It is a great pleasure to announce the recipients of the third annual English Department Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award:

     William Worthen

     Aaron McCollough

This award is sponsored by both the Undergraduate Studies Program and the Undergraduate English Association and recognizes these instructors' creativity, passion, and dedication as educators. Please join us in congratulating them on receiving this honor.

Mama Goodie

In July 1954, 7-year-old Lorna Goodison left her home in Kingston, Jamaica, to spend the summer with her aunt in the village of Harvey River, a 14-hour drive away. Her maternal great-grandfather William Harvey, an Englishman, had given his name to both the swiftly flowing river beneath the Dolphin Head Mountains and the town that grew up along its banks. Young Lorna ran wild that summer — roaming the countryside, knocking fruit from the trees, eating picnic lunches with her cousins among the tombstones of her ancestors. This seemingly idyllic spot would, she writes, “shape my imagination for the rest of my life.”

See link below for the rest of the article:

Mama Goodie, The NY Times article

Sara Blair has received a 2008 University Undergraduate Teaching Award, which carries a stipend of $1000.

Gregg Crane’s book, The Cambridge Introduction to the Nineteenth-Century American Novel has appeared from Cambridge in both hardbound and paperback editions.

Nick Delbanco’s novel, The Count of Concord, A Novel, has just appeared from Dalkey Archive Press (Champaign and London).

Linda Gregerson, Khaled Mattawa, and Thylias Moss were all awarded Pushcart Prizes for 2008. Their winning poems can be found in the new 2008 Pushcart Prize XXXII: Best of the Small Presses Anthology.

David Halperin has received a Guggenheim Fellowship for the 2008-2009 year.

Lucy Hartley has received a Michigan Faculty Fellowship at the Humanities Institute for the 2008-2009 year.

Petra Kuppers has received LSA discretionary funding for $5000 for her project “Touching Time Research.”

Meg Sweeney won a Radcliffe Institute Fellowship for 2007-2008 [accepted], and a Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship for 2007-2008 [declined]. (This announcement is long overdue!)

Lamont Egle and Tamara Balla have been awarded an 8-month Community of Scholars fellowship from IRWG. (Tamara will be taking a tenure track position at University of Maryland-Baltimore County.)

Chad Thomas, Sridevi Nair, and Jennifer McFarlane-Harris have been awarded 4-month Community of Scholars fellowships at the Institute for Research on Women and Gender.

Navaneetha Mokkil-Maruthur and Amy Carpenter-Ford have received graduate student research awards from IRWG.

As most of you know, this year’s Commencement will take place on the Saturday, April 26^th at 10:00 am on the Diag. Preparations for Commencement will begin on Monday, April 14^th in order to complete the transformation (addition of 30,000 seats, artificial flooring for the entire diag area, building of bleachers, etc.) that has to happen by the 26^th. The noise level on the last two days of classes will be elevated for those classrooms on the east side of Mason Hall closest to the Diag. Authorities hope that noise level will be such that it will not disturb the last two days of classes. If you’d like to read more about the transformation that will be taking place, please see the commencement website at:

http://www.umich.edu/~gradinfo/spring/

You should know that all LSA Buildings will be open on Saturday, April 26^th so that parents & students can tour the places where students have taken classes and see where departments are located. As you can imagine parking will be difficult that day so if you don’t need to be on campus, you may want to think twice before venturing to campus. There will be shuttle services from various parts of Ann Arbor should you need to come to campus. Please see the information on the website above.

English-specific graduation activities (4/25/2008):

Honors Symposium

This event will take place  on the morning of Friday, April 25^th beginning at 9am and ending before 1pm. Location:  Angell Hall Auditorium A

Pre-Commencement Reception

The reception will take place Friday, April 25^th at 3pm, and Ralph Williams will be speaking at 4 pm. The reception will take place at the Michigan Theatre, 603 East Liberty St.

It is our great pleasure to announce that Louis Cicciarelli and Peggy Adler have won this year’s Ben Prize.

The Ben Prize was established in 2007 in honor of Laurence Kirschbaum and was made possible through the generosity of Bradley Meltzer and a group of donors to promote the teaching of good writing.  The award was named after Mr. Kirschbaum’s grandson. 

Two exceptional lecturers are chosen each year for their work with students to improve writing skills.  This award includes a monetary stipend.  The nominations for this award come from students.