Your Brain On Literature

Reading for pleasure and reading in order to write about a text may look similar from the outside, but pulling back a few layers of brain tissue reveals a whole different story.  A recent study uses the stories of Jane Austen to meld science and literature in order to tell just this story. Dr. Natalie…

Earn Money Back After College by Majoring In… English!

“But what are you going to do with an English major?”  Such questioning is prompted by the perception that English is a track of study that will leave us with mountains of debt and no way to pay them off. As it turns out, however, majoring in English is not such a bad way to earn back…

Literary Events Around Portland: October

Events at Powells City of Books (Burnside Location): October 1st @ 7:30 pm- Matthew Dickman (Mayakovsky’s Revolver) October 2nd @ 7:30 pm- Steven Johnson (Future Perfect) October 3rd @ 2:00 pm- Roseanne Barr (Roseannearchy) October 5th @ 7:30 pm- Reyna Grande (The Distance Between Us) October 7th @ 7:30 pm- Banned Books Week Reading October…

Anna Keesey, “Circular” Writer

Next week on October 2nd at 7:30 p.m. in BC 163 creative writer Anna Keesey will be reading and lecturing on her newest book Little Century.  Anna Keesey graduated from Stanford University and the Iowa Writer’s Workshop.  She has multiple publications in journals and anthologies and is also the recipient of a National Endowment for…

“How I Found a Summer Internship” – Evan Gabriel

Feeling discouraged by the supposed lack of English-related internships?  Hopefully this story by Evan Gabriel, a current UP senior, will lift your spirits!   UP’s School of Business requires all of their students to complete at least one internship before they graduate.  Just because the College of Arts and Sciences doesn’t require this doesn’t mean…

Meet Professor Van Dan Acker

Welcome to yet another new faculty member Professor Sarah Van Dan Acker!  Professor Van Dan Acker is joining the English department this year and will be teaching English 101.  For those of you who have not yet met Professor Van Dan Acker, here is a quick profile to help you get to know her a…

Best thing you read this summer?

Before the meandering days of summer entirely give way to the classwork, paper-writing, and grading of fall, let’s discuss: what was the best thing you read this summer—and why?     I—Molly Hiro—got through several great contemporary novels, but my favorite was Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad.  Egan’s 2011 Pulitzer-winning work is…

Elie Wiesel Essay Contest

The Elie Wiesel Prize in Ethics Essay Contest 2013 is accepting online submissions now through December 3rd.  Students are encouraged to write an essay that discusses ethical issues and how to confront them.  Any fulltime, undergraduate Junior or Senior can participate. Suggested Topic: Articulate with clarity an ethical issue that you have encountered and analyze…

NUCL Internship

  It’s time to start thinking about NUCL! For those of you are unfamiliar with NUCL it is a literature conference held annually at UP that brings together more than a hundred students from universities throughout the region to share papers, poems, or essays they’ve written.  UP students participate as presenters, and serve as well as…

Welcome to Fr. Pat Hannon

    Welcome to our newest faculty member – Fr. Pat Hannon!  Although Fr. Pat just joined the English department this year to teach Intro to College Writing, Intro to Literature, and Advanced writing, he and his brother, Mike, both attended the University of Portland for their undergraduate degrees. Fr. Pat began UP in 1982…