Sigma Tau

Delta

Revived:

Wait, What?

WORD ON WORDS

Don’t let the title confuse you; the Keene State College English Honor Society by any other name is just that.

Are you an American Studies, English Literature, or English Writing major? Do you want to

be recognized in your field of study and add another compelling achievement to your résumé ?

With this amazing opportunity you can connect with more Sigma Tau Delta members around

the world. KSC Upsilon Pi members are automatically members of the International Sigma Tau

Delta Society which includes multiple perks, the most important being opportunities to present

at international conferences and that vital necessity of the twenty-first century—networking!

Keene State College’s chapter of Sigma Tau Delta is brainstorming events and activities that will be interactive, fun, and rewarding for its members both on campus and within the greater Keene community.

We are currently accepting applications and any ideas you may have for us. Please be sure to contribute your two cents (and your $45 fee) and join the English Honor Society.

Become a member by emailing: sarah.dugas@ksc.keene.edu for more information.

The KSC Upsilon Pi Officers for the year are: President - Sarah Dugas, Vice President - Ashley Rollend,

Secretary & Treasurer -Sonja Martineau, while the Faculty Advisor is Dr. Meriem Pagés.

SONJA MARTINEAU

FALL 2018

Keene State College, English Department Newsletter

English Department Launches Professional Writing Minor

The Keene State College English Department now offers a

Professional Writing Minor for students seeking to pursue a

degree in writing for the workplace. The minor has been a work

in progress that started with Dr. Katherine Tirabassi introducing

a course focused on professional writing in 2010. After the

introduction of the Writing Option in the English Major, the

class developed into the ENG 307 “Writing in the World” course

that is currently offered. Now the minor has taken a much more

interdisciplinary approach as it combines courses from English,

Journalism, Graphic Design, and Computer Science to provide

students with an extensive tool box for use in the real world

workplace.

One of the most crucial elements of the modern workplace is

effective communication and writing skills. As Dr. Tirabassi says,

“My hope is that students across the curriculum will find the

minor to be practical and useful as they develop essential skills for

the workplace.” The new Professional Writing Minor is designed

to prepare students for the varying shapes and forms that writing

in the professional world may take, such as e-mails, newsletters,

memos, or proposals. For students and faculty interested in

learning more about the minor please contact Department Chair,

Dr. Brinda Charry or visit the Keene Academic Catalog at: https://

www.keene.edu/catalog/programs/detail/professional-writing-minor.

FLETCHER RICE

NEWS

ENGLISH

DEPARTMENT

CALENDAR FALL 2018

10/5 – Meet and Greet with English faculty and students 10/22 - Poetry Slam Competition

10/24 - Jeff Friedman, Kirsti Sandy, & student Ashley Rollend: “Ashley plus Two” – A Reading 11/7 - Celia Bland: “Cherokee Roadkill” – A Book of Poems

11/30 - Dr. Marge Bruchac: Joyce Lecture in Native American Studies

12/5 - ENG 405: Portfolio readings

IN THIS ISSUE

New Minor Offered

Events Calendar

Sigma Tau Delta News

Student Spotlight

Faculty Spotlight

Books

Transitions

Accolades

NEWSLETTER STAFF

Kasey Mangold

Kyle Ober

Katherine Reed

Fletcher Rice

William Sheerin

Cameron Slack

Sonja Martineau: Design &Layout

Faculty Advisor: Dr . Brinda Charry

NEWS

https://keenestateenglish.org

Fabulous Mirrors: Ashley Rollend Wins S.U.R.F. Grant Ashley Rollend was not particularly pleased with the poetry she’d produced before taking a class with Professor Jeff Friedman. After reading his book of "fabulous" prose poems, Ashley discovered what appeared to be a new genre of poetry. Inspired, she produced numerous “fabulous” pieces of her own. Professor Friedman was impressed with her writing and suggested she contact Keene State’s Center for Creative Inquiry to apply for the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (S.U.R.F.). The $4,000 stipend that Ashley received covered her living expenses, allowing her to spend the summer writing “fabulously.” The culmination of all this is her book titled Blackbird, comprising approximately twenty distinct pieces with a common thread running through them — many feature birds. Ashley shares the premise of two pieces: one about a girl who sells mirrors and yet has never gazed into one, and another about a girl whose friend sleeps exclusively with three-eyed women. The former poem opens with the lines: Liza sells mirrors on the corner of West Smith and Blake. Some of them have ornate golden frames, others are chipped in the corners, and some are just handfuls of glimmering dust. “There’s a customer for every product”, Liza tells me. The old women like the framed and the wicked youth enjoy the cracks. The children throw the glitter into the air and run through their own reflection. The always effusive Ashley explains that writing this book has allowed her to explore various relation-ships and that she enjoys writing in an abstract and often humorous way. She feels she’s learned a lot “metaphysically” and identified her favorite aspect of writing “fabulously” as the ability to breathe reali-ty into an otherwise fantastical poem. SONJA MARTINEAU

“When I left for the Marina….” Ian Kaplan wins

Eder Scholarship

English Secondary Education major Ian Kaplan has won the 2017-18 Eder Scholarship in Creative Writing . A writer from childhood, Ian has worked extensively to discover his personal voice. Though many teachers and professors throughout the years found his style either “strange” or “unconventional,” Ian re-ceived positive and encouraging support during his first college-level Creative Writing course—this prompted him to submit a portfolio of work as part of his application for the scholarship. Dr. Brinda Charry, who chaired the selection committee explains that the committee was im-pressed by “ Ian’s original, strong voice , his great sense of form and terrific use of imagery.” These words are borne out by the following ex-cerpt is from his seven-stanza poem “Back Home,” a piece that stands out for its stunning use of imagery and repetition: When I left for the marina the estuaries at my father’s eyes emptied into the body of water where I sipped at now and again.

Since winning the 2018 Eder Creative Writing scholarship as well as the Nona Fienberg Prize for Literature of the Holocaust, Ian has shaken off the initial self-doubt most young writers ex-perience and has grown more confident in his abilities. He states, “I stopped writing to create product others would be impressed by, and I started writing as a way to explore my own feel-ings.” Recently, Ian has discovered an interest in the idea of using authentic writing as a tool to shape the world around him and is driven to contribute to greater conversations. In the fu-ture, he intends to engage with topics such as issues in public education and issues of gender in society by using writing as a means to convey his opinions and feelings on the topics. His hope as a Secondary Education Major is to bring creative writing back to the forefront for his stu-dents and enable them to find their own voices through positive encouragement and support.

FLETCHER RICE

Irene W. Hart Award Goes to Nick Yialiades

Nick Yialiades, a senior at KSC, was recently awarded the Irene W. Hart Award by the New Hampshire Retired Educators Association. Nick is a dedicated student who is actually completing three majors – he plans to graduate with degrees in Secondary Education, English, and History! The scholarship is open to NH high school graduates and Education majors that are currently enrolled at any New Hamp-shire university and applicants are required to submit an essay outlining their goals as educa-tion majors. Nick’s essay detailed his future plans for his own classroom as well as his theo-ries on education. He admitted being genuinely surprised to receive the call in mid-May inform-ing him that he was the winner of the scholar-ship, especially because the applicant pool was a large one. The applicants were judged by a panel of retired New Hampshire teachers and Nick says that he is honored to be recognized by such an accomplished group of educators. In fact, it has been a year of accomplishments for Nick, who in addition to the scholarship won the Nona Fienberg prize for Holocaust Litera-ture awarded by the Holocaust and Genocide Studies Department. Professor Chris Parsons who is Nick’s advisor says that “Nick is a won-derful teacher candidate. I am deeply impressed with his quality of work, his critical thinking, and the care he takes to consider his students in that work and thinking. … Nick has the poten-tial, right from the start, to become ‘that’ teach-er for his middle and high school students, the one who brings the curriculum and his class-room to dazzling life.” All Nick’s teachers and his peers are proud of Nick and believe that the scholarship is a fitting recognition of his hard work. WILLIAM SHEERIN

STUDENTS

FACULTY

Charry Wins Ewing Award

When the Keene Sentinel published a call for nominations for the Ruth and James Ewing Award, Dr.

Brinda Charry had no idea that she would be walking across the stage at the Redfern Arts Center the

night of the awards ceremony. Professor Charry is one of the first recipients of the Ewing Awards’ new-

est category : the Literary Arts. A published, life-long writer, Dr. Charry has been recognized for her

unique style and for giving voice to the concerns of South Asian women and immigrants in her stories.

In stories such as “Shadow,” she writes about communal tension, even as she lyrically describes the

setting to her piece, where the evening call for prayer from the mosque “floats through the sky, caresses

the clouds and winds itself around the sunset…” ; in other pieces such as “Waiting for the Queen,” she

writes about a young girl stepping into the adventures of womanhood, even as a young nation hosts the

visiting monarch of its former colonial ruler. Both these stories are from her book First Love published

by Harper Collins. In addition, some of Professor Charry’s other works include Naked in the Wind and

The Hottest Day of the Year , both novels published by Penguin, and numerous stories published in

journals and magazines and broadcast over the BBC and Commonwealth Broadcasting Radio.

Dr. Charry says that she’s honored to have been publicly recognized in her community through this

award. To us, it also serves as a reminder of what a valuable asset she is to Keene State College.

CAMERON SLACK

English & Education Collaboration: Grant Received for Keene State College

Literacy & Service-Learning Project

English Professor Kate Tirabassi, Associate Education Professor Darrell Hucks, and Associate Dean of

Arts, Education, & Culture Tanya Sturtz have received a grant from the New Hampshire Alliance for

College and Career Readiness to implement a literacy and service-learning project for the 2018—2019

academic year.

The goals of the project include promoting the development of extended learning opportunities in reading

and writing for elementary school students and teaching experience in reading and writing for first-year

college students who hope to become elementary school teachers. Additionally, the project will introduce

the value of “career preparation and college readiness earlier than secondary school” to the elementary

school population.

At the end of the project in May, an assessment will be completed utilizing focus groups consisting of

peer mentors, first-year students, elementary school students, and members of the community as they

analyze the first-year students’ civic engagement portfolios. Students will then have an opportunity to

share their experience in the program with the wider local community.

SONJA MARTINEAU

B

O

O

K

S

The Long Approach

Approaches to Teaching the Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson. (August 2018, Modern Language Association).

The most recent project by Mark C. Long and Sean Ross Meehan, Approaches to Teach-ing the Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, is a collection of critical essays and pedagogical approaches to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s works. Dr. Long explained that he and his co-editor were looking for the best scholars who are deeply involved in the teachings of Emer-son’s work. “We invited twenty-seven authors who have expertise in Emerson’s life and work to submit individual essays. We then edited those essays, more than once, with feed-back from outside reviewers retained by the MLA and with feedback from the members of the MLA Publications Committee. We wrote the comprehensive Resource Section, the In-troduction to part two of the book, and we compiled an index of names for the volume,” says Dr. Long. Reviewer Robert D. Habich of Ball State University comments, “The collec-tion addresses diverse settings and pedagogical approaches beyond the traditional ones … the roster of contributors includes some of the very best Emerson scholars. I learned some-thing new and valuable about Emerson from every essay.”

A

Keene State

College

Faculty

Collaboration

The book, which provides a variety of perspectives on Em-erson’s work, is a helpful resource tool for teachers and students of the great author. Both paperback and hard-cover editions can be purchased on the mla.com websites.

KYLE OBER

The next phase she refers to will see an increased focus on service learning projects for

college students. This means emphasis on getting college students involved in local pro-

grams such as book clubs, writing programs, and after-school programs that benefit

local community partners.

CAMERON SLACK

Fostering Positive Civic Engagement Among

Millennials written by Keene State College Pro-

fessors Dr. Katherine Tirabassi, Dr. Tanya

Sturtz and Dr. Darrell Hucks, published in August of

2017, examines the educational experience of first year col-

lege students. The book asks an intriguing question:

“What’s the importance of being engaged in college?”

With a focus on reading, writing, research, and student-

based experience, it aims to help enhance the first-year

college experience. The work is part of a multi-phase pro-

ject. As Dr. Tirabassi said in a a recent interview, “This

has really been a work in progress since Fall 2012, we’ve

finished the first phase, and now it’s onto the next.”

Feeling Freed Maaaaan Pots and pans in a poetry class? Typical of the biggest cookie fanatic on campus. Jeff Friedman stands in a kitchen, pen in hand, wearing a purple hat. “Do you think the piece should have ended on shredded coconut?” he asks. A student stands up. Carrying a laptop, she walks to the back of what looks like a home ec lab. “Hey! Where are you going?” Friedman asks. “Do you need to talk to your stock broker or something?” “There’s a plug back here,” she states. “Oh,” he says turning to another student, “Megan, what’s your take on it?” “Wait, what was the question?” she asks. Friedman sighs jokingly defeated. He goes on to say something about interweaving soy sauce with memories. They eat some chocolate. They write in silence. The class ends. And thus be-gins my interview with the English professor on his latest publication. “Did you have any fears about releasing Floating Tales into the wild?” I ask. He tells me that this is a dramatic turn in his work. It’s not autobiographical, like his previous work, so he did wonder how it would be received. He’s particularly interested in the idea of masks. “We are not who we seem to be,” he says, which can also be said about this par-ticular set of poems. He hopes that the politically charged metaphors convey something to the reader. Friedman uses humor, myth, and the element of surprise to talk about cur-rent social justice issues. He quotes Frost, “A poem should begin in delight and end in wisdom.” I ask him what poems he would present to Trump, if the president asked to see his work. “ ‘Kings' Puppet Show’,” he says with certainty. I ask him which poems from Floating Tales he would present to aliens, if they landed in his front yard. “Probably ‘Strip Poker’ or ‘White Feather’,” he says. “Fun to think of aliens believing that all humans produce feathers when they kiss...also, I was thinking that aliens might be surprised to find out that humans can shed their tattoos, their skin, their bones and just be pure air...“ “Have you received any criticism of Floating Tales that you didn’t agree with?” I ask. He tells me that he did not; that it mostly got good reviews, but in his earlier work, since it was more autobiographical, he did get some people who weren’t too happy with him for us-ing their real names. His mother, whom he says was kind of hard-nosed, would tell him that he could do better. His father thought he was a journalist… “Do you have any regrets, or things that you would change about the book, looking back?” I ask. He shudders, “The typos make me cringe when I see them.” Do you agree with Friedman? Or do you think he is being hard-nosed like his mother?

KASEY MANGOLD

Dr. Brinda Charry’s book titled A Guide to Renaissance Drama has recently been published by Bloomsbury, Lon-don & New York. The book surveys the historical and cul-tural context that informs Renaissance drama, from the Protestant Reformation to changing gender roles, early understandings of race, the book printing trade, and the professional public theater. Additionally, Dr. Charry per-formed a close study of themes and styles of numerous well-known plays. While Dr. Charry admits that the enterprise was much larger than she had originally anticipated, she notes, “It was a project from which I learned a great deal and it has left me a better scholar and teacher of Renaissance drama.” WILLIAM SHEERIN

The Arden Guide

to Renaissance Drama

Jan Youga

What made you interested in teaching Secondary Education at KSC?

I wanted to teach at a place whose mission was focused on first-generation and working-class students, which was my background. As soon as I began teaching my first class here, I felt at home. Secondary English had been my major as an undergraduate; I had taken Meth-ods courses and gone through student teaching and so I knew how important these classes and this training were. My first college teaching job after graduate school was in the Secondary English program at Illinois State University. I was eager to return to that work.

What was your favorite part of the job?

I loved supervising students during student teaching and watching them progress from being students to embrac-ing fully their role as teachers.

What challenges did you face in the position?

The new technology, the redefining of rules around appropriate language and dress, the decreasing commit-ment of communities to quality public education giving rise to charter schools. I realized increasingly that these had not been my challenges when I was a high school teacher and that being a part of this cultural shift, under-standing it from the inside and not as an outsider, was important to preparing new teachers. I, then, realized it was time to pass the baton of this job to someone else, and I am thrilled I was able to hand this work over to Dr. Parsons.

What was the best part of your job?

I had the privilege of meeting students interested in English Education during Orientation, and I served as their advisor for their entire time at KSC. Being a part of their college careers and lives from the time they made their first semester schedule to the time they asked for letters of recommendation for their first teaching job was a great joy.

What was your favorite class to teach?

Methods II. Because students spend half their time in class and half their time in the field, this was the class in which all the theoretical training they had received be-came real. They were teaching lessons, not just writing lesson plans; they were handling discipline issues, not just reading about ways to manage students. It was the class in which I would see them fall in -- or out-- of love with the profession.

What book are you currently reading?

Each morning, I read one chapter of a Dickens’ novel. I am working my way through the 23 volumes of his works. I just finished Oliver Twist. I am also reading Dakota by Kathleen Norris as part of a spiritual autobi-ography reading group I belong to at my church. And I have two other books going, Sing Them Home, a beautiful novel by Stephanie Kallos, and for the beach, the fourth novel by Jan Karon in her Mitford series.

Where is your favorite place to go in Keene?

The Colonial Theatre—what a treasure that place is.

KATE REED

Chris Parsons

What made you interested in teaching Secondary

Education at KSC?

I wanted to design classes to train middle and high school English teachers. I wanted to teach classes on grammar and language ideologies. I wanted to go into schools to work with teacher candidates on how to apply their lessons from college coursework to their experiences with actual students in middle and high schools.

What is your favorite part of the job so far?

Working with students and my colleagues in English and Secondary Education. I had the opportunity to meet a group of advanced English education majors, teach their Methods of Teaching English course, work with them in the field during their student teaching, watch them graduate, and then relish their happy emails and Facebook posts about their first jobs as English teachers.

What challenges have you faced in this position?

Thanks to Jan, Keene State’s Secondary English Education program has been nationally recognized. In order to stay nationally recognized, we have to continuously collect data on ourselves and make changes to the program to make sure we stay on the cutting edge of how English teachers should be prepared. Which is great. But we also have to turn in a LONG report that presents and reflects on that data—and that report was due last March during my first year. To bolster her application for sainthood, I guess, Jan wrote a wonderful draft of the accredita-tion report. Still, I had to collect more data, revise the report, and submit it. I was very much hoping not to be the person who blew our long-held national pro-gram recognition, so that was a lingering challenge throughout the year. A victory narrative, though! We found out in August that the English Ed program received national recognition again, through 2024.

What was the best part of your first year?

My wife,Molly, and I have a couple small kids (2 and 4). We moved from Ann Arbor, MI, and we kind of had life set up there. We had a good pre-school / day care, grandparents nearby, activities, and routines. We were pretty spooked that our sons wouldn’t love the transition when we moved to Keene. But it turns out that the Child Development Center on campus contains earth’s best toddler room and pre-school.

What is your favorite class to teach?

That is an impossible question, and I refuse to an-swer. What I can say is that I love my English 312: Descriptive Grammar class in a different way than my other classes. In the others, everyone there is a dual English and education major, so they are, at least to a certain extent, excited to be there because it is direct training for their future work. But in De-scriptive Grammar, students from across the English major can enroll, so I get to try and convince them that English grammar, usage, and mechanics are fascinating.

What book are you currently reading?

I’m reading Dead Man Running by Steve Hamilton because after work and putting children to bed, my brain can’t handle much more than Alex McKnight solving mysteries in the Upper Peninsula of Michi-gan.

Where is your favorite place to go in Keene?

We would be up a creek without the Cheshire Chil-dren’s Museum which we treat like an annex to our house. We go there so much that, when we come in, the employees are like, “Oh, you all forgot your son’s cup 3 days ago.”

In Spring 2017, KSC said goodbye to Dr. Jan Youga, a beloved professor of English and Secondary Education, and welcomed a friendly new face in her stead, Dr. Christopher Parsons. After a year of adjusting to their new lifestyles, they reflect on their time teaching English and Secondary Education.

(Excerpts from interviews with Jan Youga and Chris Parsons)

TRANSITIONS

What was originally a college internship this spring at the Hannah Grimes Center for Entrepreneurship, turned into a full-time job for 2018 graduate Sam Buckler. Beginning her new position as Operational Support just this summer, she has already been asked to write an article for Stay Work Play, an online blog geared toward young professionals seeking jobs and intern-ships in New Hampshire. In the article, Buckler reflects on certain aspects of her job, including marketing, and organizing a two-day summit hosted by the center. Hannah Grimes, she says, has changed her view on living in Keene permanently, a prospect that she had not considered until she start-ed the internship. She advises English majors (and all KSC students) “to make the most of your time at school and immerse yourselves in the com-munity in every way that you can” in order to fully understand all the possi-bilities life has after college. You can read Sam Buckler’s article at this link:/stayworkplay.org/blog/sinking-roots-in-nh-a-recent-college-grads-story/

KATE REED

ACCOLADES

Sinking Roots into NH: From Intern to Employee

~KSC ENGLISH IS ON SOCIAL MEDIA~

Follow us on:

INSTAGRAM: kscenglish

TWITTER: @KSCEnglish

FACEBOOK: English Department at Keene State College

AND CHECK OUT OUR NEW WEBSITE:

https://keenestateenglish.org

THANK YOU TO THE PHOTOGRAPHERS WHO

GRACIOUSLY SHARED THEIR WORK FOR THIS PUBLICATION

PHOTOGRAPH CREDITS

(in order of appearance)

Ashley Rollend (p. 2): Copyright@ The Equinox, Keene State College

Dr. Brinda Charry (p. 3): Copyright@ Michael Moore, The Keene Sentinel

Sam Buckler (p. 7): Copyright@ Kelly Kingsbury, Lil’ Kelz Photography

Are you a Keene State College

English Major Alumni? Please

inform us of where you’ve gone

and what you are doing now so

that we can feature YOU in our

next edition!