Welcome
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.
Breaking News
Kwame Dawes
The nation's largest nonprofit organization serving creative writers is recognizing Kwame Dawes, professor of English and Glenna Luschei Editor of Prairie Schooner, for his commitment to his fellow writers.
New York-based Poets & Writers has named Dawes as a recipient of the 2011 Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award. The award recognizes writers who have given generously to other writers or to the broader literary community. Read more.
Susan Martens
Susan Martens is the recipient of the 2012 Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award. Congratulations Susan!
News
Marianne Kunkel
The Prairie Schooner, the literary quarterly of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Department of English, has named a new managing editor, Marianne Kunkel, a third-year Ph.D. student in poetry. Read more.
Jessica Rivera-Mueller
Jessica Rivera-Mueller has been selected as an Emerging Leader by Phi Delta Kappa International, an association of education professionals. The organization's mission is to support education, particularly public education, as the cornerstone of democracy. She serves as the vice president for her local PDK chapter and will accept the award in Baltimore during the association's annual conference.
Tim Schaffert Signs New Book Deal
Based on the great success of his widely-reviewed book, The Coffins of Little Hope, Tim Schaffert has signed a book deal with Penguin/Riverhead Books for his new novel. More information can be found on the Publishers Weekly website.
Steve Ramsay Quoted in Science News
In the July 30 issue of Science News, Steve Ramsay was quoted in an article called "Crime's Digital Past," by Bruce Bower. The article is about the online archive The Proceedings of the Old Bailey. He was also in the Chronicle of Higher Education in an article titled "Digging Into Data, Day 2: Making Tools and Using Them" and the ACM News Bulletin. The project itself was featured in a New York Times article called "As the Gavels Fell: 240 Years at Old Bailey". The quotes are from a talk he gave at the NEH, which can be found in his blog.
More News
Find out more about what is happening around the English Department by reading the department's bi-weekly newsletter or by subscribing to our RSS feed.
Prairie Schooner Book Prize Celebration
Prairie Schooner and the University of Nebraska Press invite you to the 2012 Prairie Schooner Book Prize Celebration, taking place on January 30 and 31 and featuring three recent Prairie Schooner Book Prize winners—Shane Book, 2010 winner in poetry for Ceiling of Sticks; Greg Hrbek, 2011 winner in fiction for Destroy All Monsters; and James Crews, 2011 winner in poetry for The Book of What Stays.
Monday, January 30, from 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. offers an opportunity to meet the three prize-winning authors and participate in an informative question-and-answer session held in the Dudley Bailey Library, located in Andrews Hall (City Campus).
On Tuesday, January 31, beginning at 8:00 p.m. in Andersen Hall Room 15 (City Campus), Book, Hrbek, and Crews will read from their works in a collaborative performance with UNL's photography and dance departments.
Hosted by Prairie Schooner and the University of Nebraska Press, the 2012 Book Prize Celebration is free and open to the public. Here is a link to the flier for the event.
Writer in Residence ZZ Packer
Fiction writer ZZ Packer, this year's UNL Writer in Residence, will be here from March 7-16, 2012. Packer is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and was recently named one of America's Young Innovators by Smithsonian Magazine as well as one America's Best Young novelists by Granta Magazine. Her acclaimed story collection, Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, was a PEN/Faulkner finalist and a New York Times Notable Book. Packer's stories have appeared in the New Yorker, Harper's, Story, Ploughshares, Zoetrope and Best American Short Stories 2000 and 2004, and have been read on NPR's Selected Shorts. She was featured in the New Yorker's summer 2010 "20 Under 40" fiction issue. Her nonfiction has been featured in The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post Magazine, The American Prospect, Essence, O, The Believer and Salon. She is a contributor to The Huffington Post, and has appeared several times as a commentator on NPR's Talk of the Nation, and MSNBC. She has taught at the Iowa Writers Workshop.
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ZZ Packer will give a reading, free and open to the public, at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 8, in the Great Plains Art Museum, 1155 Q Street. (Reception and book signing to follow.) Further details of her visit are forthcoming. For more information, contact Judy Slater, Coordinator of Creative Writing, jslater1@unl.edu.
Alumni News
Emily Danforth
On February 7, 2012, UNL alum emily m. danforth's debut novel—The Miseducation of Cameron Post—will be published by Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. The novel has thus far received starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus, and Publisher's Weekly, calling The Miseducation of Cameron Post an "impressive debut," adding, "the story is riveting, beautiful, and full of the kind of detail that brings to life a place (rural Montana), a time (the early 1990s), and a questioning teenage girl." Novelist Curtis Sittenfeld (Prep; American Wife) says of it, "If Holden Caulfield had been a gay girl from Montana, this is the story he might have told--it's funny, heartbreaking, and beautifully rendered. emily danforth remembers exactly what it's like to be a teenager, and she has written a new classic."
Danforth graduated from UNL with a Ph.D in English-Creative Writing in 2011. A draft of The Miseducation of Cameron Post served as her creative dissertation. Currently Dr. Danforth is an Assistant Professor of English at Rhode Island College in Providence. During the fall of 2011, she collaborated with award winning Rhode Island filmmaker Trevor Holden on a "book trailer" (short film) promoting her novel. It can be viewed here.
The Miseducation of Cameron Post is available through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Indie Bound. Visit emily's website to learn more.
Jennifer Sinor
Jennifer Sinor earned her BA in English and Russian from UNL in 1991. As a student at UNL, she first published in Laurus. She earned her Ph.D. in English at the University of Michigan. Now an associate professor of English at Utah State University, Jennifer teaches creative writing and serves as chair of the program. She is the author of The Extraordinary Work of Ordinary Writing, a book on her great, great, great aunt's diary that blends research and personal narrative. It was a finalist for the MLA First Book Award. As a creative nonfiction writer, she has written extensively about her experiences living in the West, as well as her military childhood. She has co-edited a collection of essays on place entitled Placing the Academy: Essays on Landscape, Work, and Identity. Her essays have appeared in many journals including The American Scholar, Fourth Genre, Bellingham Review, The Chronicle, and Ecotone.
Vanessa Steinroetter
Vanessa Steinroetter received her Ph.D. in English from UNL in May of 2011. She started her position as an Assistant Professor of English at Washburn University in Topeka, KS, in August, 2011, after spending four weeks as a Caleb Loring, Jr. fellow at the Boston Athenæum over the summer. Her work has appeared in journals including the New England Quarterly and American Periodicals, and she is currently working on a research project based on her dissertation, in which she examines representations of readers and reading in American literature of the Civil War.
Frank Wheeler
Frank Wheeler received his MA in English from UNL in May of 2010. He currently lives in Nebraska and teaches at SCC in Lincoln. He has published a short story and book reviews in the online magazine Crime Factory. His novel, "The Wowzer," is forthcoming from Thomas & Mercer publishers in the spring of 2012.
Sarah Knight
Sarah Knight graduated with a B.A. in English in 2009. In May 2012, she will complete a master's degree in library and information science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She currently works as an assistant at the Lincoln High School media center in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Ryan Wiegert
Ryan Wiegert attended the University of Nebraska at Lincoln from 1999-2004 and graduated with a B.A. in English. He currently works as a high school English teacher in Omaha, Nebraska. Teaching mostly 12th graders, Ryan focuses his course content on preparing young people for post-secondary education and training.
Derek Driedger
Derek Driedger (Ph.D. 2007) received the Dakota Wesleyan University Faculty Professional Excellence Award for the 2010-2011 school year.
He is entering his second year as Chair of the English Department and fifth year at the university. To read more visit: http://www.dwu.edu/press/2011/may6.htm
Dave Madden
On August 2, 2011, Dave Madden's book, The Authentic Animal, will be available in bookstores. The book tries to answer the question: Why do we take animal skins and mount them in action poses? Publisher's Weekly says the book "muses with verve and wit on the relationships between human and animal". The book will be available through Amazon, Borders, and Barnes and Noble. Visit Dave's website to learn more: http://www.davemadden.org/book/
Tyrone Jaeger
Faculty Faces at Hendrix College has featured Tyrone Jaeger in a recent article on their website.
In just three years, Dr. Tyrone Jaeger has "seen a lot of changes."
Jaeger came to Hendrix in 2008 for a newly created position as Writer-in-Residence.
His is a "unique position" at Hendrix, he said.
Though funded through a grant from the Hendrix-Murphy Foundation Programs in Literature and Language, he is a member of the College's English studies department. He has a vote on department policies and participates in job searches for department positions.
The complete article is available at: http://www.hendrix.edu/news/news.aspx?id=52881
Alumni Information
Heard anything new or exciting about fellow alumni?
If you have any alumni news or information to be passed along and
shared, please, send an e-mail to .
Laurus Submission Deadline
The Deadline for submissions for Laurus, UNL's undergraduate literary
magazine, is Midnight, January 27, 2012. All registered
undergraduates are welcome to submit poetry, fiction, creative
non-fiction or visual art online at
http://www.laurusmagazine.submishmash.com. For submission guidelines,
check out our webpage here. The magazine is exclusively for
undergraduate work and is edited by undergraduates. The editorial
staff looks forward to considering your work.
Apply Now!
Scholarship applications are now available. To apply, complete and submit this form by 4:00 p.m. on Friday, February 3, 2012. More information about the requirements can be found on the Scholarships page.
Jobs
Assistant Professor of English
The English Department at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is seeking a specialist in fiction writing, for a tenure-track appointment at the assistant professor level.
Assistant Professor - Digital Humanities
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) announces a cluster hire in digital humanities: over the next three years the university intends to hire six tenure-line faculty members across a number of departments (and additional staff) to further propel this signature program.
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Watch Robert Brooke's ENG 376 student, Sara Schroeder, win $50 of the dean's money!
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View more of the faces of the English Department on our Facebook Fan Page and while you are there say that you like us to get updates on what is going on in the Department.
Listen to Ted Kooser reading "So This Is Nebraska"
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The transcript of this video follows.
Transcript
I wrote this poem – Bill Kloefkorn, the state poet was one his way out to Grand Island [Nebraska] one time for a writing engagement out there. And I was sort of resentful that I hadn't been invited. And I thought I'd go home and write a real snotty poem about Nebraska, and have Bill read it out there in my absence. And I got home and I started to work on the poem. And I as the poem developed, I began to understand how much I really loved the state. This is that poem. Read So This is Nebraska.
Video by Wessels Living History Farm.
Digital Humanities
Center for Digital Research Humanities
View a video introduction to the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities.
Frame by Frame
Frame by Frame
"Frame By Frame" is a series of academic movie reviews by Professor Wheeler Winston Dixon, Ryan Professor of Film Studies, Professor of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In this episode, Dr. Dixon focuses on Special Effects Masters.
Jonis Agee
Laura White
Laura White
View a video of English professor Laura White who was recognized with a 2010 Outstanding Teaching and Instructional Creativity Award.
Recent Books Published by Department Faculty
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Recent Books
On the left a random book title by one of the English Department's faculty will appear. You can also view a complete list of recent books or click the Random Title link to see another book by one of our faculty.
Humanities on the Edge
Watch the "trailer" for "Humanities on the Edge" here.
Inaugurated in fall 2010 and co-organized by Dr. Marco Abel and Dr. Roland Végsö, "Humanities on the Edge" is a cross-disciplinary speaker series focusing on theoretical research in the Humanities. Each year the series features a special topic. For 2010/11, it was the "Political Turn" in the Humanities; and for 2011/12 it is "Biopower/Biopolitics."
During its inaugural year, the series featured four speakers: Steven Shaviro (Wayne State U), who talked about his current work on Eastern European Cinema and argued that it might help us envision political alternatives to the capitalist status quo; Jeffrey Nealon (Penn State), who discussed the role literature might play as a tool for living in the age of "just-in-time capitalism"; Sande Cohen (California Institute for the Arts), who addressed the vexed issue of the role criticism plays in what he calls "the Age of Anti-Intellectualism"; and the world-renowned Argentine political theorist, Ernesto Laclau, lectured on "The Discursive Construction of Social Antagonisms.
In the fall 2011, Sara Guyer (U Wisconsin) presented John Clare's Grave and the politics of life; and Jodi Dean (Hobart and William Smith Colleges) provided an incisive critique of social media and its relation to the discourse of democracy in the age of communicative capitalism. In the spring 2012, Michael Hardt (Duke) will call for a new deal, albeit a biopolitical one; and Cesare Casarino (U Minnesota) will attempt to produce a concept of the "common" and argue for its inescapable centrality for any critical understanding of related concepts such as "capitalism", "biopolitics", and "communism" today.
The Dickens Project
The Dickens Project is an important consortium for research on Charles Dickens and nineteenth-century literary and cultural studies centered at the University of California. With its official membership in the consortium, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln joins some of the finest institutions in the country including Stanford, MIT, Princeton, Columbia, Cornell, Vanderbilt, and NYU along with fellow Big Ten and CIC members Indiana, Penn State, Iowa, and Ohio State. The Project sponsors an annual Research Institute and collaborative symposium in early August on the Santa Cruz campus, a graduate conference on nineteenth-century British literature and culture held on another consortium campus each spring, occasional international conferences, as well as other institutes, colloquia, and lectures throughout the year. Through their participation in these conferences, UNL graduate students have the unique opportunity to meet and develop collegial relations with Victorianists from a wide range of research-intensive universities.
Related Websites
Department of English
202 Andrews Hall
Lincoln NE 68588-0333
402-472-3191
402-472-9771 (fax)
Lost & Found
Please check with the English Department office in 202 Andrews Hall if you have lost or found something.
