SAGINAW VALLEY STATE UNIVERSITY

Saginaw

©Writing@SVSU

7400 Bay Road

University Center, MI 48710

Credits

Writing@SVSU is funded by the Office of the Dean of the College of Arts & Behavioral Sciences.

Editorial Staff Kimberly Lacey Associate Professor of English and Writing Program Administrator

Christopher Giroux Professor of English

Layout and Design Tim Inman Director of Marketing Support Office of University Communications

Printing SVSU Graphics Center

Welcome to the 2021

2022 issue of Writing@SVSU!

2022academicyearmarkedareturntosomedegreesofnormalcybothinsideandoutside of the classroom. For example, with the support of Dean Marc Peretz, we are able, once more, to return to a print version of this journal. Additionally, although we remained masked, a majority of students and faculty were able to return to traditional face-to-face classes.

The2021

The move to face-to-face masked instruction, though, reminded us that we really hadn’t returned tothepast.Althoughwewere physicallyinthesame spaceas our students,thingsweren’t the same. Students were still regularly quarantining and following new protocols. The smell of hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes was our constant companion. We encouraged students to spread out, we remained hesitant to move them into small groups and we rethought even how we distributed materials. And masks? We muddled through. We kept seeing students through fogged- up lenses and quickly realized that while our masks worked and created a barrier between ourselves and the virus, we could no longer read facial expressions to see where students had questions about the day’s topic, where they felt disconnected, or, at the most basic level, when they (or we) were smiling or frowning in puzzlement. We were together, but disconnected.

This disconnect between expectation and reality mirrors what many of our students (and ourselves) encounter when writing. Faced with a new genre, a new topic, a different audience, we may feel like we are starting over again. Even when audience and purpose are familiar to us, writing can remain a challenge. However, we persevere and return to what we know about writing. We brainstorm, we draft and revise, and then we redraft and revise, and proof and edit and sometimes we start all over again. But we start, we try, and in doing so we move forward. In this way, the essays on the following pages remind of us not only the power of the written word, but the power of the writing process. Through writing, we learn and grow and we remind ourselves that writing always matters when it allows us connect to new ideas and to others.

We hope that the pieces on the following pages whether focusing on the achievements of some our outstanding seniors and faculty; on topics as diverse as running shoes and vulnerable populations; on issues of Black linguistic identity and Black literary traditions; on theories of creative writing as well as poems and stories about lands near and far also provide you with an opportunity to connect to ideas new and old, and to just a few of the many talented writers linked to our campus and the SVSU community.

And, on a side note, we congratulate our colleague, Tim Inman, on his retirement and thank him for his many years of work on Writing@SVSU.

Dr. Kim Lacey

Dr. Chris Giroux Associate Professor of English Professor of English Writing Program Administrator

from African American Literature in Transition, 1865–1880: Black Reconstructions,” by Eric Gardner .....................................................................86

“An Excerpt from ‘Empathy in Isolation: Lived Experiences of Teachers of Refugee Children,” by Adam Scott LeRoy .......................................................................90

“An Excerpt from ‘Perceptions of the Public Library Social Worker: Challenges and Opportunities,’” by Mark A. Giesler ...................................................................93

“An Excerpt from “Gesturing with Smart Wearables: An Alternate Way to User Authentication,” by Khandaker Abir Rahman, Avishek Mukherjee, and Kristina Mullen .............................................................................................96 Spotlight on… Visiting Authors

“An Excerpt from The Mason House,” by T. Marie Bertineau .....................................100

“Love Poem,” by Justin Brouckeart ...............................................................................102 “An Excerpt from Linguistic Justice: Black Language, Black Identity, and Pedagogy,” by April Baker-Bell