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Monday, June 1, 2015

No Substitute: Clayton Retires

Our interviews with retiring professors Gordon Hirsch and Charles Sugnet ran in the March e-Quarterly; now it's Tom Clayton's turn. The Regents Professor newly named "Emeritus" looks back on more than a half century of classroom adventure.

A Memory Is a Process: Sprengnether on Her New Memoir

When Regents Professor Madelon Sprengnether joined the English faculty in 1971, she was a Shakespearean. She soon developed abiding interests in feminist theory, psychoanalysis, and her own creative writing. How have those passions sparked off each other? Read on.

New Pages

Memoiristic poetry and poetic memoir. The story of two autistic brothers discovering joy in marathons. Funny fiction. The translated Mediterranean travelogues of an eighteenth-century Arab Muslim. Writing from all over the map in our annotated list of publications by English faculty, students, and alums.

What We're Reading: Clayton, Hirsch, Sugnet

Before our trio of retiring professors could depart campus, we asked them who they were currently reading and recommending. Their idiosyncratic responses include drama, fiction, and philosophy.

News: Report from AWP & More

Photos from the April AWP literary conference in Minneapolis. Plus former Ivory Tower editor Garrison Keillor meets current staff, two majors wow President Kaler, and an HR director (and alum) offers career advice.

Faculty News

The latest about publications, lectures, and awards from English faculty.

Thursday, May 28, 2015

PhD News

Read news about publications, presentations, and awards from PhD candidates and alumnae/i. And fill us in on your activities!

MFA News

What's going on with you? News about publications, presentations, and awards from MFA candidates and alumnae/i.

BA News

Find out what our BA alumnae/i are accomplishing--and let us know what you're doing!

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

So Long, Farewell . . .

Three professors, with a combined total of 134 years of department service, officially retire this spring semester. Tom Clayton, Gordon Hirsch, and Charles Sugnet sat down with us as they began clearing out their offices and offered their perspectives on a changing University and discipline. (Regents Professor Clayton's interview will run in the June issue.) . . . Until we meet again!

Schumacher Forges New Fiction Fellowship

After her mother, "a voracious and enthusiastic reader," passed away last year, Creative Writing Professor Julie Schumacher wanted to honor her in some way. This winter Schumacher created the Winifred Fellowship to recognize fiction writers in the MFA program--and give them more time to write. How did Winifred Schumacher inspire her daughter, author of the widely acclaimed comic novel Dear Committee Members? Read on.

New Pages

A new poetry collection by the professor emeritus who has recently been celebrated by both Wild writer Cheryl Strayed and Minnesota Teacher of the Year Tom Rademacher. Plus other springy works in our annotated list of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction by English faculty, students, and alums.

What We're Reading: Dan Philippon

The current Director of Undergraduate Studies is writing (and reading) about food these days. And what food: He recently returned from a short stint in France, where he was Visiting Professor at the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon and did research on food writing and the sustainable food movement. "The highlight of my stay was the Lyonnaise cuisine," he recalls, "Saint-Marcellin and Comté cheeses, Beaujolais and Côtes du Rhône wines, quenelles de brochet and saucisson de Lyon." Yep, the book he recommends includes recipes.

News: AWP Here April 8-12

Just three weeks until Minneapolis goes word crazy with the annual literary conference (open to the public) of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP). We've got the goods on events featuring our faculty, students, and alumnae/i--both AWP sessions and free off-site readings.