College of Charleston Department of English

In-Store Event with Andrew Siegrist in Conversation with Anthony Varallo this Thursday, May 19th 6:00 PM- 7:00 PM at Buxton Books (160 King Street)!

A big congratulations and hoorays to Kangkang Kovacs for a second place award in the Porter Fleming Literary Competition for her essay, "Firecracker Bill"!

https://www.themorris.org/porter-fleming-literary-competition/2019-winners/

Vonnegut Scholar to Reflect on Literary Journey at Commencement

We are very proud and thrilled to see our colleague at commencement!

Vonnegut Scholar to Reflect on Literary Journey at Commencement "It seemed so out of the blue," says College of Charleston English Professor Susan Farrell, when asked about learning she had been chosen to speak at this year's spring commencement. Farrell will address the graduating classes from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences and the School of Langu...

We hope you are having a lovely Reading Day! We also want to be sure that you're aware of two award opportunities in the Department of English, the deadline is this Friday, April 29th!

https://english.cofc.edu/student-opps/scholarships.php

Finals are a stressful time for everyone. Make sure to take care of yourself! Your mental and physical health are just as important as that exam or essay. You can do it!!

Focus Friday
Americanah follows a young Nigerian woman who immigrates to the United States. This novel shows the struggle to find one’s identity and home against all odds. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s celebrated work features biographical aspects as it examines the complexities of race, gender, and socioeconomic status. Americanah is a New York Times Bestseller and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction.

What are you teaching, Professor Wentworth?

I am currently teaching HONS Writer in the Community, FYSE Banned Books, and FYSE Reading and Writing Social Justice. The FYSE Banned Books course examines a variety of texts that have been banned across several centuries and continents. In FYSE Reading and Writing Social Justice, students observe how writers employ elements of craft to produce work that break silences. In HONS, we examine what it means to be a writer in the community. Students work with local organizations to develop service-learning sensitivity, creative writing competency and craft.

Mollie Bowman (LF, '22), was named the student Employee of the Year at the college. In addition, the National Student Employment Association recognized her, for her work as a Writing Lab Consultant, as one of the top 19 student employees in the entire nation! The Writing Lab and the department is so proud of Mollie's work. Congratulations, Molly!

Meet Chloe!
Chloe is a WRP major and a Creative Writing minor. She is the social media director for 7360 and enjoys volunteering. Chloe loves collecting books because she adores literature. Her favorite ENGL courses have been American Literature since 1800 and Fiction Writing 1 and 2 . Chloe decided to pursue an English degree because she wants to give a voice, through stories, to people who don't have one. She loves the creativity and and exploration that writing gives.

Focus Friday
My Heart Is a Chainsaw follows Jade, a teenage girl obsessed with horror and slasher flicks, as she navigates her senior year and the unexpected disappearance of tourists from the town. Jade uses the horror genre to comprehend and cope with the life she’s been given. Stephen Graham Jones uses this novel as a vehicle to critique U.S. colonialism, discuss gentrification, and illustrate the generational repercussions of Native American displacement. My Heart Is a Chainsaw was named Best Book of 2021 by NPR.

This afternoon, 3:30pm in Arnold Hall!

Join us this Thursday, April 14th at 3:30pm in Arnold Hall for Prof. Bowers talk: John Locke, Ecological Imperialism, and the Narration of the Land in Robinson Crusoe—A Tale of the Anthropocene.

This talk examines John Locke’s influence on Daniel Defoe’s enormously popular novel Robinson Crusoe. It argues not only that key tenets of Locke’s political thought inform and support the colonial ideology expressed in Defoe’s novel, but also that both writers promote a form of ecological imperialism that is linked to our current environmental crisis.

What are you teaching, Professor Duvall?

I am currently teaching ENGL 299 & ENGL 364/AASt 300. In ENGL 364, students are reading and studying novels by African Americans from before emancipation, through the promise of Reconstruction, and into the rise of Jim Crow and anti-Black terrorism at the turn of the 20th century. These writers tested the limits of established genres and experimented with newer forms. Though somewhat obscured by the shadow of more familiar giants of the form, like Ralph Ellison and Toni Morrison, 19th century African American novelists broke new ground and crafted deeply compelling stories that speak to us as urgently now as ever.

Meet Jessie!
Jessie is double majoring in Creative Writing and Crime. She is also double minoring in Law and Society and Women and Gender Studies. Jessie is involved in Her Campus and works at Buxton Books. Her favorite ENGL course is ENGL 223. She decided to be an English major because she loves writing stories and learning about different kinds of literature.

Join us this Thursday, April 14th at 3:30pm in Arnold Hall for Prof. Bowers talk: John Locke, Ecological Imperialism, and the Narration of the Land in Robinson Crusoe—A Tale of the Anthropocene.

This talk examines John Locke’s influence on Daniel Defoe’s enormously popular novel Robinson Crusoe. It argues not only that key tenets of Locke’s political thought inform and support the colonial ideology expressed in Defoe’s novel, but also that both writers promote a form of ecological imperialism that is linked to our current environmental crisis.

Join us this Thursday, April 14th at 3:30pm in Arnold Hall for Prof. Bowers talk: John Locke, Ecological Imperialism, and the Narration of the Land in Robinson Crusoe—A Tale of the Anthropocene.

This talk examines John Locke’s influence on Daniel Defoe’s enormously popular novel Robinson Crusoe. It argues not only that key tenets of Locke’s political thought inform and support the colonial ideology expressed in Defoe’s novel, but also that both writers promote a form of ecological imperialism that is linked to our current environmental crisis.

Focus Friday
A History of Kindness is a collection of poems that focus on the impact of colonialism and oppression on Native American communities. Linda Hogan crafts a beautiful masterpiece about the relationships between humanity and the environment. Hogan is a Chickasaw poet, essayist, and environmentalist. She is the Chickasaw Nation’s Writer in Residence. Hogan has been awarded the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry.

Congratulations to Jammie Huynh, first year MFA graduate student! She is the first winner of the Free Verse Press Poetry Prize.

https://freeversepress.com/books/

Congratulations to Prof. Gary Jackson and Prof. Marjory Wentworth, whose poems are included in the new collection Ukweli: Searching for Healing Truth. South Carolina writers & poets explore American racism. Congratulations to Prof. Simon Lewis, as well, who wrote the collection's introduction.

What are you teaching, Professor Cannon?

I am currently teaching three sections of ENGL 110. Even though I'm teaching 110s across the board, each class has a distinct personality. So this response is more about the "who." My 10 AM class is the most talkative group. The 12 PM group is what I call the "zen" (aka post-lunch) crowd, and by 1 PM, the class operates pretty efficiently. For many students, that's their last class of the day so I imagine they're eager to have some free time. We're starting the Genre Unit this week, which is always a fun way to end the semester.

Meet Caroline!
Caroline is an English major with a WRP concentration. She minors in Jewish Studies. Caroline participates in Club Volleyball and her favorite ENGL courses focus on poetry. She decided to pursue English because she loves writing and believes there is something very powerful about the written word.

Explore artistic interpretations of Southerners during their transition from childhood to adulthood. This course analyzes ways young people interact with their families, their cultures, and their histories, as well as with their natural and human-made environments. Register for ENGL 477 Coming of Age in Southern Spaces today!

Focus Friday
Inspired by the American policy of separating families at the border, the Lost Children Archive follows a family as they travel through the Southwest and navigate a crisis along their way. Valeria Luiselli draws from her own experiences as an immigrant to craft this powerful tale about borders and families. This is Luiselli’s first book written in English and was one of the New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year.

Join us tomorrow Friday, April 1st 2:30-4pm for English Day in the Stern Center Ballroom! This is a drop in event with an award ceremony starting at 3:15.

What are you teaching, Professor Eichelberger?

I am currently teaching ENGL 360/AAST 300, Charleston Writers, and Honors 110. Charleston Writers is a course on representations of Charleston by a cross-section of writers from the 20th and 21st centuries. We've read novels, a play, memoirs, short stories and poetry by writers from the "Charleston Renaissance" of the 1920s and 30s up through the present-day. In Honors 110, we have studied literacy narratives by Eudora Welty, Frederick Douglass, Richard Wright, and Sherman Alexie, and have analyzed the rhetorical situation of Shepard Fairey's mural on College Lodge, and are now reading Nikky Finney's book, Love Child's Hotbed of Occasional Poetry, which is really wonderful, timely, and also multimodal!