September 2025 Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

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Cover for The Nature of Our Times: Poems on America’s Landas, Waters, Wildlife, and Other Natural Wonders (Paloma Press, 2025), which includes a contribution from Traci Brimhall. 

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

Traci Brimhall, “Amor Fati” (poem). The Nature of Our Times Anthology. Edited by Luisa A. Igloria, Aileen Cassinetto, and David Hassler. San Francisco: Paloma Press, 2025 p. 185.

“Thaw” (poem). Sierra Magazine: https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2025-3-fall/poem/traci-brimhall-thaw-poem.

Philip Nel, “Being Banned Is Not an Award.” Bookbird 63.3, Sept. 2025, pp. 76-79: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/969641.

Presentations

Traci Brimhall, reading from Love Prodigal, Prairiewood, Manhattan, KS. 28 Sept. 2025

Lindsborg Poetry Festival, The Red Barn, Lindsborg, KS. 27 Sept. 2025

“Finding Words for It” (Panelist), Kansas Book Festival, Topeka, KS.  20 Sept. 2025.

Reading from Love Prodigal, The Writers Center, Kansas City, MO. 19 Sept. 2025

Amelia Earhart’s Lost Lyric Poems, Junction City Public Library, Junction City, KS. 14 Sept. 2025.

Food Poetry Reading, Kansas State Fair, Hutchinson, KS.  6 Sept. 2025.

Awards

Traci Brimhall, in collaboration with colleagues from Art and other K-State departments, has received a 2025 Applied Learning Experiences incentive grant to launch Spot Fire Press, a creative undergraduate student publishing initiative. Students from multiple disciplines will work with editorial interns to self-publish their works in collaborative relationships with community partners. Read more at https://www.k-state.edu/news/articles/2025/09/applied-learning-experiences-grant-awardees-announced.html.
 

Announcements

Theresa Merrick has been appointed to be one of K-State’s seven inaugural Presidential Engagement Fellows program. Presidential Engagement Fellows will bring university excellence directly to communities across the state. Read more at https://www.k-state.edu/news/articles/2025/10/inaugural-presidential-engagement-fellows-cohort.html.

Quoted in Media

Traci Brimhall, KANSAS MATTERS interview on Inspire! KTWU. 24 Sept. 2025

“On Recipes and Poems” for High Plains Public Radio. 3 Sept. 2025.

Research and Creative Activity from Alumni

Colwill Brown, a former graduate student, has won the 2025 BBC national short story award of £15,000 for “You Cannot Thread a Moving Needle.” The award citation reads, “The brio of the dialect, the brilliance of both the second person narration and the handling of the passage of time, and above all the exploration of a life critically damaged in a moment, all made this our unanimous winner.” Colwill Brown published their first novel, We Pretty Pieces of Flesh (Henry Holt), earlier this year to acclaim. (Known as Sarah Hannaway when at K-State, Brown was in the English MA Program 2013- 2014 with a concentration in Creative Writing.) Read more at https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/sep/30/colwill-brown-wins-2025-bbc-national-short-story-award-you-cannot-thread-a-moving-needle-yorkshire-dialect.

 
 
 

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