UWEC
English Festival
GUEST FOR 2007
Charles Baxter
"Charles Baxter was born in Minneapolis and graduated from Macalester College, in Saint Paul. After completing graduatework in English at the State University of New York at Buffalo, he taught for several years at Wayne State University in Detroit. In 1989, he moved to the Department of English at the University of Michigan--Ann Arbor and its MFA program. He now teaches at the University of Minnesota.
Baxter is the author of 4 novels, 4 collections of short stories, 3 collections of poems, a collection of essays on fiction and is the editor of other works." (http://www.charlesbaxter.com)
Former Guests
Mike Darigan will also be making an appearance to speak on his newly released books and personal experiences in writing.
"Backpocket e-pistles is the story of a year long correspondence between four close friends who let loose about love and sex, spirituality and philosophy, society and conformity, family and academia, travel and expression, in passionate, funny and provocative letters. Composed through e-mail, these real missives celebrate a new form of media, and show the creative and curious side of youth at the end of the 20th century. In the tradition of Tropic of Cancer, Catcher in the Rye and On the Road, backpocket e-pistles is a representation of modern bohemia blended with spirituality. The first book of its kind, backpocket e-pistles has something for every reader, inspiring introspection and humor amidst life's struggles, while encouraging the individual in everyone to step lively to the beat of their own drummer." (http://midpointtradebooks.com/detail.php?bk_id=7462)
Bobby James Kuechenmeister 
(B.A., University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire) is a former English Festival Lead Organizer responsible for initiating a print committee to develop an annual program of events and a travel committee to allow area middle and high school students a glimpse into college. He is now an M.A. student at Texas A&M University. His scholarly interests include rhetoric and composition, theory, and comics. His published works include “Christ, Anti-Christ, or Super-Hero? Green Lantern Through the Looking Glass” in Prism (Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, University of Wisconsin-EauClaire), exploring how superhero Green Lantern may be identified as a single character with both Christ and Anti-Christ personae resulting from tragiccircumstances and failure to cope with significant loss. His forthcoming article, “Superman’s America: Audience, Reception, and President Lex” in Astra (McNair Scholars’ Journal, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire) contextualizes parallels between Lex Luthor’s becoming President of the United States with the 2000 Presidential election using a New Historicist and Reception approach. His other scholarly interests include visual rhetoric with respect to design and usability, but he is also interested in understanding how meaning is derived from narrative using intersections of textual and visual mediums.
Chris Borman is currently a History graduate student at UW-Milwaukee. He recieved his BS
in History from UW-River Falls in 2003. Currently, his research interests are
cultural and intellectual history focused in nineteenth-century Europe.
These subfields are often focused upon the study of ideas and their interaction
with society, both at general and specific levels. They often find themselves
overlapping into other disciplines such as literature and philosophy. He also
enjoys studying interdisciplinary topics, such as the role and function of
memory in history, and is interested in how these concepts impact
literature from a historical perspective. He feels interdisciplanary study is both
important and intellectual satisfying becasuse one is able to examine the aspects
within other disciplines that link the humanities together.
Orlando Lima is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University with 11 years of experience in the publishing industry. In 2002, during his tenure as executive editor, Vibe won an American Society of Magazine Editors award for General Excellence, beating out The New Yorker, Wired, Jane and Gourmet. His byline has also appeared in Black Issues Book Review, Cosmopolitan, Raygun, InStyle, Seventeen, Match.com, Maxim and The New York Sun. He contributed to Tupac Shakur, a New York Times bestseller, and his debut novel, No Room for Squares, was named a Finalist at the 2005 Independent Publisher Book Awards. Lima is considered a music and pop culture expert—specializing in jazz and hip hop. He has lectured about these subjects at many educational institutions including Harvard, Columbia and Princeton, and he’s appeared regularly on media outlets such as MTV, VH1, CNN, BBC and NPR. He is the founder and president of New York City-based Limachips Press, considered a hub of African American and hip hop culture. He still actively writes about music and has written the liner notes for many CDs including The Essential Luther Vandross (2003).
Jonathan Helland
Editor-in-Chief and co-founder of Phenomenon Comics, an independent publishing company. Helland is also co-writer
and editor of Phenomenon Comics' first published title, Blackpool.
Ben Wood
is President and co-founder of theindependent publishing company Phenomenon Comics. A native of the midwest,
Wood currently lives in New York City. He is also co-writer and editor of Phenomenon Comics' first published title,
Blackpool.
Blackpool is "a horror comic 'in the tradition of H.P. Lovecraft, set in a fictional college town in Vermont and starring a
punk-rock bartender and a freshman girl who has a questionable gift of experiencing people's deaths in her dreams as
they're happening. They sort of always end up over their heads as the people in town conspire to harness the thing that
lives in Blackpool lake.'" (http://www.fnewsmagazine.com/2005-mar/current/pages/6.shtml)
Dr. Osonye Tess Onwueme
Website: http://www.writertess.com/
(text and image from http://www.writertess.com)
A writer with an active conscience, Dr. Onwueme's provocative and humorous writing and speaking often poke into taboo and controversial subjects. Her work clearly reveals the untold/unheard stories of young women and the poor who are caught in various crossfires with family, tradition, race, class, gender, culture, and the politics of living in the challenging postcolonial societies today. Her award-winning play, Shakara Dance-Hall Queen kicked off the BBC World Drama Service international broadcast for the fall season of 2004. Since joining the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire, Wisconsin in 1994 as a Distinguished Professor of Cultural Diversity and Professor of English after her years of teaching in both Nigerian and American universities, Dr. Onwueme continues to serve as a role-model for women and youths through her inspirational writing and speaking that are steadily shaping and transforming public consciousness of issues impacting black women and youths in global societies today.
Dr. Tess Onwueme's book Shakara dance-hall queen (text from African Heritage Press):
African Heritage Press - Shakara dance-hall queen
Shakara dance-hall queen is a gripping drama on the struggle for identity, power and control, engulfing mothers and daughters in a modern city that is sharply split between the rich and the poor. How do these mothers and daughters cope in a world, where their very survival is constantly challenged by the unyielding social and economic forces? Stay tuned for Shakara!
Derrick Brown
Website: Derrick Brown Poetry
(text from www.livepoets.com)
-- Derrick Brown was a paratrooper for the 82nd Airborne.
-- Derrick won the Bank of America award for drama but banks at Washington Mutual.
-- Derrick won 20 dollars at age 18 diving for jello and he cheated.
-- Derrick kissed the lead singer of Save Ferris on the mouth and she’s Jewish .
-- Derrick lives on a small sailboat in downtown long beach. It’s called the Billie Ocean.
-- Derrick is trying to coerce the free methodists to release the enslaved methodists.
-- Derrick loves pudding but not Bill Cosby.
-- Derrick was the intercollegiate champion in drama and poetry in 1997.
-- Derrick was the #2 performance poet in the nation in 1998 and knows what the #2 means in medical terms.
-- He was fired as a local weatherman in Flagstaff Arizona for making fun of Yuma on the air.
-- Derrick has a cd called ‘It’s a jolly holiday with specialist derrick c. brown’ that won album of the year, kinda.
-- He has 3 books and has been published in Poetry Slam, the art of performance poetry, the Valley Contemporary Poets anthology, Tabot spillway press, Far star fire press, Laguna Poets Series, Altasheth German poetry anthology, Poetry Super Highway, Buzz and the New England Journal of Medicine
-- His Father raises emu’s in Houston and his mother prays for people like you.
Derrick's book, Born in the year of the Butterfly Knife (text from http://www.brownpoetry.com/):
This collection includes Derrick's favorite poems from the past 5 books.
The other books will not be available until a decent publisher is born. This is the one. It includes new poems and prose. Designed by Thom Meredith.
Dr. John Thurston
(text and image from SelfPubPress.com Authors: John R. Thurston, Ph.D)
John R. Thurston, Ph.D. is a Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire. He practiced as a Clinical Psychologist with Northwest Psychiatric Clinic in Eau Claire, WI. for many years. As a research psychologist, he was Principal Investigator for two major longitudinal studies. In the area of juvenile delinquency for 14 years and nursing school attrition for 10 years. He authored over 60 articles and books during the course of his career.
Information on Dr. Thurston's book, A Very Full Circle.
Nancy Clark Scobie
(text and image from SelfPubPress.Com Authors: Nancy Clark Scobie)
Nancy Clark Scobie has a Master of Science Degree in Teaching and an Educational Specialist Degree in Guidance and Counseling.
She is on academic staff at University of Wisconsin Eau Claire in the Communications and Journalism Department.
She is active in philanthropy and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire Foundation.
For many years she has served on the Board of Directors of the Chippewa Valley Cultural Association.
Information on Nancy Clark Scobie's book, Poetica Grandmatica.
Nick Stepaniak
Nick Stepaniak is a recent University Wisconsin Eau Claire graduate with a degree in English literature.
Chris Borman
(auto-bio) I recieved my BS in History from UW-River Falls in 2003, and I am currently working on my MA in History at UW-Milwaukee. My main scholarly interests are European intellectual and cultural history in the nineteenth century with a focus on the humanities and their connection to history. I particularly enjoy analyzing the connections between literature and history, examining the historical context and connotations that are found within literature and their broader impact upon both the contemporary time the works were written in and their impact upon the world today.
Richard Krupnow
(auto-bio) Richard Krupnow earned a Master of Arts in English from Ball State University and has been teaching with UW Colleges since 1987. He has developed and continues to teach online courses and was the only Instructional Academic Staff to serve as Academic Staff Lead Senator in the UW Colleges Senate. His work in course development and governance, as well as community service, earned him the Outstanding Academic Staff Award inUW Colleges for 2002. He has published works in various literary magazines and is currently submitting his work on war in literature, “Pen and Sword,” for publication.
