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
Cydney Alexis and Theresa Merrick Cassidy, “AI Output Is Neither Social nor Rhetorical: Human-AI Collaboration Is a Complex Social and Rhetorical Practice.” Bad Ideas about AI and Writing: Generative Practices for Teaching, Learning, and Communication, edited by Christopher Basgier et al., The WAC Clearinghouse and University Press of Colorado, 2026, pp. 113-18.
Lisa Tatonetti, Jennifer Foerster, Deborah Miranda, Kim Shuck, and Mimi Wheatwind, editors. This Music: A Poetic Prose Memoir. University of Arizona Press, 2026.
Lisa Tatonetti, “Sensual and Magical Language: Janice in Historical Context.” This Music: A Poetic Prose Memoir, edited by Jennifer Foerster, Deborah Miranda, Kim Shuck, Lisa Tatonetti, and Mimi Wheatwind. University of Arizona Press, 2026, pp. xxvi-xxxii.
Presentations
Traci Brimhall, reading from Eat Your Words. Prairie Festival, The Land Institute. Salina, KS. 26 Sept. 2026.
Reading from Love Prodigal. Southwest Baptist University. Bolivar, MO. 24 Sept. 2026.
“There’s No Place Like Home: Poems by Kansas Families.” Kansas State Fair. Hutchinson, KS. 12 Sept. 2026.
Daniel A. Hoyt, excerpts from Spit, Fire! Spout, Rain! (fiction reading). Whiskey Tit Invades Chicago. Chicago, IL. 12 Sept. 2026.
Rock and Roll Reading (curator/organizer). Chicago, IL. 11 Sept. 2026.
Melissa Poll and Spintz Harrison (Navajo/Shoshone), presentation about forced assimilation and abuse in boarding schools throughout Turtle Island (invited). F. I. R. E. (Feminists Igniting Resistance and Empowerment), 2nd annual Orange Shirt Day. Multicultural Students Center, Kansas State University. 30 Sept. 2026.
Lisa Tatonetti, Film Showing and Talk Back with Kaw Nation citizens and the Kaw Mission / Kansas Historical Society (facilitator). Flooding Kaw Nation: Submerged Cities, Desecrated Graves, and Kaw Lake. Washunga Days. Council Grove, KS. 20 June 2026.
Research and Creative Activity from Alumni
Tolu Daniel (MA ’23) has been named a Heartland Journalism Fellow for the 2026–27 academic year while a Ph.D. student in Comparative Literature at Washington University in St. Louis. Daniel’s debut collection of essays, Exodus, will be published by CavanKerry Press in March 2027.
Christopher Linforth (MA ‘09) has had his second book Directory (2020) reissued by Indirect Books.
The debut novel by Kenan Orhan (BA ’14), The Renovation, appears on the long list for the 2026 National Book Award. This honor follows on its selection for the long-list for the 2026 Booker Prize. It was also featured in the April 2026 New York Times Book Club. Read a review of the novel at Kirkus and an interview with Kenan with NPR.
