Each month during the academic year, we assemble a newsletter of the department’s recent publications, presentations, announcements, and awards.
We’re happy to recognize the recent successes in research, scholarship, and creative activity outlined below.
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
Mark Crosby, “‘Unentangled in the intricate windings of modern practice’: William Blake’s Apprentice Copperplates and Engravings.” Blake An Illustrated Quarterly 53:3 (Winter 2024-25): https://blakequarterly.org/index.php/blake
Philip Nel and Eric Reynolds, editors, Crockett Johnson’s Barnaby, Vol. 5: 1950-1952. Foreword by Ron Howard. Introduction by Susan Kirtley. Afterword and Notes by Philip Nel. Fantagraphics, 2025.
“Boredom, Blacklisting, or New Beginnings?: Why Crockett Johnson Ended Barnaby.” The Comics Journal 11 Feb. 2025: https://www.tcj.com/boredom-blacklisting-or-new-beginnings-why-crockett-johnson-ended-barnaby/
Anne K. Phillips and Gregory Eiselein, “Alcott’s Little Womenand the U.S. Presidency.” What the Presidents Read, ed. Elizabeth Goodenough and Marilynn S. Olson, Rowman & Littlefield, 2025, pp. 469-473.
Thomas Xavier Sarmiento, “Big Idea: A Filipino Writer in Wichita.” Humanities Kansas, Kansas Stories. 10 Feb. 2025: https://www.humanitieskansas.org/get-involved/kansas-stories/the-big-idea/big-idea-a-filipino-writer-in-wichita.
Presentations
Cydney Alexis, “AI Tool Salad for Writers and Researchers,” AI2 SUMMIT 2025. Orlando, FL. 19 Feb 2025.
Cydney Alexis and Theresa Merrick, book club on Ethan Mollick’s Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI. Kansas State University. 11 Feb. 2025.
Traci Brimhall, “Love is a Verb” (poetry workshop). Junction City Public Library, Junction City, KS. 1 Mar. 2025.
Readings from Love Prodigal:
- Wild Precious Life Series, online. 26 Feb. 2025
- Art Lit Lab, Madison, WI. 8 Feb. 2025
- Bookdrop Reading Series Milwaukee, WI. 7 Feb. 2025
- Beaverdale Books, Des Moines, IA. 6 Feb. 2025
- DMACC, Des Moines, IA. 6 Feb. 2025
Elizabeth Dodd, Online literary reading (host) for Terrain.org featuring Simmons Buntin, Juan Morales, and Rachel Richardson. 24 Feb. 2025.
Mary Kohn and Meghan Ward (BA, History & Anthropology ’24), “An Equation for Resilience.” Daughters of American Colonists. Manhattan Public Library. Manhattan, KS. 9 Feb. 2025.
Anne Longmuir, “Letters, Victorian Sociability, and Elizabeth Gaskell” (keynote). Cultures of Correspondence Symposium. Baylor University, Waco, TX. 7 Feb. 2025.
Theresa Merrick, Cydney Alexis and Jason Coleman, “Writerly Voice in AI Times.” Global Society of Online Literacy Educators Annual Conference (online). 7 Feb. 2025
Philip Nel, “Banned Books: The Struggle to Control Imagination” (invited talk). Manhattan Area Retired Educators Association (MAREA). United Methodist Church, Manhattan, KS. 5 Feb. 2025.
Thomas Xavier Sarmiento, “The Big Idea: A Filipino Writer’s Exile in Wichita,” conversation with Dr. Valerie Mendoza and Abby Bayani-Heitzman on Bienvenido Santos. Humanities Kansas (via Zoom). 21 Feb. 2025. Available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QolGNahdptU.
Awards
Elizabeth Dodd has received one of the inaugural “Roots of Research” awards, sponsored by the Office of the President, the Office of the VP for Research, and the Division of Facilities. Awardees are honored with a tree planted in their name.
Stacia Gray has received a 2025 William L. Stamey Award for Undergraduate Teaching from the College of Arts and Sciences.
Michele Janette has received the 2025 Ron Gaches Lifetime Teaching Award from the College of Arts and Sciences.
Announcements
We will be gathering to celebrate the life of Jonathan Holden, University Distinguished Professor Emeritus and first Poet Laureate of Kansas, on Sunday April 6, 2025, 3pm, at the K-State Alumni Center. For a link to the live-stream, please email english@ksu.edu by April 5.
Featured in Media
Cydney Alexis was featured on the episode “Getting Over Imposter’s Syndrome: The Material Dimension of Writing, Tackling Writer’s Block, and Writing Alongside AI” of Write to the Point podcast, 13 Feb. 2025.
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