Two upcoming Vermillion Literary Project activities:
VLP Reading & Poetry Slam – Join us Thursday, November 19, 7 p.m. at the Coffee Shop Gallery (24 W. Main Street), Vermillion, for the VLP Reading & Poetry Slam. Our featured reader this month will be Ed Allen. Allen has published two novels: Straight Through the Night, and Mustang Sally, which was made into a film, Easy Six (retitled in a Showtime DVD release as Easy Sex). He is also the author of The Hands-On Fiction Workbook. His fiction and poetry have appeared in The New Yorker, GQ, Story, Prairie Schooner, The Indiana Review, and River Styx. His collection of short stories, Ate it Anyway, won the 2002 Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. His first collection of poetry, the sonnet sequence 67 Mixed Messages was published by Ahsahta Press in 2006. He has been a contestant on Jeopardy and was once on the same Delta flight as Tiny Tim. He currently teaches in the creative writing program at USD.
Join an exciting new writing community, EXORCISE YOUR WRITES! on Monday, November 16, 7 p.m. at the Washington Street Arts Center, 202 N Washington, Vermillion. Exorcise Your Writes is a community writers group that brings area writers together on the third Monday of every month to free themselves from the usual “anti-writing” spirits: The evil voice of the inner ear (self-censoring), the mind eraser (writer’s block), the blinding blank page, the floating fingers that lure writers to the web, and the spring in the chair that causes writers to pop up and make coffee. EVERYONE is welcome! Whether a published writer or just starting out, come to this supportive, inspiring, creative group to exorcise (and exercise) your writing, to share and receive feedback from your peers, and to listen to other creative spirits. Bring your poems, scribbles, chapters, scenes, sketches, drafts, characters – or just come and listen! For more information, contact group organizer Sandra Kern Mollman at Sandra.Mollman-AT-usd-DOT-edu. Sponsored by the Vermillion Literary Project (VLP) http://orgs.usd.edu/projlit.
Workshops, sponsored by the University Writing Center, University
Libraries, and the Department of English, are available to students,
faculty and staff who wish to improve their writing skills. No
pre-registration is required, and the workshops are free of charge. All workshops are held in Old Main 106 from 7 - 8 p.m. (unless otherwise noted).
Writing Assistance Workshop: English 101, 210, and IdEA Capstone Courses: December 2, 7-9 p.m. This two-hour workshop provides opportunities for students to receive individualized assistance with papers in English 101, English 101+, English 210, or IdEA capstone courses. Students should bring their essay drafts and outlines, laptops, writing assignment sheets, grammar handbooks, as well as ideas for revision. This is a WORKING session, not a presentation. Ken Green, Coordinator of the Writing Center and Writing Center Staff.
Writing Essay Exams: December 9, 7 p.m. Prepares students for writing in-class essay exams. This workshop is intended especially for advanced undergraduates as well as graduate students preparing for comprehensive exams. The workshop includes techniques for planning, quick drafting, and proofreading and advice on most important elements of essay exam composition.
Our own professor Ron Ganze will be screening films as part of one of his classes this semester. He welcomes additional audience members, so come and bring a friend! There is no charge. The location is Farber Hall, Old Main.
Here’s the schedule:
Th 9/10, 7PM, Farber Hall: Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Trois Couleurs: Bleu
(France, Poland, & Switzerland, 1993, 100 min)
T 9/15, 7PM, Farber Hall: Woody’s Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors (U.S.A., 1989, 107 min)
T 9/22, 7PM, Farber Hall: Tom Twyker’s Run, Lola, Run (Germany, 1998, 81 min)
Students--undergraduate or graduate, of any major--are welcome to join the Vermillion Literary Project, a very cool organization that publishes a literary magazine and hosts a number of literary events for the USD community and the general public. Some of the benefits are
membership in the U's only student creative-writing & literary organization;
membership in a consistently award-winning organization;
hands-on experience organizing and hosting monthly poetry slams;
hands-on publishing experience with creating the annual VLP magazine (editing, design, etc.);
experience dreaming up, organizing, and hosting literary events throughout the school year;
being part of a community of students who share your interest in all things literary!
The deadline for creative and critical submissions to the 2009 John R. Milton Writers' Conference has been extended until September 7, 2009. See the conference website for additional information.
High school students can register, with a teacher or principal's nomination, for “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice: A Creative Writing Camp,” to be held Saturday, September 26, 2009, at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion.
Sally Read, a writer who graduated from the University of South Dakota in 2000, recently contacted Professor Brian Bedard to let him know that she has published her second book of poems, Broken Sleep. The first book, out in 2005, is called The Point of Splitting; it was shortlisted for the Jerwood Aldeburgh First Collection Prize.Both books were published by Bloodaxe Books, a British publisher known for publishing contemporary poetry of merit. Both books are available for sale on Amazon.com.
Our former colleague, poet and assistant professor Craig Arnold, is still missing after a week of searching. Craig, who taught in the USD English Department at the University of South Dakota in 2003-04, had traveled to Japan on a creative exchange fellowship. He went missing when he was exploring a volcano on the island of Kuchino-erabu-shima. Craig has been writing a book of essays and poetry about volcanoes and has been keeping a weblog, Volcano Pilgrim: Five Months in Japan as a Wandering Poet.
Craig assisted with the Vermillion Literary Project while he was at USD, and he also was a featured poet at the VLP 2009 Poetry Festival. Craig has published two books of poetry, the award-winning Shells and, more recently, Made Flesh. You can listen to Craig read some of his poetry from Made Flesh on these two Youtube sites:
Craig is an assistant professor of English at the University of Wyoming. With the assistance of his university, a fund has been established to support the search efforts to find Craig. The Paypal link directly to the fund is here: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=5149253. You can also continue to follow the story of the search on a Facebook site that his family has established, "Find Craig Arnold."
Come on down to the VLP Poetry Reading & SLAM this Thursday, 3/26, 7-9 p.m. at the Coffee Shop Gallery, featuring Omaha poet HEIDI HERMANSON…
Hermanson has been published in Backroads, Mental Horizons, Midwest Compilation, Slamma Lamma Ding Dong: An Anthology of Nebraska Slam Poets, and other places. She has been part of many public art projects such as "8 counts/24" (writers had 24 hours to write on a theme pulled from a bag) "OmaHome" (writers wrote inspired by a piece of artwork; the writing was then interpeted by a local actor), and the “benchmarks” project, which featured brief inspirational quotes on benches throughout Omaha. In 2003 she organized the first Poets' Chautauqua at the Nebraska State Fair and also that year released her first chapbook, Midwest Hotel. Her second chapbook, Missouri Joyride, is forthcoming. She runs a monthly open mike, "Naked Words." In her spare time, she hopes to open a library of maps to towns that do not exist, and wants to learn dialects of the seven-year cicada. She recently received an MFA from the University of Nebraska.
Heidi’s reading will be followed by a SLAM—competitive poetry performance—open to anyone. Slam poets should bring 3 original poems, and prizes will be awarded.
See you all there!
Marcella Remund USD Dept. of English Faculty Advisor, Vermillion Literary Project (VLP) Dakota Hall 227
Jason Berger, currently of the University of Connecticut, has accepted the offer of a position in early American literature at the University of South Dakota. He will begin teaching in fall 2009.
Berger's field of specialization is nineteenth-century American literature. His interests include American studies and critical theory (especially Lacanian psychoanalysis and Marxism). His dissertation is titled "Antebellum at Sea: United States Maritime Narratives and Constructions of Fantasy." One of his recent publications is "Killing Tom Coffin: Rethinking the Nationalist Narrative in James Fenimore Cooper'sThe Pilot." Early American Literature 44.3.
"I would like to invite you to the now annual Sigma Tau Delta (that's the English Honors Society) fundraiser to be held at the Eagles on Saturday, February 7, 2009 at the Eagles in downtown Vermillion. Narrative Feed and At Ease will be playing. The bands will set up on opposite ends of the Eagles and trade sets, so no breaks, no boring interludes with endless mic checks and feedback squalls. Narrative Feed, as most of you know, features three English Department faculty members, John Dudley, Dennis Sjolie, and myself (that would be Skip Willman). At Ease is a talented band with connections to the English Department. Joe Raiche (vocals, guitar) is a current PhD student, and Simon Ferrell (drums) received his MA two years ago. The cover charge for this fundraiser will probably be $3."
Finalists for a faculty position in American literature at USD will be on campus to interview this week and next week. As part of the interview, each will give a public lecture on a topic in his/her research area. You are most cordially invited to attend. All of the lectures are at 4:00 p.m. in the Neuharth Media Center:
Kelly Wisecup, Tuesday, 20 January -- “Obeah, Plantation Medicine, and the Georgic Form in James Grainger’s The Sugar Cane (1764)”
Jason Berger, Friday, 23 January -- “The Sublime Abject of Democracy: Herman Melville’s 'Floating Imperium’”
Peter Jaros, Monday, 26 January -- “Good Names: Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa”
Poet, playwright, musician, and songwriter Joy Harjo is the keynote speaker at this year's Martin Luther King Day celebration, Wednesday, 21 January at 7:00 p.m. in the Colton Recital Hall (Fine Arts) building. This should be good. Find out more about Harjo at her website, http://www.joyharjo.com/Home.html .
As always, the Vermillion Literary Project will hold its monthly reading/slam on the last Thursday of the month: Thursday, 29 January at 7:00 p.m. at the Coffee Shop Gallery, 24 W. Main Street, Vermillion. The featured reader is Kevin Cole, an associate professor of English at the University of Sioux Falls. If you're interested in participating in the slam (prizes offered!), bring three original poems. Everyone is welcome. For more information about slams, see http://www.usd.edu/orgs/projlit/vlpslam.cfm .
The Vermillion Literary Project is also holding its annual poetry festival, featuring Craig Arnold, Jim Reese, and other writers. For more information, visit http://www.usd.edu/orgs/projlit/poetryfestival/ .
Darlene Farabee will host a reading of Shakespeare's All's Well that Ends Well. This late comedy by Shakespeare has a few dark twists to it. Set in France, the play features a resourceful young woman, a King who suffers from a fistula, an unmatched braggart soldier, a good clown role, lost and missing rings, and a few mistaken identities along the way.
Please respond by 6pm on tuesday 9 December if you would like to join in! Cast list will be sent out that night. This playreading will be the last one of the semester, but there are plans to continue them next semester. To reach Professor Farabee please e-mail her at darelene.farabee-AT-usd-DOT-edu.
December 5, 3:30 p.m., Farber Hall- PhD student Brian Twenter will present his dissertation research in a lecture entitled "Discovering Lewis and Clark: A Lakota Perspective." This event is a Colloquium.