UPbeat

News for and about University of Portland faculty and staff.

English

Insights from English

The English Department offers our campus the following quartet of items: For those who missed writer Mitchell S. Jackson’s talk “From the Prison to the Pen,” a link to the 70-minute presentation can be found here (though it will expire after Nov. 24). The English Department has put out its first-ever Newsletter, which it will offer each semester.  Our campus’s student-run creative writing magazine Writers has put out its first-ever fall edition, which you can read online here, with its theme Labor of Love. (It serves in part as an invitation for your students to submit their work (by Feb.) to the larger spring edition.) Lastly, you can learn about our campus’s new Writing minor here, an opportunity for UP students from outside our department to hone their writing skills in our campus’s workshops. For further information contact Lars Larson, larson@up.edu. 

2021 Writers Magazine Published Online

The English Department is proud to announce the publication of UP’s student-run creative writing journal Writers Magazine.  This year’s all-online 2021 edition is built around the theme of “Good Bones” and gathers the year’s best writing and images by students from across campus.  It’s now available here.

Additionally, we are excited to announce that beginning fall 2021, UP will offer a Writing minor.  This addition will give a broader spectrum of students on The Bluff the chance to exercise their creative and communicative powers.  (Students in the professional schools are especially encouraged!)  The Writing minor involves a combination of workshop-style courses (playwriting, news writing, nonfiction, poetry, fiction, screenwriting) and English electives.

For details in the fall, students can contact Fr. Pat Hannon, hannon@up.edu, John McDonald, mcdonald@up.edu, or English Chair Lars Larson, larson@up.edu.

How to Use “How To Be An Antiracist”: TLC Tip of the Week

How might this year’s ReadUP/Schoenfeldt selection inform our teaching? In this week’s Teaching & Learning Collaborative tip, Lars Larson gathers a few ideas from Ibram X. Kendi’s powerful work How to Be an Antiracist. Please note that electronic copies of Kendi’s book can be accessed through the Clark Library here, and paper copies will be distributed in early February, with details forthcoming.

For more information contact Larsen at larsen@up.edu.

2020 “Writers” Magazine: Ready For Readers

The 2020 volume of our campus’s student-made creative writing journal, Writers magazine,  made it into print just before campus shut down, according to Lars Larson, English. This year’s edition explores the theme of “Where I’m From,” beginning with a poem by Owen Klinger, and moving through stories, illustrations, verse, essays, and photographs that articulate where we find ourselves.  You can find the electronic version here. Additionally, Larson would be happy to send paper copies (“we have many”) to anyone interested. Email the proper campus (or home) address to larson@up.edu.

2020 NUCL Keynote by Jennifer McDaneld, March 14

The 2020 NUCL keynote speaker will be UP English professor Jennifer McDaneld, who will present “Why We Should Take Literary Studies Public: The Case of the Suffrage Centennial” on Saturday, March 14, at 1:45 p.m., in the Brian Doyle Auditorium. All are welcome to attend her free lecture.

McDaneld teaches American literature and core curriculum courses in the English department. She is also a co-founder and coordinator of Public Research Fellows, a new public humanities program in the College of Arts & Sciences. She holds a Ph.D. in American literature from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a graduate certificate in feminist studies from Duke University. Her research focuses on suffrage literature, the print culture of U.S. women’s right movements, and the scholarship of teaching and learning, with essays published and forthcoming in journals like Legacy: Journal of American Women Writers, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Feminist Teacher and Pedagogy. She also serves as a reviewer for several journals and presses, including Broadview, Legacy, and Teaching American Literature. Currently, she is working on a book project that examines the overlooked genres of U.S. suffrage literature to recover suffragism from its “bad literature” and “bad feminism” critical frameworks.

For more information contact the English department at english@up.edu or x7228.

Schoenfeldt Writer Luis Alberto Urrea, Nov. 7

Luis Alberto UrreaAuthor Luis Alberto Urrea joins our campus as the fall 2019 Schoenfeldt Distinguished Writer on Thursday, November 7, in Buckley Center Auditorium at 7 p.m.  He will also join us from 4-5 p.m. that day in BC 120 for an informal Q & A session, so bring your questions!

A member of the Latino Literature Hall of Fame, Urrea is the critically acclaimed, best-selling author of 17 books, and has won numerous awards for his poetry, essays, and fiction (The Hummingbird’s Daughter, The Water Museum, Into the Beautiful North).  The Devil’s Highway, Urrea’s 2004 non-fiction account of a group of Mexican immigrants lost in the Arizona desert, won the Lannan Literary Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His latest novel, The House of Broken Angels, set in San Diego, is a tragic-comic meditation by one sprawling family on the borderlands between life and death. He is a distinguished professor of creative writing at the U. of Illinois-Chicago.

The events are free and open to the public.  For details and questions contact English chair Lars Erik Larson at larson@up.edu.

Schoenfeldt Writer Luis Alberto Urrea to Visit, Nov. 7

Author Luis Alberto Urrea joins our campus as the fall 2019 Schoenfeldt Distinguished Writer on Thursday, Nov. 7 in Buckley Center Auditorium at 7pm.  He will also join us from 4-5pm that day in BC 120 for an informal Q&A: bring your questions!  A member of the Latino Literature Hall of Fame, Urrea is the critically acclaimed, best-selling author of 17 books, winning numerous awards for his poetry, essays, and fiction (The Hummingbird’s Daughter, The Water Museum, Into the Beautiful North).  The Devil’s Highway, Urrea’s 2004 non-fiction account of a group of Mexican immigrants lost in the Arizona desert, won the Lannan Literary Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His latest novel The House of Broken Angels, set in San Diego, is a tragic-comic meditation by one sprawling family on the borderlands between life and death. He is a distinguished professor of creative writing at the U. of Illinois-Chicago.  The events are free and open to the public.  For details and questions contact English chair Lars Erik Larson at larson@up.edu.

Poet and Musician Trevino Brings Plenty, Oct. 29

Join Lakota poet and musician Trevino L. Brings Plenty for a reading at the UP Bookstore on Tuesday Oct. 29 at 7:30pm.  A longtime resident of the Portland area, he has two poetry collections Wakpá Wanáǧi, Ghost River (2015) and Real Indian Junk Jewelry (2005), and was featured in the recent anthology New Poets of Native Nations (2018).  A handout of five of his poems can be found under his listing here under “Works by Trevino Brings Plenty.”  The event is free and open to the public.  For details and questions contact English Chair Lars Erik Larson larson@up.edu.

Reading by Author, Oregon Book Award Winner Tracy Daugherty, Oct. 2

The English department will present its next Reading and Lectures Series writer, Tracy Daugherty, on Wednesday, October 2, at 7:30 p.m., in the UP Bookstore. His reading is free and open to all.

Daugherty is the author of four novels, six short story collections, a book of personal essays, and biographies of Donald Barthelme, Joseph Heller, Joan Didion, and others. He cofounded the masters of fine arts program in creative writing at Oregon State University, and has won the Oregon Book Award five times.

For more information and ADA accommodations, contact the English department at 7228 or english@up.edu.

Creative Writers Coming to UP this Fall

Faculty, staff, and students are invited to learn about the poets, novelists, essayists, and biographers coming to campus for free readings this semester, according to Lars Larson, English: Pulitzer-winner Marilynne Robinson (this week!), five-time Oregon Book Award winner Tracy Daugherty, Lakota poet and musician Trevino L. Brings Plenty, and the fall Schoenfeldt Distinguished Writer Luis Alberto Urrea.

In anticipation of Urrea’s November 7 visit, the Schoenfeld series is offering his latest novel for free: House of Broken Angels, a humorous and heartfelt exploration of life and identity told through a sprawling San Diego family gathering in the borderlands between a birthday and a funeral. Email Schoenfeldt@up.edu to reserve your free copy. For details email Larson at larson@up.edu.