Volume 12, Issue 1 12 October 2011
A New Year, A New DUS
the word
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM NEWSLETTER
An Introduction by Professor Steve Burt, Director of Undergraduate Studies
Literary studies as an academic discipline— "English" to friends—is pretty much guaranteed by its nature to come with books that you'll want to reread, interpretive techniques that can make all sorts of texts yield more meanings, a muchimproved sense of the past, and a set of tools you can use for your own creative writing, keeping i n mi nd t ha t a ll thoughtful writing is creative, whether you're writing an argument or a description, in verse or in prose, for the stage or the screen. Our discipline may not be guaranteed to come with friendly, approachable faculty and a string of exciting events, but the English Department at Harvard happens to provide those things too: we hope you'll take advantage. I'm the new Director of Undergraduate Studies, which means I'm the
faculty member in charge (in theory) of how you experience the concentration year to year: please come visit me at my office hours, Thursdays 2-4pm in Barker Center 270, with queries, announcements, comments, complaints, maps, charts, sound recordings...
NYU who taught in History and Literature here, will be reading at 6pm on Oct. 20 in Sever 113. We'll keep telling you about events throughout the year.
We've reconfigured our website, english.fas.harvard.edu this year: it can tell you more about us, more (and more easily) about the concentration, and more about upcoming events, including two poets who read at Harvard quite soon: the world-famous, somewhat mysterious Michael Palmer, on Oct 17 at 5:30pm in Houghton Library, and the very powerful writer Henri Cole, on Oct 24 at 6pm in the Barker Center. Henri Cole also teaches in our creative writing program. Maureen McLane, a fine poet and critic now at
Inside this issue:
As some of you know, we've got a new curriculum, with common ground courses (Poets, Arrivals, Diffusions, Shakespeares), more advising, and fewer other requirements; we'd like to know how you like it— please say what you think. We'd also like to know what else you're hoping to study, and what else you want to learn. We have our ideas, but we want to hear yours.
Call for Papers!
Meet the New English Department Faculty
2
What’s SAC Up To?
2
Faculty Spotlight
2
September Recap
3
Upcoming Events & Deadlines
3
Opportunities
4
Literature Quiz
4
30 Below Story Contest—2011 Narrative is calling on writers, visual artists, photogra-
phers, performers, and filmmakers, between eighteen and thirty years old, to tell them a story. Cash awards. http://www.narrativemagazine.com/node/148406/?source=Dept
North Central Review Undergraduate Literary Journal NCCR is looking for work by undergraduate students in all genres, including short fiction, poetry, drama, creative nonfiction, photography, artwork and mixedgenre pieces. http://orgs.noctrl.edu/review/
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Introducing Our New Faculty Ju Yon Kim Assistant Professor of English Fall Courses: English 90ca. Set in Motion: Contemporary American Literature English 181a. Introduction to Asian American Literature
Lucie Brock-Broido Visiting Professor, Creative Writing Fall Course: English Cbbr. Poetry Workshop
Steve Hequembourg Lecturer on English
Henri Cole Visiting Professor, Creative Writing
Fall Courses: English 90ep. The English Epic English 131. John Milton: An Introduction to His Life and Poetry
Fall Course: English Chcr. Poetry Workshop
Suparna Roychoudhury Lecturer on English Fall Course: English 125s. Shakespeare and Identity
This year we welcome a number of new professors to the department. Ju Yon Kim, Steve Hequembourg, and Suparna Roychoudhury have added a number fresh offerings to our course listing. On the creative writing front, we’re delighted to have Henri Cole and Lucie Brock-Broido teaching fall term poetry workshops. We also welcome back Darcy Frey as he returns from his year-long Nieman Fellowship.
Student Advisory Committee by Clio Smurro The English Department Student Advisory Committee (SAC) is excited to announce its official membership for the 2011-2012 academic year. The House Reps are: Natalie Li '13 (Adams), Isabel Kaplan '12 (Currier), Mac McAnulty '12 (Dunster), Sam Gridley '12 (Eliot), Sarah Hopkinson '13 (Kirkland), Clio Smurro '12 (Leverett), Asa Bush '12 and Carla Ferreira '12 (Lowell), Naomi Funabashi '12 (Mather),
Chris Gummerson '12, Julie Zauzmer '13, and Jennah Hiari '12 (Pfoho), Alicia Lee '12 (Quincy), and April Sperry '13 (Winthrop). We still need a representative from Cabot, so if you live in Cabot and you are interested in joining the SAC, please contact Lauren Bimmler (lbimmler@fas.harvard.edu). Over the course of the next month, the SAC Reps will be hosting advising socials in the houses for sophomore pre-
concentrators to chat about the English Department before they declare concentrations in November. We also meet monthly with English Department faculty and administrators, so please talk with your Rep if you have thoughts and opinions you want to share. The SAC is meant to represent the student voice of the English Department, and we want to hear from you!
Faculty Spotlight: Professor Steve Burt HOMETOWN: Washington, DC. NONLITERARY DELIGHT OF THE WEEK: The Minnesota Lynx swept the Atlanta Dream, three games to none, to become the 2011 WNBA champions. Seimone Augustus was the consensus series MVP: Maya Moore, recent UConn star, hit a gravity-defying, end-of-the-
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shot-clock three-pointer in the last quarter of the last game to preserve the lead. LITERARY DELIGHT OF THE WEEK: Out soon, a new, and typically effusive, essayistic, fast-paced book of poems from Albert Goldbarth, one of the great comic poets (and one of the
generally underrated poets) of our day.
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Were you there? A September Recap...
Eoglish Cqoceotratqrs, Facvlty, aod Staff at this year’s “Iodqqr BBQ.”
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September was a busy month for the English Department! Courses were chosen, study cards were signed, and we still managed to have some fun! Despite the rain, we celebrated the start of a new academic year with our annual Concentrator Barbeque. Students, faculty, and staff engaged in conversation about the new semester while enjoying charcoal-grilled burgers and dogs, as well as delicious side dishes from Blue Ribbon BBQ.
We kicked off our Writers in the Parlor series on September 20th with novelist Tom Perrotta. Students, faculty, and staff snacked on a Thai lunch while engaged in Perrotta’s reading from his latest novel, The Leftovers. Perrotta spoke about the process of writing this particular book, and also answered several questions dealing with adapting novels to screenplays and publishing. Keep a look out for our next Writer in the Parlor event, to be announced soon!
Be there! Upcoming Events & Deadlines... In the English Department…
Woodberry Poetry Room…
Around Harvard…
17 October. Morris Gray Reading: Michael Palmer. 5:30 PM, Houghton Library
14 October. Omniglot Seminars: Mapping Hong Kong, with Christopher Mattison. 3:00 PM, Woodberry Poetry Room, Lamont Library, Room 330
20 October. Writing the Query Letter.
24 October. Morris Gray Reading: Henri Cole. 6:00 PM, Thompson Parlor
17 October. Poetry and Dance: Master Class w/ Michael Palmer and Jill Johnson. 4 November. Final Term Senior Thesis Due. 2:00 PM, Studio One Theater, Harvard Dance Center, 60 Garden Street 4:00 PM, English Department 16 November. Plan of Study/Declaration of Concentration Due. 4:00 PM, Houses
20 October Poet’s Voice Reading: Kathleen Fraser & Elizabeth Willis. 6:00 PM, Edison-Newman Room, Houghton Library
Office of Career Services.
4:00 PM, 54 Dunster St., OCS Conference Room
20 October. Maureen McLane: “A Reading with Divagations”.
Department of History & Literature 6:00 PM, Sever Hall 113
21 October. Exploring the Editorial Path. Office of Career Services
4:30 PM, 10 Holyoke Pl., Lowell Senior Common Room
4 November. Exploring Careers in Publishing. Office of Career Services 4:00 PM, 54 Dunster St., OCS Conference Room
Around Town… 15 October. Boston Book Festival. Keynote by Michael Ondaatje; also: Stephen Greenblatt, Steve Burt, Michael Palmer, Chuck Klosterman, Mo Willems, and many more. 9:00 AM. Copley Place, Boston. Free Entry! http://www.bostonbookfest.org/ 20 October. John Summers and Louis Menand discuss Masscult and Midcult: Essays Against the American Grain. 7:00 PM, Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge. http://www.harvard.com/events/2011/10/ 25 October. The Best American Short Stories 2011 with Heidi Pitlor, Bret Anthony Johnston, Allegra Goodman, & PEN New England. 7:00 PM, Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge. http://www.portersquarebooks.com/event 27 October. “Anonymous”, a Columbia Pictures film. Advanced Screening. 7:00 PM, AMC Boston Common. To receive two free tickets, visit http://www.gofobo.com/RSVP & enter code CLGERM09. V O L U M E 1 2, I S S U E 1
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Opportunities This story can fit 150-200 words. The English Department is extremely pleased to present an extraordinary travel and study
One benefit ofonusing your newsletter as a opportunity for the upcoming January term. We wish to fully fund two senior concentrators tool is that you can reuse a three-week trip to Jadavpur University in Kolkata, India. Our colleaguespromotional in the English content from other marketing materials, Department at Jadavpur will arrange on-campus accommodations for your stay, and student such asmentors press releases, market studies, from the university will act as your guides to the campus and city. During your visit you will attend and reports. literature classes (not for Harvard credit), meet professors and students, and immerse yourself in the While your main goal of distributing a intellectual and cultural life on and around the Jadavpur campus. The trip will run roughly from newsletter might be to sell your product 1 January to 22 January. We will cover the costs of travel, accommodations, and food. Harvard’s or service,Office the key to successful newsLqgqa cqvruesy qf htts://zzz.jadvoix.edv.io of International Programs will help with questions of insurance coverage, visas, and other letter isessential making it useful to your readers. travel abroad logistics. To apply for this opportunity, submit a letter of interest, resume/CV, and academic transcript to A great way to add useful content to your Jeff Berg by Monday, October 17. newsletter is to develop and write your own articles, or to include a calendar Harry S. Truman Scholarships provide up to $30,000 in scholarship support for graduate school U.S. citizens or of
upcoming events or a special offer that nationals with strong academic records and genuine commitment to a career in government or public life.product. Applicants must be promotes a new juniors. Harvard’s competition is for College nomination to a national round. For information about the Truman Scholarships, You can November also research or find visit www.truman.gov. Applications for Harvard nomination are due online by 12 noon on Thursday, 3. articles For information “filler” articles by accessing the World on Harvard’s nomination process or to request an application, contact the Postgraduate & National Fellowships Office at Wide Web. You can write about a variety ocsgrant@fas.harvard.edu. of topics but try to keep your articles
Introducing Blue Engine, an urban education fellowship year in New York City designed for talented recent college graduates to connect with small numbers of students in a different way—not as teachers, but as full-time teaching assistants. During one year terms of service, Blue Engine Teaching Assistants (BETAs) lead small group instruction (4-5 students per period) alongside experienced classroom teachers, working in teams from 7:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. to help entire grade levels make dramatic, measurable gains in Math and English / Language Arts. Sign up to receive twice-monthly emails about Blue Engine, including notification as soon as the 2012-2013 BETA application goes live on Tuesday, November 1, 2011. http://www.blueengine.org/apply/
Literature Trivia Can you match these works, all being studied in this semester’s Arrivals courses, to their publication dates?
Thiok ahead! Uodergradvate Prizes.
Paradise Lost Twelfth Night Doctor Faustus Utopia Faerie Queene
1516 1604 1667 1590 1623
Student Publications The Haryard Adxqcate / The Haryard Bqqk Rexiez / The Haryard Crimsqo The Jqvrpal qf Mediexal Stwdies / The Haryard Lamrqqo / Persrectixe Magazioe! The Tvesday Magazioe / Szift Magazioe / The Haryard Salieot
We’re on Facebook! “Like” us! http://www.facebook.com/ Harvard.English.Undergraduate.Program
Concentration Advising DUS. Prof. Steve Burt, Barker 270 burt@fas.harvard.edu Creative Writing. Bret Johnston, Barker 067 bajohnst@fas.harvard.edu Undergraduate Administrator. Jeff Berg, Barker 159 jmberg@fas.harvard.edu Undergraduate Assistant. Lauren Bimmler, Barker 158 lbimmler@fas.harvard.edu Trivia Answers:
Utopia (1516); Faerie Queene (1590); Doctor Faustus (1604); Twelfth Night (1623); Paradise Lost (1667)
Haryard Uoixersity Deraruneot qf Eoglish Uodergradvate Prqgram. Barker Ceoter. 12 Qviocy Street. Cambridge, MA 02138. P: 617-495-8443 F: 617-496-8737