Kase Johnstun (MA '01) with Mary Van Leeuwen (M.A. 2002) during their time at K-State Kase Johnstun's recent novel, Let the Wild Grasses Grow (Torrey House Press, 2022), has already received a number of accolades: The Women’s National Book Association (WNBA) has selected it for its 2022 Great Group Reads, it's a finalist for the … Continue reading Alumni Spotlight: Kase Johnstun
Uncle Iroh from Avatar: The Last Airbender Since our blog debuted in 2017, we have published 300+ posts. While some of you may have been with us from the start (thank you, loyal readers!), others may have joined us more recently. As a new feature, we're highlighting some of the posts that have garnered a … Continue reading From the Archive: Uncle Iroh’s Got Abs?
From left to right, Walt Wolfram, the executive producer of Talking Black in America, then-Assistant Professor Tosha Sampson-Choma, graduate student Chelsea Osademe (MA ’19), and KU Ph.D. student Charlesia McKinney (BA ’13) discuss the film after a showing at Kansas State University on February 26, 2018 Since our blog debuted in 2017, we have published … Continue reading From the Archive: Unlearning Linguistic Trauma
Taylor Mali (MA '93) The View from my Brooklyn Home Office this afternoon June 29th, 2022 I’ll be honest with you. I would never have ended up at K-State for graduate school in the early 1990s if I had not been following a woman who was headed off to Mizzou for a degree in journalism. … Continue reading Alumni Spotlight: Taylor Mali
Alana McGough (MA '06) Long before I entered the English M.A. program at K-State, I carried around many thoughts about meaning and purpose. Having grown up in a small town with a large farming family and a deeply rooted church, I couldn’t imagine going through life thinking that most things didn’t matter. I was also … Continue reading Alumni Spotlight: Alana McGough
During the past weeks, we celebrated the contributions of Alison Wheatley and Marcella Reekie, two of our faculty members who are retiring this May and this August, respectively, after more than 30 years of service to Kansas State. Our first celebration took place during our final department faculty meeting of the year and on … Continue reading Our Thanks to Alison Wheatley and Marcella Reekie
Julie Hensley (MA '99) When I drove west from the Shenandoah Valley to Manhattan, Kansas for the first time, I remember stopping to pump gas on the West Virginia Turnpike at the base of a mountain that felt so much larger and more dramatic than the misty blue ones I had left behind. Just across … Continue reading Alumni Spotlight: Julie Hensley
Francesca Royster (BA '88) For the past six years, I’ve been working on a book on Black Country Music performers and fans. I stumbled on the topic chatting with my father about his time as a session musician in Nashville in the 1970’s. (Dad — Philip Royster — taught in English and Ethnic Studies at … Continue reading Alumni Spotlight: Francesca Royster
Kristin Brighton (BA '97, MA '99) Those who called Manhattan, Kansas, home while they attended Kansas State University might be interested in checking out the new HBO dramedy Somebody Somewhere, starring and executive produced by Bridget Everett, the notoriously over-the-top cabaret singer and comedian who grew up here. As both a K-State English grad and … Continue reading Manhattan Setting for HBO’s Somebody Somewhere
Anita Mihelic (MA '07, right) with Edgar Mihelic (MA '21, left), December 2021 in the English Department Main Office. If you would have told me in 2005 that 15+ years later I would be working at a construction data and software company, I probably would have backed away slowly and found the nearest exit. And … Continue reading Alumni Spotlight: Anita Mihelic
