Since 1999, Herzman and Stephany have together organized ten NEH-funded seminars on Dante’s Commedia in Siena, Italy.
Peace Poetry 2014
SUNY Geneseo’s Department of English recognized the winners of the Genesee Valley Peace Poetry Contest on Mother’s Day, May 11, at 3 p.m. in Wadsworth Auditorium on campus. Prof. Rob Doggett organizes the yearly contest for kindergarten through 8th grade students from 19 area school districts in the Genesee Valley.
This year, the department received more than 1,200 poems from which 80 winners were selected.
You can watch video of the awards ceremony, at which the winners read their poems, here.
English major Amy Bishop to appear in Susquehanna Review
Three poems by rising senior English major Amy Bishop (Creative Writing) will appear in the upcoming issue of the Susquehanna Review, an annual international undergraduate journal run by students at Susquehanna University that features work in fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and visual art.
The three poems are “Envisaging Hot Springs During the Winter Solstice”; “[Winter punctures my sore spots]”; and “Inheriting Grandmother’s Wedding Plates.”
The current issue of the review contains a poem by SUNY Geneseo creative writing track alum Dan O’Brien.
2014 English department awards and scholarships
We’re pleased to announce this year’s winners of department awards and scholarships. We’ll be celebrating these formally in the Walter Harding Lounge, Welles 111, on Wednesday, May 7 at 3:30 p.m.
Scholarships
- Natalie Selser Freed Memorial Scholarship – Rebecca Miller and Sean Neill
- Rita K. Gollin Senior Year Scholarship for Excellence in American Literature – Jessica Irwin
- Rita K. Gollin Junior Year Scholarship for Excellence in American Literature – Jo-Ann Wong
- Hans Gottschalk Award – Matthew McClure
- Joseph M. O’Brien Memorial Scholarship – Andre Doeman and Michelle Mundt
- Don Watt Memorial Scholarship – Christina Mortellaro and Hannah Pruch
- Bonnie Henzel Memorial Scholarship – Julianne DeSilva, Erin Koehler, Sarah Rusnak, and Eric Wegman
- Jesse Rodgers Scholarship – Nikki Toner and Sean Fischer
Writing Awards
African American Studies
- 1st – Nikita Rumsey
- 2nd – Erin Beach
- 3rd – Megan Nolan
Critical Essay
- 1st – Jarad Sassone-McHugh
- 2nd – Christine O’Neill and Nikita Rumsey
- Honorable Mention – Meghan Kearns and Gregory Palermo
First Year Writing
- 1st – Jessica Heppler
- 2nd – John Panus
- 3rd – Erik Mebust
Creative Non-Fiction
- 1st – Suraj Uttamchandani
- 2nd – Adam Camiolo
- 3rd – Meghan Kearns
Fiction
- 1st – Kirstin Freiman
- 2nd – Megan Nolan
- 3rd – Katie Soares
- Honorable Mention – Stephon Lawrence
Poetry
- 1st – Lucia LoTempio
- 2nd – Erin Koehler
- 3rd – Bibi Lewis
- Honorable Mention – Devon Poniatowski
New short story from Rachel Hall
Prof. Rachel Hall’s short story “Block Party” appears in the most recent issue of the Bellingham Review. Although not yet mentioned on the review’s website, the issue (Vol XXXVII, issue 68) is currently available in print.
Rachel Svenson to pursue MFA
English major alum Rachel Svenson (2010) has been awarded Columbia University’s Writing Program Scholarship to pursue an MFA in creative nonfiction.
To see some of Rachel’s impressive work, check out her essay “Continents,” which appeared in issue 2.1 of SUNY Geneseo’s online literary journal Gandy Dancer for the debut of the journal’s “Post Script” section.
Cori Winrock Book Launch
Come celebrate National Poetry Month with a book launch for Visiting Assistant Professor of English Cori A. Winrock’s new poetry collection, This Coalition of Bones, just out from Kore Press.
When: Saturday, April 19th
Where: The Yards (50-52 Public Market, Rochester, NY)
Doors Open: 6:30 pm
Festivities begin: 7:00 pm
Admission is free! Donations are always welcome!
This will be a special event featuring readings by Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon and Geneseo alum Daniel T. O’Brien.
Bring a friend! Bring three! It’s a mentor/poem-maker party! There will broadsides by the lovely Anne Royston, poem-lined tote bags, string lights and general merriment! Throw some confetti and ring in the book year!
From the website of Kore Press:
In This Coalition of Bones, the mortal lessons of the body, the unreliability of the mind, the hyperbole of suburbia, and strange intersections of reality are embroidered into a cerebral, yet evocative landscape. Cori A. Winrock’s poems move through an unforgiving, terminal world infused with science, sleight of hand, and the shock of the gross clinic. It is an unsentimental world defined by a playful, eccentric storehouse of created verbs—a place where a glowworm slinkies, girls tween, punks are bonering, people relationship their way into the car, hive their way home.
Prof. Winrock’s work has appeared in Best New Poets 2013, Anti-, Black Warrior Review, Colorado Review, Denver Quarterly, From the Fishouse, The Journal, and elsewhere. Winrock won the 2012 SLS St. Petersburg Review Award, was chosen as Editor’s Choice for Mid-American Review’s James Wright Poetry Award, and is the recipient of a Barbara Deming Individual Artist Grant.
Bernardine Evaristo to read from her work April 11
Bernardine Evaristo returns to SUNY Geneseo on Friday, April 11 at 4 p.m. (Newton 204) to read from her work as part of the English department’s Literary Forum series. Evaristo is the author of seven books including her new novel, Mr Loverman, about a 74 year-old Caribbean London man who finally comes out of the closet (Hamish Hamilton/Penguin, 2013 & Akashic Books, US, 2014). Evaristo’s writing, characterized by daring experimentation and subversion, playfully and humorously challenges the myths of various Afro-diasporic histories and identities. Mr Loverman dares to explore almost forbidden topics, such as the seeming prevalence of homophobia in the black community and slavery as its justification.
Since 1997 Evaristo has accepted invitations to take part in over 80 international tours as a writer. She gives readings and delivers talks, keynotes, workshops, and courses. She has held visiting fellowships and professorships. Her books are translated into several languages, including Mandarin. Her awards include the EMMA Best Book Award, Big Red Read, Orange Youth Panel Award, a NESTA Fellowship Award and an Arts Council Writer’s Award. She has won “Book of the Year” 13 times in British newspapers and magazines; The Emperor’s Babe was a Times “Book of the Decade.” Hello Mum has been chosen as one of 20 titles for World Book Night in 2014. She was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2004, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2006, and she received an MBE in 2009.
Adrian Matejka to read here April 2
Poet Adrian Matejka reads in the MacVittie College Union Ballroom April 2 at 2:30 p.m. Matejka is the author of three collections of poetry. His second book, Mixology, was selected by Kevin Young as the winner of the National Poetry Series. Big Smoke, his most recent collection, was long-listed for the 2013 National Book Award in Poetry.
English major alum Nick Friedman to be Stegner Fellow
Congratulations to poet and Geneseo alum Nick Friedman, who has been selected for a Wallace Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University. The Stegner Fellowship one of the most prestigious and highly-selective creative writing fellowships in the world. You can sample some of Friedman’s poetry on the website of The Poetry Foundation.
Last spring, we reported on Friedman’s 2012 Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship at the Poetry Foundation, his March 2013 appearance in the New York Times’ T-Magazine, and his April (National Poetry Month) 2013, interview on NPR’s Weekend Edition, during which he read his poem Not the Song, but After.