UAH English Department

Hello writers and readers! The H.E. Francis Readers and Writers Festival is next week, Friday April 4th and Saturday April 5th. Here’s the full schedule of events. In addition to our previously announced readings, we are now excited to announce that Saturday will feature a celebration of UAH and CCC’s upcoming common read book: Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s Bite by Bite. We will also feature local writer S. Hazen Guthrie, leading activities in vocal performance and reading out loud. All events are free and open to the public! Spread the word!

As the H.E. Francis Readers and Writers Festival draws nearer, we want to remind everyone about the deadline for entering the Flash Fiction contest, as well as the deadline to sign up for a small group workshop with our visiting author or with one of our faculty members! The deadline for both is March 24th. You can submit your entry and sign up for a small group by going to bit.ly/HEFrancisFestival and clicking on our entry form. Two winners of the contest will each receive a $50 gift card, and small group participants will receive a complimentary lunch.

The H.E. Francis Readers and Writers Festival is only four weeks away! If you love reading and writing, you do not want to miss out on some of our events, like Fridays Flash Fiction contest (with two winners receiving $50 gift cards) and the public readings of our visiting writers, Susan Tekulve and James Braziel! All events are 100% free! Register now at the link below or in our bio.

http://bit.ly/HEFrancisFestival

SAVE THE DATE! The English Department invites you to the first ever H.E. Francis Readers and Writers Festival, Friday April 4th and Saturday April 5th. Events include a Flash Fiction contest, a community open mic, and readings by Susan Tekulve, James Braziel and Sam Moe! Get your fiction, poetry and nonfiction workshopped in a small group led by a visiting writer or UAH faculty member! More announcements to come!

Kicking off our Frederick Douglass Day celebration!!

Come hang out from 10:00 am-3:00 pm and get some yummy cake provided by .treats, enter into our book giveaways, and do some transcribing!

Special thanks to .treats and for their contributions to our event!!

One of the many traditions for celebrating Douglass Day is the annual Great Douglass Day Bake-Off! These are some snapshots of past winners! This year, .treats is making Douglass Day-themed cakes for our celebration of Douglass’ legacy!

For Douglass Day, cake signifies the celebration of Douglass’ birthday and one of his fondest memories with his mother.

In My Bo***ge and My Freedom, Douglass recalled his last meeting with his mother, where she presented him with a cake. “The ‘sweet cake’ my mother gave me was in the shape of a heart, with a rich, dark ring glazed upon the edge of it. I was victorious, and well off for the moment; prouder, on my mother’s knee, than a king upon his throne.”

If you are interested in entering the Great Douglass Day Bake-Off, take a picture of your Douglass Day cake and post a photo on Bluesky or Instagram using the hashtag
(Don’t use social media? Just email it to douglassdayorg at gmail.com)

For more details and photos of past Douglass Day Bake-Off cakes, visit https://douglassday.org/bake-off/

Like and follow JJ’s Treats on their socials to keep up with their amazing creations! Follow our Instagram and pages for snapshots of the cakes they are making for our event!

photo credits: https://douglassday.org/bake-off/

February 14th is Frederick Douglass Day!

Stop by MOR 145 & 146 this Friday, February 14th between 10:00 am to 3:00 pm, for free cake, book giveaways, handmade Douglass Day cards, music, and more! Join us in celebrating Frederick Douglass’ birthday and his enduring legacy within the larger context of Black History month!

Do a bit of transcribing, get some cake, and chat with some folks while we celebrate Frederick Douglass and his legacy!

Follow us on Instagram and on Facebook @ UAH English Department for more information on Douglass Day and the event!

Herb E. Francis, Jr., one of the founding members of the English Department (and the Humanities) at UAH passed away last Friday, February 2, at the age of 100. He came to UAH in 1966 and taught here for 22 years. During his time at UAH, he co-founded and edited Poem magazine and was a co-founder of the Huntsville Literary Association. The H.E. Francis Competition for short fiction was established after he retired.

Emeritus professor Jerry Mebane shared this remembrance: “Herb was a superb teacher of creative writing and modern fiction. He was a generous and kind mentor to his students and also to junior faculty in the department. At the time the UAH English Department was establishing itself as a department that did research as well as excellent teaching, Herb’s productivity was important: he published several short stories and several translations from Spanish every year for decades. He is, of course, best known for a series of well-received works of fiction, as well as his translations of major works from Spanish.”

Emeritus professor Daniel Schenker offered, “He was part of the founding generation of the UAH English Department and retired a few years after I arrived. He was the proverbial ‘writer's writer’--a real craftsman… He must be among the last WWII vets. He was in the Army Air Force and I remember him once telling about how he handled military correspondence typing on planes flying across the Atlantic. We should all have such an interesting 100 years.”

Al.com published the following obituary: https://obits.al.com/us/obituaries/huntsville/name/herbert-francis-obituary?id=54288570

For more information, including a bibliography and information about honors and awards that he had received, see Encyclopedia of Alabama: https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-e-francis/.

Please come to this event! If you are a student, we've got a copy of the book for you!!

Calling all women writers!

The is live! Our 2022 conference will be held November 4-5 in Conway, Arkansas. We hope you'll join us!

Proposal deadline: April 15

http://www.cdwrightconference.org/2022-call-for-proposal.html

We are proud to be cos-sponsoring this important event!

Including the following BREAKOUT sessions by WGS faculty:

Dr. Christina Stiedl (SOC): The B-Word

Dr. Candice Lanius (COM): CRASS: Creating & Receiving Social Support

Dr. John Harfouch (PHL): Who is Laila Khaled? A case study in Social Justice

Dr. Molly Johnson (HY): "I am not a feminist, but....."

Fall 2021 graduate-level course offering!

EH 655: TELLING TALES: MEDIEVAL AND MODERN

>> In his work, the 14th c poet Geoffrey Chaucer confronted the problems and politics of translation. How does one translate Latin classics into a low-style language like English. Can one render the authoritative word of God in the Holy Scripture into a doggerel like peasant vernacular? This course will examine Chaucer’s works with a focus on the theoretic practice of—and political stakes for– translation in both medieval and modern contexts. The English translation of the Bible was one of the first banned books in English! But Chaucer’s attention to the fragility of language in transmission informs the modern plight of refugees, who must also recount their own stories not for entertainment but for their very lives. This course, thus, will put the modern story collections—known as Refugee Tales (real refugee accounts put into short story form by British novelists and modelled on explicitly on Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales) in conversation with Chaucer’s linguistic theories and with modern philosophic and political readings on translation, theories of political sovereignty and political theology, and critical literature in the field of refugee and forced migration studies. Readings will include The Canterbury Tales, The Legend of Good Women, and Chaucer’s Dream Visions, readings from Refugee Tales Vol. I and II, Patience Agabi’s Canterbury Tales redux titled Telling Tales, and theoretic readings by Hannah Arendt, Giorgio Agamben, Michel Foucault, and Matthew Gibney among others. >>