Letter from the Chair/Holiday Party/Department News/Sadar Lecture/Intersections/Summer Internships/Colloquium/Alumni News/Send Me Your News//
Ryan Pfeiffer delivers the MacIntyre Lecture on Friday, December 6th:
“Edward Taylor’s Epideictic Imagination.”
Letter from the Chair
One of my favorite descriptions of a university comes from the poet Adrienne Rich, who calls it “a place where people can find each other and begin to hear each other.” The other day– a wet December afternoon at the end of classes–I saw Rich’s definition put into practice. The English department had gathered in Guilford Parlor to hear the fall semester’s undergraduate Capstone presentations. One student, Hunter Lin, read their original poetry, including a searing poem about addiction that returned to the same line over and over. Another student, Carsten Torgeson, presented the stories of refugees and thought carefully about the act of speaking for others. The program concluded with Charlotte Goyal, who had been interning at the Cleveland Clinic while finishing her degree. Charlie recounted how she found herself speechless, unable to transform the pain and suffering she witnessed into what she felt would be an adequate language. And so her capstone project became her courageous attempt to write through that cautious silence.
These three students had one thing in common: they had found a faculty mentor who had heard them out and encouraged them to risk putting their ideas into narrative prose and poetry. Their very different Capstone projects were a reminder that the intellectual commitments of the university and the department are thriving, and constantly taking on new vehicles and voices.
This spring the department continues its growth and expansion: our faculty will help students learn how to read poetry, fiction, and plays; to learn the foundations of creative writing, journalism, and professional writing for law, health, and business; to immerse themselves in Jane Austen, the Harlem Renaissance, Science Fiction films, and much more. We’ll also bring in Ada Limón, the poet laureate of the United States, for a conversation with the provost on April 12th, the culmination of a lively colloquium series of speakers that includes Iris Dunkle, Michael Snediker, and Yopie Prins.
The purpose of an English department is to bring students and faculty together to talk about ideas that take on a singular form in creative works of great beauty and imagination, and to learn how to express these ideas clearly and vividly in writing– in other words, to find each other and begin to hear each other. I’m proud of what we’ve done this fall and of the contributions we’ve made to the intellectual life of the campus and the broader community. Every semester is an unfinished project, with the action continuing deep underground, soon to emerge in a fresh configuration in the spring.
–Walt Hunter
The English Department Holiday Party
The party was hosted by Gary Stonum and Marilyn Shea-Stonum.
Department News
On November 7th, Juliana Amir spoke at Dobama theater to the cast and crew of Peter Pan about J.M. Barrie’s life, his works, and Scottish folklore to give them some background information.
Elysia Balavage‘s article, “Orwell, Class, and Consumption: The Desecration of Bread in The Road to Wigan Pier,” is forthcoming from English Studies.
Michele Tracy Berger‘s debut collection of speculative stories, Doll Seed: Stories, was published in October by Aunt Lute Books.
Jacob Bowers has a book review of Divine Style: Walt Whitman and the King James Bible forthcoming from the Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association.
On October 9th, Joan Spoerl from the Literacy Cooperative met with Cara Byrne‘s AIQS 130 students. They completed several service projects (including preparing picture books for distribution and upcycling damaged picture books into puzzles) and learned a lot about the Imagination Library program (started by Dolly Parton), child development, and literacy in Cleveland.
Best American Essays 2024 features an essay by Michael Clune.
Joe DeLong presented his paper “Fantastical Disorders in Haruki Murakami’s Fiction” at MMLA.
Charlie Ericson‘s article, “Hieratic Morality: Ali Smith and Hannah Arendt,” has been accepted for publication at Contemporary Literature.
Nárcisz Fejes is one of the faculty organizers of the Ecology, Attention, Action Discussion Group, which is funded by the Expanding Horizons Initiative of the College of Arts and Sciences. Everyone is welcome to attend their monthly discussion groups centered on ecological attention. .
Mary Grimm is interviewed about her third book, Transubstantiation, in JMWW.
Jamie Hickner chaired and moderated the panel “Shaping Discourse on Racism and Diversity: The Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards” at the American Studies Association’s Annual Meeting in Baltimore, MD in November.
Walt Hunter wrote an article about Garth Greenwell’s new novel, Small Rain.
Kristine Kelly‘s article, “A work, or a walk, in progress: Associative practice in Ivan Vladislavić’s Portrait with Keys: The City of Johannesburg Unlocked,” is included in the recently published collection Ruptured Commons, edited by Anna Guttman and Veronica Austen.
Dave Lucas has written the libretto for an upcoming cantata, “A Moment’s Oblivion,” to be performed by Les Délices this February.
Ben Mauk co-wrote “The Long Road from Xinjiang” with the writer Nyrola Elimä which was published in the New York Times Magazine on November 10th. The story follows one man’s escape from China and long incarceration, part of their two-year investigation into a human smuggling route in Southeast Asia and China’s transnational repression of Uyghur asylum seekers.
Marilyn Mobley discussed her new book at Elizabeth’s Bookshop in Akron, her hometown. Carla Davis, former director of marketing and communications at the Akron-Summit County Public Library and former president and board chair of the Akron Press Club moderated the discussion about Toni Morrison and the Geopoetics of Place, Race, and Be/longing (Temple, 2024).
James Newlin delivered the Dr. Paul J. Kane Memorial Lecture at Concord University on Thursday, November 7th. His paper was titled: “Signs and Semblances: The Problem of Likability in Some Recent Productions of Much Ado About Nothing.”
Ryan Pfeiffer presented a paper titled “Robert Bridges: Technical Virtuosity: How Schemes Engender Value” at the ALSCW conference in Washington DC on October 19th.
Robin Beth Schaer took part in a panel conversation on “The Beautiful Struggle” as part of the Case Western Reserve University’s Social Justice Institute Think Tank featuring a keynote address by Marc Lamont Hill in October.
Robert Spadoni delivered “Style in Star Trek“: a Faculty Work-in-Progress Lecture in December.
Carsten Torgeson has an article up at Matter: “Refugee Stories: Getting to Know Leondard.”
Lindsay Turner has three poems in the October issue of Poetry.
Maggie Vinter is featured in Discussions: The Undergraduate Research Journal for CWRU.
Marion Wolfe and Gabrielle Parkin, along with Peer Writing Fellows Sarah Secrest, Pehel Patel, Bernice Eads, and Vani Subramony, presented the roundtable “Product Over Process: Negotiating Conversations about AI at a STEM-Focused University” at the International Writing Center Association’s annual conference.
Lucas Yang won the M. Rick Smith Memorial Undergraduate Student Essay Prize at the Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference.
The Sadar Lecture
Cassandra Phillips delivers the Sadar Lecture on Monday, December 9th–“Literacy and Materiality: Aligning Labor, Scholarship, and Teaching To Reach All Learners.”
Student Research Projects
Student Research Projects at Intersections (December 2024).
Summer 2024 Internships
I’m a rising junior and an English student here at Case Western Reserve. Last summer I worked for Midstory, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that focuses on creating media to advance the Midwest narrative—which means working on journalism that uplifts and prioritizes Midwestern voices, rather than the dominant media coverage from the East and West Coasts.
An internship made possible from Tim O’Brien’s support helped pay for the rent, groceries, and transportation costs of living and working in urban Toledo for 10 weeks. Without support, this experience would have been financially impossible for me, and I’m so grateful to have had this opportunity to learn about the professional environments of both nonprofit and journalism industries. The best part of Midstory was the way that interns get to build their own experiences, and whether it was drafting stories, research, interviewing, designing, or creating audiovisual content, I was truly able to do a bit of everything this summer.
Heading into the first weeks, while I was confident in my writing abilities, I had very little training in writing news-style stories. With the help of workshops, writing exercises, and the infinite patience of my mentors for panicked questions, I adapted to the kinks of AP style (I’m shocked and offended that modern journalistic standard is to omit the Oxford comma).
My biggest project this summer was compiling a history of the Akron Sound, a supernova explosion of alternative music that burned brightly and briefly in the mid-1970s. It produced Devo, an international sensation, but also a slew of wildly creative, critically acclaimed punk bands like Tin Huey, the Rubber City Rebels, and the Bizarros. The best part of Midwestern culture is the way that it’s so passionate and close-knit, and getting to interview members and fans of the bands was an incredible way to explore that. My absolute favorite quote was from an interview with Harvey Gold of Tin Huey, on the uniqueness of the Midwest’s art and creative expression:
“When [Akron’s] rubber shops left, it created absolutely — and very quickly — a real schism, a cultural dissonance, an economic dissonance. But you still have the kids, [who, to this day,] have that cultural, aesthetic hunger as part of our DNA…You had some pretty strange bands coming out of Cleveland. You had some really high-intensity bands come out of the Detroit, Ann Arbor area because of the car industry going down. Everything in the steel industry went down in Pittsburgh. The effect is a little different in each town; there’s a certain recipe that each one of them had that was a little bit unique. If you take that and then throw in the herd mentality of the record labels — you got yourself the Akron Sound” (How Akron Became ‘the New Liverpool’ of Punk Music).”
Getting to publish that story has truly been one of the highlights of my writing career. I had complete creative control—I created the graphics, secured rights to the images, and designed the image and text layouts. Contributing to the Sigma Tau Delta seasonal newsletter was a great primer for that process, and I’m excited to continue that work as editor-in-chief for the coming fall semester.
–Lucas Yang
As a Creative Production Intern for Centre Stage Theatre in South Carolina, I spent two months this summer learning the ins and outs of non-profit operations and theatrical production. My internship spanned from May 27th to August 19th, following my graduation from CWRU. Therefore, I was able to propel into the internship with vigor and a newly acquired Bachelor of Arts. In the first half of the internship, I focused on the administrative side of theatrical operations. Specifically, I shadowed both the Artistic Director, Laura Nicholas, and the Marketing Director, Cheyenne Rivenbark. Additionally, I worked alongside the New Work Coordinator, David Veatch, to plan the 2025 New Work Festival, hosted by the theater every January. In an effort to plan this festival, we started setting up venues, checking the calendar for appropriate dates, and publicizing to writing communities and other potentially interested participants. While shadowing Laura Nicholas, I attended meetings with the board of directors, audited auditions for the upcoming season, and aided in the day-to-day operations of the theatre as well as the mounting of two productions: Legally Blonde the Musical and Beautiful: A Carole King Musical. While shadowing Cheyenne Rivenbark and working with David Veatch, I learned how the theatre publicizes its shows and events. Along with Cheyenne’s guidance, I contacted local newspapers and social media outlets to market the summer productions.
In the second half of the summer, I continued many of my administrative duties, however, I also began to Assistant Direct for Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. As Assistant Director, I attended every rehearsal and worked alongside the director to hone the work. I was able to use my time as a CWRU English major to excavate central themes of the narrative and use those motifs to bring the story to light with intention and clarity.
My entire experience as a Creative Production Intern for Centre Stage Theatre allowed me to understand the operations of a non-profit theatre from many different perspectives. My collaborations with others of varying occupations allowed me better understand arts administration as well as the creative process. With the tremendous aid and experience from the CWRU English Department and the support from an internship made possible by Tim O’Brien’s support, my experience allowed me to dually learn from a new group of people in an original, challenging experience and to contribute my knowledge to a new community. I look forward to continuing to use the skills acquired from my time as a CWRU English major, and I thank the department for its support and guidance.
–Maizy Windham
November Colloquiuum
Sharon Holland‘s Lecture on November 1st: “What Can Be Represented?”
The Bellflower Group
The Bellflower Group is the area’s first creative writing interest group for undergraduates from institutions across northeast Ohio. Founded in 2024, the group meets in person at Bellflower Hall on the campus of Case Western Reserve University and maintains an ongoing conversation via Discord. This year’s meetings featured a panel of visiting writers addressing “What We Wish We’d Known,” and a presentation on Afrofuturism and genre fiction by Isaiah Hunt (John Carroll University). Attendees have included students from CWRU, the Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland State University, John Carroll University, Lakeland Community College, and Oberlin College. Interested undergraduate writers should email thebellflowergroup@case.edu for more information. We hope to see you in 2025!
Alumni News
The New York Times bestselling novel Long Drive Home, by Will Allison (CWRU ’91), was adapted for the stage in September 2024 at Theatre Aspen’s Solo Flights 2024, an annual one-person play festival.
Alum (’83) Shelley Costa‘s Battle of Gettysburg-set short story, “The Knife Sharpener,” has been chosen for inclusion in The Best Mystery Stories of 2024 (The Mysterious Press), and was a finalist for the Agatha Award
The New York Times wrote about alum (‘10) Iris Dunkle’s new biography, Riding Like The Wind: The Life of Sanora Babb.
Sarah Forner (’18) is Director of Corporate Relations at the University of Notre Dame.
Marie Lathers (‘15) has published The Okefenokee Swamp: A Natural and Cultural History.
Send Me Your News!
If you have news you would like to share in a future newsletter, please send it to managing editor Susan Grimm (sxd290@case.edu). If you wish to be added to our mailing list, just let us know. The department also has a Facebook page on which more than six hundred of your classmates and profs are already sharing their news. Become a member of the community and post your own news. We want to know. The department will be posting here regularly too—news of colloquiums, readings, etc. We tweet @CWRUEnglish. We are cwruenglish on Instagram.