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, “This Beautiful Confusion” (poem). The Atlantic,26 Nov. 2025: https://www.theatlantic.com/books/2025/11/poem-traci-brimhall-this-beautiful-confusion/685012/
“Video Ergo Sum” (poem). Missouri Review, 17 Nov. 2025: https://missourireview.com/video-ergo-sum-by-traci-brimhall/
“Autoerotics as Alt-Text,” “Color Theory,” “The Dream Temple of Asclepius,” “Extraction of the Stone of Madness as Alt-Text,” “Portrait Gallery as Alt-Text” and “Wings of the Triptych as Alt-Text” (poems). The Big Other, 12 Nov. 2025: https://bigother.com/2025/11/12/six-poems-by-traci-brimhall/
“Dead of Night,” “Every Circle is a Portal,” and “Smoke Carries a Wish to the Heavens” (poems). American Poetry Review, Vol. 54, no. 6, Nov/Dec 2025. p. 27.
“Love Poem without a Drop of Hyperbole” (poem). A Century of Poetry in The New Yorker: 1925-2025. Edited by Kevin Young, Knopf, 2025, p. 384.
Phillip Marzluf, “The Execution of George Grant: Violence and Masculinity on the Mongolian Frontier.” Inner Asia, Vol. 27, no. 2, 2025, pp. 314-335.
“Plagiarism and Travel Writing: Mabel Waln Smith’s Land of Swift-Running Horses and
the Idealisation of Primitiveness.” Studies in Travel Writing, 10 Oct. 2025, doi.org/10.1080/13645145.2025.2554057.
Ania Payne, “The Sound You Never Forget.” Community Literacy Journal, Vol. 19, Issue 2, 9 Nov. 2025. https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/communityliteracy/vol19/iss2/9/
Presentations
Traci Brimhall, Eat Your Words Event. Lenexa Arts Council. Lenexa, KS. 20 Nov. 2025.
Reading from Love Prodigal. Trinity College. Hartford, CT. 18 Nov. 2025.
Reading from Kansas Matters. Books and Brews. Council Grove, KS. 10 Nov. 2025.
Reading from Eat Your Words. Salina Arts Center. Salina, KS. 9 Nov. 2025.
Gregory Eiselein, “The Stoicism of Alcott’s Artists.” Society for the Study of American Women Writers Conference. Philadelphia, PA. 6 Nov. 2025
Mary Kohn with Jill Hornung-Heeke and Cathy Mages (Spearville Township Library), Mary Schartz (community volunteer), Alex Peck, Audrey Poulsin and Graham Baijnauth (College Interns), Marcella Shirai and Cashen Padilla (High School interns), “Creating Spearville’s Community History Website Reveal” (event). Southwind at Spearville. Spearville, KS. 15 Nov. 2025.
“Using Oral Histories in the Classroom” (invited talk). K-State Rural Innovation Academy for Teaching Enrichment. Manhattan, KS. 13 Nov. 2025.
“The Lost Towns Project and Work of the Chapman Center” (invited talk). Riley County Genealogical Society. Manhattan, KS. 16 Nov. 2025.
Mary Kohn with Kim Westcott, Dakota Boyles, and Steven Walsh, “Making Museum Internships Work: Collaborating with Students and Universities” (panel). Kansas Museums Association. Great Bend, KS. 20 Nov. 2025.
Anne Longmuir, “Epistolary Fictions: Authorial Persona and Narrative Form in Elizabeth Gaskell’s Correspondence and Periodical Fiction,” Letters and Literature 1500-2025. 6 Nov. 2025. Online.
Anuja Madan, “Muscular Hindu Nationalism and Vedic Modernity in Comic Book Retellings of the Ramayana” (invited talk). TEAS (Transformation, Equity, Access, Sense of Belonging Project) Speaker Series. University of Connecticut. Hartford, CT. 2 Dec 2025. Online.
Philip Nel, “Kate Feiffer in conversation with Aria Ungerer” (moderator). Blunderbuss!: Exploring the Legacy of Tomi Ungerer. The Rabbit hOle. Kansas City, MO. 15 Nov. 2025.
“DEI Is Not a Slur: Book Bans, Bullies, and Bigotry” (invited talk). Kansas Library Association Conference. Manhattan, KS. 7 Nov. 2025.
Karin Westman, “Understanding Budget Models” (workshop leader). Planning Strategically When There’s No Time to Plan (Session 3). Association of Departments of English. 11 Nov. 2025. Online.
Awards
Miracle Okpala (MA ’26) won Touchstone’s Debut Prize in Poetry for her poem “half tooth.”
Faezeh Rostami (MA ’26) was awarded the 2025 K-State Alumni Association International Scholarship.
Traci Brimhall appeared on The New Yorker: Poetry podcast with Kevin Young (26 Nov. 2025).
Research and Creative Activity from Alumni
Heather Etelamaki (BA ’12 and MA ’15) published a new short story “Marilyn at the End of the World” (YA fiction) in Black Fox Literary Magazine (issue no. 29, pp. 26-47).
Jonathan Lamb (BA ’04) published How the World Became a Book in Shakespeare’s England (Cambridge UP, 2025).
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