the longest island

A Reading by Patrick Horrigan

2013-05-13T11:29:00.003-04:00

ACTORS WITH ACCENTS

Everybody has an accent. What’s yours?

an evening of performance and conversation
featuring a reading by Patrick E. Horrigan (Dept. of English, LIU Brooklyn)

Thursday, May 16, 2013 @ 7:30pm
Teatro Soy, 4111 Broadway, 2nd floor bet. 173rd and 174th Sts. in Manhattan

Hosted by Eduardo Leanez, featuring monologues, scenes, songs, and readings by
Emily Gleeson, Inma Heredia, Patrick E. Horrigan, Eduardo Leanez, Mauricio Pita,
Ricardo San Miguel, and Erik Schjerven.

Admission: $10 suggested donation
Wine reception to follow the performance.

For more information, contact actorswithaccents@aol.com.

Films & Readings by Stephanie Gray

2013-05-08T10:59:00.003-04:00

Saturday, May 11, 8pm
At: Millennium Film Workshop, 66 E 4th St (bet Bowery & 2nd Ave)

"Super 8 Live & in Person with Katrina del Mar & Stephanie Gray: Portraits of People & Places"
An evening of super 8 works, screened on real film by artists Katrina del Mar & Stephanie Gray. Whether through an iconography of the city, queerness, or grrl culture, both show an attention to photographic detail of a unique type that can only be captured with the intimacy of super 8, whether black/none, color, handprocessed or edited in camera. Expect images of lesbian icons (both real & fictional), 90s grrl culture, mysterious portraits of the city and urban folk, and an overall eye for the hidden beauty of people and places that often go unseen. (Gray will present first, then intermission, then del Mar.)

Millennium website: http://millenniumfilm.org/category/screenings/upcoming/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/294381620695227/?ref=22
Admission: $8/$5 members (by contribution)

Program:
"Katrina del Mar: Super 8 Portraits + Raw Reels"
del Mar will show a selection of a recent super 8 portraits series including an urban surfer, a dyke motorcycle racer, lesbian writer Eileen Myles, & raw reels, some rarely seen, of her cult fave grrl gang movies of the late 90s.
"Simon: Portrait of an Urban Surfer" (6 min, b&w, sound) Simon plays upright bass and surfs at Rockaway Beach.
"Kara: Portrait of a Motorcycle Racer" (3 min, b&w, sound) Kara races a vintage triumph motorcycle on a flat track in upstate New York.
"Eileen: Portrait of a Writer" (3 min, b&w, sound) Poet-novelist Eileen Myles writes and reads from a tiny notebook one late summer day in Wellfleet, Mass.
"Raw Reels" (approx 25 min, b&w/color, no sound) When shooting Gang Girls 2000 in 1999, del Mar shot a roughly ten-to-one ratio of what wound up in the 25 minute final film. A reel or two will be chosen at random from the other 3.5 hours worth of pure late-90’s eye candy: the hottest girls of the Lower East Side and Brooklyn, pretending to be in our own version of Faster Pussycat Kill! Kill!

"Stephanie Gray: Queer Pop Culturing + City Portraits"
Filmmaker-poet Gray will show a selection of urban portraits that show the puzzling unknown of the city including the now closed Magic Shoes in the Village + mysterious iconography of the city. She will show a selection of her queer portraits (some subjective) of pop culture icons such as Kristy McNichol, Joan of Arc and Laverne & Shirley. Some films will be accompanied by live reading / experimental soundtracks.
"Magic Couldn’t Save Magic Shoes" (7 min, color/b&w, 2011) Magic closed in ‘08 after being in biz since ‘79. No one did handwritten labels like them. When I finally had extra money to buy more Converse, which is mostly all I wear, thinking they’d still be around, even after I filmed it, it was gone. I shot this in Magic’s last week.
"Satanic Bible on Interlibrary Loan" (9 min, b/w, 2011) The title is a true situation that occurred when I was 15. I was an ardent metal head as a teen. A little while back, I was asked to write a poem for a poetry mag issue with the theme of the occult. The words and then the images, came together, and it all makes sense.
"Kristy" (7 min, handprocessed b/w, sound, 2003) Digging deep to find Kristy, the only working class girl at a girls’ summer camp in cult classic Little Darlings A faint recognizable 80s hit song is played with skips at the slowest speed. (She’s out now, you know, right?)
"Dear Joan" (3 min handprocessed b/w, live narration, 1999) A film letter to this heroine as the filmmaker laments the lack of public knowledge of Joan's real identity, ending in a hissyfit at the library.
"Never Heard the Word Impossible" (7 min, sound, b/w, 2007) This work uses images from Laverne & Shirley remixed through video layers. What did the L really stand for? All sound is distorted from the theme song.
"I Can’t Stop Thinking About Eileen Myles’ School of Fish Poem" (3 min, color, live narration, 2002) The filmmaker keeps hearing lines from the poem. The images are inspired visual thoughts of Eileen's poem.
+ one surprise super recent 3 min film!

*****************
Tuesday, May 14, 7:30

Triptych presents
a special 3-1 =
last reading of the season

Reading + super 8 film screening
featuring:
STEPHANIE GRAY
&&&&&&&&&&&
JONAS MEKAS

At: Envoy Enterprises
(http://envoyenterprises.com/)
87 Rivington (bet Orchard & Ludlow)

Triptych: http://triptychreadings.tumblr.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/501303579934660/

NYCAAPSE Conference 2013

2013-05-06T09:47:00.001-04:00

The New York City Association of Assistant Principals Supervision – English (NYCAAPSE) and LIU Brooklyn’s English Department are pleased to announce

GETTING THERE AND STAYING THERE
Bridging the Gap Between High School and College and Careers

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

8:00 AM to 3:00 PM

LIU personnel who wish to attend must register.
Contact Deborah Mutnick for the registration form.

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Annual Awards Ceremony!

2013-05-06T09:42:00.000-04:00

The English Department will hold its annual awards Ceremony on Wednesday, May 8, from 4-5 PM, in the Robert Spector Lounge on the 4th Floor of the Humanities Building.

The faculty will present awards to undergraduate and graduate students including the Excellence in English Award, the Edward Edelman & Susanne Popper-Edelman English Essay Prizes, the Esther Hyneman Graduate Awards in Creative Writing, the Henning Award, the Parascondola Award, and the Schweizer Award. New Sigma Tau Delta inductees will also be announced.

Please join us to celebrate our award winners, whose names will be added to this post after the ceremony.

UPDATED May 13, 2013

List of winners:

Sigma Tau Delta inductees

Victoria Abolencia
Gabrielle Betancourt
Samantha D'Acunto
Alanna Dawkins
Andrani Foster
Elizabeth Hernandez
Keeley Ibrahim
Donald Chase Melvin
Imani Nasir
Charlene Thelemaque
Krystal Walcott

Excellence in English Award, graduate

Alicia Berbenick
Patia Braithwaite
Constance Gough
Jon Jenkins
Elspeth Macdonald
Asja Parrish
Kevin Reyes
Lisa Rogal
Sarah Wallen

Excellence in English award, undergraduate

Andrani Foster
Daphne Horton
Keeley Ibrahim
Natalie Mamelko
Sarah Reynolds

Elaine Spielberg Award

Lakishia Brown

Louis & Ann Parascandola Graduate Award

Felice Belle
Lisa Rogal

Edward Edelman & Suzanne Popper-Edelman English Essay Prizes

Freshman Composition (English 14)

Jonathan McCarthy Assavero, "Change of Location, Change of Perspective," Professor Andrea Libin

Freshman Composition (English 16)

Sandy Mohsen, "The Educational System and ESL Students," Professor Thomas Peele

Core Literature (English 60s)

Kerby Anorjuste, "The Guy Code," Professor Jonathan Haynes

Upper Division

Marnelle Dorvil, "Marriage and Money: Contrasting Forces," Professor Maria McGarrity

The Esther Hyneman Awards

Fiction: Tiani Kennedy
Poetry: Daniel Owen

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MFA Reading Series Event: Students Finishing This Semester

2013-05-04T08:37:00.004-04:00

A celebratory reading by all MFA students graduating in May 2013.

Wednesday, May 8, 6-8PM
Robert Spector Lounge, English Department
Humanities Building, Fourth Floor

Reading:

Elspeth Macdonald
Lisa Rogal
Marita Downes
Asja Parrish
Felice Belle
Joey Infante
Sarah Anne Wallen.

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Poetry Reading: Barbara Henning & Tony Iantosca (with Kimberly Lyons)

2013-05-01T20:59:00.001-04:00

6BC Botanical Garden presents poetry by Barbara Henning (Professor Emerita, English), Kimberly Lyons, and Tony Iantosca (Adjunct Professor, English).

Sunday, May 12, 2013, 3pm

More info.

Attention English Majors in Honors Program

2013-04-30T11:22:00.000-04:00

If you are an English major who also happens to be a student in the Honors Program, please be aware that the following Honors electives being offered in Fall 2013 can be substituted for LITERATURE course(s) in your major program. Discuss with Wayne Berninger before you register.

HHE 187, Italian Women, Professor Louis Parascandola
HHE 188, Conflicted Youth, Professor Srividhya Swaminathan.

Faculty Mentors for English Majors (undergrad)

2013-04-30T09:41:00.000-04:00

This list was last updated on April 30, 2013.

Prior to registration each semester, you should meet with Wayne Berninger, the English Department’s Undergraduate Advisor. Make your own apppointment at http://wayneberninger.setster.com.

For help with all other aspects of your academic career, please meet with your Academic Mentor, as follows.

student (concentration) -- mentor
Samiah Aljahmi (WR) -- Srividhya Swaminathan
Jesenia Ayala (WR) -- Deborah Mutnick
Barrington Boothe (WR) -- Thomas Peele
Stephen Cadavillo (Lit) -- Patrick Horrigan
Alexa Carter-Rodriguez (CW) -- John High
Melissa Clermont (Lit) -- Donald McCrary
Kathryn Dure (WR) -- Patricia Stephens
Laquesha Ekowo (CW) -- John High
Elena Fabiankovic (WR) -- Harriet Malinowitz
Justin Gioia (Lit) -- Leah Dilworth
Joanna Gonzalez (CW) -- Lewis Warsh
Ivelaw Goodridge (Lit) -- Carol Allen
Robyn Heckstall (CW) -- John High
Jeri Helms (WR) -- John Killoran
Daphne Horton (Lit) -- Louis Parascandola
Keeley Ibrahim (CW) -- John High
Joy Jackson (WR) -- Michael Bokor
Dargreeny Jean (Lit) -- Michael Bennett
Daisey Jefferson (CW) -- Lewis Warsh
Chason Kim (CW) -- Lewis Warsh
Joshua Lamore (WR) -- Michael Bokor
Mary McDaniel (Lit) -- Patrick Horrigan
Natalie Mamelko (CW) -- John High
Jackae Manns (CW) -- Lewis Warsh
Brianna Melero (CW) -- Lewis Warsh
Bryhana Moore (CW) -- John High
Muzahid ("Jahid") Mowla (WR) -- Patricia Stephens
Stephanie Munoz (CW) -- Lewis Warsh
Rose Nash (Lit) -- Michael Bennett
Anne Marie Nelson-Ferguson (WR) -- John Killoran
Phyllis Noel (WR) -- John Killoran
Vincent Ortiz (Lit) -- Jonathan Haynes
Brittany Rader (WR) -- Thomas Peele
Carla Reneau (Lit) -- Sealy Gilles
Rebecca Rimple (CW) -- Lewis Warsh
Matthew Romagnoli (CW) -- John High
Daniel Rosenberg (CW) -- Lewis Warsh
Elizabeth Ruiz (CW) -- Sealy Gilles
Roksolana Sheverack (Lit) -- Leah Dilworth
Chardonnay Smith (WR) -- Donald McCrary
Aaron Stewart (CW) -- John High
Shannon Thomas (WR) -- Thomas Peele
Shereen Vincent (W;R) -- Deborah Mutnick

Poetry Reading: Lewis Warsh with Brenda Coultas

2013-04-27T17:18:00.000-04:00

Professor Lewis Warsh (English Department / MFA Director) will be reading with Brenda Coultas, former Visiting Writer at LIU Brooklyn.

Thursday, May 9, 8 PMwith music by Dan Veksler

UNNAMEABLE BOOKS
600 Vanderbilt Ave.
(near corner of St. Marks)
Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
718 789 1534

Africana Studies / Gender Studies Event: A Talk by Patrik-Ian Polk

2013-04-25T22:17:00.000-04:00

Learning Communities / Pathways to Freedom Event: Fighting Jim Crow in the County of Kings

2013-04-18T14:03:00.000-04:00

MFA Reading Series: Jessica Hagedorn's Playwriting Students

2013-04-16T09:54:00.000-04:00

Wednesday, April 1, 2013
5 PM
Robert Spector Lounge
Humanities Building, 4th FloorIf you plan to attend,RSVP @hagedorntheprofessor@gmail.com.

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Voices of the Rainbow Reading Series: Andriana Alefhi

2013-04-16T09:12:00.000-04:00

This is a new event. Originally, Raymond Luczak was scheduled to read at this time, but he had to cancel due to illness. Andriana Alefhi will be speaking in his place.

Andriana Alefhi has been has been fluent in American Sign Language for 20 years and has worked as an interpreter for 11 years. She has written multiple essays and a short memoir partly based on interpreting and deaf culture. She teaches American Sign Language here at LIU. She will provide a brief introduction into Deaf culture and history, explain what it is like working as an ASL Interpreter, and highlight the humorous and serious situations that can arise as a result going between the two worlds.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013
1:30 pm
Humanities Building, 2nd Floor Lounge

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Africana Studies Event: Lyle "MC Enigma" Hickman

2013-04-03T22:00:00.000-04:00

Fall 2013 Course: Writing in the Community with Professor Deborah Mutnick

2013-04-01T14:07:00.001-04:00

English 173 Writing in the Community

Professor Deborah Mutnick

Mondays 6-8:30 pm

This course will satisfy a Writing & Rhetoric elective requirement in the Writing & Rhetoric concentration. It can satisfy a general English elective requirement in the Literature concentration. It can satisfy the Writing & Rhetoric requirement in either the Literature concentration or the Creative Writing concentration. It can also be applied toward the English minor. English majors concentrating in Writing & Rhetoric may take this course a second time for credit.

Writing in the Community is a writing workshop in which students study the rhetoric and writing of community-based and other advocacy organizations. Topics vary from semester to semester and may include rhetorical analysis of community-based texts and strategies for the production of writing from flyers and pamphlets to oral histories, grant proposals, and essays.

Through course readings, library research, and fieldwork, students learn about community histories, issues, and channels of communication. Partnerships with local community organizations provide “real world” experience for students to engage in a range of activities that may include tutoring, interviewing, writing, editing, and multimodal composing. The course culminates in the production of a collection of digital essays for and about a specific community.

To see an example of a digital book created by students at Penn State Berks, scan the QR code, or visit http://www.readingnaacp.org/book.html.

Readings tentatively include Warren Lehrer and Judith Sloane’s Crossing the BLVD: Strangers, Neighbors, Aliens in a New America; Harvey Wang’s New York; Paul Kutsche’s Field Ethnography; and excerpts from Robert Perks and Alistair Thomson’sThe Oral History Reader. The emphasis of the class, however, is on your writing, which will be discussed at least twice in workshop during the semester.

MFA Reading Series Events

2013-03-30T21:55:00.001-04:00

UP CLOSE & PERSONAL

Two readings by students in the English Department's Creative-Writing MFA Program.

The Sidewalk Cafe
94 Avenue A & Sixth Street
Manhattan

Friday, April 19, 5-7 PM

Michael Grove
Julianne Lavallee
Kia Mills
Elspeth Macdonald
Michael Atkinson
Desiree Rucker
Kaya Arnoux
Tina Barry
Chia-Lun Chang
Asja Parrish
Harry Ewan

Add this event (4/19) to your Google Calendar

April 26, 5-7 PM

Daniel Owen
Wendi Williams
Lisa Rogal
Liz Dalton
Kyle De Ocera
Amyre Loomis
Evan Thomas
Pamela Arnett
Marita Downes
Shari Seraneau
Tiani Kennedy
Sarah Anne Wallen
Felice Belle

Add this event (4/26) to your Google Calendar

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN Sponsors Cell-phone Photo Contest

2013-03-28T11:06:00.002-04:00

Downtown Brooklyn, the literary magazine of the English Department, is sponsoring a cellphone photo contest.

Four winning photos will appear in Issue 22 (September 2013).

We want “interesting” cell-phone photos. Artistic but not necessarily perfect. Be creative. Multiple submissions OK. Abstract OK. Rough edges OK. Filtered OK (think Instagram). Boring not OK.

Actually, now that we think about it, boring is OK, but we should clarify that your photos are not required to relate to lumberjacking.

Note: photos do NOT have to be Brooklyn-related.

YOU must be connected to LIU Brooklyn somehow: student, alumni, current or former faculty, administration, staff. Please say what your affiliation is when you e-mail us.

Send pics as attachments to wayne.berninger@liu.edu.

Deadline: April 12.

Tribute to Chinua Achebe

2013-03-27T15:29:00.000-04:00

Tuesday April 23
11AM-12PM

Spector Lounge (H Building, 4^th floor)

The great Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe died this month at the age of 82. (See his obituary.) Many of us have read and taught his most famous novel, Things Fall Apart, in our literature classes. Some of us have read his other works. His influence on world literature, on other writers, and on millions of students was immense. The English Department at LIU-Brooklyn would like to pay tribute to him with a reading of excerpts of his work.

We invite and encourage faculty, students, and any others at LIU who are interested to participate in this reading. If you would like to read aloud a short excerpt of Achebe’s work—either one of your own choosing, or one that can be selected for you—please contact Harriet Malinowitz at harriet.malinowitz@liu.edu.

Please pass this invitation on to students in your classes, and if possible, offer them extra credit to attend the event. Also, please feel free to recommend to me a favorite passage from Achebe’s work that you would like to read or hear read.

Even if you don’t want to read aloud, please join us for this celebration of a brilliant author’s life.

Flyer

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Voices of the Rainbow Reading Series: Les Murray

2013-03-21T09:16:00.002-04:00

Les Murray

Wednesday, April 17, noon

Health Sciences Building, Room 121

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Voices of the Rainbow Reading Series: Raymond Luczak

2013-03-21T09:15:00.000-04:00

Notice: This event with Raymond Luczak has been cancelled. There will be another presentation at the same time by Andriana Alefhi. See here for more information.

Raymond Luczak

Tuesday, April 16, 1:30PM

Humanities Building, Second Floor Lounge

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Voices of the Rainbow Reading Series: Wendy Lee & Joseph Lennon

2013-03-21T09:12:00.003-04:00

Wendy Lee & Joseph Lennon

Tuesday, April 2, noon

Library Learning Center, Room 124

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Voices of the Rainbow Event: Danielle Mebert & Felice Belle

2013-03-21T08:55:00.002-04:00

Voices of the Rainbow & the English Department invite you to our annual Adjunct/MFA Reading.

Danielle Mebert
&
Felice Belle

Wednesday, 27 March 2013, 2PM

Robert Spector Lounge, Humanities Building, 4th Floor

Contact Louis Parascandola or Lewis Warsh 718 488 1050.

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Gender Studies Event: Noura Hajjaj

2013-03-14T07:26:00.002-04:00

Rethinking Stereotypes and Image-Making of Arab Women

a talk by

Noura Hajjaj (Marist College)

Sponsored by the LIU Brooklyn Gender Studies Program.

Thursday, March 28, 2013
12-1:15 PM
Library Learning Center, Room 115

Many Arab scholars have rightly scrutinized Western media and Hollywood cinema for negative portrayals of Arab women. Yet a great deal of stereotyping actually stems from the Arab region itself. Examining in particular the role of Arab soap operas—which constitute a very high proportion of Arab television time—guest speaker Noura Hajjaj will address the importance of critiquing images of female victimization and degradation in cultures where people rely heavily on television for entertainment.

Noura Hajjaj currently adjuncts in Arabic cultural studies and communication at Marist College, SUNY New Paltz, and Western Connecticut State University. Prior to her immigration to New York in 2003, she worked at schools affiliated with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon and with community services for Palestinian refugee camps
in Lebanese communities.

For more information, contact Harriet Malinowitz (English Department) at harriet.malinowitz@liu.edu or 718 780-4032.

Writing Program Conversations: A Recommended Teaching Resource

2013-03-07T12:31:00.003-05:00

Instructors working with the food theme in English 16 might find this video useful. Let us know in the comments.

Undergraduate Courses -- Summer 2013 & Fall 2013

2013-03-05T12:40:00.002-05:00

Believe it or not, it's time to start thinking about what classes you want to take next semester!

English Majors — Before you register, please make an appointment to meet with Wayne Berninger to review your outstanding requirements. Then register as early as possible to keep courses from being canceled. Non-Majors — The writing and analytical skills gained in English courses are useful in a variety of professions. Any student may take these courses as general electives. A minor in English (four courses 100 or above) will satisfy the Distribution Requirement for any major. For more information, see Wayne Berninger. Also note —Honors electives taught by English Department faculty may be applied toward the English major in a variety of ways. Please see Wayne Berninger in the English Department before you register in order to confirm which requirement the course may satisfy. These courses may also be applied toward the English minor.
To schedule an appointment, go to wayneberninger.setster.com.

Summer Session One 2013

May 20 — July 1

English 150 Studies in Ethnic Literatures
Contemporary African American Literature
Professor Carol Allen
Mondays & Wednesdays 2-4:50 PM

This course will satisfy the Literature requirement in either the Creative Writing concentration or the Writing & Rhetoric concentration. It can satisfy a general English elective requirement in the Literature concentration. It can also be applied toward the English minor. Any student may take ENG 140, 150, 170 or 180 a second time for credit.

This course looks at fictional and nonfictional texts written by African American writers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. We will examine a sampling of works across genres from poetry to drama, the novel, short story, memoir and essay. Possible writers might be drawn from Colson Whitehead, Toni Morrison, Lucille Clifton, August Wilson, Suzanne Lori-Parks, James Baldwin, Patricia Williams, John Edgar Wideman, Adrienne Kennedy, Octavia Butler, Tracy K. Smith and/or others. Background and historical information will be provided in a short lecture given at the start of the course; thereafter, the class will be student-centered and will include a variety of assignments. Our focus will be on what happens to black language and culture as we transition to a “post-racial” society (of course this term will be scrutinized). Along the way, we will also encounter such concerns as what are the gendered differences, if any, in African American literature; what are the messages that contemporary artists wish to convey; how is vernacular expression relevant to products crafted by contemporary black artists; and what are the politics of writing for an audience that may be unfamiliar with the cultural currency in the text. Assignments will consist of in-class essays, position papers (or other informal writing), leading class discussion, and a final exam.

Fall 2012

English 126 News Writing (taught by Journalism faculty)

Section 1 / Tuesdays & Thursdays 1:30-2:55 PM / Professor Jennifer Rauch

Section 2 / Tuesdays 6-8:50 PM / Professor Jennifer Rauch

This course will satisfy a Writing & Rhetoric elective requirement in the Writing & Rhetoric concentration. It can satisfy a general English elective requirement in the Literature concentration. It can satisfy the Writing & Rhetoric requirement in either the Literature concentration or the Creative Writing concentration. It can also be applied toward the English minor. Please note that this course is cross-listed with JOU 119. Students who wish this course to count toward the English major (or minor) should be sure to register for ENG 126 — not JOU 119. Contact the Journalism Department for information about the content of this course.

English 128 Early British LiteraturesMonsters, Hybrids, and Shape-shifters in Early British LiteraturesProfessor Sealy Gilles

Mondays & Wednesdays 4:30-5:45 PM

This course is required in the Literature concentration. It can satisfy a Literature requirement in either the Creative Writing concentration or the Writing & Rhetoric concentration. It can also be applied toward the English minor.

In 1000 C.E. England was Europe’s western frontier, an unsettled island of competing fiefdoms and migratory peoples. By 1600 London was the western world’s largest city and Queen Elizabeth I ruled over a colonial power soon to become the British Empire. The early literature of this island nation reflects the multiple identities of the English people, but it is also troubled by an often violent history and by the specter of strange beings, both benign and monstrous. This semester our cast of aliens includes Beowulf, the swamp dwelling humanoid, an old hag who traps a young gallant, a giant Green Knight, and a trio of prophetic witches. As the supernatural intrudes into the lives of the characters and their communities, it challenges our notion of the human and impels us to interrogate the dynamics of class and ethnicity. As we explore these issues in works ranging from Beowulf to Shakespeare’s Macbeth, you will be asked to write frequently, participate actively, and read closely. You may expect that I will respect your ideas and respond quickly and fairly to your work.

English 158 Early Literatures of the United States
American Landscapes

Professor Patrick Horrigan

Wednesdays 6:00-8:30 PM

A reverence for nature is at the heart of American culture, as in these famous lyrics from the song “America the Beautiful,” written by Katharine Lee Bates in 1893:

Oh beautiful for spacious skies, / For amber waves of grain, / For purple mountain majesties / Above the fruited plain! / America! America! / God shed his grace on thee / And crown thy good with brotherhood / From sea to shining sea!

The song expresses a powerful association between the United States and the beauties of the natural world, all peacefully existing under the watchful and approving eyes of God. In this course we will trace the development of this mythic idea from the first violent struggles between Native Americans and Europeans for occupancy of the New World and ownership of its breathtaking natural resources; through the American Revolution of the late 18th-century and the American Civil War of the mid-19th century, when Americans questioned their identity and their country’s destiny as never before; and onto the early 21st century, when our self-confidence as a nation has been further shaken by terrorism, natural disaster, and economic uncertainty. Texts will include Mary Rowlandson's captivity narrative; poetry by Anne Bradstreet, Phyllis Wheatley, Walt Whitman, and Emily Dickinson; The Declaration of Independence; Frederick Douglass' Narrative; short fiction by Herman Melville; and Henry David Thoreau's Walden, or Life in the Woods. We will also study mid-19th-century American landscape painting, sample the writings of Central Park's designer Frederick Law Olmsted, and take a tour of the park itself. The course is writing intensive.

English 164 Explorations in Creative Writing
A Writers Studio: From East to West, Haiku to Hip Hop—Zen, Wabi-Sabi, Habuin, and Real NYC Stories
Professor John High

Tuesdays & Thursdays 3-4:15 PM

This course is required in the Creative Writing concentration. It can satisfy a general English elective requirement in the Literature concentration. It can satisfy the Creative Writing requirement in either the Literature concentration or the Writing & Rhetoric concentration. It can also be applied toward the English minor. Any student may take this course a second time for credit.

• Do you ever write songs, lyrics, or stories? Are you interested in haiku poetry?

• Do you remember the fables and poems you wrote as a child?

• Do you secretly write in a journal or diary?

• Have you never written a poem but wanted to find a way into your meditative voice?

This course is for anyone who has ever wanted to express themselves creatively or wants to develop their imaginative voice.

In the course we’ll play with writing techniques of the East and study their influence & possibilities for our own writing in NYC. So what is the relationship between traditions, between haiku and hip hop, for instance—between innovation, and a writer’s unique story or poetic, history, background and culture? If our own voices grow out of the past and from traditions firmly rooted in the power of language, in this class our goal will be to open ourselves to an aesthetics ranging from the meditative spirit of Zen and Wabi-sabi to the contemporary tempo of artistic sounds and music emerging from the streets of the city. How is perfection (or beauty) only mastered in the imperfection of form? How does the chaos of a story find structure in the harmony of imbalance? How has the poetry of haiku, and the experimental and communal collaborations of Haikai and Hokku so profoundly impacted the narrative structure of Haibun and the communites of drummers, singers, and poets around the world?

If haibun is often described as narratives of epiphany, wabi-sabi concentrates on daily life. As with hip hop and rap and the street stories of New York, both forms have manifested more as expressions of urban life and travel dialogues in American usage. We’ll play with these condensed forms of syntax and sensory impressions, experiment with writing in the present tense, and focus language on tone and setting in our weekly workshops.

The course will include workshops, film, artwork and informal talks and will conclude with a chapbook and manifesto of your own work for the semester.

English 165 Poetry Workshop

Poetry & Meditation—From Silence to Expression

Professor John High

Tuesdays, 6:00 – 8:30 PM

This course will satisfy a Creative Writing elective requirement in the Creative Writing concentration. It can satisfy a general English elective requirement in the Literature concentration. It can satisfy the Creative Writing requirement in either the Literature concentration or the Writing & Rhetoric concentration. It can also be applied toward the English minor. English majors concentrating in Creative Writing may take this course a second time for credit.

This workshop will function as a Writers Studio in which we meet each other face to face in our poems and stories and meditate on the meaning of our own lives and writing. We will focus on the way autobiography and dreams overlap in writing, for instance, and how the past can be voiced and the present moment realized on the page. We will study our diaries and notebooks as a place to expand and open up the territory of our own imagination, as much of our writing is based on memories and dreams, fears and aspirations. We’ll look at writers who explore the world of wisdom and calm mind, and who often blur the borders between poetry, dream and life story. There will be weekly creative writing exercises, and group discussions, as well as commentary on the writing and meditation process and how to make it come alive not only in our writing but in our daily activities. With one another we’ll read and help each other learn how to revise our poems. We’ll also give presentations and performances of the work as we go along. The course offers relaxed, though thorough and individualized investigation of the participants' poetry in relation to craft, theme and content of writing, and through the lens of a quiet, open and meditative mind. Our writing project will include working with identity, secrets, observations, aspirations, fears, overheard conversations and random fragments of language. The goal of the course includes completing a chapbook (a kind of creative, little book that includes photographs, drawings, etc.) of your new poems. You will also have the opportunity to explore and write about the larger community of NYC with the attendance of a literary reading, a visit to a meditation center, and a field trip to one of our great parks or museums.

English 169 Nonwestern or Postcolonial Literature
The Caribbean

Professor Maria McGarrity
Thursdays 6-8:30 PM

This course will examine the issues of language, identity, and diaspora of the Caribbean. In The Repeating Island, the Cuban theorist, Antonio Benítez-Rojo, called this island chain a “meta-archipelago” because the sea and land borders that might seem initially to separate these isles in fact link them beyond the boundaries of the nation-language-island. This class will focus on the literatures of such nations as Haiti, Cuba, Antigua, Dominica, St. Lucia, Guadeloupe, and the Dominican Republic. We will study the work of Nobel Prize-winning St. Lucian, Derek Walcott as well as such writers as Danny Laferrière (whose most recent work charts the aftermath of Haiti’s recent earthquake), Jean Rhys, Maryse Condé, Reinaldo Arenas, Alejo Carpentier, Jamaica Kincaid, and Junot Díaz. Our reading of short stories, poetry, longer fiction, and film will take us from the height if European imperialism in the 19th century through the 20th century struggle for decolonization.

Evaluation: Attendance/Participation/Preparation 25%, Paper 25%, Mid-term Exam 25%, Final Exam 25%.

Required Texts: Arenas, Mona and Other Tales; Carpentier, The Kingdom of This World; Condé, Winward Heights; Díaz, This is How You Lose Her; Laferrière, The World Was Shaking All Around Me; Kincaid, A Small Place; Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea; Walcott, “The Schooner Flight” and selections from Omeros.

English 173 Writing in the Community

Professor Deborah Mutnick

Mondays 6-8:30 pm

To see an example of a digital book created by students at Penn State Berks, scan the QR code, or visit http://www.readingnaacp.org/book.html.

Readings tentatively include Warren Lehrer and Judith Sloane’s Crossing the BLVD: Strangers, Neighbors, Aliens in a New America; Harvey Wang’s New York; Paul Kutsche’s Field Ethnography; and excerpts from Robert Perks and Alistair Thomson’s The Oral History Reader. The emphasis of the class, however, is on your writing, which will be discussed at least twice in workshop during the semester.

English 202 Literature of the Sea

Professor Jonathan Haynes

Mondays & Wednesdays 3-4:15 PM

Melville begins Moby Dick with a meditation on the mysterious attraction that draws us to the water. The experience of the sea and seafaring has been essential in the histories of both Britain and the United States, and it is an essential theme in their literatures. Sublime beauty, mystery, terror, and adventure are all associated with the sea, and the decks of ships are like stages (this is another of Melville’s perceptions) where social, psychological, and moral dramas are played out with singular intensity. Melville and Joseph Conrad are at the center of this course, surrounded by a host of other brilliant writers including Olaudah Equiano, Robert Louis Stevenson, Elizabeth Bishop, and Patrick O’Brian. We will learn about the lives of sailors on war ships, pirate ships, slave ships, whalers, and merchantmen, and consider the experience of those who just mess about in boats, listen to crashing waves, or have the urge to throw themselves into salt water.