FALL 2010
Prayers for the People
A Special Performance of "Prayers for the People: Carl Sandburg's Poetry and Songs" will be held at the Warren Opera House in Friend, Nebraska, from 7:00-8:00 p.m. on Friday, September 18. Dr. Kate Benzel will be the Lecturer and Emeritus Professor Charles Peek with be the Emcee and Reader. Terry Schifferns, who received her MA in Creative Writing from UNK, will serve as Poet and Reader. They will be accompanied by musicians Mike Adams and Terry Sinnard.
Featured in New Frontiers
Professor Marguerite Tassi will be one of the honorees at a reception to be held in the Frank House on September 16 from 4:00-6:00 in recognition of her research and scholarly activity. Dr. Tassi is featured in the article,"Virtue and Vengence," in the 2010-2011 issue of New Frontiers published by the Office of Graduate Studies and Research. The article discusses her second and forthcoming book Women and Revenge in Shakespeare: Gender, Genre, and Ethics."
Utopian Film Series
Mike Springer has put together a panel of faculty and films to be viewed Tuesdays at 7pm in Copeland 140.
3/31 - "Metropolis" - Dr. Honeyman
4/7 - "The Handmaid's Tale" - Dr. Luscher
4/14 - "Children of Men" - Dr. S. Umland
Student Conference on Language and Literature
The Student Conference in Language and Literature sponsored by the English Department will be held in Thomas Hall on Friday, April 3, 2009, from 8:30-4:30. The Opening Reception will begin at 8:30, concurrent sessions will be held throughout the day, and and Awards Ceremony will begin at 4:00. For a complete listing of sessions, and presenters, click here.
Platte Valley Review Call for PapersThe Platte Valley Review is an international journal of Poetry, Prose, Photography, Artwork, Environmental and EcoCritical Essay. The magazine is currently within auspices of the Reynolds Endowed Chair of Poetry and the Creative Writing Emphasis in the English Department of the University of Nebraska at Kearney. Platte Valley Review is publishing a special issue for Spring 2009 with focus on Language and Migration. Poetry, Prose, Photography, Artwork, Environmental and EcoCritical Essay with relative themes of language and migration are welcome as general submissions. The Platte Valley Review is edited by Allison Hedge Coke, Reynolds Chair. Distinguished UNK Sandhill Crane Literary Fellows, including Wang Ping and LeAnne Howe will jury and contribute to this edition. For more information, contact hedgecokeaa@unk.edu.
Honoring the Sandhill Cranes Migration Tribute Retreat IIThe 2008-2009 Reynolds Series has presented distinguished visiting authors: Arthur Sze, Carol Moldaw, Quincy Troupe and Marvin Bell. The 2009 Spring Reynolds Series Honoring the Sandhill Cranes Migration Tribute Retreat II will confer March 17 through April 4, 2009. This second annual retreat is sponsored by the Reynolds Chair & English Department, the Platte River Whooping Crane Maintenance Trust, the Rowe Sanctuary, the Nebraska Arts Council, the Nebraska Humanities Council, the UNK Artists & Lecturers Series, the Office of Multicultural Affairs, International Studies, the University of Nebraska at Omaha Native Studies Department, Kearney Country Inn & Suites, Alley Rose, elements, Baristas, and other donors. Among the participants, Literary Crane Fellows Wang Ping & LeAnne Howe and visiting writers Laura Tohe, Linda Hogan, Sherwin Bitsui and Cristina Eisenberg. For more information, please consult the Reynolds Series web page on this site or contact hedgecokeaa@unk.edu.
Public Speaking PanelPanelists Dr. George Lawson and Rachelle Kamrath, UNK Communications department, and Deborah Lawson, speech teacher at Grand Island Public Schools will present a panel discussion on public speaking at national conferences and other public forums. The panel is sponsored by the UNK Department of English Student Relations, Recruitment, and Retention committee. It will be held in Thomas Hall 106 on Wednesday, February 18, 2009, at 4:00.
Exploration Lecture Series
Dr. Stephen Behrendt, George Holmes Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will speak on "Losing Oneself in One's Words: Romantic-Era Women Poets and the Anxiety of Impermanence" in Copeland Hall 140 on Thursday, February 12, 2009, at 4:00 pm. It is co-sponsored by the Martin Distinguished Professor in English (Dr. Kathryn Benzel), Artists and Lectureres, and the Women's and Gender Studies Program at UNK. A reception and book-signing will follow the presentation.
Publishing Panel
The English Department hosted a panel of experts in various fields of publising on November 13, 2008. Panelists included Manjit Kaur, University of Nebraska Press, Allison Hedge Coke, creative writing, Rick Brown, Kearney Hub editorialist and feature writer, and Eric Reed, former writer for the Sandhills Press.
Conference in Language & Literature April 4, 2008
The English department will be hosting their Annual Conference in Language and Literature in Thomas Hall on April 4, 2008. Students, whose papers have been competitively selected, will be presenting their scholarly and creative works. For the full schedule, go to the Graduate link and to the Student link on the department menu. For more information, contact Marguerite Tassi, tassm@unk.edu.
Reynolds Series Honoring the Sandhill Cranes Tribute RetreatMarch 7-15, 2008
This first annual retreat is sponsored by the Reynolds Chair & English Depatrment, the Nebraska Arts Council, the Nebraska Humanities Council, the Kearney Area Community Foundation, the Ethnic Studies Program, the Department of Modern Languages, the Alley Rose, and anonymous donors. Among the participants will be Wang Ping, Chinese poet and prose writer, Assoc. Prof. Macalester College; James Thomas Stevens, Mohawk poet, Assoc. Prof. & Amer. Indian Studies Director, SUNY Fredonia; and poets Fredy Chicangana, Yanacuna Nation, Colombia & Hugo Jamioy Juagibioy, Kamentsa Nation, Colombia. Funding has been provided by the Kearney Area Community Foundation, the Nebraska Humanities Council, the Nebraska Arts Council, and the UNK RSC. For more information, please consult the Reynolds Series web page on this site or contact hedgecokeaa@unk.edu.
Explorations Series for Spring 2008 AnnouncedMarguerite Tassi has announced the spring lectures in the Exploration series. They include Dr. Catherine Al-Meten, "Healing the WOunded SPirit: Use of Narrative for Cultuyral. Historical. Tribal/Familial, and Psychological Healing"; Dr. Mark Van Wienen, "Carl Sandburg: PAcificist, Patriot, Revolutionary Detainee"; and Jack Garrison, Sam Umland, and JKanice Fronczak, "Directing Three Ionesco Plays at UNK. For more information, please consult the Exploration Web Page on this site olr contact tassim@unk.edu.
Thursday and Friday, April 10 and 11, 2008 at the Frank House and the Merryman CenterA Poetry and Lyric Writing Workshop will feature two poetry workshops and a lyric writing workshop at the historic Frank House that will feature collaboration with professional writers. The workshops will culminate in a performance at the Merryman Performing Arts Center in Kearney as a part of the "Prayers for the People" program modeled on Carl Sandburg's Lecture-Recitals. Participants will perform along side Ted Kooser, former U.S. Poet Laureate, Dr. Charles Peek, and Mike Adams & the Sandtones. For more information, contact Dr. Kate Benzel benzelk@unk.edu.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007, 7:30 pm at the Drake TheaterThe Reynolds Series presents "The Reynolds Trio." Distinguished Paul W and Clarice Kingston Reynolds Endowed Chairs in English, Poetry and Creative Writing Professors at UNK--Don Welch, Charles Fort, and Allison Hedge Coke--will read and sign books. A reception will follow.
Thursday, November 15, 2007, 7:00 pm at MONA
Allison Hedge Coke will be reading her poetry at the "Third Thursdays" evening of art and entertainment.
Friday, November 16 7:30 pm at the Merryman Performing Arts Center
"Prayers for the People is produced by Kathryn Benzel and features Nebraska’s own former Poet Laureate,Ted Kooser, Dr. Charles Peek and Mike Adams. This presentation celebrates
Carl Sandburg’s songs, poetry and proverbs from the Great Plains
and Nebraska by bringing to the public Sandburg’s own style
of lecture-recital in which he combined lectures on American culture,
his poetry, and American folk songs.
Thursday November 1, 2007, 7:30 pm in the Drake Theater
Sherwin Bitsui and Michael Dumanis, authors and poets, will give readings and sign books. For more information, consult the Reynolds Readers link on the English Department Home Page.
Friday, November 2, 2007, from 9:00 am-5:30 pm, Thomas Hall AtriumUNK’s TEXTSHOP presents "Integrating Graphic Media into the English/Language Arts Classroom." It is intended as a forum for students, faculty members, and educational administrators and policymakers to meet and explore the role and significance of graphic media and visual technologies in the English and Language Arts classroom. Current research suggests that how we see (and what we see) influences learning and cognitive processing much more than initially thought, directly affecting, among other things, our ability to read and to write. What do English and Language Arts faculty, as well as policymakers and administrators, need to understand about the relationship between visual literacy and visual learning? How can we expand the role of popular literature and film in English and Language Arts classrooms? What is technology’s purpose in those same classrooms? Is it even possible to move beyond strict comparisons of visual media and verbal texts?
The Keynote Speaker will be David Cammell, Award-winning British screenwriter and movie producer (Performance,The Man Who Fell to Earth, Crusoe). Some of the topics to be explored in the TEXTSHOP panels include:Teaching visual narratives, Illustrated novels, Graphic novels, and animated film. All area English teachers, college faculty in English, media, film, and related disciplines, Middle School Language Arts teachers, media center consultants, secondary school administrators, and interested students are invited to participate.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007, at 7:30 p.m., Fine Arts Recital Hall
Author Kate Gale, PhD, Managing Editor of Red Hen Press,Editor of the Los Angeles Review, President of the American Composers Forum, and board member of the Poetry Society of America will read, present, answer questions, and sign books. For more information, consult the Reynolds Readers link on the English Department Home Page.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007, at 12:30-1:45, Nebraskan Student Union 310Susan Honeyman will lecture with William Aviles (Professor of Political Science) on "Hugo Chávez: Radical Democrat or Dictator?" for the Centennial Lecture Series.
Wednesday, Sedptember 12, 2007, at 7:00 p.m., Copeland Hall 142Professor and author Diane Glancy will be reading for the Reynolds Series. She is a poet, playwright, essayist, and novelist of over thirty volumes, and she who has won numerous awards
Friday, September 7, 2007, at 7:00 p.m., Copeland Hall 142Author Lindau Hogan will be reading for the Reynolds Series. Her multiple award-winning book include The Book of Medicines (poetry), Mean Spirit (novel), Dwellings, Spiritual History of the Land, and The Woman Who Watches Over the World (memoir).
Sunday August 12, 2007, at 8:00 p.m. Theater of the American West in Republican CityTwo Nebraska voices, professor and orator Charles Peek, and singer and songwriter Mike Adams, collaborate on performances of Sandburg’s Great Plains poetry and folk songs from The American Songbag (1927). Charles Peek’s readings and story-telling across the state and Mike Adams’s songwriting about the Nebraska landscape (including the Buffalo Commons Storytelling Festival theme song) and expertise with Americana music will bring to life musical visions of the heartland.These performances focus on Sandburg's Cornhuskers (1918) and Smoke and Steel (1922) collections that depict the Great Plains landscape and American folk songs. An introduction to the lecture-recital by Kate Benzel introduces Sandburg and his Great Plains poetry, describes his unique performance style, and includes photographic portraits of Sandburg and historic photography of Nebraska (landscapes and people). A recitation of Sandburg’s poetry and musical performance will re-enact his lecture-recital format, concentrating on his depiction of Americans from prairie poems and American folk songs. Together the poetry and songs demonstrate an American collective voice and anthem that is located in the heartland.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007, Thomas Hall AtriumDr. Rebecca Umland will speak on "The Eyes Have It: Mesmerism and Will in Tennyson's Idylls of the King" for the Explorations Lecture Series.
Saturday, April 21, 2007, Superior, NEVisual artist and poet, Mary Dixon (MA UNK, MFA Notre Dame), will be the keynote speaker at the Superior Estates Winery in Superior on April 21, 2007.
Saturday, April 14th at 7:00 pm at Thunderhead
Sigma Tau Delta will be hosting a Short Fiction Slam (500 words or less) at the Thunderhead Brewery. There will be cash prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. Much enlightening entertainment for all! The event is free and open to the public.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007, Thomas Hall AtriumAs a part of the Exploration Lecture Series, Dr. David Rozema, Philosophy, will consider "What Would Tolkien Have To Say" about his stories being made into movies. Dr. John Damon, English, will respond.
Thursday, December 7, 2006, Thomas Hall AtriumNovelist Amy Hassinger will discuss defamiliarization, "the artistic technique of forcing the audience to see common things in an unfamiliar or strange way, in order to enhance perception of the familiar." She will discuss these ideas in relation to the writings of Aleksandar Hemon and Bruno Schultz.
Thursday, October 16, 2006, Nebraskan 310Dr. Nyla Khan, UNK Assistant Professor, will present "The Land of Lalla-Ded: Politicization of Kashmir and Construction of the Kashmiri Woman" through the UNK Women's Studies Program.
Tuesday, November 14, Thomas Hall 107
Dr. William Aviles, UNK Department of Political Science, will present "Globalization and Military Power in Columbia" and discuss his book, Global Capitalism, Civil-Military Relations and Democracy in Columbia for the Exploration Lecture Series.
Wednesday and Thursday, November 8-9, 2006 Nebraskan and MONALakota Sioux Joseph Marshall III will be speaking on Storytelling at The Nebraskan On Wednesday evening at 7:00 and given a reading at 8:00 on Thursday night at MONA.
Friday and Saturday, October 27-28, 2006 Thomas HallUNK and the Nebraska Writer’s Guild have joined forces to present the Western Nebraska Literary Festival that combines Nebraska’s oldest writer’s organization with the student population and facilities at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. The two-day event will feature tips on writing and getting published from magazine writers, novelists, poets, editors, and publishers. From the nuts and bolts of formatting your manuscript to the finer points of magazine article writing, the speakers will provide insights to new and experienced writers.
Friday, September 22, 2006 MONAMystery writer Alex Kava, featured as the author for One Book, One Nebraska, will be reading and signing books.
Friday, February 24, 2006 8:00 pm MONA
Readings by popets published in Slamma Lamma Ding Dong: AN Anthology of Nebraska's Slam Poets.
Friday, February 17, 2006 8:00 pm MONA
Multiple award winning poet Terrance Hays teaches in the Creative Writing department at Carnegie Mellon University. His two collections include Muscular Music and Hip Logic.
Friday, February 10, 2006 8:00 pm MONA
Reynolds Writers and Readers Series features poets Don Welch, former Reynolds Chair, and Shannon Vessly, his daughter who has just published Davis County Psalms, poems that meditate on her early morning walks in southeastern Iowa.
Friday, November 18, 2005 1:30-3:00 Thomas Hall 106
The Camelot Day celebration will focus on "Arthurian Adaptations," with presentations on MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL, Arthurian endings, and one on King Arthur in the comics. There will be refreshments and door prizes, and costumes are welcome.
Monday, November 21, 2005 4:00 pm Sandhills Room of Student UnionLecture by Dr. Angana P. Chatterji, associate professor at California Institute of Integral Arts on "Gendered Violence: Notes from the Postcolonial Present." A Reception will follow. Co-sponsored by the English Department and Women's Studies.
Wednesday, October 26, 2005 4:00 pm Thomas Hall 106 Explorations Lecture: "The Great Plains Meets the Great Wall: China in a Fulbright's Eye"
Charles Peek (Phi Kappa Phi, Phi Eta Sigma, Sigma Tau Delta), Professor of English, spent the spring semester of 2005 teaching at Northeast Normal University, Changchun, People's Republic of China as a Fulbright Senior Lecturer. In addition to teaching both American Film and Drama and American Modernist Literature: Short Stories, Peek also gave a dozen lectures on Hemingway, Faulkner, Cather, the Harlem Renaissance, and American Literary Scholarship, as well as giving one of the plenary talks for an American Studies conference jointly sponsored by the American Studies Association and the Chinese Ministry of Education. Some of his work there will shortly be appearing in Chinese cultural and literary journals.
The Peeks' travels took them to Xiamen, Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an, Chongqing, Kunming, and Shenyang. His presentation for Explorations will discuss China (old and new), academic life in China, and the Fulbright program. It will likely include portions of a PowerPoint slide show, off-hand and irreverent remarks, and his usual reticence to express an opinion. There will be time for questions.
Thursday & Friday, October 27-28, 2005Popshop:Re-Envisioning Dark Fantasy for the 21st Century
Thursday at 3:30 & 6:30 Screening os Stephen Weeks' I Monster, Ghost Story, and Sword of the Valiant in Thomas Hall 106 and 107.
Friday at 8:15 Registration in Thomas Hall Atrium
Screenings and concurrent sessions throughout the day
FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT AT 308-865-8299
Thursday, October 20, 2005 12:30 pm Student Union 310Centennial Lecture by Kate Benzel
Wednesday, October 19, 2005 7:30-9:00 pm Choral Room, Fine Arts Bldg
"Music & Poetry of Walt Whitman and Bob Dylan"
Wednesday, October 19, 2005 4:00 pm Thomas Hall Atrium
Explorations Lecture: "Tresspassing Boundaries: Virginia Woolf's Short Fiction"
By Kate Benzel and Robert Luscher
Booksigning and Reception to follow