mail

Blackboard

WKU Sports

English-y Places

Kentucky Literary News

Grammarly

Social Places

Social Places

Facebook

Twitter

WordPress

Blogger

Research-y Places

WKU Library

Jstor

Google (Get More Out of Google)

Ask

Dogpile

Wikipedia

Diigo

Just Plain Good-ly Places

I Will Not Diet

5. Knowledge is why you’re in college in the first place. This is yourchosen area of study and it will affect 57

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your future career and life; pay attention to what your teachers tellyou!

6. Innovative Ideas are important, and not just to creative writers.You need to have something that sets you apart from all the otherpeople in your major.

The End

Hello, Darling Readers,

It’s that time of the semester again—finals week. I hope that all isgoing well for you. Students, I hope that your papers are all done ontime with minimal stress and that your exams are not nearly as hard asyou thought. Teachers, I hope that your students’ papers are wellwritten, easy to read, wonderful things and that your grading goeswell for you.

Good luck to you all!

This internship has been one of the best experiences of my life, alltwenty and a half years of it. I’ve been able to connect with so manywonderful people and discover new ways to flex my writing muscles.My current career goal that I’m contemplating is becoming aprofessional blogger. Yes, there is such a thing.

I strongly suggest that you take an internship at some point duringyour college career, no matter what your discipline or dream careeris.

There was so much that I wanted to do… Much of it wasaccomplished, but much of it remained fantasies of my brain. I’msorry for what I didn’t get done, and for anything I may have failed todo for you.

I would like to take this opportunity to extend thanks to

My supervisor: Mr. Terry Elliott

The people who helped create this internship: Doctors Angela Jonesand Jeffery Rice Our weekly English Club guest blogger: MichaelMiller, secretary of the English Club The people who provided uswith new insight by giving us guest posts: Dr. Elizabeth Winkler,Bethany Riggs, Dr. Jeffrey Rice, Dr. Wes Berry, Dr. David Lenoir,Amy Lindsey, Dr. Molly McCaffrey Those who participated in ourfirst ever writing contest; the entries were stunning Our Facebook andTwitter followers

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The End

Mr. Eric Wolfe for being so helpful in building some of thetechnological aspects of the blog The faculty, staff, and students ofthe English Department, along with my family, friends, and boyfriendfor supporting me through this

My readers; you’re awe inspiring, never forget that

Farewell,

Seanna Lyn Wilhelm

Spring 2012 EMW Intern

P.S. I’m still blogging…find me at I Breathe Words and Lyn’sNotebook.

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Spring 2012 EMW Intern Best of Seanna

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