The Pacific Swell Presented by Sigma Tau Delta Spring Volume 1, Issue 2
Pacific Swell, what’s that? Well, after much deliberation we decided to take our name after American 20th-Century poet Yvor Winters’s poem titled, “The Slow Pacific Swell.” The poem describes the relationship between man and nature. Read the full poem at poetryfoundation.org
Ko'olau Writing Workshop 13th
This semester, HPU hosted the annual Ko'olau Writing Workshop, featuring guest speaker Lee Cataluna, on March 6, 2010 at the Hawai’i Loa Campus. Ms. Cataluna opened the day’s event with an informal keynote address. Topics included her recent play adaptation, Maui the Demigod, her work as a columnist with the Honolulu Advertiser, and current research chronicling an unsolved mystery regarding Kaua'i’s local-style plantation railroad robbery. The 8th annual James M. Vaughan Award for Poetry was presented to Mr. Eric Paul Shaffer for his poem, ―The Whistle.‖ During the workshop, break-out sessions included, fiction, nonfiction, poetry and scriptwriting, with a few familiar faces present as facilitators: Professors Tyler McMahon, Steven Robinson, and Dr. Mark Tjarks directed several of the fiction/non-fiction and scriptwriting sessions.
Student Reading On April 15, we had our spring semester student reading. With over 25 people present and nine talented readers, the room was flowing with electricity and excitement. The poetry speakers were Meagan Burgad reading ―The Loon‖ and ―Funeral Meditations‖; Candy Ford reading ―A Still Silence‖; Eric Graley reading three poems, ―You are designated,‖ A Vow‖, and ―Simply Be Yourself‖; Stephanie Nakamura reading ―Jupiter‖; and Raphael Quintinita reading ―The Coast.‖ Short stories and non-fiction pieces were also shared: Garrett Hambaro’s untitled piece about his grandmother; Kate Kincaid’s short story ―A Little Bit of Heaven‖; Tommy Lai’s short story ―My Face in Yours‖; and Maddi Ruhl’s creative non-fiction piece ―A Barrier Called Sanity‖. With all the diverse emotions of the stories and poems, it was two hours of captivation gone by too quickly.
Goodbye Graduates! It’s time to say goodbye to our graduating seniors. We wish them well and good luck in the future. Phillip Atoigue Jr. is an English major with a writing minor. Originally from Guam, he loves BC Fam and Chamorro food. Meagan Burgad grew up in North Dakota. Her favorite place in the world is her lake cabin in Minnesota. After graduating with an English BA she plans to move to the east coast and pursue a MFA in creative writing. Andrea Louise Clapp is a creative writing and cultural studies major with a writing minor. She was born in a small town in Pennsylvania. She plans to move to New Paltz, New York after graduation. Eventually, she would like to open and run her own café/bakery as well as write poetry and short stories. Her favorite food is cookies. Nina Coleman is an English major who hails from Tuskegee, Alabama. She is currently in the United States Navy and has been stationed in Hawaii for almost three years. She will be moving to the east coast after graduation. Neessa Cappolla is an English major currently taking classes towards an MBA at HPU. She has been part of the championship cheer team at HPU. Continued on page 4
What’s Inside Interview with Dr. Ross, p.2 Where to get help with final papers, p.2 New student corner, p.2 L-R: Tommy, Maddi, Kate, Megan, Eric, Candy, Stephanie and Garrett
Raphael Quintinita
Summer reads, p.3 Summer classes, p.4 Important dates, p.4
The whole Pacific hovers hour by hour/The slow Pacific swell stirs on the sand from, “The Slow Pacific Swell”
And now for something completely different . . . HPU’s Theater Performance, Directing, and Acting classes present two evenings of one act plays and scenes at the Paul and Vi Loo Theater at the Hawai’i Loa campus. English major, Phil Hedback directs Did You Ever Go to P.S. 43? by Michael Shulman featuring fellow English major, (and Sigma Tau Delta member) Tommy Lai. Both are also featured in scenes from Beyond Therapy as well as many other scenes. Performances are at 7:30 PM on Thursday, May 6, and Friday, May 7, with free admission.
Graduates (cont.)
HPU’s Theater Seminar class will also be presenting A Night at Two Fat Haole Bar on Sarah Naomi Cooper is a corporate commuSaturday, May 8th at 7:30 PM, written and directed by Phil Hedback. nication major with minors in both writing Take a break from finals and come out to support your friends and fellow students! and theater. Originally from Maui, she plans to stay in the islands after graduation.
Get ahead, take summer classes! Here’s what’s being offered in the English department. Wri 1801 – Grammar Workshop
Wri 3320 – Scriptwriting
This class is great for learning the nittygritty of English grammar and how to correct easily overlooked mistakes. It is also great for ESL students, as it introduces grammatical concepts necessary to properly speak and write in English.
This course is an excellent choice for those with a creative vein. Essentially it is a course on telling stories in play, screenplay, or television formats. Weekly peer workshops are done which help greatly with revisions and create a team atmosphere.
Eng 2801 – Intro to Pidgin
Lit 3610 – Fantasy Literature
Hawaiian Creole English, known in the islands as "Pidgin", is as inseparable from Hawaii as spam musubi. However, much like spam musubi, Pidgin has a deep history that betrays its seemingly humble appearance. Learn about Pidgin with Kent Sakoda, author of Pidgin Grammar, and participate in an aspect of Hawaii's local culture. Can or wot?
This relatively new class offered by Professor Williams will explore great works of fantasy from past to present.
Lit 3630 – Biography This class taught by Professor Cassity is an introduction to the literary genre known as biography: its nature, uses, purpose, relationship to history and to fiction, and varieties of format.
Lit 3721 – Literature of Travel Travel around the Pacific with Dr. Frus this summer in the Literature of Travel. This class explores literature influenced by the writers’ travel experiences.
Kia Hayes is graduating with a double major in English and International Relations. After graduation she plans to move to Monterey, California, where she will spend the year researching, visiting, and applying to graduate schools. Phillip Hedback is a double major in English and Theater. He plans to continue acting and writing plays in Hawaii after graduation. Eliza Prusia is originally from Nebraska. She was awarded first place for adapted script in the last HPU Short Script Contest. She is also the current Managing Editor of Hawai'i Pacific Review. After graduating with an English BA and writing minor, she intends to pursue an editing career in Indiana. Important dates May 6th, 7th, & 8th
Student Plays on Hawaii Loa Campus
May 15th
Book & Music Festival
May 17th
Summer I
May 19th
Graduation
May 31st
Memorial Day, No School
June 7th
Summer II
July 11th
Kamehameha Day, No School
July 5th
No School
July 6th
Summer IV
James Vaughn Award Poetry Reading Eric Paul Schaffer, the 2009 James Vaughn Award for Poetry winner, read a selection of his poems on April 23rd in the Warmer Auditorium. An established poet Schaffer has published six books of poetry. The reading was energetic and the audience was captivated as Schaffer read various poems from his collection including ―Lovers on Pulehu Road,‖ ―Yadokari,‖ and ―The Whistle‖ for which he was awarded the James Vaughn Award. Schaffer currently lives on Maui where he is working on his next book of poems. Much of his poetry can be found at poemhunter.com/ericpaul-shaffer
Interview with Dr. Ross 1) What are you currently reading (for fun)? David Lodge, Deaf Sentence. 2) In your opinion, what's the one book everyone should read? I always want to say Pride and Prejudice, but I have reason to think not everyone gets why this is important. Maybe the Book of Job in the Old Testament, if we're talking about "everyone." Or maybe A Few Green Leaves by Barbara Pym, or Dickens's David Copperfield. There are so many that seem important to me for different reasons. 3) What's a hobby you have that most people would be surprised by? Jazzercise. 4) What was/is your favorite course to teach? Sex, Power, and Narrative, because I made it up myself, and it grew out of everything that I thought was important about revising literary history. 5) How long have you taught at HPU? 25 years.
Just for you! Wanderlust, the undergraduate literary magazine, will unfortunately not be offered again until Fall 2011. We at Pacific Swell would still like to give our talented writers a place to showcase their work. Therefore, we have created a corner of our newsletter just for you. Here’s how it works: Each month, we will pick one essay, poem, book review, or prose. A wide variety of forms, styles, genres, and subjects are encouraged. Basically-be creative. If a particular issue is already full, submissions are kept on file and reconsidered for subsequent issues. Submissions must be submitted no later than the second Friday of each month to be considered for that month’s newsletter. Submissions under 250 words will be more highly considered as space is important. Submissions may be sent to: hpusigmatau@gmail.com And now on to our first featured poet!
Dirty Fingernails and Gardenias by Alix Veronica Lunsford
6) What's your biggest pet peeve? People who say they will do things just to hear how it sounds.
Route fifty-five, Honolulu, Circle island.
7) What's your favorite book quote? I should look up the exact words, but it's something like this from Dorothy Sayers: "Facts are like cows: if you stare at them hard enough, they run away."
on their dining room table.
Vacuum in one hand, she hopes for a check
Cold and rolling beads of sweat, simple green, plumerias and windex.
Stressed about that final paper? Visit the Center for Academic Success The Testing and Tutoring Center has been renamed "Center for Academic Success." Anyone can find tutor schedules and daily tutor schedule changes (if there are any) on HPU's website under "Student Services." On the left, one would select "Center for Academic Success formerly known as the Tutoring and Testing Center" and find the schedules on the links, which are again on the left. Tutor schedules can also be found at the front desk of the center (LB sixth floor). There are about 15 writing tutors. Writing tutors often check papers for correct grammar, punctuation, and MLA or APA citation. We try to help students express their thoughts clearly. If the student needs more than editing help, tutors like to get a feel for the assignment. They talk to the student and ask questions. It's helpful if the student comes in with the assignment sheet in addition to his or her paper (hard-copy). For English or writing courses, tutors will have a conversation with the student about a difficult topic so we can process the assignment together. Writing tutors do not help students with quizzes or tests, and we do not work with electronic documents. Students must bring in hard-copies. Sometimes writing tutors are conversation partners for ESL students. We tutor both graduate and undergraduate students in any area that requires English writing or speaking. The Center for Academic Success is open seven days a week. For more information and a full schedule check the Center for Academic Success page at hpu.edu
Shame doesn’t exist in my vocabulary, because you fed your daughters cut the grass, sang opera in the kitchen, put dream catchers above our heads. In everything I do, I can hear a southern accent “If it wasn’t the best you could do, Then why’d you even do it at all?”
What am I made of today? Sweet dreams and hard work. One woman, two hands.
Alix Veronica Lunsford is an English major with a minor in writing. She will graduate in May 2012.
Summer Reads The end of the semester is quickly approaching and required reading will soon be a thing of the past. Here are a few suggestions to keep you reading through the summer. Little Bee by Chris Cleave An excellent piece of literary fiction, Little Bee The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie This #1 New York Times tells the story of two women from different worlds whose lives are intertwined and changed forever. Much has been made about this story and preserving its secret—the horrifying event that draws the two women together—from potential readers. The back of the book even cautions against disclosing it.
bestseller became controversial among Islamic followers due to the novel’s explicitness and supposed insensitiveness to the religion. However, after having thoroughly read the book, I believe that every reader will be able to agree that it is one of the best books they have and will ever read. Despite its length and complicated diction, Salman Rushdie takes his readers on a long journey through which they will realize that there really is no such thing as all good and all evil. Rather, there is a different mixture of the two in all of us----it's just that it's up to us to further employ either side or not. Moreover, if one were to read the story more carefully past the harshness of its criticism of Islamic religion, then one would realize that Rushdie's novel actually proclaims that there really ISN'T any meaning to life without guidance and faith in religion.
The novel is told through the interchanging points of view of both women. The story is extremely well-crafted, and the reader will enjoy the different voices with which each character tells not only the story, but her own side of it. The lion’s share of the novel is spent in recounting past events that take place long before the novel begins; the last few pages move the story forward. In this sense, the action does not seem to move at all, though the amount of character that is built and that is presented to the reader is immense. Enduring Love by Ian McEwan On a windy spring day, a group of strangers attempts to save a young boy trapped in the basket of a rogue Little Bee is a novel that challenges the westernized, comfortable, hot-air balloon. The would-be rescue ends in tragedy as one man falls to intelligent reader to think about his or her own place in the world and his death. Joe Rose, a science writer, tries to put the harrowing what we do to help others. experience behind him, but when he is contacted by Jed Parry, one of the The Sookie Stackhouse Novels by Charlaine Harris This series is what strangers from the incident, he is forced to relive the failed rescue HBO's 'TruBlood' show is based on. In the realm of vampire-starring attempt. fiction, these novels have more substance than Twilight but are lighter But Rose encounters another problem: Parry is in love with him. Rose is than Anne Rice's works. Sookie, the quirky narrator and heroine, is pushed to the brink of murder and madness as he tries to uncover the somehow witty and ditzy at the same time. She's also telepathic, which logic behind Parry's growing obsession, only to find that logic is provides plenty of funny insights. It's an addicting series. There are nine ineffectual against such "enduring love". Enduring Love is a tale of novels so far. So, it'll keep you busy for awhile. The tenth one, Dead in chance encounters and of love that transcends rationality. the Family is coming out May 2010. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins The latest in young adult books The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson This trilogy is by a well-known that have become popular with adults, The Hunger Games is the first Swedish columnist who died prior to its original publication. The book in a trilogy of the same name. The novel takes place in a post(American) titles in the trilogy are: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The apocalyptic world where North America has been split into 12 districts. Girl who Played with Fire, and The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. To reinforce the government’s control over the people every year each The third one isn't out yet and is set to be released in the U.S. on May district is required to "volunteer" a boy and girl to partake in the annual 25th. Lisbeth Salander is the main character of these detective novels. televised ―Hunger Games‖ where the players fight to the death until only She's a bit anti-social, small of build, violent when provoked, and very one is left. Recommended to anyone who enjoyed 1984 or this year’s skilled in mathematics and in hacking computers; a lovable character. common book, Little Brother. They Shoot Canoes, Don’t They? By Patrick F. McManus Tongue-incheek humor has never been so eloquently described as the way Patrick What’s Up with Wanderlust McManus manages it. From ―The Crouch Hop and Other Useful Outdoor Wanderlust, Hawaii Pacific University's student-run undergraduate Steps‖ to ―The Sensuous Angler‖ and ―The Hunter’s Dictionary,‖ if there literary magazine, gives students a chance to become published ever was a question about recreation that you were afraid to ask, you’ll authors and offers them the opportunity to showcase their talents. discover the answer—and then regret it. An expert guide for the novice, Wanderlust primarily seeks out short fiction, creative nonfiction, deciphering the phrase, ―BAFF MAST PIME IG BEAD FEAS MID MIFF poetry, and visual artwork. PIFE!‖ is a cinch to understand once it’s revealed as [―That’s the last time I try to eat peas in the dark with my hunting knife!‖]. A collection of Student editors are completely responsible for choosing what is sketches chronicling time spent as an outdoor/recreational humorist, published and what is not. The editors read and discuss each Murphy’s Law features prominently within each episode as the human submission in order to select the best pieces for the magazine. element reigns supreme, in all its well-intentioned, messy, glory. Many well-known authors have started with publications in small McManus’s gentle, probing humor offers insight not only into a specific periodicals. A magazine such as Wanderlust gives authors a chance lifestyle, but the cause-and-effect reaction attributed to human foibles to be published, something they might not have experienced before, and its witty, sometimes irreverent, result. and to begin building a name for themselves in the literary world. Look for our latest issue this fall. Wanderlust will be offered again in fall 2011.