Found Object: Collaborative Story

Location: 2nd Floor, English Counseling Services Building Object: Whiteboard Observations: 1) After several Covid years which kept folks on Zoom more than in the ECS Building, the 2nd floor of ECS is hopping this fall semester.  Part of that energy includes the interactive space of the whiteboard that has been hanging out on the 2nd … Continue reading Found Object: Collaborative Story

From the Archive: Some Advice on Applying to MFA Programs

Since our blog debuted in 2017, we have published 400+ posts.  While some of you may have been with us from the start (thank you, loyal readers!), others may have joined us more recently. So, we're highlighting periodically some of the posts that have garnered a lot of views or that address topics of continuing … Continue reading From the Archive: Some Advice on Applying to MFA Programs

Found Object: Creative Writing Podcast, 2013-2016

Location: englishkstate on SoundCloud Object: Podcast episodes featuring visiting writers at Kansas State Observations: 1) From 2013 through 2016, graduate students, undergraduate students, and faculty members interviewed writers who visited K-State as part of our annual Visiting Writers Series with the intention of launching a podcast. The interviews captured authors who were already well-established as … Continue reading Found Object: Creative Writing Podcast, 2013-2016

From the Archive: Taylor Swift’s evermore (Emily Dickinson’s Version)

Hailee Steinfeld as Emily Dickinson (left) and Ella Hunt as Sue Gilbert (right) in Dickinson (image: Apple TV+) Since our blog debuted in 2017, we have published 400+ posts.  While some of you may have been with us from the start (thank you, loyal readers!), others may have joined us more recently. So, we're highlighting … Continue reading From the Archive: Taylor Swift’s evermore (Emily Dickinson’s Version)

“Unite all that is possibly Mexican in Kansas City”: Researching the First Midwestern Spanish-Language Newspaper El Cosmopolita

Liberty Belote (BA '24) Talking about Midwestern history, the conversation often turns as flat as many perceive the Great Plains to be. History buffs may know Bleeding Kansas or Brown v. Board of Education, both significant moments in the fight for African American civil rights. However, frequently overlooked in both academic and public awareness are … Continue reading “Unite all that is possibly Mexican in Kansas City”: Researching the First Midwestern Spanish-Language Newspaper El Cosmopolita

Summer 2023 Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

Cover for the issue of Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains (2023), where the essay by Lisa Tatonetti, Mary Kohn, Haley Reiners (BA ’22), Kinsley Searles (BA ’22, MA ’24), and co-authors Tai S. Edwards and Chester Hubbard appears. Each month during the academic year, we assemble a newsletter of the department's recent … Continue reading Summer 2023 Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

Wild Lit

Students from "Wild Lit" rise early to view prairie chickens on the Konza prairie (April 2023) Spring 2023 launched a new environmental literature course, "Wild Lit." How have American writers viewed the more-than-human world over the centuries? What role has public land played in the American traditions of nature writing and environmental literature? How do … Continue reading Wild Lit

Found Object: University Honors Program Projects, 2011-2012

Location: Main office archives, ECS 108. Object: Book of abstracts of undergraduate projects completed for the University Honors Program, 2011-2012 academic year. Observations: 1) In the spring of 2012, the University Honors Program produced a book of abstracts representing the work that undergraduate Honors students completed during that academic year. Led at that time by … Continue reading Found Object: University Honors Program Projects, 2011-2012

Meet the New Grad Students

Kansas State's new English MA students come from all over the world and the United States. We can't wait to start having conversations with them about everything from knitting patterns to weather forecasting to designing apps for celebrity musicians. Name: Gabriell Padua (Gabe) Hometown: La Puente, California Alma Mater: University of California, Berkeley Area(s) of … Continue reading Meet the New Grad Students

Seeing Like a Squirrel: Nature Writing with GROW

It was the last brisk morning of June, and Maryam ElZayat (MA '24), a graduate student of literature, and I gathered on the lawn of Engineering Hall with a group of about fifteen students in 6th, 7th, and 8th grades who were part of the 2023 GROW Program at K-State. After a short reading of … Continue reading Seeing Like a Squirrel: Nature Writing with GROW