News
Awards for English Department faculty and staff
Congratulations to Professor Matthew Biberman and Linda Baldwin, who were recognized at the 2021 College of A&S Celebration of Excellence. Matthew Biberman, Professor of English, received the Distinguished Faculty Award for Research & Creative Activity in the Humanities. Linda Baldwin, Administrative Specialist in the English Department and the Composition Program, received the Outstanding Performance Award.
Sarah Strickley publishes novella: "Sister"
Sarah Anne Strickley, assistant professor of English, has published a novella with Summer Camp Publishing. "Sister" is a novella that traces its protagonist’s life through three significant eras and attempts to offer a sensitive and considered answer to the question: how do you build a family out of the wreckage of your youthful indiscretions? The book is set in rural, southeastern Ohio, and covers a span of more than twenty years. The book is now available online and in bookstores.
Deborah Lutz publishes Norton edition of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Deborah Lutz is the editor of the newly published Norton Critical Edition of Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Norton, 2020) by Robert Louis Stevenson. Her extensive introduction, annotations, description of manuscript sources, and selections of primary and secondary sources ground the novella in the history of LGBTQ+ identity, socio-economic class, urbanism, racism, and more.
Undergraduate Student Eliza Sayers wins Research Grant
We caught up with English undergraduate student Eliza Sayers, who is the winner of one of the University's Mentored Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities Grants. Eliza talked with us about winning the award and about the experience of being an English major.
Mark Mattes wins research grant
Congratulations to Dr. Mark Mattes for winning the BIPOC Scholars Grant from SHARP (The Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing) to support research on his monograph, Archival Apocrypha: Indigenous Writing and the Figure of Logan in Colonial and Native American History. The award includes $500 and mentoring support from a senior scholar in Native American studies and book history.
New short story collection by Ian Stansel
Professor Ian Stansel just released his short story collection Glossary for the End of Days, published by with Acre Books. The eleven stories in this collection explore today’s cultural and political climate with a disarming blend of speculation and realism. Whether faced with tragedy, approaching disaster, or an all-too-familiar uncertainty, these protagonists—siblings, lovers, executives, drifters—reveal complex and often startling turns of mind, surprising themselves as well as the reader.
Miracle Monocle recognized as digital publishing model
Prof. Sarah Strickley, editor of Miracle Monocle, will be advising the student editorial team of University of Houston's Glass Mountain (one of the leading undergrad journals in the country) as they shift to digital publishing. "For better or worse, the pandemic has forced many journals to finally let go of their print operations," says Strickley. "I'm hopeful that the workflow pathways we established when we went fully remote last semester might provide a useful template for other editorial teams attempting to navigate safety protocols in the context of pressing deadlines. We've been online since our inception and have much to share with others now making the leap online." Miracle Monocle is an online journal of innovative literary and visual art. Published bi-annually, the journal features poems, short stories, literary nonfiction, and a broad range of experimental works. It serves as a home for flash and micro fictions of all varieties, as well as works with genre indeterminacies, fresh collaborations, and re-invigorations of more traditional forms.
Stephen Schneider publishes essay on the Louisville sit-in movement
Dr. Stephen Schneider recently published a chapter titled "Nothing New For Easter: Rhetoric, Collective Action, and the Louisville Sit-In Movement." It appears in the anthology Like Wildfire: The Rhetoric of the Civil Rights Sit-Ins, edited by Sean Patrick O'Rourke and Lesli K. Pace and published by The University of South Carolina Press.
V. Joshua Adams published in Mud Season Review
Assistant Professor V. Joshua Adams's poem "Twenty Sixteen" has been published in the current issue of Mud Season Review.
Amy Clukey elected as Second Vice President of the Modernist Studies Association
Congratulations to English professor Amy Clukey, who has just been elected as Second Vice President on the executive board for the Modernist Studies Association. The MSA is an academic association dedicated to the study of the arts in social, politica, cultural, and intellectual contexts from the late-nineteenth through the mid-twentieth century. The MSA's official publication is the journal Modernism/Modernity, which is published by The Johns Hopkins University Press. Amy Clukey is associate professor of English at the University of Louisville. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Modernism/Modernity, The New Hibernia Review, Modern Fiction Studies, American Literature, and Twentieth-Century Literature, among other venues. She co-edited a special issue of the journal Global South on the topic of “plantation modernity” with Jeremy Wells (2017) and she is currently completing a monograph entitled Plantation Modernism: Transatlantic Anglophone Fiction 1890-1950.
Matthew Biberman interviewed on Ghost in the Machine
Listen to English Professor S. Matthew Biberman's interview on the podcast Ghost in the Machine, about his memoir Big Sid's Vincati, which is coming out in translation in Spanish and Italian. From the show notes: "What does your motorcycle mean to you? For many riders, a bike is simply a tool, a vehicle for the body. But for some of us, a motorcycle is much more than that, a vessel that carries the stories of who we are and how we got here. Meet Matthew Biberman, son of legendary Vincent builder Big Sid Biberman. To give his ailing father a reason to live, Matthew proposed they build a bike together, a rare Vincati. That quest would turn out to be a remarkable story of second chances for both of them, and compelling proof that a motorcycle really can have a soul."
English major Josh Osborne making a difference
English major Josh Osborne is making an important contribution to the Backside Learning Center at Churchill Downs. The Backside Learning Center is a non-profit that assists equine workers at the racetrack. Josh had been teaching English-as-a-second language courses to kids and families at the Center but that changed when COVID-19 spread. Since then, the Center changed its focus to getting the families that are in need the food, diapers, and encouragement during these difficult times. Congratulations to Josh on the important work he's doing, and on graduating with a major in English and a minor in Spanish!
Andrew Rabin featured on Pessimists Archive podcast
English professor Andrew Rabin is featured on the latest episode of the podcast Pessimists Archive. Providing historical context on the plague, Professor Rabin discusses Northumbria in the year 686 and the work of Venerable Bede.
English PhD alum receives CCCC grant
Michelle Day and Sara Williams received a prestigious grant from CCCC to continue her research, "Trauma-Informed Writing Pedagogy: A Pilot Study of an Evidence-Based Training Initiative."
Short story collection by Sarah Strickley
Sarah Strickley has published a collection of short stories, Fall Together.
