The DoER

The Creative Writing Program has many spring highlights to share.  At the undergraduate level, The Peacock's Feet vol. 42/2017 was published in late April, with Peter Selgin serving as faculty advisor. Also, Kasey "Lizzie" Perrin has been selected to be Georgia College's Academic Recognition Day student representative at graduation; this is the highest honor Georgia College can bestow upon a student. Lizzie will be attending Florida State University in fall, 2017, to pursue an MFA in screenwriting. We have selected two new undergraduate interns for next year, Hallye Lee and Analyn McVay, to help publicize all or our undergraduate concentration activities. On April 28th, eleven graduating seniors participated in a Graduation Reading, setting the precedent for a new tradition.

At the graduate level, in February we were a major sponsor at the AWP national conference in Washington, DC and several faculty members presented on panels. Publications for this semester by graduate students include: Kristie Johnson published "Amen Corner" and "Food Stamps," two essays in Rigorous.  Penny Dearmin's essay "Sick" will be published in Vine Leaves Literary Journal.  Jennifer Watkins essay, "Re-entry" won the AWP Intro to Journals Award and will be published in The Tampa Review. Mike McClelland's short story collection, Gay Zoo Day, received a contract from Beautiful Dreamer Press and is forthcoming in fall, 2017.  Mike has been accepted to the PhD program at UGA with a full assistantship offer for next year. Isabel Acevedo's poem "Aubade" will be published in the Berkeley Poetry Review.  Ryan Loveeachother published his book American Terrorist: Screenshot Surveillance of the San Bernardino Shooter. Three graduate students, Kristie Johnson, Jennifer Watkins, and Ernestine Montoya, presented at the Teaching Matters Conference. In addition, several undergrad and graduate students collaborated on the Art Book Project under Art Department faculty printmaster, Dr. Matthew Forrest's supervision, with Peter Selgin coordinating the submission process. Arts & Letters Spring 2017 Issue 34 was published in April; professor Laura Newbern continues to serve as Editor, working with graduate student Abbie Lahmers; they've increased sales and subscriptions considerably. We are pleased to confirm acceptance from 7 new students who were offered graduate assistantships for fall, 2017: Dutch Quataize, Sicka Bhavika, Kristy Maier, Jennifer Watkins, Joshua Dean, Danielle Clark, and Cooper Casale. Keely Hopkins and Jack Zayn will also join our MFA program.

At the faculty level, we are very pleased to welcome Dr. Kerry Neville as a tenure-track fiction hire for fall, 2017, and we are happy to acknowledge that this spring Peter Selgin received tenure and was promoted to associate professor. Kerry's short story collection, Remember to Forget Me will be published in fall, 2017, and Peter's memoir, The Inventors, continues to garner considerable attention and fine reviews. Martin Lammon has initiated a fundraising campaign, contacting alumni and continuing his admirable service.

 

The Literature Program congratulates Dr. Jennifer Flaherty and Mr. John Sirmans on receiving tenure and being promoted to associate professors. We wish Dr. Pete Carriere a happy retirement and welcome Dr. Julian Knox as a tenure-track faculty member in Global/Postcolonial and British Literatures. Dr. Eustace Palmer received the lifetime achievement award from the Georgia College International Education Center. John Sirmans received the College of Arts & Sciences Award for Excellence in Teaching. Dr. Mary Magoulick's article, "Telling New Myths: Contemporary Native American Animal Narratives from Michigan" was published in the premier scholarly journal in her field, the Journal of American Folklore.

 

In news from our student organizations, Literary Guild read Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five and Neil Gaiman's American Gods. They held a social meeting midterm to discuss famous literary pairs. They also watched and had discussions on Alice through the Looking Glass, The Office, and Breakfast at Tiffany's. Holding their third Book Bonanza in the midst of the tornado and severe thunderstorms warnings and watches, they still raised roughly $180 and are donating half of their earnings and all of the unsold books to the Mary Vinson Memorial Library. Shakespearean Circle read Cymbeline; Henry IV, Part 2; and Antony and Cleopatra. They also collaborated with the Theatre fraternity, APO, to put on the first ever Shakespeare Performance Night. They had roughly 11 performances, mostly short scenes and monologues, from students and faculty, and it was very well received. Sigma Tau Delta inducted eleven new members in a December ceremony at the Sallie Ellis Davis House and inducted seven new members in a spring ceremony. They also purchased a Little Library box crafted as a replica of the large barn at Andalusia. Milledgeville city workers are in the process of installing the Little Library downtown near the public library as part of a landscape upgrade.

 

In undergraduate student news, Samantha Strickland received a MURACE (Mentored Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavor) Summer Research Award for critical, historical, and theoretical research on a project entitled: "The Creation of Lily Bart: Edith Wharton's Influences and Interactions." Dr. Katie Simon will serve as her faculty mentor. Marykate Malena and Olivia Martin served as the first social media interns to help publicize literature activities. Undergraduate and graduate literature students, as well as students from across the Department of English & Rhetoric presented at the Women's and Gender Studies Symposium: Catherine Bowlin, Pooja Desai, Sophia DiCarlo, Matt Dombrowski, Leah Kuenzi, Mikaela LaFave, Alexandra McLaughlin, Emmie Meadows, Caroline Oleson, Megan Ray, Sarah Rogers, Faith Thompson, and Calabria Turner. In graduate student news, Calabria Turner presented a paper ("Politically Cyclical: Richard II and Machiavelli in Elizabethan England") at the Comparative Drama Conference. Calabria also received a graduate research grant for her papers "Politically Cyclical: Richard II and Machiavelli in Elizabethan England" and "Embrace Your Femininity: Jessica Swale's Nell Gwynn." Mikaela LaFave received the Frances Ross Hick Scholarship. Kathryn Colby Livingston defended her thesis, "Maladaptive Daydreaming as a Creative Writing Tool: A Psychoanalytic Examination of The Tale of Genji and 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,'" and Kirsten Rodning defended her thesis, "The Horse and the Heroic Quest: Equestrian Indicators of Morality in Lancelot, Don Quixote, and Tolkien." MA graduate Matthew Higgins received full funding for the Rhetoric and Composition doctoral program at Georgia State University.

 

The Rhetoric Program congratulates Dr. Clark on her promotion to full professor. The Rhetoric Major continues to make service learning and engaged learning a central part of its mission. Dr. Clark's Public Achievement class has been engaging in the local school system students through the YES program. Ten student coaches have worked with students throughout the semester on community projects. Dr. Dillard's Service Learning class continues to partner with Café Central, our local soup kitchen. Eight students have been working on Mondays and Tuesdays to help the staff of the kitchen prep meals and serve those who are seeking a meal.

 

Two of our students presented on a panel at the Georgia Communication Association Conference in Macon, GA. Sara Stanton and Lauren Betten presented a papers on a panel titled "Community-Based Student Service Learning Projects: Preparing the Next Generation of Civic Change Agents." Their work will also appear in the conference proceedings.

Jennifer Flaherty received a faculty development grant to go to New York in January and study the Punchdrunk production Sleep No More, an adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth. The paper she wrote for the grant ("'Blood Will Have Blood:' Violence in Punchdrunk's Sleep No More") was presented at the annual meeting of the Shakespeare Association of America, in the seminar "Bloody Talk, Talking Blood."

 

Jennifer Flaherty received the Eta Sigma Alpha Distinguished Faculty Member award.

 

Alice Friman is the winner of the 2016 Paumanok Poetry Award from Farmingdale State College, SUNY.

 

Ruby Zimmerman, a political science major at GCSU, won the Georgia College Library's 2017 Undergraduate Research Award for freshmen and sophomores for a research paper she wrote in Bruce Gentry’s English 1102 class in Fall 2016. The paper is about the character Mrs. McIntyre in Flannery O'Connor's "The Displaced Person."

 

Kathryn Colby Livingston [MA Student] defended her thesis, "Maladaptive Daydreaming as a Creative Writing Tool: A Psychoanalytic Examination of The Tale of Genji and 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty'" on 24 April 2017.

 

Eustace Palmer received a "lifetime achievement award" from the International Education Center for his distinguished contribution to global learning, particularly here at GCSU. The award was given at the annual international dinner on March 11. The citation mentioned, among other things, Dr. Palmer’s two term chairmanship of the University System's Africa Council, his playing the leading role for the past twenty years in preparing students at GCSU for participation in the annual Southeast Model of the African Union, and his authoring and editing of numerous books within African literature, including the classic An Introduction to the African Novel; of War and Women, Oppression and Optimism; and A Tale of Three Women. The citation also stated that "Dr. Palmer's understated and self-effacing disposition belies his immense achievements  and his renown as a giant in African literature, and a highly respected administrator at Fourah Bay College, the University of Sierra Leone."

 

Kirsten Rodning [MA student] defended her thesis, "The Horse and the Heroic Quest: Equestrian Indicators of Morality in Lancelot, Don Quixote, and Tolkien" on 28 April 2017.

 

Peter Selgin received a Pushcart Nomination by Michael Steinberg "The Strange Case of Arthur Silz (published in The Gettysburg Review).

 

Peter Selgin is the runner-up for the DANA Award for the Novel, "Hattertown" (previously titled "The Water Master").

 

Peter Selgin has been profiled by the Gale Cengage biographical reference work Contemporary Authors.

 

John Sirmans is the winner of the 2016 College of Arts & Sciences Excellence in Teaching Award.

 

Jennifer Watkins [MFA Student] is the winner of the 2017 AWP Intro Journal Award for Creative Nonfiction for her essay "Re-entry."

 

Jennifer Watkins defended her MFA thesis, "This Is How It Will Feel," a creative nonfiction essay collection on 21 April 2017.