Nonprofit Org. US Postage PAID Permit 51 Lexington, KY Department of English English University of Kentucky FALL 2018 DEPARTMENT NEWSLETTER 1215 Patterson Office Tower Lexington KY 40506-0027 english.as.uky.edu (859) 257-2901 Upcoming Events english.as.uky.edu English GREETINGS FROM THE ASSOCIATE CHAIR SUMMER 2018 DEPARTMENT NEWSLETTER Dear UK English Regular Faculty Jonathan Allison TABLE OF CONTENTS alumni and friends, Frederick Bengtsson Michael Carter Greetings from the Associate Chair, Dr. Janet Eldred 3 Jeffory Clymer We are starting a new tradition this fall—replacing our summer electronic Rynetta Davis Welcome New Faculty: Andrew Milward and Crystal Wilkinson 4 newsletter with a print version. We will still send our winter electronic Andrew Doolen Janet C. M. Eldred newsletter this December, but we also wanted to respond to our alumni requests W. Andrew Ewell Seeking to Expand Undergraduate Internships 4 for something you can hold and flip through. We can’t begin to cover all of the Walter Foreman exciting news, but we hope to catch you up on the department and preview Michael Genovese Undergraduate Research Showcase and Awards Day 5 some great events coming up this year. Matthew Giancarlo Matthew Godbey DaMaris Hill Success on the Job Market for Graduate Students 5 As you will see in these pages, our students are thriving both in and out of the John Daniel Howell classroom. They take courses from full-time faculty (we don’t use adjuncts in the Pearl James Congratulations to 2018 Graduates 6 English Department) who develop them as lifelong thinkers and writers. Students Julia Johnson learn how literature helps us think about the long history of social issues that are Peter Kalliney Sigma Tau Delta English Honors Society still at the forefront of our news cycle. Outside the classroom, as Dr. Pearl James Joyce MacDonald 7 Andrew Milward details in these pages, we have developed a wide network of internships at local Alan Nadel Doctoral Student Receives Jill M. Rappis Fellowship 7 law firms, businesses, the public library, and publishers that give our students a Gurney Norman leg up on job opportunities after graduation. We are always looking to expand Hannah Pittard Visiting Writers Series, 2018-19 8 our internships, so please contact Dr. James ([email protected]) or me if you Armando Prats would like to get involved. Jill Rappoport Erik Reece 800 Acorns Project 9 Randall Roorda We are also thrilled to welcome two new faculty this year. Andrew Milward is Marion Rust Faculty Highlights 10 the author of two story collections, The Agriculture Hall of Fame, winner of the Emily Shortslef Juniper Prize in Fiction, and I Was a Revolutionary (HarperCollins 2015). The Michelle Sizemore celebrated Kentucky writer Crystal Wilkinson—author most recently of the Michael Trask Book Benches Pay Homage to Department Authors 12 Frank X Walker award-winning novel The Birds of Opulence—has also joined our faculty. You can Crystal Wilkinson Giving Opportunities 12 read more about them on p. 4. Nazera Sadiq Wright Lisa Zunshine Full Circle: The Swanbergs’ Mill House Residency for Creative Writers Finally, I want to welcome you to two particularly stimulating events coming up 13 this September. Greg Pardlo, winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and Staff author most recently of the memoir Air Traffic, will be reading on campus on Kristen Pickett Alumni Spotlight: Chris Green: A Life of Literature, Horses, and Law 14 September 11th. Pardlo headlines our Visiting Writers Series this fall and follows Robin Rahija our visit last fall from National Book and Pulitzer Prize winner, Viet Thanh th Emeriti Faculty: Stay Connected… Nguyen. Then on September 14 , novelist Mary Gaitskill will give a public Virginia Blum lecture entitled “Why People Still Read” for the 40th annual Kentucky Women You can keep track of department events, our contact information, and alumni events via Nikky Finney Writers Conference. Ellen Rosenman the department web page: english.as.uky.edu Greg Stump Your 150-year-old English Department is strong and developing in new And Keep in Touch! directions that will help us continue to flourish for the next 150 years. I invite Please let us know personal and professional news in your life, or if your address or you to come visit us in Lexington and send us an email ([email protected] or contact information changes. Send a note via email, or call: [email protected]) to update us on key events in your life. If possible, please consider giving to the philanthropic funds that provide opportunities for Kristen Pickett our students who follow in your footsteps. English Department Manager Senior UK Department of English With Best Wishes, 1215 Patterson Office Tower Lexington, KY 40506-0027 Janet C. M. Eldred [email protected] Professor and Associate Chairperson (859) 257-2901 Like us on Facebook! @UniversityOfKentucky.English 2 DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH NEWSLETTER FALL 2018 COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES 3 Welcoming New Faculty Undergraduate Research Showcase and Andrew Milward is a 2008 graduate of the University of Iowa’s Writers’ Awards Day Workshop. He has published two short story collections, The Agriculture Hall of Fame, which won the Juniper Prize, and I was a Revolutionary, which was published by HarperCollins in 2015. Andrew taught previously at Auburn University and the University of Southern Mississippi’s Center for Writers. He has served as the fiction editor for the Southern Humanities Review; prior to that he was the Senior Fiction Editor at the Mississippi Review. Andrew also received a highly competitive National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Grant in spring 2018. Photo by Stacy Kranitz (Left to right): Nate Cortas, Ross Gustin, Madison Justice, (Left to right): Kyle Alvey, Jonathan Allison Andrew Thibaudeau, Gabe Tomlin, Brianna Winn Crystal Wilkinson holds an M.F.A. from Spalding University and is a renowned Two of our favorite events happened last April—our 3rd annual Undergraduate Research Showcase and our 37th annual Kentucky author. She is a fiction writer, poet, and memoirist whose most recent Awards Day. At the Showcase, students present their best scholarly and creative writing done in their classes that year. novel, The Birds of Opulence, was published in 2016 and won the Ernest Awards Day provides the grand finale to the academic year. Thanks to the generosity of the department’s many friends Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, the Judy Gaines Young Award, and and donors, we are able to offer a wide array of prizes and scholarships to our best undergraduate and graduate students. the Weatherford Award in Fiction. Crystal is also the author of two short story Awards Day is the perfect occasion for honoring our spectacular students while giving faculty an opportunity to meet their collections—Water Street, for which she was long listed for the Orange Prize, friends and families. Thank you to everyone who supports our students! and Blackberries, Blackberries, which won the Chaffin Award for Appalachian Literature. She has been the Appalachian Writer in Residence at Berea College, and in 2016 Crystal was named “Southerner of the Year” by Southern Living magazine. Success on the Job Market for Our Graduate Students Our graduate students were very successful in their search for jobs this past year. Some highlights: Photo by Savannah Barnette Catherine Brereton is Department Jessica Evans is an Instructor Robin Rahija is a Department Manager in the UK Department of of English in the Humanities and Manager Associate in the UK Anthropology and received a 2018 Al Social Sciences at Columbia State Department of English. Smith Individual Artist Fellowship in Community College. Seeking to Expand Undergraduate creative nonfiction from the Kentucky Hannah Ruehl became Educational Arts Council. Austyn Gaffney received a 2018 Technology Coordinator for Student Emerging Artist Award in creative Affairs in the College of Public Health Internships Andrew Casto has taken a position nonfiction from the Kentucky Arts at the University of Kentucky. as an Instructor at Asbury University. Council. Krystin Santos is a full-time By Pearl James Matt Bryant Cheney became Chad Gilpin is Program Manager in Instructor in English at Louisiana State For the past four years, increasing numbers of students have been able to work as interns in a variety of fields and the Director of the Bonner Center the UK Office of Graduate Student University. locations while earning English course credit. This spring semester, we had twelve interns. The most popular internship for Service Learning and Civic Professional Development. sites are the University Press of Kentucky, where students learn the ropes of the publishing industry, and various law Engagement and Assistant Professor Ashlie Stevens is a Food & Culture firms in Lexington, where students help write briefs, do research, and get experience in the practice of law. We are of English at Carson-Newman Parker Hobson received a 2018 reporter for National Public Radio in always looking for new internship sponsors in local firms or organizations who would be able and willing to mentor University. Emerging Artist Award in poetry from Louisville. an undergrad for roughly 10 hours a week over the course of a fall or spring semester. Internships provide crucial the Kentucky Arts Council. opportunities for students to use their research and writing skills in real-world settings, and to develop their resumes in Eir-Anne Edgar will be an Associate Leah Toth will become an Assistant anticipation of joining the 21st century work force. If you are interested in establishing an internship, please email me at Professor of Literature in English Owen Horton will be a Lecturer at the Professor of English at St. Norbert [email protected] to discuss the opportunity. at Norwegian University of Science University of Miami.