Ashland Poetry Workshop

This December, the Ashland University English Department invites regional poets to a free poetry workshop weekend.  The event includes workshop sessions, seminars, and readings by the workshop instructors. 

Guest presenter Lynn Powell will give a reading and a seminar that will focus on the work of two of Ohio's most prominent and influential poets - Mary Oliver (who is an Ohio native) and Elton Glaser (who has lived in Ohio for close to forty years).

Workshops will be led by Lynn Powell, Deborah Fleming (English Department chair), Stephen Haven (Director of the MFA Program), and Sarah M. Wells (Administrative Director of the MFA Program).

Any and all poets are welcome to register, but space is limited, so please contact Sarah Wells by November 24 at swells@ashland.edu or 419.289.5957 to register.

When: December 1 and 2, 2012
Where: Ashland University, Ashland, Ohio

Visit the Ashland Poetry Workshop blog for complete details, travel information, and local accommodations.

Funding for this program was made possible in part by the Ohio Humanities Council with support by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in the program do not necessarily reflect those of the National Endowment for the Humanities, or of the Ohio Humanities Council.

Country Boys and Nazi Comedy

Sarah Wells Reading: Monday October 29

On Monday, October 29, poet and essayist Sarah M. Wells will be reading from her work.  Sarah is the author of Pruning Burning Bushes from Wipf and Stock Publishers (2012), and a chapbook of poems, Acquiesce, winner of the 2008 Starting Gate Award through Finishing Line Press (2009). Poems by Wells have appeared or are forthcoming in Alimentum, Ascent, Christianity & Literature, JAMA, Literary Mama, Measure, New Ohio Review, Nimrod, Poetry East, Puerto del Sol, Rock & Sling, and elsewhere. Her essays have been published by Ascent and River Teeth.  The reading will be held in 138 Schar College of Education at 4:30.

Sarah's poetry has been honored with two Pushcart Prize nominations. Her essay, "Those Summers, These Days" was named a notable essay in the Best American Essays 2012. She has received scholarships to attend the Key West Literary Seminar and West Chester Poetry Conferences. The beginning of her essay "Country Boys, City Boys" can be found here.  For more about Sarah, visit her blog at http://www.sarahmwells.com/p/bio.html.

Film Studies Lecture: Friday, 11/2, 3:00 pm, 115 Dauch

If you saw Quentin Tarantino's last film, you know that there was a Nazi film industry during World War II.  But have you ever wondered what Nazi-era German film comedy was like?  Dr. Valerie Weinstein of the University of Cincinnati will give a talk entitled "Laughing Matters:  Film Comedy and the Politics of Race in Nazi Germany."  Dr. Valerie Weinstein is an Assistant Professor of German Studies at the University of Cincinnati. She has also taught at Williams College, University of Nevada--Reno, and Tulane University. She earned her Ph.D. from Cornell University in 2001 and has published articles on Weimar and Nazi Cinema and on other aspects of nineteenth- and twentieth-century German literature and culture. She is currently working on a book-length project on Antisemitism and Third Reich Film Comedy.

 

STD End of Year Cookout

To celebrate the end of the year, members of Sigma Tau Delta, the English Honors Society, got together with department faculty at the home of Michael and Hilary Donatini (who has since welcomed a daughter to her family).  On a splendid late spring day a wonderful time was had by all, and Lindsay Arron amazed everyone with her pitch-perfect imitations of all her professors.