
Each month during the academic year, we assemble a newsletter of the department’s recent publications, presentations, announcements, and awards. The issue for September typically showcases a substantial amount of research, scholarship, and creative activity that our faculty and students have shared beyond Kansas State, given that it covers the summer months of May, June, July, and August.
This summer, though, was a bit different.
Thanks to COVID-19, many faculty and students were not able to present at conferences or engage in scholarly and creative work as planned. Time and energy were often channeled toward supporting others during the pandemic or preparing for summer or fall teaching.
All the more reason, then, to celebrate the success of work accepted for presentation (if not presented) and accomplished during this time.
Want to catch up on past successes or to find future announcements? Visit our archive of monthly newsletters Reading Matters as well as related blog posts.
Have news to report? Email us at english@ksu.edu.
— Karin Westman, Department Head
Publications (May – August 2020)
Traci Brimhall, “Aubade as Fuel.” New Yorker 17 Aug. 2020: 55. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/08/17/aubade-as-fuel
Steffi Dippold and Lauren Coats, eds. “Special Issue: Beyond Recovery.” Early American Literature, vol. 55, no. 2, 2020: 297-498.
With Lauren Coats, “Beyond Recovery: Introduction.” Early American Literature, vol. 55, no. 2, 2020: 297-319.
“That Marooned Thing: Adoptive Narratives for a Haudenosaunee Purging Stick.” Early American Literature, vol. 55, no. 2, 2020: 445-472.
Jim Machor and Amy Blair, “Editors’ Introduction.” Reception: Texts, Readers, Audiences, History, vol. 12, 2020: 1-4.
Tom Sarmiento, “In Transit.” Reflection in the Wonderful/Wretched Memories of Racial Dynamics in the Twin Cities, Minnesota series, special feature of The Society Pages, 8 July 2020: https://thesocietypages.org/specials/in-transit
Naomi Wood, Review of Alisa Clapp-Intyre’s British Hymn Books for Children, 1800-1900: Re-Tuning the History of Childhood. Victorian Studies, vol. 62, no. 2, Winter 2020: 336-338.
Han Yu, “Conceptual Art or Readable Contract: The Use of Comics in Technical Communication.” Technical Communication Quarterly, vol. 29, no. 3, 2020: 222-239.
“Response to ‘Make COVID-19 Visuals Gross.’” Medical Humanities Blog. 28 May 2020: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2020/05/28/response-to-make-covid-19-visuals-gross/
Han Yu with Tom Hallaq and Shreepad Joglekar, “Hungry Heartland: A Multidisciplinary, Multimedia, Service-Learning Class Project.” Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education, vol. 12, no. 2, 2020: 59-76.
Presentations (May – August 2020)
Traci Brimhall, reading from Come the Slumberless to the Land of Nod
- Poets in Pajamas Series, 30 Aug. 2020
- Wednesday Night Poetry Series, Copper Canyon Press, 26 Aug. 2020
Steffi Dippold, “Deep Surfaces: Rethinking the Outside of the Book.” Panel organizer: “Mobilizing the Margins of the Written Word.” SHARP: The Power of the Written Word. Amsterdam, Netherlands. 16 June 2020. *Postponed due to COVID-19.
“Speak, Materialities: How Early Indigenous Book Objects Remember.” What Does it Mean to Remember? University of Exeter and University of Plymouth, UK. 25 June 2020. *Postponed due to COVID-19.
Elizabeth Dodd. Ecopoetry Anthology Reading. Zoom. 27 August 2020.
Host for “Ambient Violence: Clear Vision to Face Injustice.” Dear America Town Hall Reading Series. Panelists Todd Boss, Heather Ryan, Allison Hedge Coke, Camille Dungy. Zoom. 19 August 2020.
Host for “Natural Environs: Considering the More than Human World.” Dear America Town Hall Reading Series. Panelists Pam Houston, Elena Passarello, Elizabeth Bradfield, Arthur Sze. Zoom. 20 May 2020.
Gregory Eiselein, “Walt Whitman and American Jewish Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century.” American Literature Association Conference. San Diego, 22 May 2020. *Cancelled due to COVID-19.
“Teaching Alcott: Alcott in Proximity to Other American Realists, Regionalists, Romantics.” Chaired Session. American Literature Association Conference. San Diego, CA. 23 May 2020. *Cancelled due to COVID-19.
Anne Longmuir, “DeLillo and Gender,” roundtable organized by the Don DeLillo Society. American Literature Association Conference. San Diego, CA. 21-24 May 2020. *Cancelled due to COVID-19.
Wendy Matlock, “Obligations of Desire: Alison from the Miller’s Tale and Perrault’s “Little Red Riding Hood.” 22nd Biennial Congress of the New Chaucer Society. Durham, U.K. 12-16 July 2020. *Postponed due to COVID-19.
Philip Nel and Ada Bieber, “Willkommenskultur für wen?: Multicultural German Picture Books Since 1989.” The Child and the Book. Berlin, Germany. 27-29 May 2020. *Postponed due to COVID-19.
Karin Westman, “Walt Disney on Ecstasy: Affect, Agency, and the Natural World in Meg Rosoff’s How I Live Now.” Children’s Literature Association Conference. Bellevue, WA. 18-20 June 2020. *Cancelled due to COVID-19.
Karin Westman with Sophie Adamson, “Departmental Storytelling: How to Make Your Department More Visible.” ADE 2020 MAPS Leadership Institute: The Public Humanities. Zoom. 30 June 2020.
Announcements (May – August 2020)
Cameron Leader Picone (PI) and Katy Karlin, Mark Crosby, and Karin Westman (Co-PIs), in collaboration with colleagues at the Beach Museum, have received an NEH Exhibitions Planning Grant for “Making a Statement: Gordon Parks’s Gift of Photographs,” scheduled for Fall 2021.
Awards (May – August 2020)
Traci Brimhall’s “Doctrine of Signatures” (poem) received the Cecil Hemley Award from the Poetry Society of America, selected by Sally Wen Mao. Brimhall also received the 2020 Annie Dillard Award for Creative Nonfiction for her essay “Possession,” sponsored by the Bellingham Review.
Ania Payne received the 2020 Excellence in Teaching Award from the Department of English.
Anne Phillips won this year’s Donnelly Award from the Department of English. She will hold a Donnelly Chair from 2020 to 2022. Phillips is also the 2020 recipient of the Children’s Literature Association’s Mentoring Award.
Winniebell Zong (MA ’21) received an International Student Scholarship from the K-State Alumni Association.