Spring 2006 Pittsburgh’s Bridges: 2007 Sigma Tau Delta Convention , Clarion University, PA Kevin Stemmler es the Carnegie Convention Chair Music Hall immortalized in There’s a good reason why visitors to our city refer Willa Cather’s to Pittsburgh as the city of bridges. Pittsburgh sits at the “Paul’s Case.” CONTENTS confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers Just blocks where they form the Ohio River. This geographical acci- from the con- dent is, in fact, a fitting metaphor for the city that rose on vention site is PAGE 2 the banks of these waterways and that over a million resi- Heinz Hall, N President’s Corner dents call home today. Like the two rivers which come home of the N Potter 101: continued together at the Point to form the larger, single Ohio, Pittsburgh Pittsburgh draws for its energy and vibrancy on a rich tra- Symphony PAGE 3 dition of differences melding to form a whole. Culturally Orchestra, as N Chapter Spotlight rich ethnic neighborhoods are surrounded on all sides by well as three N Publication Awards middle class suburbs; a rich tradition of sports teams— separate the- N Sponsor & Benchmark the Steelers, the Pirates, the Penguins—are matched by aters for the Anniversaries the world class symphony and a host of professional com- performing panies in dance, theatre, and opera; a strong working arts. A short class ethic—our history is in steel—stands along side a walk across PAGE 4 commitment to professionalism. one of the N Former Presidents Historically, Pittsburgh was known as “the gateway to city’s many Reflect on Past, the west,” the place where one could begin to dream bridges will The Andy Warhol Bridge, named for him after a famous screen print made in the early 1980s. Present, Future: dreams of becoming whatever one desired. That notion take you to the Helen Lojek is as true today as ever. The city is proud to recognize Andy Warhol Museum and the Carnegie Science Center. N Former Presidents those who were fortunate to be born here—including Pittsburgh has been termed the “renaissance city” for Reflect on Past, August Wilson, George Benson, Andy Warhol, Gerald its ability to transform itself from an industrial center into Present, Future: Stern, Perry Como, Gene Kelly and Gertrude Stein—and a corporate center, never losing sight of its heritage. Robert W. Halli, Jr. those the city came to adopt, including Mario Lemieux, More importantly, it is a city that embraces paradox and Roberto Clemente, and Willa Cather. Pittsburgh knows contradiction and thrives on the energy that results. Like PAGE 5 how to honor its own, whether premiering August the rivers merging, Pittsburgh is a confluence of all that is Wilson’s plays or naming the Clemente or Warhol bridges. good in a city. N Former Presidents Reflect: continued You will be able to visit our past through a trip to the Those coming to Pittsburgh for the first time never Heinz History Museum. And you will want to come early, forget their first view of the city as they emerge from the N Financial Statement or stay beyond the convention, to check out the holdings Fort Pitt tunnel. It is suddenly, magnificently there. at the Henry Clay Frick Art & Historical Center and the Visiting our city, you’ll understand why Fred Rogers made PAGE 6 Carnegie Museum of Natural History and Art, which hous- Pittsburgh his Neighborhood. In March 2007, the members N What They’re Doing of Sigma Tau Delta will converge and for at least a few with English Majors days we all can be neighbors. These Days: Kristin Potter 101 Alberts Kathleen Turner, Student Advisor, Northern Illinois University Imagine teaching a first-year composition class PAGE 7 where your students voluntarily read extra novels per- How did this breakthrough come about? N What They’re Doing taining to the class and walk into class anxious to dis- Harry Potter. with Engish Majors cuss the reading. Imagine a class where your students Most first semester freshman compo- These Days: Kevin are engaged and interested in considering the aspects of sition courses at NIU use common culture Czarneki quality writing. Think it’s a pipedream? Guess again. as a means to connect students’ lives This utopian class is one I taught last semester at with the world around them. The study PAGE 8 Northern Illinois University. of common culture encourages students to analyze the N From the Historian’s One of my best moments in teaching came last world around them and the way they fit into their world Files: History by the semester when a student approached me to say he had and environment. It encourages them to be conscien- Numbers never finished a book for a class until he read Harry tious in our consumer-driven society. But one of the N Where Water Might Be Potter. As a student who came to the U.S. at an early main assumptions of this approach to first-year compo- Blue: Poem age, he never had the skill or interest to make his way sition is that students have a common starting point, through an entire book. and, perhaps more importantly, continued page 2 I N T E R N A PRESIDENT’S CORNER Clarion University, PA T Kevin Stemmler, I O N my yearly list I have to keep in mind that the books I hope others A SHELF LIFE L will read may not be available to everyone interested in reading E N them. From one year to the next, many titles I intend to read sim- G Yesterday I phoned a university press to L I ply are no longer in print. S check on the status of a book, The Balloon H by Jeanne Marie Laskas, which I had When Bernard Cooper came to our Cincinnati convention, sev- H Lady O ordered for spring term. I was informed that eral of his books were out of print, in spite of the fact that he had N O the paperback edition was out of print with won the PEN/Ernest Hemingway Award and an O. Henry Prize. R This January, Bernard’s newest memoir, S no immediate plans for reissuing the book. I The Bill from My Father O was released. Due to advance praise for the book, and perhaps C I commented on how valuable the book was as E helped by his charming appearances on public radio, his last T a core text for my nonfiction classes and remarked on my stu- Y book, Guess Again, is being reissued. This is a huge victory for dents’ admiration of the book. I was told that presses rely on such 2 feedback to determine whether or not a book remains in print. In those of us who support great writers and even more important other words, choosing to order a particular book is often enough for those of us who hope to see our own work in print. This is evi- effort to keep that book alive. Ultimately, a professor has a profes- dence that it is possible to revive a lost title. sional obligation to participate in a book’s survival simply by con- It is important to understand that reading is often a social act. tacting the appropriate press when a title is no longer available. In We can, as in the case of The Common Reader, read a book as part the 1980s Virago Press reissued a series of books by women who of a social group and enjoy shared responses to a text. But read- had been ignored by the major presses for most of the twentieth ing is, also, often a form of social action. The books we borrow or century. Even at the time, as I used my school money to purchase purchase are monitored by publishers and, in some instances, the every title possible, I knew it was too good to last. In fact, today, government. Choosing to buy or read a book is not simply an indi- most of those titles are no longer available, in spite of Virago vidual act. Each time we read a book we are exercising a constitu- Press’ best intentions. tional right, not only to read that book but to access it. Last sum- In the past seven years that I have attended our society’s con- mer, when I read Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran, I was trou- ventions, Sigma Tau Delta has been fortunate to have some of the bled by the idea that classic texts which any English major might most talented writers in the world as our guest speakers. take for granted are forbidden in some countries. From Nafisi’s Ironically, many of the books by those writers were no longer in perspective, it occurred to me that if such censorship could hap- print, forcing us to resort to unconventional measures to obtain pen in her world, it could happen anywhere in the world. I was copies for our members. In fact, for the Cincinnati convention, reminded, for example, of how difficult it is to find copies of Jean one of our speakers, Bernard Cooper, agreed to ship us a box of Rhys’ books in print, or how difficult it is to track down Elizabeth his books from his personal holdings. From a teacher’s or reader’s Taylor’s novels, texts I have routinely taught in my British litera- point of view, it is easy to assume that great books, whether clas- ture classes. Remembering books I could no longer purchase or sic or current, will always be available; however, each year, as we access shaped the way I read Nafisi’s book.