Welcome to the Department of English!
The Department of English seeks to provide for the diverse needs of its students by offering them the opportunity to read widely, to understand and enjoy what they read, and to express themselves both orally and in writing with ease, force and clarity. Through the practice of writing and the study of language and literature, the department strives to stimulate humanistic learning and the capacity to respond rationally and imaginatively to literature and the life it reflects.
Upcoming Events
Prairie Schooner Book Prize Winners Symposium
On February 15-16 the Prairie Schooner Book Prize Winners Symposium will feature with four visiting prize winner authors:
Monday, February 15: 3p.m. panel discussion on Sources and Resources for Writers
7:30 p.m.: readings by Anne Finger (Call Me Ahab) and Kara Candito (Taste of Cherry)
Tuesday, February 16: Noon panel discussion on Revision and Editorial Advice
3:00 p.m.: readings by Paul Guest (Notes for My Body Double) and Mari L'Esperance (The Darkened Temple)
All events are in Bailey Library, Andrews Hall and free and open to the public. A flier for this event is available here.
Writer-in-Residence, Randall Kenan
March 8, Monday, Writer-in-Residence, Randall Kenan, will read from his fiction and nonfiction, 7 p.m., at The Center for Great Plains Studies Gallery. Reception to follow. Free and open to the public.
Please note that Randall Kenan will be in residence at UNL, teaching a fiction writing workshop, March 1-12.
Kenan is the author of six books, including Let the Dead Bury Their Dead, a book of stories which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle, named a New York Times Notable Book, and nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Fiction. Kenan strongly identifies with being both African American and gay, exploring both through his work on James Baldwin and Walking on Water: Black American Lives at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century. He has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers Award, and the John Dos Passos Prize. He is currently a professor at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Breaking News
Julie Iromuanya has been awarded an Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award for 2010. Her adviser is Professor Jonis Agee.
Assistant Professor Amanda Gailey won first place in the ProQuest-RSAP (Research Society
for American Periodicals) prize for scholarship in American
periodicals. The award of $1000 recognizes the best article on
American periodicals by a pre-tenure scholar published in or accepted
by a peer-reviewed academic journal in 2008 or 2009. Amanda won for
her essay "Walt Whitman and the King of Bohemia: The Poet in the
Saturday Press," first published in The Walt Whitman Quarterly
Review One judge observed, "it was a remarkable, deeply researched
piece. . . a prime example of the best scholarship in the history of
the book--and periodical studies in particular." Another remarked that
it is a "compelling and elegantly-told story that sheds new light on
the rise of Whitman's national reputation and offers fresh insights
into the development of literary celebrity by tracing the publicity
that preceded the 1860 publication of Leaves of Grass." The top
three entries will be presented at a panel at the upcoming American
Literature Association conference in May.
Related Websites
2010 Literary Contests
Students are encouraged to enter department literary contests. Prizes range from $75 to $2000. The deadline for entries is March 5, 2010. Entry forms are available in the English Department office in room 202 Andrews Hall.
For More News
- Read the department's latest biweekly newsletter
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The Aesthetics of British Romanticism, Then and Today
Professor Stephen Behrendt is preparing to offer an NEH Summer Seminar for College Teachers in the summer of 2010, on the subject of British Romanticism and aesthetics. The seminar will run for five weeks, from June 7, 2010 through July 9, 2010. It is open to a maximum of sixteen college and university teachers from around the country, who will work and study here at UNL under Dr. Behrendt's general guidance. A detailed description is available on his website.
Recent Books Published by Department Faculty
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Listen to Ted Kooser reading "So This Is Nebraska"
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Video by Wessels Living History Farm.
