Jeff Rackam Award

The Literature department has set up an award in memory of the late Jeff Rackham for the top Literature major with a teacher licensure concentration called the Jeff Rackham award. Donations are currently being accepted for the spring award.

Jeff Rackham Memorial: Friday, 9/25, Laurel Forum, 4:00 pm

The Jeff Rackham Memorial will be held in the Laurel Forum (Karpen Hall 139) on Friday, September 25, 2009, at 4:00 pm. Speakers for the memorial will be Drs. Peg Downes and David Hopes, as well as UNCA alum Caroline Harkins McCarty. We welcome anyone who wishes to attend.

Creative Writing application deadline: 10/16/2009, 12:00 pm

The deadline for turning in Creative Writing major applications is Friday, October 16, 2009, but 12:00 pm. Application guidelines are available here. See the Creative Writing major program description for more information.

Contact Dr. Chess with any questions.

Katherine Min reading at Ramsey Library: 9/22/09 at 12:30 p.m.

Katherine Min reads from and discusses her novel-in-progress, The Fetishist. Her last novel, Secondhand World, was recently published in paperback (Anchor, 2008).

Katherine was recently also awarded the 2009-10 artist fellowship in prose writing by the North Carolina Arts Council. This is a highly competitive and substantial grant. There were 148 applicants and eight award recipients. Along with the funds, fellowship winners are nominated to represent NC at the Southern Artistry website, an online juried showcase for artists who live in the Southeast, and are invited to attend a weekend workshop in February 2010, with Creative Capital Foundation, in NYC, an artist-centered, grant-making organization that has pioneered a strategic planning curriculum for artists around the country. She plans to do research for her second novel “The Fetishist” in Florence, Italy.

This award not only speaks to Katherine’s growing recognition as a leading literary figure, but it also offers our department and university new opportunities as we develop our network for future visiting writers.

Please let her know how pleased we are at her success here!

NEW SITE LAUNCH

The new Literature and Language Department web site is now online! And, more importantly, it is here to stay! Please, please, please take a minute to knock through the pages and let me know if there are any errors with departmental information, faculty info (such as recent teaching or office number), or even if a photo is ten years out of date.

Thanks to everyone who helped me and gave feedback on the site's work in progress.

Philological Association of the Carolinas 11-13 March 2010 Conference Call for Papers

The 34th annual Philological Associate of the Carolinas (PAC) conference is now calling for both papers and panels. The theme for the 2010 conference is Literature as Bridge and will take place at the College of Charleston, SC, on March 11-13.

From Dr. Blake Hobby:

We welcome papers and panels on any topi co finterest to literature and language scholars. Past sessions have focused on English, American, world and multiethnic literatures, as well as on linguistics, composition, and pedagogy. Especially encouraged are proposals that consider literary works as a bridge to understanding. Several papers from each conference are published in Postscript,
the peer-reviewed journal of the Philological Association of the Carolinas. The Don Joiner Award is given to the best manuscript published in Postscript, as is an award for the best graduate student submission.

Email proposals along with a brief abstract and CV by 6 November 2009 to:

American / British Topics	Foreign / Comparative / Linguistics / Pedagogy Topics
Dr. Blake Hobby Assistant Professor of Literature and Language University of North Carolina at Asheville	Dr. David Smith Assistant Professor of German East Carolina University

Panel proposals must include a letter of justification along with the session title; brief abstracts in English of all proposed papers; and the names, email addresses, and institutional affiliation of all participants. Each session should consist of presenters from more than one institution and contain no more than one paper by a graduate student.

Gudger Awards: 9/15/09 at 12:30 pm, Laurel Forum

The Gudger Awards will be held on Tuesday, September 15th at 12:30 pm in the Laurel Forum. Everyone is welcome to attend.

Senior Comps: 9/12/09 from 9:00 am - 12:00 pm and 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Saturday, September 12th, from 9 am - 12 pm and 1 pm - 5 pm. Both computer rooms on the ground level of Karpen have been reserved for this purpose.

Jeff Rackham Memorial Event: 9/25/09 at 4:00 pm

The Laurel Forum has been reserved for September 25th at 4 p.m. We are in the process of getting a list of all Literature alumni to invite to the memorial.