The English Club, which I advise, elected new officers for 2013-2014. They are:

• President: Andrea Kimmel
• Vice President: Jeff Ford
• Secretary: Steph Ford
• Treasurer: Megan Salisbury

I look forward to working with them this year and thank the former officers, graduating seniors Karyl Anne Geary and Madison Cyr, for all their hard work.

Congratulations to the winners of the 2012 Indiana University Southeast Writing Contest

Poetry

• First Prize: Anonymous –“Ventura”
• Second Prize: Shannon Kleier –“Death Of A Squirrel On A Suburban Street”
• Third Prize: Karyl Anne Geary – “Reflections: At The Wall”
• Honorable Mention: Rachel Short – “Brahms In A Box”
• Honorable Mention: Christian Mattix – “Her Favorite Place”
• Honorable Mention: Shannon Kleier –“Canary”

Non- Fiction

• First Prize: Jonathan Carson –“The Pain of Being a Man: Fact, Fiction, and Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”
• Second Prize: Karyl Anne Geary  –“Indelible Nerdism”
• Third Prize: Madison Fay Cyr – “The Girl beneath the Mango Tree”
• Honorable Mention: Jonathan Carson –“Duckbutter’s First Time”
• Special Mention: S.D. Lintz –“The Skin You’re In: The HUH Profile”

Short Fiction

• First Prize: William A. Hainline – THE REALITY Engineers
• Second Prize: Jonathan Carson – “The Final Vestment and Other Voices (Tom’s Day)”
• Third Prize: Jonathan Carson – “Sounds and Air”
• Honorable Mention: Karyl Anne Geary – “Degeneration”

 Flash Fiction 

• First Prize: Karyl Anne Geary – “Flight”
• Second Prize: Jonathan Carson – “Here in the Smoking Earth”
• Third Prize: Elizabeth Gohmann – “Mama Told Me”
• Honorable Mention: Karyl Anne Geary – “Mirror, Mirror . . .”

Research/Report

• First Place: William A. Hainline –“The Rise of the Mac Fanboy: Brand-Identification, Or Corporate-Sponsored Religion?”
• Second Place: Madison Fay Cyr –“A Special Omniscience: Mythic Structures in the Late Poems of Sylvia Plath and the Stories of Louise Erdrich”
• Third Place: Karyl Anne Geary –“From the Divine to the Damned: The Effects of Society on the Character of Morgan Le Fay”

 

I’m just tickled to announce that on November 17, 2012 I received my Master of Fine Arts in Writing from the Spalding University MFA program.

I already hold a Masters degree in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Louisville, and am A.B.D. (all but dissertation) from the University of Louisville Ph.D. program in Composition and Rhetoric.

That will probably be enough alphabet soup for a while.

I’m pleased to announce my promotion from Lecturer in English (Writing) to Senior Lecturer in English (Writing) at Indiana University Southeast. I couldn’t have done it without the help and support of dozens of friends, family, colleagues and students, and I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

Everyone in English eventually learns about the Norman Conquest, which in 1066 began to change the shape of the English Language definitively and forever. But the Norman Duke, known as William the Conqueror, taking the throne of England is just a fact of history for most of us. Here’s a wonderful free podcast by Lars Brownworth that brings the age of the Normans (or “Northmen”) in Europe into personal and specific focus. It’s wonderful, interesting storytelling, and I highly recommend it. Get it here: normancenturies.com/