Award-winning novelist Peter Rock is a University of Portland Schoenfeldt Distinguished Writer and our final guest in the Fall Readings and Lectures series. Rock received his BA in English from Yale and has won numerous awards and fellowships for his writing, including Stanford’s Wallace Stegner Fellowship. He lives and writes in Portland, and teaches writing at Reed College. His most…
Novelist Willy Vlautin is the next guest in our Autumn Readings & Lectures series hosted by the University of Portland’s English Department. He has published four novels: The Motel Life (2007), Northline (2008), Lean on Pete (2010), and The Free (2014). For all the violence and tragedy that fuels the characters and storylines of his works, Willy Vlautin is one hell of a friendly guy. His band, alt-country…
This Thursday, October 27 is our next English Lunch Table! Be quick to RSVP and score a free lunch and riveting conversation with Professor Swidzinski and Professor Buck-Perry. I sat down with Swidzinski and Buck-Perry to get a preview of possible discussion for Thursday: Who are they really? What are they reading? What’s up with the Shakespeare authorship conspiracy? What’s…
With the unveiling of Spring 2017 courses on Self-Serve, and numerous assignments to continue putting off, it seems to be the perfect time to cozy up with a warm pumpkin product and see what the English Department is preparing for next semester. ENG 311 – Advanced Writing TR 12:55 McDonald | TR 2:30 McDonald | MW 4:10 Hannon In the…
Poet and author Kate Gray is the first guest in our Autumn Readings & Lectures series hosted by the University of Portland’s English Department. Her work in her poetry collection Another Sunset We Survive and in her first novel Carry the Sky explores the rhythms of water and rowing, the personal and impersonal erasure of queer and female…
by Morgan Mann With no classes before 4pm this Founders’ Day, it may be tempting to stay home and finally start all those essays (or maybe just watch Netflix). Here’s a better idea: stop by the Founders’ Day presentations! Join the English community and see what your peers have been working on. Founders’ Day celebrates…
by Olivia Van Wey Poet Jae Choi is a master of positioning words to the tempo and vibe of her pieces as she admits during her lecture, “I like sound obviously.” Behind her playful, courteous nature is a methodical mind that considers the power of language as she channels it to convey a love of…
by Hope Dorman On Monday, April 4th, the Garaventa Center and Department of English together are hosting “Godwit”, a poetry reading from Sister Eva Hooker. As a Writer in Residence and professor of English at St. Mary’s College in Indiana, she has some expertise in the subject, but her subject matter is what makes her…
by Hope Dorman On February 9th, the English Department hosted a panel called “Life After the English Major” which featured alumni who majored in English and provided some insight into what their careers look like a few years down the road. We heard from a news reporter, a school psychologist, a marketing manager at Nike,…
by Jackie Ott In a short poem entitled “Endurance,” Elyse Fenton writes: “I used to stand in doorways and know / there was no human way to go on or through” (46). This poem, along with so many others reverently bound in Clamor, captures a deep human emotion not easily put into words. Fenton’s poetry engages…