Wake Forest Magazine March 2001
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Wake For e st M A G A Z I N E Features 12 ¿Cómo saldrá tu futuro, Cuba? by Ellen Dockham “How will your future turn out, Cuba?” Many, including members of a Wake Forest entourage that visited the still-outcast island last summer, are not especially sanguine. 22 Men on a Mission by Dan Collins Can Jim Grobe and his longtime staff do what so many others have failed to do—make Wake Forest a consistent winner in football? Page 22 Page 12 Essay The Hunt for Big Red Departments 28 by Douglas C. Waller (’71) 2 Campus Chronicle What the author, Time magazine’s diplomatic correspondent, learned while spending more time aboard 36 Alumni Report a Trident nuclear submarine than any journalist before him. 40 University Advancement Profile 32 The Man Who Page 28 46 Class Notes Loves Storms by Georgann Eubanks The same candor and keen powers 64 The Last Word of observation that made Russell Brantley something of a gadfly in his years as communications director and presidential consultant at Wake Forest are manifestly evident in his new volume of poetry. Page 32 Volume 48, Number 3 March 2001 2 Campus Chronicle WFU Press, America’s premier publisher of Irish poetry, turns twenty-five Silver and golden represents one of the prestigious primarily in the story of the and important models in the Wake Forest University Press RISH POETRY, WROTE humanities that a liberal arts and the Irish Poetry Series; in IW.B. Yeats, has always been education has to offer, accord- his having conceived and given closely tied to magic. So it ing to Edwin G. Wilson (’42), birth to the Press and in his seems in the case of the Wake senior vice president and pro- having nurtured it for twenty- Forest University Press, which fessor of English who has five years and in his having— celebrates its twenty-fifth played an important role in the throughout—applied impecca- anniversary this month during life and success of the Press. ble standards in the selection the University’s annual Irish Johnston conceived the of authors and works and Festival. idea in 1974 after realizing, design and typography. The through his own research, just Press, I think, is one of the how few titles of contempo- most enduring humanities rary Irish poetry were avail- achievements of modern Wake able in the U.S. He went to Forest, and Dillon is entitled Wilson, who was provost at to most of the credit.” the time, and pitched his plan. If Johnston is to be credited After some fine-tuning, Wilson as the Press’ founding father, and the University administra- he says Wilson is its midwife tion accepted the plan. and Candide Jones (MA ’79), The Press began to roll in who has managed the Press 1976, publishing works by since 1990, its governess. Jones, Austin Clarke, Ciaran Carson, founder and director of the and John Montague. It was an Wake Forest University Irish Candide Jones and Dillon Johnston: excellent start, topped off with Festival, is as sprightly and a grand enterprise combining In its short but stellar life, a positive review by The New keen as Johnston is soft-spoken ‘scholarship and soul.’ the Press, one of the smallest— York Times. and deliberate. While Johnston if not the smallest—university “Students have spoken of turns his energy more toward presses in the country, has Dillon Johnston as a teacher: acquisitions, Jones—his former earned a reputation of nearly his wide-ranging knowledge, student—is heavily involved mythic proportion as the major his skill in interpretation, his in the financial and accounting publisher of contemporary high expectations—and also aspects of the business. She deals Irish poetry in North America. his generosity,” says Wilson. also with the printers and free- Founded in 1976 by Eng- “Colleagues here and else- lance designers and her work lish Professor and Irish scholar where know his scholarship has resulted in the Press receiv- Dillon Johnston, the Press also and admire his judgement and ing acclaim not only for the critical insights. My own quality of what is published but admiration for him is grounded Wake Forest March 2001 3 Campus Chronicle also for the quality of its books, titles each year bring as many Ancient wisdom but Ulery is helping to spread including some hand-sewn volumes of poetry to the idea through presentations editions. Jones also works with American readers as major Classical languages still alive at various professional meet- the poets on timetables and publishers do. after all these years ings and work on textbooks getting the manuscripts in To date, titles include that would apply the idea to hand, and she arranges reading some ninety books by poets HEY SAY LATIN IS A reading the ancient authors. tours throughout North such as Thomas Kinsella, Tdead language. Don’t tell “If you use Latin as a con- America for the Press’ poets. Peter Fallon, John Montague, that to the students in Profes- versational medium, your read- “Wake Forest University Michael Longely, Nuala Ní sor Robert Ulery’s courses, for ing can be more fluent,” Ulery Press has played a vital role in Dhomhnaill, Rachael Geise whom Latin is very much said. “The simple repetition of the growing awareness of Irish and noted critic Seamus alive and well. Ulery’s students the questions and answers leads poetry,” says Paul Muldoon, Deane, as well as the first ever not only have to decipher the eventually to comprehension. Oxford University Professor of anthology of Irish women’s complicated grammar, but And it is comprehension either Poetry and the Howard G.B. work, The Wake Forest Book they also have to speak it. in the thought of the language Clark Professor in the Humani- of Irish Women’s Poetry, “I was quite frightened at itself, or in a simultaneous ties and Director of the Creative 1967-2000, which contains an the beginning when I found out mental English. The important Writing Program at Princeton unusually large number of we were going to have to speak thing is to keep the English University. Muldoon’s poetry poems. The anthology is criti- Latin in class. I wasn’t sure if from being written down, has been published by the cally important because it is I’d be able to figure out what memorized or otherwise fixed.” Wake Forest Press. “It is the the first such collection to give he was saying, but now I’m Using Latin as the medium only press to have published voice to Irish female poets, a pretty used to it,” said Michelle of instruction is one way fac- Irish poetry almost exclusively, very recent trend even in Buckius, a freshman from ulty members in the Depart- and Dillon Johnston is to be Ireland that the Press has Long Island, New York, who ment of Classical Languages commended for the sophistica- deliberately sought to nurture. took intermediate Latin with are working to make their tion and single-mindedness he “I have had certain difficul- Ulery in the fall. “When you subject matter more engaging has brought to the enterprise. ties with my British publishers translate, you read the sentence and more accessible to students. A large part of the successes of and certainly I fell out with and plug in all the words to The professors see it as their the Press is due to the combi- them over my work,” says make it make sense. When mission to be “stewards and nation of Dillon’s scholarship poet Medbh McGuckian. “My you’re just talking to someone, transmitters of the legacy that and ‘soul.’” poems would be a bit more it forces you to think faster.” has come down to us from As a small independent explicit about my allegiances That’s exactly the effect antiquity,” according to depart- publisher and two-person office and my ancestral feelings. So I Ulery is hoping to achieve ment chair John Andronica. subsidized by the University, find it refreshing to deal with with his experiment to replace “It is our responsibility to the Press has experienced small Dillon and the Wake Forest translation of the Latin read- master the corpus, and then, but steady increases in sales people. They understand poets ing into English with a series as best we can, to pass it on over the years, to the point as individuals. We are a weird of questions and answers in unimpaired to our successors,” where it sold 6,000 books last lot. We can’t just produce poet- Latin. Students aren’t so much he said. “In the classroom year. Its titles are distributed to ry at the drop of a hat. We are learning ordinary conversation what is needed are efforts to Barnes and Noble and Borders very sensitive and Wake Forest as they are learning to read and be creative in the use of new and are available through on- understands that, and I think interpret using Latin instead pedagogical and technological line sales and through the Press’ they understand the Irish situa- of English. Only a handful of developments to keep alive the Web site. tion in a way others don’t.” professors around the country texts and their spirit, and to By publishing poetry exclu- —Liz Switzer are attempting this method, explore as much as possible sively, the Press’s four to six the ancient world and much Wake Forest March 2001 4 Campus Chronicle about the modern that may “The high-minded At Wake Forest, the com- serve to illuminate the texts approach, which I happen to mitment to the discipline and be illuminated by them.” agree with, is that the study of remains strong although stu- Once the core of higher classics and indeed of all the dent interest has waned over education, classics—the study liberal arts is inherently good the years.