Recent News, Events and Professional Activities
Spring 2008
The Department of English will host readings by two internationally acclaimed authors. Salman Rushdie, author of international bestsellers such as "The Satanic Verses," which prompted Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini to call for his death, will speak on April 7 at 7 PM in Dixon Hall. Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Louise Gluck will speak on March 31 at 7 PM at Kendall-Cram Lecture Hall.
CREATIVE WRITING EVENTS for SPRING 2008
Tuesday, January 22
FILM SCREENING : TOOTIE'S LAST SUIT
This documentary on Mardi Gras Indian Tootie Montana was directed by our screenwriting professor, Lisa Katzman.
Dixon Recital Hall @ 7PM
Monday, February 18
READING: TIMOTHY LIU
Tim, a distinguished poet, is our writer-in-residence this semester.
Freeman Auditorium @ 7PM; reception to follow.
Tuesday, February 26
RUSHDIE READING SERIES #1
"Postcolonial Hybridity in Rushdie's Characters: Ideal or Fraud?"
Professor Ray Taras, Department of Politcal Science
Cudd Hall Common Room @ 12 noon
Tuesday, March 4
RUSHDIE READING SERIES #2
"Grotesque Humor and Postmodern Parody in Salman Rushdie's Novels"
Professor Supriya Nair, Department of English
Cudd Hall Common Room @ 12 noon
Monday, March 31
READING: LOUISE GLUCK
LBC @ 7PM; reception to follow.
A Day With Pulitzer Prize Winners, March 28 Archive, New Wave
http://tulane.edu/news/newwave/032808_speakers.cfm
Wednesday, April 2
RUSHDIE READING SERIES #3
"The Satanic Verses: A Discussion"
Professor Joel Dinerstein, Department of English
Cudd Hall Common Room @ 6 PM
Monday, April 7
LECTURE: SALMAN RUSHDIE
Dixon Auditorium @ 7 PM; reception beforehand.
Salman Rushdie To Speak On Campus, April 3 Archive, New Wave
http://tulane.edu/news/newwave/040308_rushdie.cfm
Literature, Politics, and Fatwas, April 9 Archive, New Wave
http://tulane.edu/news/newwave/040908_rushdie.cfm
Salman Rushdie, Rock Star, The Times Picayune April 9, 2008
Student News
Academy of American Poets Contest 2008
First Place: India Nicholas for “ The Tuesday that Changed the Way I Look at You”
Second Place: Brett Long for “ Uncle Harpo”
Third Place: Ada Bidiuc for “ Love Poem”
Honorable mentions: Laura Proszak, Chris Drangle, Monika Kumar
Judge for the contest was Jennifer Maier, Ph.D. Tulane, poet and Associate Professor of English at Seattle Pacific University.
Congratulations to all!
DALE EDMONDS AWARD IN SHORT FICTION: WINNERS
The contest was judged this year by novelist Robert Rosenberg, who teaches
at Bucknell College. He said he was impressed by the "variety and
quirkiness" of the entries overall, and thought the quality of student work
was high.
Congratulations to the authors of the three winning stories. Morgan
Blackburn will receive her prize of $150 at the Newcomb-Tulane College
prize-giving ceremony on Friday, May 16.
First Place: "Properties of Heat" by Morgan Blackburn
"Properties of Heat" is a story that respects its readers' intelligence. It
never panders or over-explains, but thrusts us squarely into the middle of
this troubled family, amid its deep, extended mourning. In its
powerfully-wrought yet subtle dramatization, the story becomes a
collaboration of creative energies between author and reader. With
formidable restraint, it outlines the surfaces of these characters¹ stalled
lives. But we feel (like the heat and funk of the basement that plays such
a central role here) the layers of humanity and pain lying just beneath
these surfaces. One believes, immediately, the weight of these characters¹
loss, and imagines the necessary acts of love they're so incapable of
imagining for one another. All of this is leavened by the madness of modern
American life, brilliantly, if quietly, presented here through finely chosen
details of television, a convenience store, and a dead grandmother's
apartment. An authentic, immediately convincing, and mature piece of prose
fiction.
Second Place: "Her and the Only City" by Joanna Kauffmann
There's a great deal to admire here in this brief, fleeting love story. A
reader is quickly won over by the confidence of the narrative voice, by its
light-hearted wisdom and playful irony."Her and the Only City" captures
that watershed moment between high school and college in which the
boundaries of lives are staked out - a moment we sense will come back and
haunt these characters in the years to come, just as we, too, are haunted by
the heavy consequences of casual decisions made when we were young. It
manages to suggest all of this through a highly readable prose style, and -
perhaps most impressively by capturing the poetic essence of Washington
D.C. in all its useless, lovely, cherry blossom and K-Street glory.
Third Place: "The Carving Room" by Alexander Lipoff
This story is a descent into hell. It recalls, in its horrors of both
psychology and setting, the work of Edgar Alan Poe. I was equally disgusted
and intrigued by the descriptions of this meatpacking warehouse, and
ultimately delighted by the way the setting perfectly dovetails with the
tragedy of Skinner's story. Characterization is handled here in bold,
impressive strokes - especially in the memorable descriptions Skinner's
work. The dramatization is grounded in concrete emotional and physical
detail, but also adorned with hints of poetry ("teeth scattered on the floor
like loose change.") "The Carving Room" is told with just the right amount
urgency. You find yourself hooked, listening with intensity both to the
narrator, and to Skinner, spin this larger-than-life tale of injustices we¹d
prefer to ignore.
Laura Hunt, creative writing emphasizer, who graduated last May, has a poem coming out in CAESURA. Chris Drangle, Tulane Junior, and emphasizer, has poems forthcoming in the anthology CADENCE OF HOOVES and in the magazine NORTH CENTRAL REVIEW.
Nghana Lewis's LEH Summer Seminar:
AFRICAN AMERICAN LOUISIANA WRITERS: A CRITICAL INTRODUCTION
Taken as a group, African American Louisiana writers present an imposing array of talent. However, their accomplishments remain largely unrecognized, and their resourcefulness in understanding key aspects of our national history remains largely untapped. The primary goal of this institute is, thus, to open the work of African American Louisiana writers to critical investigation, to assess the insight these writers offer into the complex history, economy, and ecology of Louisiana as well as the awareness each brings to the vast cultural milieus that give Louisiana and America their distinctive flavors. The institute is hosted by Tulane University and will run from June 2, 2008 to July 3, 2008. Enrollment is open to K-12 teachers throughout Greater New Orleans and the River Parish Region. For a copy of the application, or for more information about the institute, please contact Nghana Lewis at (504) 957-2684 or nlewis2@tulane.edu
Fall 2007
The English Department is pleased to announce that Professor Gerald Graff, incoming President of the Modern Language Association and the author of several award winning books will be the Visiting Pierce Butler Professor for 2007-2008. Professor Graff (and his co-author Professor Cathy Birkenstein-Graff) will be with us from November 5th through November 13th 2007. Professor Graff will deliver a dinner-lecture on Tuesday Nov. 6th at 6:30pm entitled "The Unbearable Pointlessness of the Classroom Literature Essay"(Faculty-Staff Dining Room, LBC) and will conduct a workshop for college and high school teachers on Saturday November 10th from 10am to noon (Stibbs, LBC). This workshop will be based on the book co-authored by Graff and Birkenstein Graff entitled They Say/I Say: The Moves that Matter in Persuasive Writing. In addition, Professor Graff will be available on Monday November 12th from 3pm - 5pm for a discussion of his book, Clueless in Academe: How Schooling Obscures the Life of the Mind. (Stibbs, LBC). Throughout his stay, Professor Graff will be available to meet informally with students and faculty and to guest lecture in classes.
Persuasive Points of View, November 26 Archive, The New Wave
http://tulane.edu/news/newwave/112607_butler.cfm
Professor's class takes serious look at comedy, The Times Picayune October 7, 2007
CREATIVE WRITING: READINGS Fall 2007
Wednesday, September 12
JENNIFER MAIER
Jennifer is a Tulane alum whose first book of poetry, Dark Alphabet, was recently published. She teaches at Seattle Pacific University and is associate editor at the quarterly journal IMAGE.
NCCROW Lounge – Second Floor
7 PM
Monday, October 1
AN HOUR WITH ZZ PACKER
ZZ is our Distinguished Writer-in-Residence this semester. This is an hour-long interview about her work and writing process, and will include short readings from her stories (Drinking Coffee Elsewhere) and novel-in-progress. The Department of English will host a reception immediately after the event.
Freeman Auditorium, Woldenberg Art Center/ 7 PM
Insights From an Author, October 4th Archive, The New Wave
http://tulane.edu/news/newwave/100407_zzpacker.cfm
KIMIKO HAHN
Kimiko is this year’s Florrie Gale Arons poet. She has published seven books of poems, including Narrow Road to the Interior (W.W. Norton, 2006); The Artist's Daughter (2002); Mosquito and Ant (1999); Volatile (1998); and the American Book Award winner, The Unbearable Heart (1995). She is currently teaching as a Distinguished Professor in the English department at Queens College, City University of New York. Her reading will be preceded by a reception at the Newcomb College Institute.
Rogers Chapel / 7 PM
Tulane/Loyola 1718 Reading Series
All of these readings take place at The Columns Hotel on St Charles Avenue.
Tuesday, September 4
Brenda Marie Osbey
7 PM
Tuesday, October 2
Alison Pelegrin
7 PM
Tuesday, November 6
Rodger Kamenetz
7 PM
Tuesday, December 4
Paula Morris
7 PM
FallF 2007
* * * * *
FALL 2006 THROUGH SUMMER 2007 FalFl 2006 through Summer 2007
* * * * *
The Department of English has received a gift of $250,000 with a total pledge of 1.5 million dollars over the next five years to set up a Creative Writing Fund. The gift, made by a donor who wishes to remain anonymous will allow the department to enhance its course offerings in Creative Writing, to bring a high-profile writer to campus every semester as a Distinguished Writer in Residence, to bring other writers to do readings and workshops with students, to create greater opportunities for student programming and publishing in creative writing and to use creative writing as a focal point for community outreach and service learning.
News coverage of this gift in the Tulane Hullabaloo
Accolades Go to Tulane Faculty and Staff, The New Wave
Studio Offers Space To Read, Write, Retreat, The New Wave
Amy Koritz has been named the recipient of a Recognition Certificate for Excellence in Service Learning Teaching. According to the Provost’s message this honor is given to her in recognition of her “sustained record of effective, inspiring and distinguished service learning and her contributions to undergraduate education at Tulane.”
Paula Morris novel _Trendy But Casual_ was just published by Penguin. Paula has also sold rights to her Young Adult novel tentatively titled _Ruins_ to Scholastic Publishers. Paula has a blog to promote the novel at trendybutcasual.typepad.com.
Assistant Professor Nghana Lewis has been awarded a Woodrow Wilson Career Enhancement Fellowship for Junior Faculty for the 2007-2008 academic year. The Program is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and administered by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. The fellowship “assists talented junior faculty to pursue scholarly research and writing during the fellowship year so that they attain tenure more easily.”
Assistant Professor Joel Dinerstein has received a Visiting Fellowship from the Harry Ransom Humanities Center in Austin, Texas. The fellowship will allow him to work in the archives of the Ross Russell Collection. Russell was an important postwar jazz scholar, producer, and novelist, and is one of the few intellectuals whose work informs the interrelationships of jazz, film noir, and existentialism, the three strands of Dinerstein’s current book project.
Associate Professor Michael Kuczynski has received the Lester J. Cappon Fellowship in Documentary Editing awarded by the Newberry Library in Chicago. Professor Kuczynski will use the fellowship to complete a critical edition of a glossed Lollard Psalter.
Associate Professor and Chair, Gaurav Desai has been awarded a Frederick Burkhardt Residential Fellowship for Recently Tenured Scholars. This fellowship, generously supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies will allow Professor Desai to spend one year in residence at the National Humanities Center in North Carolina. He will take up this residency in 2009-2010 in order to complete his book manuscript on the literary and cultural exchanges between India and Africa.
Joel Dinerstein has been named the recipient of a Recognition Certificate for Excellence in Teaching by a Junior Faculty member. According to the Provost’s message, this honor is given to him “in recognition of his sustained record of effective, inspiring and distinguished teaching and his contributions to undergraduate education at Tulane.”
The Tulane chapter of Sigma Tau Delta attended the national convention in Pittsburgh from March 29-April 1, 2007. Our delegation to the convention consisted of three undergraduate students, Kelly McGee, Nora Steiger, and Chris Drangle, one graduate student, Megan Holt (who also serves as co-sponsor), and our faculty sponsor, Molly Travis.
Nora Steiger presented in two categories, poetry and short fiction. Her collection of poems was titled "Drunken Journey"; her short story was titled "One for Sure." Kelly McGee presented a critical essay titled "The Woman, Dorian Gray." Chris Drangle also presented in both the poetry and the short fiction categories. His short story was titled "What Happened to Matt Dillon," and his collection of poems was titled "Parts Not Whole." Megan Holt presented a critical essay titled "Photographs and Memories: A Walk through Venice with James Merrill."
The Tulane chapter also received the Outstanding Chapter Runner Up award. The plaque that we received will soon be found in 122 Norman Mayer. As part of this award, we were invited to put together a presentation about our chapter that was on display throughout the convention. The display is now located in 202 Norman Mayer. In addition, Megan Holt received the Graduate Student Scholarship and will use the funds to do dissertation research in Spain this summer.
Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize winning author, read at the McAlister Auditorium at 7:00pm on Thursday April 12th.
Toni Morrison moves McAlister, the Tulane Hullabaloo
Toni Morrison: A Friend of Mind and Heart, The New Wave
Good Endings, Author Toni Morrison shares world view with crowd at Tulane,
The Times Picayune April 13, 2007
Toni Morrison and Gift Inspire Creative Writers, The New Wave
Awaiting Toni Morrison, The Times Picayune April 11, 2007
Toni Morrison is Literary Talk of the Town, The New Wave
The Toni Morrison Lecture Series is a program of three lunchtime talks by Tulane professors on the work of Toni Morrison, in anticipation of her visit to Tulane University on Thursday, April 12, 2007. These talks are free and open to the public at 12:30 pm in the Aron Common Room in Robert C. Cudd Hall. The talks are presented by the Tulane Department of English Creative Writing Fund and the Newcomb-Tulane College of Cocurricular Programs.
- Tuesday, March 13, 2007, Professor Molly Travis discussed Why Morrison's Beloved Is the Best Work of American Fiction in the Last 25 Years.
- Tuesday, March 27, 2007, Professor Nghana Lewis discussed 'There Was No Place for Cholly's Eyes to Go': Seeing Race through Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye.
- Wednesday, April 4th, 2007, Professor Joel Dinerstein discussed The Magical Lyrics to the Song of Solomon.
TULANE STUDENTS TO HOST CITYWIDE YOUTH POETRY SLAM
Tulane University students hosted a citywide youth poetry slam held on Saturday, April 21st at the Rogers Memorial Chapel on Tulane’s campus. The Slam featured original spoken word performances by local students ages 14 to 19. The event provided New Orleans students with an opportunity to perform their poetry in front of an audience and express themselves through spoken word. A panel of judges selected from the audience scored the performances and the 1st place winner received a $200 prize; 2nd place, $100; and 3rd place, $50. Young Prophetz is currently accepting applications from those interested in participating; the registration form can be found online at http://www.myspace.com/youngprophetz.
The class organizing the event, entitled “Spoken Word Workshop,” is taught by Professor of English, Amy Koritz, along with nationally acclaimed spoken word artist, Asali DeVan, and is the latest example of Tulane’s post-Katrina campaign to expand the “Service Learning” aspect of their academic mission. Service Learning classes provide an opportunity for Tulane students to apply what they are learning in class to the real world, while gaining experience serving the New Orleans community. The Spoken Word Workshop focuses on performance technique and composition, with a special emphasis on spoken word as it relates to social justice.
Students Host Citywide Youth Poetry Slam, The New Wave
1718, New Orleans' first inter-collegiate reading series run by Tulane and Loyola students will have spring readings by Christine Wiltz on January 16th at 7:00 p.m., Poppy Z. Brite on February 6th at 6:30 p.m., Bev Marshall on March 6th at 7:00 p.m., John Biguenet on April 10th at 7:00 p.m., and Andrei Codrescu on May 1st at 7:00 p.m. The readings are being held at The Columns Hotel, 3811 St. Charles Ave.
Alison Pelegrin, NEA prizewinning poet and associate professor at Southeastern University, gave a reading of her own work on Monday, February 26th at 7pm in the Myra Clare Rogers Chapel. A reception followed in the faculty lounge of Newcomb Hall.
On February 6th and 7th, Tulane graduate Lawrence Wright (A&S 1969, an English major) lectured on campus. He visited classes in Political Science and History, signed books at LBC Bookstore, and gave a talk in the Freeman Auditorium of the Woldenberg Art Center. Larry's talk was entitled "Al-Qaeda: Past, Present, and Future."
News coverage of Lawrence Wright event
Jason Berry, Distinguished Writer in Residence, read "Politics and Fiction" at 7pm, Monday January 29th 2007 at the Myra Clare Rogers Chapel, Tulane University. A reception in the Newcomb College Faculty Lounge followed the reading.
Donald Pizer's book American Naturalism and the Jews: Garland, Norris, Dreiser, Wharton, and Cather has been accepted for publication by the University of Illinois Press.
Amy Koritz and Nghana Lewis were recently featured in the Fall 2006 issue of the Tulanian magazine. The article discusses their participation in the Summer in NOLA program, and in particular the "Rebuilding New Orleans: Communities, Cultures and Cities" course co-taught by Koritz and Lewis along with faculty from across the university.
Teresa Toulouse’s The Captive’s Position: Female Narrative, Male Identity and Royal Authority in Colonial New England has just been released by the University of Pennsylvania Press. You can link to the book at:
http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14297.html
Paula Morris’ Hibiscus Coast has been put on the long list for the International IMPAC Dublin Award for 2007. More information on the award can be found at:
http://www.impacdublinaward.ie/index.htm
Donald Pizer (Professor Emeritus) was recently honored by the journal Studies in American Naturalism which released a Special Double Issue on his work. (vol 1, nos, 1-2, Summer/Winter 2006).
Joel Dinerstein published the lead essay “Technology and its Discontents: On the Verge of the Posthuman” in a special issue of American Quarterly (vol 58, no. 3, September 2006) that is dedicated to the place of technology in American Studies.
Thomas Albrecht’s article “Sympathy and Telepathy: The Problem of Ethics in George Eliot’s The Lifted Veil” appeared in the Summer 2006 issue of ELH.
Molly Rothenberg’s article “Embodied Political Performativity in Excitable Speech: Butler’s Psychoanalytic Revision of Historicism,” appeared in the Summer 2006 issue of Theory, Culture and Society.
Gaurav Desai’s article “Capitalism, Sovereignty, and the Dilemmas of Postcoloniality” appeared in the Summer 2006 issue of Boundary2. His guest-edited special issue of the Journal of Contemporary Thought on the topic of “Actually Existing Colonialisms” was released at the conference of the Forum on Contemporary Theory in Udaipur, India in December 2006. Desai presented the keynote address at the annual convention of the South Asian Literary Society in Philadelphia this December.
Ken Foster’s Sweet and Vicious: A Social History of the American Pit Bull Terrier will be published by Chronicle Books in 2008. The book covers the dog's origins as the first American dog through its days as a WWI mascot, wholesome advertising spokesdog, star of "Little Rascals" and its current position as the most hated animal in the country.
Recent News, Events and Professional Activities