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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