March 2023 Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

Cover image for Jim Machor's new book The Mercurial Mark Twain(s): Reception, History and Iconic Authorship (Routledge, 2023) 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 … Continue reading March 2023 Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

Open House 2023

Teri Jacques (BA '23) celebrates writing the last poem at the 2022 Open House K-State's Open House is happening on Saturday April 1 — and K-State English is ready! As the preview page for Open House explains: Love to read or write? Explore your next chapter with English — one of K-State’s most versatile degrees. … Continue reading Open House 2023

February 2023 Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

Cover image for Issue 108 of Quarterly West (2023), where Traci Brimhall's poem "Will & Testament" appears 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 … Continue reading February 2023 Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

AFTLS and Love Letters to Romeo and Juliet

Faculty and graduate student presenters bask in a K-State purple glow of success following their lightning talks (11 Feb 2023) On Saturday, February 11, in McCain Auditorium's Kirmser Hall, faculty and graduate students shared a series of lightning talks, "Love Letters to Romeo and Juliet," in advance of the performance of Shakespeare's play that same … Continue reading AFTLS and Love Letters to Romeo and Juliet

Winter 2022-2023 Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

Opening paragraph for "Constricted" (Bending Genres, 2022) by Ania Payne 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 … Continue reading Winter 2022-2023 Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

Spring Preview

Spring Lilacs in Manhattan, KS (2022) Welcome to the spring semester! We hope that you are keeping well and safe as 2023 gets underway. Here are some of the events -- some online only, some HyFlex, some only in person -- that we're looking forward to in the months ahead. Please join us for community, … Continue reading Spring Preview

How to Build a Hopeful Future: Reject Citizenship

A scene from the epilogue of Mockingjay, Part 2 Today we share the fourth of six pieces of public writing selected for publication from an assignment in ENGL 801 “Graduate Studies in English” -- and the first selection from Section A of ENGL 801, taught this fall by Cameron Leader-Picone: a piece of public scholarship … Continue reading How to Build a Hopeful Future: Reject Citizenship

Can YA Fiction Predict the Future? Political Mimicry in Kiera Cass’s The Selection Series

Original illustration by author Kiera Cass of her characters America and Maxon from Happily Ever After: Companion to the Selection Series (2015) Today we share the second of six 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 … Continue reading Can YA Fiction Predict the Future? Political Mimicry in Kiera Cass’s The Selection Series

Learning, Unlearning, and the Freedom to Read

On December 10, 2022, University Distinguished Professor Phil Nel provided the commencement address for the College of Arts and Sciences at Kansas State University. Below is the text of his speech. Many thanks to Phil for allowing us to share it here. (You can view his presentation through the university’s archived video at 16:00.) Good … Continue reading Learning, Unlearning, and the Freedom to Read

Signs, Signs, Everywhere…The Hidden Depth of Japanese Signs in Spirited Away

From Spirited Away (2002) 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 in 2020, we added a final writing assignment: we asked our graduate students … Continue reading Signs, Signs, Everywhere…The Hidden Depth of Japanese Signs in Spirited Away