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, “After Life,” “Blue Ode,” and “Yellow Ode” (poems). Waxwing. Issue 24, 15 Oct. 2025: https://waxwingmag.org/index.php#top
“Saccade,” “Suffragist’s Prayer: A Golden Shovel,” and “Sympathectomy” (poems). American Poet, Vol. 29, Fall-Winter 2025, pp. 8, 51-52.
“The House of Being: Poetry and Places of Community” (essay). American Poet, Vol. 29, Fall-Winter 2025, pp. 46-50
Philip Nel, “Turn Off AI. Pick Up a Crayon.” Oxford University Press Blog 10 Oct. 2025: https://blog.oup.com/2025/10/turn-off-ai-pick-up-a-crayon .
Presentations
Traci Brimhall, reading for the Academy of American Poets’ Chancellors Event. Guggenheim Museum. New York, NY. 17 Oct. 2025.
Reading from Love Prodigal. Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI. 10 Oct. 2025.
Reading from Love Prodigal. Wichita State University, Wichita, KS. 7 Oct. 2025.
Poetry Workshop. Poetry in the Woods. Endangered Wolf Center, St. Louis, MO. 4 Oct. 2025
Abby Knoblauch, “Beyond the Rules: Teaching Grammar and Punctuation as a Matter of Style.” Kansas Association of Teachers of English (KATE). Wichita, KS. 24 Oct. 2025.
Mary Kohn with Heather McCrea, Eric Brandom, Steven Walsh, Alex Peck, Audrey Poulsin, and Graham Baijnauth, “Creating Spearville’s Community History: A Two-Day Workshop.” Spearville Township Library. Spearville, KS. 18-20 Sept. 2025
Mary Kohn, Chester Hubbard, Mercedes Beatriz Quetzeri Amandi, and Joseph Pondillo. “Engaging Students with Engaged Research: Sharing the Story of Kaánze íe Rematriation” (panel). Linguistic Association of the Southwest. Wichita, KS. 10 Oct. 2025.
Ania Payne, “Community Writing on the Front Porch.” Conference on Community Writing. Detroit, Michigan. 25 Oct. 2025.
Kimball Smith, Reading from No Art Without Sin(novel). The Writer’s Place. Kansas City, MO. 17 Oct. 2025.
Karin Westman, “Hiding in Plain Sight: Children’s Literature in/and Modernism.” Roundtable: “Modernist Childhoods, Modernist Children’s Literature.” Modernist Studies Association. Boston, MA. 10 Oct. 2025.
Awards
Traci Brimhall has received the Early Career Achievement Award and the Alumni Award from the Department of English at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI.
Philip Nel was quoted in the Washington Post (29 Oct 2025) and the San Diego Union Tribune (1 Nov. 2025) regarding a “newly discovered” Dr. Seuss book.
Research and Creative Activity from Alumni
Tolu Daniel (MA ’23) has published “Two Nigerians at a Table” (essay) in The Common Reader journal (30 Sept. 2025) at https://commonreader.wustl.edu/two-nigerians-at-a-table
The screenplay for an adaptation of Where the Wild Grasses Grow, a novel by Kase Johnstun (MA ‘01), has been selected for the 2025 Sacramento Film Festival, for the 2025 International Indie Film & Screenplay Festival, and as a semi-finalist for the 2025 Area51 FilmFest, along with 20 other honors
K-State English 