Category Archives: Faculty News

Professor Stanciu Wins Prestigious Fellowship at the Newberry Library in Chicago

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Cristina Stanciu is the recipient of the Monticello College Foundation Fellowship, a long-term fellowship at the Newberry Library, 2013-14. Dr. Stanciu is very excited to join the Newberry’s vibrant community of fellows and staff next year and to research in one of the strongest collections on American Indians in the world. She will spend the spring 2014 semester in residence, workng on her book manuscript, The Makings and Unmakings of Americans: Indians and Immigrants in American Literature and Culture, 1880-1924.

Congratulations, Cristina!

Tom De Haven’s Freaks’ Amour Republished as a Graphic Novel

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Freaks' AmourDark Horse has released a graphic novel edition of Tom De Haven’s Freaks’ Amour which sold out in less than two weeks! In the meantime, please check out Tom’s new blog called Cafe Pinfold  at:
 
 
There you’ll find nearly all of his short fiction, as well as three novellas-in-progress, full-length film scripts, videos, and several essays and lectures on American comics. Beginning this summer, he’ll be posting chapters from two long novels-in-progress.

MATX Graduate Lands Teaching Position

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Congratulations to MATX program graduate, Dr. Melinda White, who has just accepted a full-time lecturer in the English Department at the University of New Hampshire where she will be teaching composition and creative non-fiction (with a splash of digital media). She tells us that the hiring committee and department have been very welcoming and friendly and it should be a great fit for her.  Congrats, Melinda!

VCU-City Jail Partnership Featured in Times Dispatch

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Drawing parallels to VCU’s recent graduation ceremony, David Coogan celebrates a recent graduation ceremony for the residents at the Richmond City Jail participating in Open Minds, the program that brings faculty and students into the jail for courses in the liberal arts. Read article at http://www.timesdispatch.com/opinion/their-opinion/columnists-blogs/guest-columnists/article_6f5c7011-0bd7-55b1-827b-900505d9faf3.html.

Well done, Dave!

Interview with Bryant Mangum

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Check out the interview published by VCU News with Fitzgerald scholar Bryant Mangum about his latest book, F. Scott Fitzgerald in Context. Mangum teaches popular English department courses on Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Salinger, and The New Yorker magazine short stories, among others, and is widely recognized as one of VCU’s best teachers with awards from VCU, the Virginia State Council of Higher Education, and the South Atlantic Modern Language Association. He is also the editor of Modern Library’s “The Best Early Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald” and author of “A Fortune Yet: Money in the Art of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Short Stories.”

Congratulations, Bryant!

http://www.news.vcu.edu/news/Fitzgerald_in_Context

British Virginia Series Launched

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Founding co-general editors Joshua Eckhardt (English) and Sarah Meacham (History) launched the scholarly series British Virginia on April 25th with the publication of a sermon preached to the Virginia Company of London on the same date 404 years earlier. The sermon apparently started the company’s campaign to counter public scrutiny of the colony, especially its presumptions regarding native rulers. The new British Virginia editions of the sermon likewise seem to have started digital, peer-reviewed library publishing at VCU! A link to British Virginia’s library page is up on the English department’s website. Here is a link to the British Virginia blog wp.vcu.edu/britishvirginia and Facebook page www.facebook.com/BritishVirginiaVCU.

Congratulations Josh and Sarah!

 

 

David Wojahn Wins Poets’ Prize for World Tree

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world_treeDavid Wojahn has received the Poets’ prize for his book World Tree. The Poets’ prize is awarded annually for the best book of verse published by a living American poet two years prior to the award year. Judging is done by a committee of about 20 American poets, who each nominate two books for the prize.

A reception will be held in May at the Nicholas Roerich Museum in New York City where winners and finalists will read from their award-winning books. David shares the award this year with poet Robert Shaw.

Interview with Clint McCown

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haints

Check out the interview published by VCU News with MFA Faculty fiction writer, Clint McCown, about his latest novel, Haints.

The circumstances of the novel are also the circumstances of my birth. A real-life tornado destroyed my hometown of Fayetteville, Tennessee on leap day, 1952, one week before I was born. Miraculously, only one person was killed . . .

Clint McCown

http://news.vcu.edu/news/QandA_with_Clint_McCown_author_of_Haints

VCU at MLA

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mlaMany of the department’s faculty attended the Modern Language Association’s Annual Meeting in Boston in January. Catherine Ingrassia presided over “Celebrity, Fame, Notoriety” and “Open Access? ECCO, EEBO, and Digital Resources,” both organized by the Division on Restoration and Early Eighteenth-Century English Literature. Joshua Eckhardt presented in the latter panel. Along with Manushag Powell, Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN), Rivka Swenson organized and presided over two special sessions, “Scriblerians at Three Hundred” and “Early Women Tory Writers.” With Bernardo Piciche of VCU’s School of World Studies, Marcel Cornis-Pope presided over “Alternate Voices of the Mediterranean,” a program organized by the Division on Comparative Studies in Twentieth-Century Literature.

“First Friday” Lecture Series – Professor David Latané

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The VCU Department of English hosts a lecture by Professor David Latané as a part on its ongoing “First Friday” lecture series. The lecture will take place Friday, December 7th at 3:00pm in Hibbs 308. Topic: “The London Press and the Case of Maria Foote: Privacy and the Press in 1824-25.” All First Friday events are free and open to the public.

First Friday Lecture Series — Professor Joshua Eckhardt

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The VCU Department of English is pleased to host a lecture by Professor Joshua Eckhardt as a part on its ongoing “First Friday” lecture series. The lecture will take place Friday, November 2nd at 3:00pm in Hibbs 308. Topic: “The First Popular Objection to British Colonization Overseas.” All First Friday events are free and open to the public.

David Wojahn Wins Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize

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David Wojahn has been awarded the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize for his book World Tree, voted the Academy of American Poets most outstanding book for 2012. Of the winning book, Linda Gregerson writes:

David Wojahn’s World Tree is a book of consummate vision and artistry. Exquisitely cadenced, politically astute, large of heart, and keen of mind, these are poems of extraordinary moral penetration. They are also a joy to read: David Wojahn is working at the height of his powers.

Congratulations David on this well-deserved honor!