Poetic Postal Routes in ENGL 763

Letters to sections of the day's reading in ENGL 763 This semester I am teaching ENGL 763 "Creative Writing Workshop: Poetry," our graduate poetry workshop in which we read collections of contemporary poetry to study craft elements we can emulate. We often use the space outside our classroom and have different craft stations so we … Continue reading Poetic Postal Routes in ENGL 763

Meme That Craft Element!

One of the memes created by students in Traci Brimhall's ENGL 463 "Introduction to Poetry" (Spring 2022) To get us ready for a semester of metrical fun, my ENGL 463 "Introduction to Poetry" students got do everyone’s favorite thing: watch a professor laugh at their own jokes on a PowerPoint. But then they got to … Continue reading Meme That Craft Element!

Really, It’s in Your Best Interest to Join Captain Jack in a Life of Piracy

Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) Today we share the final entry selected for publication from an assignment in ENGL 801 “Graduate Studies in English”: a piece of public scholarship (700-1,000 words) which tailors an academic paper and its scholarly intervention of 10-12 … Continue reading Really, It’s in Your Best Interest to Join Captain Jack in a Life of Piracy

Sex List

Today we share the third of four pieces of public writing selected for publication from an assignment in ENGL 801 “Graduate Studies in English”: a piece of public scholarship (700-1,000 words) which tailors an academic paper and its scholarly intervention of 10-12 pages for a general-interest audience. Read more about the assignment and the first … Continue reading Sex List

Death and the Afterlife in Ecclesiastes and Hamlet

Ahmed Adly, “Human Skull in Black -- Proud of Death” (2019) Today we share the second of four pieces of public writing selected for publication from an assignment in ENGL 801 “Graduate Studies in English”: a piece of public scholarship (700-1,000 words) which tailors an academic paper and its scholarly intervention of 10-12 pages for … Continue reading Death and the Afterlife in Ecclesiastes and Hamlet

Over the Garden Wall is Trying to Scare Your Kids, and That’s Not a Bad Thing

A tree from Over the Garden Wall (Episode 1 “The Old Grist Mill”) In ENGL 801 "Graduate Studies in English," a required course for incoming M.A. students, we have always asked our graduate students to develop an original contribution to a current scholarly conversation about a literary or cultural text. Starting last year, we added … Continue reading Over the Garden Wall is Trying to Scare Your Kids, and That’s Not a Bad Thing

Gordon Parks and a Place to Call Home

Photo from Aaliyah Kelly's response to the exhibit "Gordon Parks: Homeward to the Prairie I Come" Coinciding with the Beach Museum’s current exhibit “Homeward to the Prairie I Come”—which features the work of photographer, filmmaker, and writer Gordon Parks—the students in ENGL 420 “African American Film” discussed two of Parks’s movies: the autobiographical coming-of-age film … Continue reading Gordon Parks and a Place to Call Home

The Body as Metaphor

This semester I am teaching the ENGL 825 graduate seminar class as "Narrative Medicine," which is an interdisciplinary field that unites the narrative skill of close reading/listening and creativity to address the need for a deeper communication in healthcare. To kick things off, we started with hefty texts like Susan Sontag’s Illness as Metaphor and … Continue reading The Body as Metaphor

Undergraduate Poetry Reviews: Sean Hill

Poet Sean Hill reads from his work (19 Feb 2021) Visiting Writer Sean Hill made multiple appearances for K-State students this year, despite the COVID pandemic’s cancellation of his in-person visit to campus. Students were studying his collection Dangerous Goods, especially the way historic research feeds his poems, both in their formal composition — using … Continue reading Undergraduate Poetry Reviews: Sean Hill