Severe Weather Awareness Week

It’s severe weather awareness week!

In honor of the week, I compiled a list of some good reads about weather! Check out some of these novels/stories!

My top book about weather is Winterdance by Gary Paulsen! The book isn’t about weather, necessarily, but it does have aspects of bad weather throughout the story. It’s a nonfiction memoir about Gary’s run in the Iditarod dogsled race in Alaska. The book is filled with humor, horror, and haphazard attempts to do things right. You will find yourself laughing, crying, and everything in between! It’s not one of his common books, but it’s definitely one of his best!

One of my favorite short stories about weather is “To Build a Fire” by Jack London. The unnamed narrator discovers what true cold really means when he finds himself trying to survive the arctic cold. When the termometer reads “75 degrees below 0 (fahrenheit),” things get dangerous!

Poetry is also a great place to find stories about severe weather! Check out Emily Dickenson’s A Thunderstorm, a gripping piece of art!

The last text I’d like to cover is a song, called “The Thunder Rolls” by Garth Brooks. Sometimes, during sever weather awareness week, we just need to sit down and enjoy a good song about severe weather! I like this song particularly because of the use of instrumentation to convey the thunder! Of course, this song could also be a metaphor, but I like to think of the song as purely just a celebration of weather!

What are your favorite texts about severe weather? These are just four of my favorites, but there are so many other good ones out there!

 

Join us! for “Infinitum: An Afrofuturist Tale”

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

The English Department is delighted to welcome award-winning illustrator, concept designer, cartoonist, and animator, Tim Fielder for a Virtual Fireside Chat (via ZOOM) on February 10 from 12:30-1:30 PM where we will be discussing his work, Afrofuturism, and his latest, best-selling graphic novel, Infinitum: An Afrofuturist Tale.

 Mr. Fielder is an Illustrator, concept designer, cartoonist, and animator who has worked over the years in the storyboarding, film visual development, gaming, comics, and animation industries for clients as varied as Marvel Comics (‘Dr Dre: Man With A Cold, Cold Heart’), The Village Voice, Tri-Star Pictures (‘The Mothership Connection’), to Ubisoft Entertainment (‘Batman: Vengeance).

This virtual event will include a moderated Q&A session with Fielder on Wednesday, February 10 from 1230-130 PM, in conjunction with the Introduction to English Studies Course (ENGL300). This will be among the first events where Fielder discusses, in-depth for an academic audience, his new graphic novel, Infinitum: An Afrofuturist Tale, available now through Harper Collins press.

Infinitum is steeped in Afrodiasporic experience and presents a unique cosmic experience, addressing issues of racism, classism, gender inequity, the encroachment of technology, and the spiritual cost of war, while exposing the history behind ancient mysteries.

If you would like to attend this Free Event or if you have any questions, please RSVP to mbdando@stcloudstate.edu.

We hope that you’ll be able to join us for what is sure to be a wonderful talk.

Sincerely,

Michael B. Dando

From History to English

We have so many amazing Graduate Assistants in our department! Some teach, some do other things, and some work for the Write Place, our SCSU Writing Center designed to help students of all levels improve their writing!

Read below, an experience from one of our GAs working in the Write Place!

I have been a history student at St. Cloud for a few years and I loved my experience so much that now I am a history graduate student! One of my history professors thought I might be a good fit to be a graduate assistant with the English Department.  I was hesitant at first, but after talking with people in the English Department, especially Tim in The Write Place, I thought I could make it work.  Once the semester began and I started meeting with students, I realized how helpful these sessions could be for the student and for myself.  I think I have learned a lot working with the English Department this semester! I look forward to working more with the other coaches and English Department staff as I continue to work on my master’s.  I will always love my History Department relationships, but I am so happy to develop new relationships with the English Department as well!

–Jennifer Sonterre


For more information about the Write Place, visit their website or follow them on Twitter and Facebook!

From the SCSU Write Place website:

“The St. Cloud State writing centers provide free services to support any of the writing and reading you do in and outside of school. We work with writers from all levels of experience and ability at any stage in the writing process. Our purpose is to help you become a more effective, versatile, and confident communicator. 

Most students who visit the writing center schedule appointments to discuss papers that they’re writing for their classes. Some want help getting started. Some have begun writing and are ready to discuss next steps. Some bring drafts that are nearly finished and need help with documenting sources and fine-tuning the language. 

The graduate and undergraduate writing coaches on our staff have been trained to provide this kind of guidance, and they will collaborate with you in making many other kinds of writing decisions.”

This semester, the Write Place offers both in-person and online consultation! Consider checking them out!

Join the Writers’ Club!

Writers’ Club was started by a group of classmates from creative writing class who thought it would be fun to meet outside class hours to get more feedback on their work and brainstorm ideas to prompt more writing. We found out that lots of people like to write but don’t get enough feedback on their writing to improve or advance in their storyline. Hence, the club was made so that like-minded individuals can share stories, ideas, encouragement, and just get to know each other. Of course, anyone who is interested is welcomed to join us. It’s not just a club for English majors and minors. The Club is very new and still getting started so we welcome any ideas that would benefit everyone who joins.

In a typical meeting, if there are new members, we do an introduction. Then, we talk about what we have been working on. If someone brought a piece they would like to share for feedback, they can share it on the screen, read it to us, and tell us what they need (this hasn’t happened yet). We will then do a workshop as a group. Sometime during the meeting, we would take a couple minutes to do some free writing and read it out loud to the group. At the end, we suggest writing prompts for the next meeting.

For questions about Writers’ Club, please email: cyoleson@go.stcloudstate.edu or type in Huskies Connect in the search bar of SCSU’s homepage, look up Writers Club, and send a message there.

Stony Brook’s Creative Writing MFA program

Greetings loyal readers,

Check out this opportunity that just popped up in my email today!


We’re excited to offer two Zoom Open Houses for Stony Brook’s Creative Writing MFA program.

On Monday, 11/30, at 4 p.m. EST, we’re convening a faculty panel: Secrets of a Great MFA Application. Faculty Admission Committee Members will talk about what makes an outstanding Statement of Purpose. They’ll also be giving advice regarding the all-important Writing Sample.

ID: 96348126097
Password: 334096

On Monday, 12/7, at 5 p.m. EST, we’re offering a Pop-Up Faculty-Student Reading and Q & A re: the Stony Brook MFA in Creative Writing & Literature.

ID: 92184320719
Password: 424973


Here at Stony Brook’s Creative Writing MFA program, we’ve been impressed by the quality of our applicants and by the strength of our writing community. Stronger still in this year of virtual classes.

Here are 7 ways The Stony Brook MFA program makes a difference in a student’s creative life:

1.)  Small classes and plenty of attention: Writing workshops capped at 12.

2.)  Outstanding faculty—all of whom are working writers: Paul Harding, Susan Scarf Merrell, Ursula Hegi, Molly Gaudry, Robert Lopez, Susan Minot, Patricia Marx, Patricia McCormick, Matthew Klam, Melissa Bank, Roger Rosenblatt. Guest faculty members have included Regina Porter and Hugh Ryan.

3.)  Rigorous and supportive writing guidance.

4.)  During the thesis process every MFA student works one-on-one with an advisor for a year and a half to complete a book-length manuscript, whether a novel, collection of short stories, memoir, or poetry.

5.)  We offer a teaching practicum during which students craft 3 creative writing syllabi, then teach undergrads. A great résumé builder. Very few MFA programs offer grad students the chance to teach creative writing.

6.)  Our graduates find jobs in publishing and academia.

7.)  Our students get published! And win prizes. Genevieve Sly Crane’s thesis became her short story collection and this year she won the coveted Whiting Award. Here are a few of our other outstanding writers: Helen Simonson’s Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand was an international bestseller. Tricia Rayburn has written several YA novels, including The Siren Series. This year Caitlin Mullen’s Please See Us was published to rave reviews. Alison Fairbrother is an editor at Riverhead Books and Random House is publishing her novel, The Catch, next year. Graduates Miranda Beeson and Nancy Keating both have poetry chapbooks appearing soon. Elena Gorokhova has published two award-winning memoirs, including A Mountain of Crumbs.

Other benefits? We offer Submitathons to help students prepare cover letters then send work out to literary journals. Our Writers Speak Wednesday reading series has featured luminaries such as T Kira Madden, Major Jackson, Jamil Jan Kochai, land Roz Chast. Each Spring we offer agent visits. Graduating students get one-on-one meetings with literary agents—and several have been signed on.

With our two creative writing campuses, one in Manhattan, the epi-center of the publishing world, and the other in Southampton, a stone’s throw to Atlantic Ocean beaches and the literary community of the East End of Long Island, we are able to offer students wonderful, sometimes unexpected, opportunities.

We have rolling admissions. Applications to be considered for funding are due 1/7/21www.stonybrook.edu/southampton/mfa/cwl/

State tuition is a fraction of the cost of other MFA programs.

Thanks for letting your students know about our Open Houses. Please contact us if you have any questions.

With all best wishes,

Lou Ann Walker

Director

MFA in Creative Writing & Literature

Stony Brook Southampton + Manhattan

stonybrook.edu/southampton/mfa/cwl/

631-838-8742

What’s it like to be a GA?

The SCSU English Department of Graduate Studies offers multiple assistantships to their students. Students who are a 191 GA or Graduate Assistant, are responsible for teaching one section of our first year composition course, English 191, as well as planning lessons, meeting with students, and grading. Teaching 191 is not the only GA position offered by the college/ For more information about becoming an SCSU GA, check out the English Department’s webpage.

This week, we are happy to feature writing from Ulysses Texx, a current GA.

Ulysses Texx, one of our second-year graduate assistants, shared some insight on teaching our first year composition course, ENGL 191 – Introduction to Rhetorical and Analytical Writing. Ulysses is one of our English graduate students. His students sure are lucky to have him as their instructor!

Check out what he has to say below!


Ulysses Texx Desk

What defined being part of the cohort of ENGL 191 GTAs last year was the community building of it all. Last year, eight of us shared an office, seeing each other almost every day of the week. Events hosted by last year’s second years often included former GTAs. The then-current cohort, most of which lived in the area and had been at St. Cloud for a while, was key to making me, the Twin Cities outsider, feel comfortable where I was, geographically, academically, socially.

From this community, our teaching emerged. We shared assignments and slides, sure, but also ideas about how to connect with our students. Games, discussion topics, conference days, reading activities, and other ways of making meaning passed from our lips and OneDrives easily and often. They connected us and the 200 students we taught collectively every semester.

Having the strength of a community influenced how I stood in the classroom, how I moved as I presented new topics and shared stories and food. I tried to use my energetic presence (and almost all my time) as fuel for their curiosity, knowing that students had acquaintances and friends in my section and across the other GTA, adjunct, and professor-led sections that they could interpret college life and its character (and often characters) with. I know they did, too—some introduced their friends to me whenever we bumped into each other on campus.

It’s difficult to give the fall semester such a charged impression. I’m back in the Cities, in my personal office, which I use infrequently, mostly as a background for Zoom and Microsoft Teams. On campus, I have an office to myself that I’ve seen once, when I reapplied the decor I took home from the cohort office in a panic in March to its dusty shelves and the side of the blond door facing the forlorn first floor hallway.

I have no other English teachers at home and have little patience for online meetups. I bounce ideas off my brother when he calls—he’s taken an equivalent of this class before—and my partner, who remembers taking an English class before. I’ve seen my current cohort maybe ten times this semester. I feel more a part of the pedagogies of nature and self-care I’m learning from the naturalists I read in the mornings and my cats as they frolic on the porch.

This cultural disconnect drives me to be as responsive to students as I can. Readings have been adjusted to their majors and are available free online, workload both laidback and rigorous. They write every week—often an essay—and I respond with an essay of my own on every submission received. I have strict deadlines but also an ear to lend to their lives. We’re taking our (structured) time making meaning out of everything. While we’re so isolated, it’s the only way we—my students, self, and cohort—can recreate the community so fundamental to 191 and our experiences at SCSU as students.

~Ulysses Texx

Linguistic Portfolios exceeds 100,000 downloads

On October 26, 2020, SCSU’s Linguistic Portfolios (LP) surpassed 100,000 downloads! This is a huge accomplishment!


Read the following excerpt, from Ettien Koffi, Professor of Linguistics, which explains how impactful this accomplishment truly is!

Today, October 26, Linguistic Portfolios (LP), the research-based journal of the linguistic emphasis in the English Department at SCSU reached 100,000 downloads today!!!  I began this publication in 2012 with the goal of letting the whole world know about the cutting-edge research that the students in Linguistics/TESL are doing.    The response has been overwhelming, well beyond my wildest imagination.  Articles from LP have been cited by leading journals in many fields, not only in linguistics, but also in engineering, robotics, and computer science.  As of today, 10/26/2020, 32,750 institutions have downloaded articles from LP.  Of these, 55% are in education, 33% are commercial, 5% government, 4% organizations, 3% others.  The acoustic phonetic research in which my students and I are engaged has caught the attention of the world of academia and ALSO the world of language technologies: Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc.  Leading universities around the world have downloaded articles from LP.  Our cutting-edge acoustic phonetic research and findings help build smarter voice-driven artificial intelligent systems.  I’m extremely proud that a small program like ours is having such a huge impact around the world.  If you click on the link below, you will see the worldwide impact of LP:

https://repository.stcloudstate.edu/stcloud_ling/

I’m happy to share this momentous milestone with the whole department.  I’m proud of the impact that SCSU is having around the world through LP!


Consider checking out Linguistic Portfolios and by all means, download some content! It’s filled with some amazing pieces!

Thank you to anyone who has downloaded or visited this page!

Congratulations to the English Department, and more specifically our Linguistics professors and students for making this accomplishment possible.

Honoring Indigenous People’s Day 2020

I’m an SCSU graduate student, a Graduate Assistant, and the English Department blog and social media manager. I am also a 5th and 6th grade English and Social teacher at a local elementary school. 

In honor of Indigenous People’s Day this year (October 12), I took my 5th and 6th graders on a field trip to listen to my dear old 78-year-old friend, Julius, talk about his time doing mission work on the Red Lake Reservation where he spent 20+ years living and working alongside the Indigenous People living on the reservation. 

My students were absolutely fascinated learning about Indigenous Peoples from someone who’s lived and experienced their way of life. It was so much better to hear him speak than to have my students read more out of a textbook. They thoroughly enjoyed learning about the Indigenous Peoples’ way of life! Instead of me sharing my experience, I’d like to share their experiences (in the red text) (and insert clarifications when necessary).


I like that he explained what he did. My favorite artifact was the dream catcher. My favorite part was when he said they came to take him home. The most interesting part was when he talked about the artifacts and how they were made with love. I did not dislike anything.

 

This student talked about the time when “they came to take him home.” Julius told a story about how years after his time on the Red Lake Reservation, his Indigenous friends invited themselves over to his house one day. When they arrived, they said, “Julius, we’re here to take you home.” They surrounded him and said they weren’t leaving his home without him. Obviously, they were only slightly serious as they knew he had other obligations in his life at that time and he couldn’t go back. The story demonstrated how much the people on the Reservation loved and respected him!

This student also talked about some of the Indigenous artifacts he had on display. He talked about how everything they create is made with love. He also showed many of the gifts these people had gifted him over the years. Everything was absolutely beautiful! 

 

 


What I thought was it was very cool. It was very fun to see the paintings he showed to us. The turtle shell was cool. I liked it because there were so many details on the shell. I liked to see the process to see what they did to get it to look that cool. I liked the canoe. It was so cool because you could see all of the details on the canoe. My favorite thing there was the painting that he got from a kid that he drove a bus for. It was so cool to see what he did when he was younger. It was a cool experience.

Part of his mission work was to drive a school bus route for their local school (as you can see in one of the later pictures; he’s wearing his bus driver jacket!). He told many stories about the kindness the students showed him. Many of the students painted or drew him pictures as gifts. Since they didn’t have much, they would give handmade items as gifts.


I think it was cool for the stuff on the table, and I think it was cool that he could speak their language. My favorite thing about it is how good they are at art. My favorite artifact was the pictures. He should put more stuff on the table.

 

One point Julius stressed was the importance of learning a second language. He can speak fluent Ojibwe, but he suggested my students learn Spanish. 

At one point, Julius recited the “Our Father” prayer in Ojibwe! It was really quite amazing! The written version of the “Our Father” is pictured here.


 

I loved it. It was so interesting. It was so cool to listen to all he had to say. I didn’t dislike anything. It was so awesome. The most interesting thing was all the pictures and artifacts. My favorite part was listening to everything. My favorite artifact was the birch bark wood canoes. 

 


Everything was really cool and the paintings were amazing. The language was cool too. And the boats made out of bark and stuff were really cool. The necklaces were cool too. Everything was really cool. But my favorite thing was the turtle shell. It was REALLY cool.

 

 

 

 


I’ve always honored Indigenous People in my classroom, but this year was way more impactful to my students. 

We’re curious to know:

How do you honor Indigenous People? 

What was your favorite artifact that Julius showed the children? (I know, the pictures aren’t amazing and don’t show everything.)

SCSU Writer’s Club

Hey English Department!

Did you know that SCSU has a writing club??

Check it out here!

Now, joining a club is a big deal, I know! You’re in college. You’re already so busy! But there are so many psychological benefits to write more, so you should definitely consider joining the Writer’s Club!

Check it out!

Writing makes you happier!

I absolutely love this reason to write! In our world today, we can all use a little more happiness. Why not find your happiness through writing for the Writer’s Club?

Writing leads to better thinking and communicating!

I mean, I think this is pretty obvious, but what better way to experiment with enhancing your writing and thinking skills than joining the Writer’s Club?

Writing leads to increased gratitude!

This is another value we need to see more of in our society. Why not help contribute in increasing the world’s gratitude by first increasing yours! Join the Writer’s Club!

Writing leads better learning!

So, you’re here at SCSU for what? To learn!! Why not join a club that will directly help your degree mean more?

There are so many more reasons to write and join the Writer’s Club. Feel free to check out “The Psychological Benefits of Writing” from sparringmind.com for more valuable reasons to write!

Cezarija Abartis

This week, we have the great pleasure to feature:

Cezarija Abartis


In her words:

Some of my favorite classic authors and books:

Homer, Euripides, Jane Austen, Chekhov’s stories and plays, James Joyce’s “The Dead,” Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, Eric Ambler’s A Coffin for Dimitrios, Nabokov’s Lolita, Isaac Babel, Carson McCullers’ “The Ballad of the Sad Cafe,” Isaac Bashevis Singer, Bernard Malamud’s stories. And Shakespeare, always Shakespeare.

Some of my favorite contemporary authors:

I’m going to list titles of books. Jo Ann Beard’s The Boys of My Youth, Lucia Berlin’s A Manual for Cleaning Women, Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber, Ellen Currie’s Available Light, Denis Johnson’s Jesus’ Son, Thom Jones’ The Pugilist at Rest, Jamaica Kincaid’s Annie John, Lorrie Moore’s Self Help, Grace Paley’s stories, Martin Cruz Smith’s Arkady Renko novels, Robert Stone’s Dog Soldiers, Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, Stephanie Vaughn’s Sweet Talk. I will stop now. I expected this compiling to be tedious and effortful, but I find myself smiling as I recall these beautiful books and inspirations.

What I’m most proud of is my book on Shakespeare The Tragicomic Construction of Cymbeline and the Winter’s Tale  (Humanities Press) and my collection of short stories, Nice Girls and Other Stories (New Rivers Press). In a review on NewPages.com, Sima Rabinowitz writes, “These stories are as good the second time through as they are the first. Always, for me, a measure of success.”

Ursula K. Le Guin writes: “Covering the territory between memoir and fiction, these deft and accurate stories hava a rare honesty.”

Gosh.

A few of my hundred flashes published online:

“The Writer,” was chosen by Wigleaf Journal as one of the top 50 online flashes of 2011. Dan Chaon was the selecting editor. http://wigleaf.com/2012top501.htm

“Lost and Found,” New World Writing. Online. June 15, 2020

https://newworldwriting.net/cezarija-abartis-lost-found/

“Sisters.” matchbook. Online. February 2020

https://www.matchbooklitmag.com/abartis2

“Medea Imagines” Carmina. Online. December 2, 2019

https://carminamagazine.wordpress.com/medea-imagines-by-cezarija-abartis/

“Stories for Second-Grade Teachers” Baltimore Review. Summer 2019

https://baltimorereview.org/index.php/summer_2019/contributor/cezarija-abartis

“Sleeping Beauty Is Not Well,” Bennington Review. Issue Four. Fall / Winter 2017, pp. 146-147. Also online: http://www.benningtonreview.org/cezarija-abartis

Current research interests:

I certainly value historical, biographical, political criticism, but I also value formal criticism. As a fiction writer, I study the structure of the work itself: character, setting, plot, theme, imagery. I’m interested in the formal characteristics of a work of art–how an author constructs a work to have an effect on our emotions, especially complex layered emotions (the pity and fear that Aristotle famously talked about in tragedy; the nobility and revenge that Euripides dramatizes in his plays).


Thank you so much for reading!!