MFA Reading Series Event: Jocelyn Lieu

The Creative Writing MFA Program is pleased to announce a reading by the Spring-2014 Visiting Writer, Jocelyn Lieu, who is teaching a graduate fiction workshop this semester, with a focus on the art of the short story.

The event will not only be a festive way for new and returning MFA students to meet and catch up after a long holiday break, but also a time to bring all students up to date on our growing program.

A brief Q & A, wine reception and book signing will follow the reading.  Lieu’s books will be for sale on a cash-only basis.

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Barbara Henning's New Book: A SWIFT PASSAGE

As we reported earlier, Barbara Henning (Professor Emerita of English) recently published a new book of prose and poetry entitled A Swift Passage.

The webjournal Necessary Fiction invited Barbara to describe the research that went into the writing of the book. That article is available here.

Also, the poet and critic Jon Curley (New Jersey Institute of Technology) conducted a one-question interview with Barbara for The Conversant ("a monthly journal featuring serial interview projects, talk poetries, and interviews between poets and other language-based artists"). That interview is available here.

Be You Media Group has published a review of the book and an interview with Barbara. See here.

There's also a review at HTMLGiant. See here.

Listen to this "Write the Book" podcast, in which Shelagh Shapiro interviews Barbara about the new book.

Barbara Henning to Read at Manchester Community College (CT)

Aimee Herman Teaching in Workshop Series

 

Aimee Herman (Creative Writing MFA alum) is part of a poetry collective called Poetry Teachers NYC (PTNYC), which is excited to announce its February workshop series, From Page to Stage, taught by Herman, along with Dan Dissinger and Megan DiBello.

According to their website: "Our unique three-instructor approach sets this class apart, serving to spark open dialogue dialogue and cultivate a collaborative environment. Get to know your own writing through performance. Challenge yourself to Revive, React, and Represent your work! Our instructors will address individual students' needs, focussing on writing craft, performance style, editing, and poetry." 

Classes start Sunday, February 2.

Register here.

NYPL Lecture by Sealy Gilles

You may recall that last year, Professor Sealy Gilles (English Department) presented a lecture ("Plagues and Poxes: Epidemic Disease in Medieval and Early Modern London") at the New York Public Library (NYPL). 

We are excited to announce that Professor Gilles will once again be speaking at NYPL, this time on the topic of leprosy, or Hansen's disease. This is a second installment of work from her sabbatical project.

Lepers: Real and Imagined, in Medieval and Early Modern England

Thursday, January 23rd, 2014
1:15 PM
The Schwarzman Building (aka "The Lions"), Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. 

To find the South Auditorium, go through the glass doors in the left rear corner of the main lobby. The hall is downstairs.

2014 Paumanok Lecture: Edwidge Danticat

Click here for more information about the Paumanok Lecture Series.

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MFA Reading Series: Two Upcoming Events

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Annual Holiday Party!

You are invited to our annual holiday party on Wednesday, December 11, beginning at 4:00 PM.

Our party is potluck so please see Karen Errar to let her know what you will be bringing. We are asking that everyone bring a dish and a beverage—nothing elaborate or expensive is expected.

Thank you!

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A Reading of a New Play by Patrick Horrigan

You are invited to a reading of SWEET IS THE CITY by Eduardo Leanez & Patrick E. Horrigan (Dept. of English, LIU Brooklyn), a new play about 8.3 million New Yorkers and all the [bleep] they say. Featuring Mague Brewer, Reggie Street, Basil Horn, Priyank Rastogi, and Eduardo Leanez.

This event is part of "Actors with Accents," a variety show hosted by Eduardo Leanez.  Also on the program: singer John Sannuto (LIU Brooklyn), flamenco-comedienne Inma Heredia, jazz musicians John Ehlis & Sana Nagano, and an exhibition of paintings by Mague Brewer.

When & Where: Friday, December 6, 2013, 7:00 PM. Teatro Circulo, 64 East 4th Street, 3rd floor, between 3rd Ave./Bowery and 2nd Ave. in Manhattan.

How Much: FREE.

Spring 2014 Africana Studies Course with Professor Carol Allen

HUM 193 -- THE BLACK DETECTIVE
Professor Carol Allen (English Department)
Tuesdays 6-8:30 PM

This course traces the emergence of the black detective from 1900 to the contemporary moment. Starting with background material and a glimpse at Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and a few of Edgar Allan Poe's short stories, we will delve next into works by Pauline Hopkins (the first black writer to use the detective motif) and several short pieces by Harlem Reiiaissance and mid-century artists. The second half of the semester will be dedicated to contemporary black detectives in both film and literature: the popular and the avant-garde. Possible readings include a Walter Mosley novel and/or film; a Barbara Neely novel featuring Blanche, the domestic detective; a Hugh Holton work that splices the gumshoe figure with the graphic novel tradition; a Charlotte Carter work fixed squarely in the modern city; and Louis Edward's nonlinear N. Examining the black detective is a fun way to outline the emergence of a resilient genre in African American cultural traditions, and doing so becomes another occasion to think about modem life in general and black people inside modernity in particular. The black detective changes with the times but also mirrors the eras that it depicts, judging, sounding, rationalizing, witnessing, testifying, and in the case of black fiction, attempting to remedy or counteract the "evils" in society. Cynical and hopeful, battered and agile, the black investigator is an enigma, part warrior, part coward and perpetually uneasy. Assignments include two in-class essays, a final, leading class discussion, and informal writing.