Darrell Spencer receives Baker Fund Award

News for 05-15-2008

Darrell Spencer received a Baker Fund Award for his project "The Department of Big Thoughts: A Novel." The John C. Baker Fund was established in 1961 in honor of O.U.'s 14th president. Each year the Baker Fund awards funding to faculty members for research and creative projects.

Marsha Dutton awarded the Leader Prize for 2007

News for 05-15-2008

The Leader Prize is an award recognizing an article that "represents the highest achievement in scholarship and criticism in the field of Arthurian studies published in the previous calendar year." Marsha's essay "The Staff in the Stone: Finding Arthur's Sword in the /Vita Sancta Edwardi/ of Aelred of Rievaulx" appeared in /Arthuriana/, but was selected by an independent scholarly panel.

Three English Faculty Win A&S Awards

News for 05-14-2008

Jane Denbow has received the Outstanding Group II Faculty Award. Sherrie Gradin has received the Graselli Faculty Teaching Award in the Humanities, and Linda Rice has received an Arts and Sciences Dean's Outstanding Teaching Award. All three will be honored at the annual Arts and Sciences Faculty Welcome and Awards Ceremony on September 16, 4:00 - 6:00 p.m.

Zakes Mda featured writer at Ohioana Book Festival

News for 05-13-2008

Zakes Mda is a featured writer at the Ohioana Book Festival in Columbus. He will be participating in a number of reading and panel discussions at the Ohioana Library and in outreach programs at some schools in the Columbus area and at WOSU radio station. Professor Mda is also one of the ten Ohio writers who are being honored by Ohio First Lady Frances Strickland.

Paul Jones receives Nancy Dasher award

News for 05-13-2008

Unwelcome Voices wins the competitive Nancy Dasher Award this year. Dr. Joe McLaughlin nominated Dr. Jones' book for consideration and the book was selected as the winner of this year's award.

Janis Holm’s dramatic monologues performed by the Mercury Players

News for 05-13-2008

Janis Holm's dramatic monologues "If Paris Hilton Wrote Poetry" and "Shopping with Winona" were performed by the Mercury Players in Madison, Wisconsin, last month. Another monologue, "Abduction, Again," will be performed later this month.

Reading and Book-Signing for Visiting Author Joel Peckham

News for 04-29-2008

On Saturday at 7:00 p.m., Jackson and Traci Connor will host a reading and book-signing for visiting author Joel Peckham at their home, 146 Morris Avenue. Peckham is an Assistant Professor of American Literature at The University of Cincinnati, Clermont College. His poetry and essays on grief and recovery have been published in many journals, including The Black Warrior Review, The Literary Review, The North American Review, River Teeth, and The Southern Review. His second collection, The Heat of What Comes, has just appeared from Pecan Grove Press and will be available at the reading.

Dogwood Bloom

News for 04-29-2008

Dogwood Bloom is this FRIDAY at 5:00 p.m. in Ellis 214, featuring the very talented Bob Cantoni, Tony Dallacheisa and Megan Villegas. Please show them your support!

Spring Literary Festival to be held May 7-9

News for 04-01-2008

The annual Spring Literary Festival will be held May 7-9, 2008, and will feature Lee Abbott, Edwidge Danticat, Kathryn Harrison, Thomas Glave, and Tony Hoagland. Sponsored by the Program in Creative Writing and the African Studies Program at Ohio University Since 1986, The Spring Literary Festival has featured some of the world's finest, most distinguished writers of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. The three-day festival is held annually in May on the Ohio University campus in Athens, Ohio. It is sponsored by the Program in Creative Writing of the Department of English and is generously funded by the College of Arts and Sciences. All readings and lectures are free and open to the public. The six visiting writers will be present throughout the festival, lecturing and reading from their work. Books by the authors will be available for purchase after each program. For more information about this event or the featured authors, click here: http://www.english.ohiou.edu/sp/litfest/

Book signing for Dinty W. Moore’s new memoir

News for 03-06-2008

Dinty W. Moore, the latest addition to OU's creative writing faculty, has published a new memoir, Between Panic and Desire. He will be signing copies of the book on Thursday, March 6, at Little Professor Book Center on Court Street in Athens.

Moore’s book, part of the University of Nebraska Press’ American Lives series, blends narrative and quizzes, memory and numerology, imagined interviews and conversations with dead presidents, in an attempt to document the disorienting experience of growing up in a postmodern world. Along the way, Moore examines major events in his early life -- the Kennedy assassination, Nixon’s resignation, Vietnam protests, drugs, watching Father Knows Best -- for evidence of how these moments shape and distort the way he and others of his generation see events both global and personal today.

Publisher’s Weekly, in a recent review, praised the book as an “unconventional, nonsequential, generational autobiography ... [that] takes readers on a quirky, entertaining joyride." In addition to his book signing in Athens, Moore will be promoting the book over the next months in Tempe, AZ, Oxford, MS, Columbus, OH, and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

Moore joined the OU faculty in September 2007. He is the author of several previous books, including The Truth of the Matter: Art and Craft in Creative Nonfiction and The Accidental Buddhist: Mindfulness, Enlightenment, and Sitting Still.