Department of English Newsletter October 2021

Upcoming Department Events

Oct
6
3:30 pm
Bailey Library and Zoom
Oct
7
7:00 pm
Oct
13
3:30 pm
Oct
14
7:00 pm
Nebraska Union Platte River Room South
Oct
16
12:00 pm
Pioneers Park Nature Center
Oct
19
5:00 pm
Bailey Library
Oct
21
3:30 pm
Bailey Library and Zoom
Oct
21
5:30 pm

Publications & Acceptances

Cover of THE AFRO HISPANIC REVIEWAmelia Montes’s critical essay, “So Far From Nation: Borders and Immigration” was published in Transnational Chicanx Perspectives on Ana Castillo, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2021. Her short story, “La Omaha Mariachi Dyke,” finally came out in The Afro Hispanic Review (Vanderbilt University) this past August 2021. The issue was a victim of COVID closures because it should have been out 12/2019 - 1/2020. Hence, the actual issue posts the publication date as 2019.

Rachel Azima’s article, “‘Starting from Square One’: Results from the Racial Climate Survey of Writing Center Professional Gatherings,” has been accepted for publication in vol. 40, no. 1 of The Writing Center Journal. The article is collaboratively written with Kelsey Hixson-Bowles of Utah Valley University and Neil Simpkins of the University of Washington-Bothell.

Arden Eli Hill has a piece of satire in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency.

Tom Lynch is pleased—and relieved—to announce that his book manuscript, Outback and Out West: The Settler Colonial Environmental Imaginary in the US West and Australian Outback, has been accepted for publication by the University of Nebraska Press. The book project was begun 20 years ago. It is scheduled to appear in print in fall of 2022.

Katie Schmid Henson’s poem, “The Holiness of Degradation,” was published online at The Nation on 9/30. Her debut poetry collection was reviewed on the Harriet Books blog.

Cover of COLLEGE ENGLISH Vol 83 Number 6Nicole Green’s essay, “Heard Any Good Books Lately? Reseeing the Sound of Literacy in the College English Classroom,” appeared in the July 2021 issue of College English. In this braided essay, Nicole weaves her experience of disability and aural literacy together with scholarship in literacy and disability studies in order to argue (1) for the validity of aural literacy (and consequently other diverse literacies) and (2) that we must move beyond simple theoretical conceptions of diverse literacies and toward explicitly naming diverse reading and writing practices as literacies and encouraging students to practice them in our classes.

Undisciplining the Victorian Classroom, a digital humanities project that Adrian S. Wisnicki co-founded, has just received a fantastic peer review from Roopika Risam, a leading scholar in the field of digital humanities.

Conferences, Readings, Workshops & Presentations

Photo from Zoom event featuring Sandra CisnerosAmelia Montes is on the board of the national/international The Macondo Writing Workshop founded by writer Sandra Cisneros. Her work on the board included redesigning and rewriting Macondo’s website, Macondo: a Homeland for Writers. Amelia also helped mount the successful online one-week workshop which took place July 27 - August 1st, 2021.

Jordan Charlton, Saddiq Dzukogi, and Olufunke Ogundimu shared their papers “Avenues for Black Preservation: Psychology, Poetry, and Restorative Justice,” “Biracial Individuals: Intersectionality Between Blackness and Whiteness,” and “The Effects of Colourism and Skin Bleaching Among Peoples of Colour” at the 2021 John R. Milton Writers’ Conference as part of their panel on “The Psychology of Race and Ethnicity.”

Katie Schmid Henson was a featured poet on Nebraska Public Media’s Friday Live program during the month of September. She will be reading outdoors in Omaha on October 3rd at the Dundee Book Company along with poet Sommer Browning. She will also be reading with Grace Bauer and others on October 7th at an outdoor event hosted at LarkSong Writers Place and sponsored by Francie & Finch.

Activities, Accolades, & Grants

Steve Behrendt’s recent big critical anthology, Romantic-Era Irish Women Poets in English (Cork UP, 2021), was featured in the lead review in The Irish Times weekend “Book Reviews” section on 11 September. Of his book and Cambridge UP’s just-released History of Irish Women’s Poetry, the reviewer observed that “these two remarkable new works of exemplary feminist scholarship succeed in reconfiguring how women’s literary history—all literary history—can be imagined.”

Flyer for the Writing Lincoln Initative's October 16 writing marathon—info belowThe Writing Lincoln Initiative is collaborating with the Nebraska Writing Project to offer a local Lincoln Writing Marathon at Pioneers Park on Saturday, October 16th from 12-3 PM. A writing marathon is a place for writers to experience the world, generate material, and share writing with a supportive community. Questions? Contact Keshia Mcclantoc at keshia.lynn.13@gmail.com or Kathleen Dillon at kdillon9@huskers.unl.edu.

Have news or noteworthy happenings to share?

The Department of English encourages our faculty and current students to submit stories about their activities and publications of note by filling out the Department Newsletter Submission Form.