New English Major Requirements (effective Fall 2018)

Big announcement! The faculty have voted to change the requirements for the English major!

The English major will remain 30 credits in ENG courses above 100. However, there will no longer be three separate concentrations, and there will no longer be any particular required courses. Instead, there will simply be one English major, with a minimum of restriction and much more freedom for students to put together the mix of courses that best suits their interests and goals.


For students entering LIU in Fall 2018 or later, the English major will be as follows.
  • One Creative Writing course
  • One Literature course
  • One Writing & Rhetoric course
  • Seven additional ENG courses of any type



The senior thesis will be optional. If the student elects to write a thesis, it will be conducted on a tutorial basis, and it will be one of the abovementioned “seven additional ENG courses.” The decision whether to write a thesis should be made in consultation with your faculty mentor and should be based not on expediency but on your intellectual interests and your future academic plans.

Current students must decide now whether to stick with the old requirements or switch to the new plan.

Some students are far enough along that it might not make sense to switch. Others have not yet taken many 100-level ENG courses, and it would be safe to switch.


Before you make any decision, please discuss your situation with your faculty mentor and/or Wayne Berninger, the advisor for undergraduate majors in our department.


If you decide to switch, please do so before planning your Fall 2018 schedule. Mr. Berninger will guide you through the switch process.


Resources:

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Jonathan Haynes: Two New Publications

We are pleased to note that Professor Jonathan Haynes recently published a book chapter and a film review.

The book chapter: “Nollywood and Nollywood Studies: Thoughts on the Future” Media Studies in Nigeria: Genesis & Detours. Eds. Onookome Okome and Marcel Okhakhu. Ibadan: Stirling-Horden, 2016. 67-88.

The film review: The Wedding Party. Dir. Kemi Adetiba. Nigeria: Elfike Film Collective, 2016. African Studies Review 60.3 (2017): 261-62.

Save the Date! Paumanok Lecture 2018: Yusef Komunyakaa

Cancelled until further notice!

We are very pleased to announce that this year's Paumanok Lecture on American Literature and Culture will be given by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa.

The lecture will be Thursday, April 12, 2016; at 6:30 PM; in the Kumble Theatre.

This event is co-sponsored by the English Department's Voices of the Rainbow reading series.

Watch this blog for further information as the date approaches!

Erica Hunt: Reading with Charles Bernstein at Zinc Bar

We are pleased to note that Professor Erica Hunt (English Department / Creative Writing MFA Program) will be reading with Charles Bernstein as part of the Segue reading series at Zinc Bar (82 West 3rd St., Manhattan).

Charles Bernstein and Ted Greenwald started what is now the Segue/Zinc series at the Ear Inn forty years ago. PennSound has archived many of the readings.

More info.

Erica Hunt is the author of Local History, Arcade, Piece Logic, A Day and Its Approximates, & Time Slips Right Before Your Eyes. With Dawn Lundy Martin, she co-edited the anthology Letters to the Future: Radical Writing by Black Women. Hunt is the Parsons Family Professor of Creative Writing at LIU Brooklyn.

Bernard Schweizer: New Book

We are pleased to note that Professor Bernard Schweizer (English) is the co-editor of a new volume, Reading Heresy: Religion and Dissent in Literature and Art (De Gruyter, 2017).

More info.

Downtown Brooklyn: A Journal of Writing


current issue


We are pleased to announce that Issue 27 is ready for reading! 

The university reduced our funding yet again this year, but we are still here! Be on the lookout in September 2018 for news about whether we plan to continue publishing.

This is the second issue to appear in the form of a Tumblr blog (no print, no PDF to scroll through).



previous online issues appearing as Tumblr blogs

We were fortunate that the university again funded our work in the 2016-17 academic year, and we were able to publish #26, which was the first issue to appear in the form of a Tumblr blog (no print, no PDF). See link below. Enjoy!

Read Issue #26

previous online issues appearing as PDF

In 2014, budget cuts at the university forced us to abandon print and publish #23 of the magazine online. 

We also published #24 online in 2015, but the message we seemed to be getting from the university at that time was that there would be no further funding, so the editor reluctantly announced that #24 would be the last issue. 

However, since then, the university has provided enough financial support for us to publish additional issues. We are now operating on a year-to-year, wait-and-see basis. Keep your fingers crossed!

Issues #23-25 are available in PDF via the following links.

Read Issue #25

Read Issue #24

Read Issue #23

back issues in print

Issues #1-22 are available for reading in the periodicals collection of the LIU Brooklyn Library (they cannot be checked out). 

A limited number of free copies of some of these issues may be available from the Editor. See Wayne Berninger in Humanities 454.

Issues #1-22 are also available for study in the Little Magazine Collection at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

writing assignments from the editor

Visit our Facebook page for a steady stream of tongue-in-cheek (or are they?) "writing assignments."

about the magazine

The university environment exposes us to a variety of personalities and ideas, but on a primarily commuter campus, it's easy to feel alienated from each other and from the overall campus culture. It's difficult to take advantage of what your campus has to offer if you always have to rush straight to the subway after class. It's hard enough just to get to class on time, let alone find out that the person next to you in the elevator is a great writer. But who knows?

The person sitting behind you in class might be your future favorite novelist or the next [insert name of favorite poet]. If you aren't tuned in to what other people are doing on campus, you're really missing out.

The literary magazine of the English Department at LIU Brooklyn, Downtown Brooklyn: A Journal of Writing (ISSN 1536-8475) was founded in 1992 to showcase poetry and literary prose by writers at LIU Brooklyn. One issue has appeared every year since 1992. The magazine showcases a wide variety of work (in traditional forms as well as more experimental styles) by undergrads; grad students; alumni; current and former faculty; and administrative, clerical and other staff from across the Campus—not only from English. Our aesthetic is eclectic. Our mission is to promote not any particular style but all the different kinds of writing being created on campus.

Watch this blog for the next call for submissions and for news about the publication of each new issue.

Daniel Owen: Furniture Press Poetry Prize

We are pleased to note that Sandra Simonds' pick for the 5th Annual Furniture Press Poetry Prize is Restaurant Samsara by LIU Brooklyn Creative Writing MFA alum Daniel Owen.

More info.

Sam Farhi: New Film

Sam Farhi, an alum of the Creative Writing MFA program, has written a short film commissioned by Adidas and directed by Daniel Arsham and Ben Nicholas. 

Hourglass - Present is the second chapter of a film series commissioned by adidas Originals to accompany an ongoing collaboration with Daniel Arsham. Films that explore the life and thoughts of Daniel Arsham through alienation, discovery & archaeology. The screenplay was written by Sam Farhi, Ben Nicholas and Daniel Arsham. 

Holiday Party!