Archive for ‘Student Spotlight’

The Black Tulip

0 Commentsby   |  05.05.16  |  Announcement, Announcements, Events and Readings, Shinnery Review, Student Spotlight, Uncategorized

The Black Tulip was held on Friday, April 22nd at Monks Coffee Shop in downtown Abilene.  The Black Tulip is held every year for the release of The Shinnery Review, but we did it a bit differently than I think people have in the past.  We wanted to have it at Monks because we felt like coffee and poetry, fiction, and photographs went really well together and it’s just got a great vibe to it.  It was scheduled to start at 6:00 and we had a lot of people show up right away for the event.  People spent a little while looking at copies we had placed around the coffee shop and once more people showed up, people who submitted their works of poetry or fiction had the opportunity to read a piece allowed, and we had about ten people read their pieces.  It went very smoothly, and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves!
As for the magazine itself, it is an entirely student-led publication; we’ve got quite a few students from the Language and Literature Department that participate, but we’ve also got students from other departments as well.  We started accepting submissions for the publication at the beginning of this semester so we’d have enough time to go through all of them, as well as edit all of the pieces.  We had a lot of people submitting pieces of poetry, short stories, as well as photographs.  In the end, we had about 40 more pages of content than last year so we really had a great turnout for submissions.  There are so many talented writers and photographers and this university, and I believe The Shinnery Review is a fantastic opportunity to showcase their work!
*written by Sarah Bateman
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Celebrating Our Seniors

0 Commentsby   |  04.22.16  |  Announcement, Announcements, Awards and Honors, Events and Readings, Student Spotlight

Yesterday, four of our graduating seniors were honored during the University Scholars chapel. Congratulations to James Churchill, Alyssa Johnson, Kirby Lemon, and Lauren Shrader on the recognition of all their hard work over the years! Pictured below are the recipients and their nominating faculty.

From left to right: Kirby Lemon, Paul Roggendorff, Joe Stephenson, Alyssa Johnson, James Churchill, Al Haley, Steve Weathers, and Lauren Shrader

From left to right: Kirby Lemon, Paul Roggendorff, Joe Stephenson, Alyssa Johnson, James Churchill, Al Haley, Steve Weathers, and Lauren Shrader

Poetry reading by award-winner Jonathan Fink

0 Commentsby   |  04.06.16  |  Announcement, Announcements, Creative Writing, Department Chapel, Events and Readings

Flyer - Jonathan Fink Reading - myACU

The Department of Language and Literature is delighted to announce that the award-winning poet Jonathan Fink will be coming to campus on Thursday, April 14. Fink has authored two poetry collections and received the Bronze Medal in Poetry in the 2015 Florida Book Awards, as well as been named by Poets & Writers magazine as one of America’s 10 best “2015 Debut Poets.”

Fink will be a guest host for a special departmental chapel at 11 a.m. and give a public reading at The Grace Museum ballroom from 7-7:50 p.m. The evening poetry reading will be followed by a book signing of Fink’s new, highly praised collection of poems, The Crossing.

Before his reading at The Grace, Fink will also have the following schedule on Thursday:

  • 11 a.m. Talk about poetry and read poems in a special department chapel
  • Noon. Discuss writing over lunch with English M.A. students
  • 3 p.m. Talk about literary nonfiction techniques to Prof. Haley’s Eng. 320/520 Creative Nonfiction Workshop

The Department of Language and Literature is also hosting a “Dress as Your Favorite Poet” costume contest. Any ACU student can enter, and the winner will receive $50. To enter, just dress up and come to The Grace Museum ballroom on Thursday night, April 14 at 6:45. Participants will be judged before the poetry reading begins at 7 p.m.

Fink has received several other poetry awards and fellowships, including a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. His poems and essays have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Poetry, New England Review and others. It is an honor to have this Abilenian poet come back to his hometown and share his work, so come out and show your support.

To learn more about Fink and his work, visit his website: http://jonathanfink.com/

 

Graduate Alum Elena Kua Publishes

1 Commentby   |  11.09.15  |  Creative Writing

alley-aerialElena Kua, who completed our Master’s in English as a creative writing student in the fall 2014, has just had a creative nonfiction piece published in The Baltimore Review.

She’s excited to report that she even received payment for her work!

The piece, “Engraving,” tells about Elena’s aging father and recreates some of his years growing up in the southern part of Malaysia.

Elena is currently living back home in Maylasia with husband See Huang Lim (another of our Master’s alumni). The two of them are awaiting word this month on whether they will receive visas to do religious work in Japan.

You can read “Engraving,” HERE.

TACWT Contest Winners Announced

0 Commentsby   |  09.04.13  |  Advising Information, Creative Writing

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The Annual Texas Association of Creative Writing Teachers Contest Announce Winners

In the category of Undergraduate Poetry, Lexi French placed 2nd for

“Stinky, Stinky, WaWa” and other poems.

In the category of Undergraduate Non-Fiction, Emma Sparks placed 2nd for her essay

“The Ecology of Strangers”.

Congratulations to both of you!

Congrats to major David Gasvoda!

0 Commentsby   |  04.24.13  |  Student Spotlight

Congratulations to English major David Gasvoda. He is one of two undergraduate students representing ACU on April 26, at the Texas Undergraduate Research Day at the Texas Capitol.  David will deliver his paper, “Cormac McCarthy’s Projection of Nature In Blood Meridian.”  Huzzah!

English Major Heather Kregel wins award

0 Commentsby   |  04.05.13  |  Student Spotlight

Please pass on your congratulations to Heather Kregel, whose presentation “Physicians in the Literature of Arthur Conan Doyle and Robert Louis Stevenson: Portraying the Icons of Changing Times” won the outstanding oral presentation in the arts and humanities at the Undergraduate Research Festival.  It will be a nice feather in her cap before she starts further work at the University of Texas Medical School in Houston in the fall.  Thanks for being a great representative of the Language and Literature Department at the Festival.
Huzzah!

Students Shine at CCTE Conference

0 Commentsby   |  02.27.13  |  Student Spotlight

Three graduate students and one faculty member from our department received awards for their paper submissions to the Conference of College Teachers of English (CCTE) and the Texas College English Association, hosted on the ACU campus Feb. 21-23.

Department Chair Cole Bennett said, “We are thrilled with the quality of students in our English MA program, and while we’re not surprised at these accomplishments, we celebrate with them for their good work at CCTE.”

The students and faculty member received the following awards:

  •  The William B. Tanner Grad Student Paper award went to Greg Jeffers for his paper, “Glenn Beck, Jim Wallis, and the Debate on Social Justice: A Narrative Critique.”
  • The Randy Popkin Memorial Award for a Rhetoric Paper went to Leanne Moore for her paper, “Use of Metaphor in the 2012 Presidential Campaign.”
  • The Best Shakespeare Paper Award went to Alison Maxfield for her paper “‘Lord of this fair mansion’ and ‘Queen o’er myself’: Female Agency in The Merchant of Venice and Il Pecorone.”
  • The Best Poetry Award went to Al Haley, professor and writer in residence, for his reading of selections from his volume-in-progress of poems about the business world, I Loved a Capitalist.

Each winner will have their work published in the 2013 edition of CCTE Studies, a peer-reviewed scholarly journal.

Heading North to Write More

0 Commentsby   |  06.09.12  |  Student Spotlight

Claire Hardin has spent her time at ACU achieving the educational goals she set for herself. She maintained a high average and maintained her full-tuition presidential scholarship award. In addition, she was recognized as a University Scholar and made the Dean’s Honor Roll, all while a member of the Honors College.

Claire worked throughout her college years as a public service student worker in the Brown Library. While there, she assisted in research, supervised the training of new employees, and aided the librarians in cataloging new materials.

Even though she was busy with school and the library, Claire also took time to give back–both to the school and to others. Claire served on the staff of The Shinnery Review during her senior year and worked as a counselor during her sophomore/junior summer.

Claire Hardin graduated in May. She will be attending Portland State University this fall, pursuing an MS in the Technical/Professional Writing program.

Rhetorical Future at ACU

0 Commentsby   |  05.04.12  |  Student Spotlight

Meet Gregory Jeffers, one of English’s graduating seniors. Set to graduate with university honors this month, Greg has prepared himself well for the future. This fall, he will begin the English master’s program at ACU with a concentration in Composition and Rhetoric.

Four Years Well Spent

Greg has taken particular care to develop his conference skills, representing ACU at the regional Honors conference, presenting a paper on oppression and rebellion in American novels. He also participated in this year’s Undergraduate Research Festival and presented on the Study Abroad experience for the Office of Multicultural Education.

Volunteering is important to Greg. With over 120 hours of volunteer service logged with the Office of Service Learning, his efforts have included cooking Thanksgiving dinner for refugees, visiting the Ronald McDonald house, and working with children’s activities at church and ACU.

Greg’s employment history while at ACU includes two years of working for the Honors College, during which time he has been a Peer Leader for the Honors Freshman Cornerstone class. Last summer, he worked in Sugar Land, Texas with First Colony Church of Christ as a children’s ministry intern.