Summer Reading

Looking for a good book? Various English faculty, staff, and students describe what's on their bedside tables this summer. Recent MFA graduate Swati Avasthi, profiled in Metro Magazine about her new young adult novel Split, offers a couple YA suggestions. Professor Emeritus Michael Dennis Browne is looking forward to reading MFA alumna Francine Tolf's new memoir, Joliet Girl. Grow the list by sending your picks!

Rabinowitz Wins China Fulbright

Congratulations to Professor Paula Rabinowitz, who will hold the Distinguished Fulbright Lectureship in American Literature in the People's Republic of China for Spring 2011 at East China Normal University in Shanghai.

Julie Schumacher Spotlit for Teaching

From eclectic creative writing exercises to post-BA career assistance: Professor Julie Schumacher is profiled for the College of Liberal Arts website after this year receiving the Horace T. Morse - University of Minnesota Alumni Association Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education.

Retirements Pay It Forward

This spring, two professors and one long-time staff member retired from the Department of English. Thank you to all those who contributed to student fellowships and scholarships in their names. Donations to the new Edward M. Griffin Fellowship, in honor of Professor Griffin's 44 years of service, exceeded $25,000, which makes it eligible for the 21st Century Graduate Fellowship Match, a University program matching the student pay-out dollar for dollar, every year. Increased contributions to the Beverly Atkinson Scholarship for Non-Traditional English Majors, established in 2002, insure continued support for English undergraduates, even as Atkinson bids farewell after 37 years in undergraduate advising. And the Michael Dennis Browne Fellowship in Creative Writing, celebrating Professor Browne's 39 years of service here, is very close to meeting the $25,000 target for matching University funds. If you'd like to help meet that goal, or contribute to other funds, Give to English.

More Faculty Awards

Edelstein-Keller Professor of Creative Writing Charles Baxter just won a Pushcart Prize for his story "The Cousins." The story, originally published in Tin House magazine, was also selected by Richard Russo to appear in The Best American Short Stories 2010. . . . Professor Nabil Matar has been awarded a Grant-in -Aid of Research, Artistry and Scholarship from the Office of the Vice President for Research for his project: "Annotated edition, introduction, and notes: Henry Stubb's An Account of the Rise and Progress of Mahometanism."

Katherine Scheil on MPR State of the Arts

Associate Professor Katherine Scheil weighs in on the difference between "theater" and "theatre" for MPR News Q.

Student's Digital Project Published

Christopher Austin, a 2008 student in Professor Geoffrey Sirc's ENGL1501W Literature of Public Life, had his final class project "Let's Talk - Girl Talk" published on-line in The Jump: Journal of Undergraduate Multimedia Projects. A professor at the University of Texas-Austin, where the journal originates, had come across the piece and contacted Professor Sirc to find Austin and obtain permission. The class project, outlined in The Jump, was to create a digital work about some aspect of public life. Austin's video tackles the subject of fair use in sampling popular music.