It’s beginning to look a lot like…the end of the semester.
1. Announcements
Tonight is the night for the graduate English farewell fair–open to the public, free, and with food! Hope to see you in Jerome Ritchfield 319, from 7PM to 9:45PM.
But if not there, tomorrow, at the Holiday party, from 12PM to 3PM!
Changes lie ahead for Department advising and coordinating positions, as Ranita Chatterjee, as graduate advisor; Kent Baxter, as FYI/JYI coordinator; and Michael Bryson as Honors coordinator have all come to the end of their service terms. We join Jackie in thanking them for all their hard work for us and our students, and in welcoming those who will be taking their places—Kent Baxter, as Graduate Adviser; Danielle Spratt, as FYI/JYI Coordinator; and Charles Hatfield, as Honors Coodinator. Danielle and Charles will start in the Fall 2012 semester, while Kent will take over from Ranita in Spring 2013. Thanks for stepping up and, in advance, for your hard work ahead.
On Friday, December 9th, at 7:00 p.m., in the English Reading Room (JR-319), the Northridge Playwrights’ Workshop will present staged readings of new plays and scenes by student dramatists. A diverse array of original work will be presented. Admission is free, as are refreshments.
Just before that, the inaugural meeting of the new Northridge Creative Writing Circle will be held in JR 319. And the new CSUN Critical Theory Club had another rousing meeting and will convene again in January. Please stay tuned for updates to keep your students posted.
2. Reminders
However impossible it might seem, we’ve somehow arrived at the end of another semester. Or as my mother always said, don’t blink. Finals are next week Monday, December 12 through Saturday, December 17, 2011. And grade rosters are available now.
And that means next semester is almost here and that book orders were due long, long ago. If you, like a lot of us, haven’t done yours yet, what better time is there than now?
While you are at it, don’t forget to fill out your teaching schedules preference forms for next year and return it by Wednesday, December 14.
Finally, turn in your 319 keys, please, if you no longer have need of them.
No, wait, one more—don’t forget to fill in the University Service Form, http://www.csun.edu/senate/volunteer.doc, and send it to the Faculty Senate Office, Mail Drop 8221, or by email to Heidi Wolfbauer (heidiw@csun.edu<mailto:heidiw@csun.edu>). This will ensure you are not overlooked for faculty service—committees, officers, Senators-at-large—in which you have interest or for which you are most eminently qualified.
The COH has a new Open Funding Opportunities webpage, where you can track many ongoing grant and fellowship competitions that may be of interest. The page is updated as new opportunities are announced. Check it out. http://www.csun.edu/humanities/grants/openfundingopportunities.html
If you have been teaching 113, 114, 115, or 155, please encourage your students to submit to Wings this semester. Wings continues to accept work over a wide range of genres including essays, reflective letters, blog projects, visual rhetoric projects, stretch projects, and more. And if you have been teaching any freshman composition classes this semester please attend the Fall Semester Wings Reading to help us choose what projects should be included in the next edition. As usual, the reading will feature food, drinks, and fun, and will be held on Thursday, December 15th, in JR 319 from 11am to 3pm. Any participation is much welcomed and appreciated! Look for fliers in the hallways and in the display case. Questions may be directed to the Wings editor at mailto:wings@csun.edu.
3. Faculty/Staff/Student/Alumni Achievements
Ranita Chatterjee has two substantial entries (5,000 words each) on Children’s literature in the Romantic period, and on the political theorist and writer William Godwin, better known as Mary Shelley’s father, in the recently published 3 volume The Encyclopedia of Romantic Literature, General Editor: Frederick Burwick (Blackwell, 2012).
Teesha Garfield, a Creative Writing graduate student who finished her degree this term, has had a short story, “A Shot with Henrietta,” accepted by the e-zine, Forty Ounce Bachelors.
Rick Mitchell premiered his new, one-person play, VENTRILOQUIST ADRIFT, a dark comedy, on November 16th through the 20th, at the peer-reviewed section of the New Orleans Fringe Festival. Locally, Highways, in Santa Monica, will be presenting an updated version of the piece, which features puppets, video, and the dramatist himself, on February 24th and 25th, 2012.
Matt Terhune, a recent Creative Writing MA, has had a poem accepted by American Poetry Review. Kudos to Matt.
Kim Young, another recent Creative Writing MA, has won the 2011 Agha Shahid Ali Poetry Prize through the University of Utah Press, which carries with it a $1000 prize and publication by the University of Utah Press, as well as an invitation to read in the University of Utah’s Guest Writer’s Series. Kudos to Kim as well!
And kudos to the rest of us as well for concluding yet another semester–good work, all! Here’s wishing everyone a very happy holiday! And in the words of an old cowboy in Wyoming I once knew, none of it matters if you don’t have fun!
Compiled by Katharine Haake, Associate Chair