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.

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.

North America's Largest Lit Conference Hits Twin Cities

You may not have heard of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP), but next April it's taking over Minneapolis. AWP's annual literary conference (open to the public) goes down at the Minneapolis Convention Center (with lit stars from T. C. Boyle to Roxane Gay), and related events will be erupting all over town. Predictably, our Creative Writing Program is involved up to its eyebrows.

What We're Reading: Ellen Messer-Davidow

The Chair of the Department of English has assigned the Affordable Care Act as required reading. Her department classes have titles such as "Probing the Social Text," "Civil Rights Discourse," and "Consumer Culture." In her research, Professor Messer-Davidow explores how one phenomenon is explained differently by different parties, from scholars and activists to lawmakers, the media, and the public. You might say the world is her text, along with such soundings as Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century--and a thriller or two.

What We're Reading: Kim Todd

She's written one book about those cheerful marauders, house sparrows, and another about a female naturalist who, in 1699, voyaged from Amsterdam to South America to study insect metamorphosis. Kim Todd joins the Creative Writing Program this fall as a third creative nonfiction writer, alongside Regents Professors Patricia Hampl and Madelon Sprengnether. What author has she been loving lately?