Our UWEC English faculty continued to show their dedication to scholarship and excellence throughout the Fall 2021 semester.
Dr. Debra K.S. Barker, professor of American Indian studies, was interviewed for the May 12 WQOW story “State of the Tribes address bring attention to culture, history, issues.”
Dr. Dorothy Ka-Ying Chan, assistant professor of English, is pleased to announce that Diode Editions will publish her forthcoming chapbook, “BABE,” in winter 2021. Additionally, Chan’s poem “Triple Sonnet for Oversexed and Overripe and Overeager” has been published in the inaugural issue of just femme & dandy, a biannual literary and arts magazine.
Dr. Chan hosted and participated in “WAY OUT,” a virtual pride reading at 8 p.m. Friday, June 25. Her magazine/literary arts organization, Honey Literary, co-hosted the event along with Hooligan Mag and Split Lip Magazine.
Dr. Chan had her poem “Ode for Everyone Else’s Fantasies” reprinted in Salt Hill Journal online and had two other poems, “A Poem About Killing Off Your Homophobic Characters” and “Triple Sonnet About Ghosting Your Best Friend,” published in the latest issue of Diode Poetry Journal. On July 20 Chan also performed poetry for “Get Lit,” event hosted by Nomadic Press.
Dr. Chan is pleased to share the news that her BIPOC-focused literary journal/501(c)(3) literary arts organization, Honey Literary, has released its second issue.
Dr. Chan had her poem “A Poem About Killing Off Your Homophobic Characters” highlighted on Verse Daily’s Web Weekly Features for the week of Aug. 2. Read the full poem in the Diode Poetry Journal.
Dr. Chan interviewed Muriel Leung about her book “Imagine Us, The Swarm” (Nightboat Books) and Divya Victor about her book “CURB” (Nightboat Books) for Honey Literary's special artist spotlight, “Sticky Fingers.”
Dr. Chan read from her works (virtually) Thursday, Sept. 16, as part of the Fall 2021 Reading Series in the Humanities at Piedmont University. See details about the reading, including code to join.
Dr. Chan had her poem “Triple Sonnet for Veronica Lodge’s Tigers” published in HAD Sept. 30, where she also served as a guest editor. In addition, “BABE,” Chan’s third full-length book is now available for preorder.
Dr. Chan had her triple sonnet “Triple Sonnet, Because She Makes Me Hot” nominated by The Account for Best of the Net poetry. Chan’s interview with Jane Wong on her latest poetry book, “How to Not Be Afraid of Everything” (Alice James Books) has been published on the Honey Literary website. In addition, Chan visited Dr. Katie Jean Shrinkle’s MFA writing workshop at Sam Houston State University on Oct. 4, speaking as an editor for her class series, “The Writer’s Life.”
Dr. Chan has several of her triple sonnets featured on the Johns Hopkins Sonnets from the American website/sonnets database. Chan also is part of an accepted panel, titled “No F*cks to Give: Women on the Poetics of Sex and Raunch,” with Kendra DeColo, Tiana Clark, Erika Meitner and Diane Seuss, for the Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference in March 2022.
Dr. Chan presented a virtual reading Thursday, Nov. 4, as part of the Echoes & Visions Reading Series at Wor-Wic Community College in Salisbury, Maryland.
Dr. Chan has two new poems published on Hobart: “Triple Sonnet Because She’s a Little Pornish” and “Ode to Role Play.”
Dr. Chan has had her third poetry book, “BABE,” published by Diode Editions. She also has had two poems published in the latest issue of Colorado Review: “You Might Change Your Mind about Kids” and “Triple Sonnet for Batman Villains and Whatever This Is.”
Dr. Chan had her latest book, “Babe,” featured in a book launch over Zoom Thursday, Dec. 9. Among the readers were Dr. José Felipe Alvergue, associate professor of English and Latin American/Latinx studies.
Dr. Chan will give a presentation and Q&A titled “100 Ways to Edit a Poem” Jan. 21 at the University of Michigan’s Helen Zell Writers’ Program.
Dr. Karly Grice, assistant professor of English, co-authored an article, titled “‘Mismatched Yet Perfectly Puzzled’: Collage and/as Black Girls’ Literacies in Piecing Me Together,” which was published in the spring 2021 volume of Bookbird: A Journal of International Children’s Literature. In this article, the authors use Muhammad and Haddix’s Black girls’ literacies framework to analyze Watson’s text for how she uses collage — the action, the artwork and the conceptual metaphor — to address identity and history (re)making in the Black diaspora.
Dr. Grice received a 2021 Faculty Research Grant for $800 from the Children’s Literature Association for her research project, “Just Say Know: The Entanglement of Drugs and Adolescence in YA Literature and Media.” The project is a broad, interdisciplinary discussion of the way young adult literature in the 21st century deals with drug issues in critical and holistic ways that are representative of the developing scholarship surrounding education, addiction, the cultural crises of various drug epidemics, the legalization of certain drugs, and the social justice and racial reckoning movements of the late 2010s and early 2020s.
Dr. Grice recently was awarded the 2021 ALAN (Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of NCTE) Foundation Grant. The grant was awarded to support her research looking at how contemporary young adult literature is dealing with current drug issues — from stereotypes of drug users to harm-reduction drug education to the opioid epidemic and more — in ways that are challenging limiting views of adolescence and nuancing discussions of drugs and addiction in humanizing and global ways that diverge from the “Just Say No” messaging of the field’s past.
B.J. Hollars, associate professor of English, had his column “Once more to the camp” published in the July 2 Leader-Telegram and in the July 5 issue of The Country Today.
B.J. Hollars recorded his essay “Finding Stillness In The Storm: Family Camping In The Best And Worst Of Times” for Wisconsin Public Radio’s “Wisconsin Life,” which aired July 20.
B.J. Hollars had his “Sawdust Stories” article “May the toys be with you” published in the Nov. 4 Leader-Telegram.
Dr. Bob Nowlan, professor of English, has received a second grant from the Cignet Trust to provide full support for a 100% scholarly leave of absence for the 2021-22 academic year to continue and complete writing chapters for two books in progress: “Ian Curtis, Joy Division, and Critical Theory” and “21st Century British TV Crime Drama: a Critical Guide.” Enabled by the support of a first grant from the Cignet Trust providing full support for a 100% scholarly leave of absence for the 2020-21 academic year, Nowlan finished writing the first three of six chapters comprising the former book and the first 12 of 24 chapters comprising the latter book over the course of that period.
Dr. Cathy Rex, professor of English, has been appointed to the advisory board of the Society of Early Americanists for a three-year term. The SEA is an international organization which seeks to further the exchange of ideas and information among scholars of various disciplines who study the literature and culture of America to approximately 1830. Rex will also serve as the society’s Listserv moderator during her term.
Dr. Rex had her edited collection “Public Memory, Race and Heritage Tourism of Early America” published by Routledge Publishing on Oct. 21. Rex, who co-edited this collection with Dr. Shevaun Watson of UW-Milwaukee, co-wrote the introduction and contributed a chapter on Jamaican great houses to the book.
Dr. Jonathan J. Rylander, assistant professor of English and director of the Center for Writing Excellence, had his column “A Need to Escape Leads Us to Our Authentic Selves: Listening, Finding Peace Helps Deepen Our Roots with Our Community” published in in the July 20 issue of Volume One. He also had his essay “Carnal” published in Thimble Literary Magazine.
Dr. Rylander and Dr. Catherine Chan, executive director of the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, have co-authored a presentation, titled “Re-Thinking Relations Among Writing Centers and Offices for Research and Sponsored Programs: Assessing the Effectiveness of Writing Center Methods to Integrate High-Impact Practices,” which can be viewed online and will be featured at the 2021 Assessment Institute Conference, to be held virtually Oct. 24-27. This conference is hosted annually by Indiana University — Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI).
Congratulations to Dr. Jan Stirm, professor and chair of the English department for completing the Growth Mindset for Leaders program and earning a certificate from the chancellor.
Dr. Stephanie S. Turner, professor of English, had her found poem “Perfide subsidium vitae (Rogue Life Support),” published in “becoming-Feral,” a research-creation project that investigates human/other relationships as a means of ecological attunement, provocation and world-making. The project is led by Objet-a Creative Studio in association with The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, UW-Madison and the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Dr. Quentin Vieregge, associate professor of English at UW-Eau Claire – Barron County, had his essay “The golden mean and taffy aphorisms” published in the Sept. 8 issue of The Chronotype.
Dr. Vieregge had his essay “Ink blog: Would Charlie Chaplin have been a TikToker?” published in the Nov. 30 issue of The Chronotype.
