Category Archives: CLA eNewsletter Item

Embracing One’s Community through Giving

The upcoming issue of the College of Liberal Arts enewsletter, where this post will be featured, is a special issue in which all the stories feature development-focused content that showcases the impact of our CLA donors. We were asked to contribute a story “about the impact of a scholarship on a student’s time here at CSU, a faculty member who was able to complete a research project due to a donor gift, or a profile piece on a major donor to your department.” After giving it only a little thought, our obvious choice was to write about Deanna Ludwin — a two time alumna, 16 year faculty member, and a dear friend of the English department. It was a joy working with Deanna to put this profile together.

Embracing One’s Community through Giving

Deanna Ludwin, at Cape Point, Cape of Good Hope, South Africa

Deanna Ludwin, at Cape Point, Cape of Good Hope, South Africa

Deanna Ludwin is nothing if not invested in CSU. She first entered the community by way of the English department as a graduate student.

Soon after my husband, Gary, and I made our home in Fort Collins, in 1978, the English Department became an invaluable part of my life. In 1980, I began taking graduate-level classes so I could renew my secondary teaching certificate and return to teaching once our younger son was in school. Gary had joined The Fort Collins Women’s Clinic and, as one of only three physicians in the practice, often worked 70- or 80-hour weeks, so I was the primary care giver for our two children. Graduate school — with its accomplished and encouraging faculty and bright and lively students — provided me the intellectual stimulation I sought and the support I needed to complete an MA in Literature.

Before completing her MA in 1988, Deanna started teaching at Poudre High School but continued to attend lectures, colloquia, and readings at CSU even after completing her degree. She took a creative writing class, and soon was back in her beloved English Department, earning her MFA in Poetry in 1995.

Less than a year later, Professors Pattie Cowell and Richard Henze invited Deanna to join the faculty as coordinator of the English Department Internship Program and the Creative Writing Teaching Program for graduate students teaching introductory creative writing courses. She also taught undergraduate creative writing (all levels of poetry and intermediate fiction) and Introduction to Poetry, as well as a graduate course in grant proposal writing. Deanna co-directed the Greyrock Institute, a summer program that later became The Greyrock Writers’ Festival, and taught a graduate course to secondary teachers.

Throughout my time at CSU, I was warmly accepted as a student and a colleague. I’d found a home in the English Department, nurtured by fine intellects and generous hearts. So it was only natural that I would want to encourage others in their intellectual and artistic pursuits.

Deanna working with a student intern

Deanna working with a student intern

Deanna felt fortunate as a student, having access to the programs she wanted right in her hometown, not having to deal with moving or paying out-of-state tuition. “But during my time as a student, then faculty member, I encountered students who were struggling to balance academics and economics.” Accustomed to paying tuition for their two sons, Deanna and Gary decided to put that money toward helping other students once their sons completed their degrees.

In 2003, Deanna and Gary established the Tremblay-Crow Fellowship for graduate students in the Creative Writing program. In 2005, they established the Smith-Schamberger Fellowship for literature students. Both merit-based fellowships honor professors whose talents, inspiration, and tireless efforts contributed to the many successes of these programs and their students, and both are intended for graduate students who do not have teaching assistantships in the English department; fellowship monies are deposited directly toward tuition. Although she is not involved with the selection of the recipients, Deanna often receives letters from students telling her how the fellowship monies have provided them with much needed assistance. Deanna and Gary also established the Crow-Tremblay Alumni Reading Series, which supports the visits of MFA program graduates who have recently published books. “Over the years, the amount of our contributions has varied; some years we are able to contribute more than other years. On occasion, others’ contributions have supplemented ours, but the fellowships are in dire need of additional support.”

During her time at CSU, Deanna was a valued member of the English community. As an MFA candidate, Deanna was awarded the John Clark Pratt Award “for excellence in creativity, scholarship, and service.” As a faculty member, she received an Excellence in Teaching Award from the College of Liberal Arts (2003), a Best Teacher Award from the Alumni Connection and Student Alumni Connection (2006), and two Golden Apple awards from the Organization of Graduate Student Writers. Deanna felt appreciated, “which certainly has something to do with my desire to contribute to the department.” Deanna continues to be important to the English community, joining us for readings, retirements, and other department events—when she is in town.

I retired after sixteen years, ready to enjoy more time with family members (most of whom live in Iowa, including my parents, ages 95 and 90; and Gary and I now have four grandchildren, ages three to fourteen). In addition, I’m traveling every chance I get (we recently returned from Cuba) and am working on an investigative memoir. I continue to serve on the Colorado Review Advisory Board and to host potlucks for visiting writers. Of course, I still count many former colleagues and students among my dearest friends.

Deanna with Justin Hocking at a potluck she hosted for him, a visiting writer and English alumnus

Deanna with Justin Hocking at a potluck she hosted for him, a visiting writer and English alumnus

Deanna spent her early years on a farm in Iowa, “in a family for whom giving was natural — though we never referred to it as ‘giving.’ If a need existed, someone responded to that need.” Deanna is passionate about the arts, including the arts of research and writing, whether it’s termed creative or critical.

Little Deanna in Iowa

Little Deanna in Iowa

According to my mother, I was writing before I learned to read. My mother read to me every day — and my father read me the “funny papers” on Sundays. I was enamored with the pleasure and power of language and, after I learned to read myself, at age five, I delighted in my interactions with other lives, other places, other cultures. My parents owned few books, but we had an abundance of children’s books and visited our small-town library often. I wanted to create such magic myself, of course, and spent hours making little rhymes and stories. For serious students of language, literature, and culture, these creative impulses persist.

Students who pursue English degrees are well aware of the ways their studies deepen self-reflection and connect them to others. Engagement in the arts promotes involvement in cultures other than our own, too, and if I can add to these scholarly pursuits in any way, I feel compelled to do so. Such riches belong to all.

Deanna is also the founder of Books for Humanity, a project in which volunteers deliver a bookcase and reference library to every existing Fort Collins Habitat for Humanity family. She’s also on the steering committee for Fort Collins Habitat’s Women Build and several English Department faculty members have contributed toward the building of two houses for single-parent families.

Deanna is a wonderful example of someone who has invested effort, money, and heart into her community, and the benefit has both been hers and ours. When asked why she gives, Deanna responded,

Why do I give? I wish I could provide an enlightening, instructive answer, based on recent theories and studies, but giving seems to me simply a way of participating in — no, embracing — one’s community. To do so, people offer whatever they’re able to contribute: time, talent, energy, ideas, perspectives, money. Each does what she can to nurture the health of the whole.

Thank you, Deanna! We appreciate you and what you give, so much.

Colorado State University’s purpose is to ensure students can realize their dreams and impact the world through access to innovative and relevant academic programming, an incomparable student experience, extraordinary faculty and staff, research and new knowledge discovery to solve global challenges, and state-of-the-art working and learning environments. Find out more about how you can help.

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Pulitzer-Prize Winning Poet Yusef Komunyakaa Selected as the 2015 CLA Honor Alumnus

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Yusef Komunyakaa was born and grew up in the small town of Bogalusa, Louisiana before and during the Civil Rights era. He served a tour of Army duty during the Vietnam War, when he acted as a journalist for the military paper, covering major actions, interviewing fellow soldiers and publishing articles on Vietnamese history and literature. Upon his return to the states he turned to poetry, eventually becoming one of the most popular and important American writers of his generation. Yusef obtained his bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs in 1975, an MA in creative writing from Colorado State University in 1978, and an MFA in creative writing from the University of California, Irvine in 1980.

Professor Emeritus Bill Tremblay has known Yusef since he was a student at CSU. In nominating Yusef for the alumni award, Bill wrote:

Early on, Yusef was able to make his poetry out of a fusion between music and magic so that it would be a continuous revelation of the powers that spring from human desires and dreams. The intelligence of his poems reaches back into his formative years when as a child he played beneath the floorboards of his front porch and listened intently so that—as he says in one of his poems about his youth—”I knows things I ain’t suppose to know”—about the mysterious power of the adult world. The speakers of his poems are witnesses to the mystery and power of the spirit world—a world of hoodoo and juju—that is alive and working overtime to generate his extraordinary vision.

Yusef Komunyakaa’s books of poetry include Taboo, Dien Cai Dau, Neon Vernacular (for which he received the Pulitzer Prize), The Chameleon Couch, and the forthcoming The Emperor of Water Clocks (FSG). He has been the recipient of numerous awards including the William Faulkner Prize (Université Rennes, France), the Kingsley Tufts Award for Poetry, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the Poetry Society of America’s Shelley Memorial Award, and the 2011 Wallace Stevens Award.  His plays, performance art and libretti have been performed internationally, and include Slipknot, Wakonda’s Dream, Nine Bridges Back, Saturnalia, Testimony, The Mercy Suite, and Gilgamesh (a verse play) with Chad Gracia. He is Global Distinguished Professor of English at New York University.

The College of Liberal Arts Honor Alumnus Award is designated for graduates whose distinguished careers and service to the university, state, nation, or world bring honor to Colorado State University and to the recipient. As the latest recipient, Yusef Komunyakaa will be recognized at Colorado State University in April.

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Dan Beachy-Quick: Associate Professor, Poet, and So Much More

Dan Beachy-Quick delivers the Monfort Lecture, April 1st 2015

Dan Beachy-Quick delivers the Monfort Lecture, April 1st 2015

“Poetry, Art, the Humanities broadly speaking, offer us now as they have always offered us, a means not only of describing the world we see, but in describing it, also realizing it — that is, bringing it into reality, and so ushering ourselves into the very same.”

~Dan Beachy-Quick, from his Monfort Lecture, Considering the Made-Thing: Thoughts on Poetry, Ancient Greek, and the Strange Difficulty of Quietness

Each year, two faculty members are selected as Monfort Professors by a committee appointed by the Provost.  They retain this designation for two years, and receive $75,000 per year to further their teaching and research. Associate Professor of Creative Writing Dan Beachy-Quick was named a Monfort Professor in 2013, the first ever from the Humanities. He was “flabbergasted” by the award — “This gift from the Monforts allows me to spend time with projects I otherwise wouldn’t be able to get to,” he said. “It’s an incredible honor, and I’m still shocked.” The funding allowed him to further his study of ancient Greek, work on independent creative projects such as the novel, essays and a book of poetry, and organize a three-day symposium titled “Crisis in Creativity,” to take place this July at CSU.

From July 22-24 we’ll be holding the Monfort Symposium on “Crisis and Creativity.” Three invited guests, the artist Michael Swaine, the poet-activist Brenda Hillman, and esteemed CSU environmental scientist Diana Wall, will be joining artists, writers, sociologists, archeologists from around the country for morning workshops seeking means of conversation and collaboration between the Humanities and the Scientists that reach toward an engaged consideration of current crises. These morning sessions will have room for members of the CSU community to join in. Afternoons will be devoted to working in “maker’s spaces” in which participants, and any one in the community who wants to join in, gather together to take the morning’s ideas and begin the work of making in response to them: ceramics, writings, poems, paintings, papers, projects . . . Each evening will have an event wholly open to the public as well, ranging from presentations/readings by Michael Swaine and Brenda Hillman, to a panel discussion on the last night of the Symposium with all three invited guests. A full schedule of events, places, times, will be coming in mid-May. Please be in touch with me [Dan Beachy-Quick] if you’re interested in learning more or in participating in all or any capacity.

When Beachy-Quick’s Monfort Professorship was first announced, Louann Reid, chair of the English department, said Beachy-Quick “brings that rare combination of great talent and great teaching to his work,” and also,

As the first Monfort Professor from the humanities, Dan brings a perspective to the work this professorship makes possible that is deeply grounded in the exploration, understanding and articulation of human experience. Already recognized as one of the top poets of his generation, he is an outstanding teacher and generous colleague.

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In the recent lecture given at the end of his term as a Monfort Professor, Beachy-Quick said that “the work of imagination isn’t an escape from the world, but an initiation into it.” This belief is embodied in his work. Since joining CSU in 2007, he has published a number of literary collections, 26 articles and more than 75  poems, stories and reviews. Beachy-Quick teaches graduate seminars, poetry workshops and an array of undergraduate literature courses. His Monfort lecture included readings from his book-length essay on silence, as well as a discussion of the important role the humanities plays in the way society deals with current events and pressing issues. (A free pdf chapbook of Dan Beachy-Quick’s early sections of “A Quiet Book” is available at Essay Press: http://www.essaypress.org/ep-23/).

Beachy-Quick said he is concerned that the humanities have fallen to the wayside of central conversations at universities across the country. “I want to bring to light some of the larger ecological and philosophical concerns about humanities in a STEM-based university,” he said in a recent interview with CSU SOURCE. “The university system arose from the humanities. We need as multi-faceted of an approach to the problems we are facing as possible.”

Beachy-Quick may be completing his term as a Monfort Professor, but he is far from done with this work. He has just been named a fellow by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Guggenheim fellowships are awarded on the basis of past achievements and the promise of future accomplishments. Beachy-Quick is the first CSU professor from the humanities to win the prestigious award (the three previous Guggenheim fellows were all scientists), and only the fourth professor from the university. The award will enable him to spend the next year writing.

My hope is to continue working on a long, meandering essay — one that verges from prose to poetry and back again, that combines the personal with the study of many other texts — that focuses (if that’s the right word) on silence, forgetting, obscurity and so on. I’m going to make a couple of trips to archival libraries at Yale and Harvard, as well as a study trip to ruins in Italy or Greece.

“Receiving the Guggenheim places Professor Beachy-Quick in the company of the very finest poets, writers, artists and scholars, and it propels Colorado State University’s fine creative writing program to elite status,” said Ann Gill, dean of the College of Liberal Arts. Several established writers and poets who have reviewed his work, have called him “a fully established American artist” and “one of the most interesting poets – and thinkers – of our generation.” Another, Lyn Hejinian, a poet, referred to Whaler’s Dictionary, his study of Moby Dick, as a “major work written by one of America’s most significant young poets.”

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McBride Teacher-Scholar Paul De Maret

Bill McBride and Paul De Maret at the 2009 NCTE Convention in Philadelphia, where Bill received the Distinguished Service Award from the National Council of Teachers of English

Bill McBride and Paul De Maret at the 2009 NCTE Convention in Philadelphia, where Bill received the Distinguished Service Award from the National Council of Teachers of English

The William G. McBride Endowment honors Bill McBride, who taught for 45 years in Colorado schools, including Manzanola, Poudre and Fort Collins High Schools, and Colorado State University. Established when he retired in 1998, the endowment continues Bill’s legacy of ensuring quality English Language Arts teachers for secondary schools.

In 2014, the endowment reached the level at which it can support one public school teacher to teach a limited number of classes in the CSU English Education program biennially.

Bill selected Paul De Maret as the first McBride Teacher-Scholar.

Improving Education through Partnerships

Throughout his career, Bill McBride demonstrated to pre-service and in-service teachers the importance and possibility of seamlessly weaving research, theory, and practical experience in teaching and learning. Characteristically, he emphasized relationships and partnerships. For example, in 1973 or 1974, he and Bob Zach swapped classes in English Composition for the year in what department newsletter editors described as “an effort to insure the continuity of teaching efforts and enlarge their perspectives on high school and college students.” In 1976, Bill accompanied a group of CSU education faculty and 19 pre-service teachers on a four-day trip to Weldona on Colorado’s eastern plains to live with rural families, teach mini-lessons, and interact with teachers and students. In the late 1980s, he team-taught the methods class with Glenn Gray at Rocky Mountain High School. Before and throughout retirement, he led numerous train-the-trainer sessions for College Board’s curriculum programs, first Pacesetter then SpringBoard. Because of his long-term relationship with the College Board, teachers of CSU methods classes were allowed to use the materials as their “textbooks” for learning innovative teaching methods.

A teacher who participated in one of the exchanges with Bill wrote, “One of my ninth grade English classes was fortunate to have Dr. McBride as their instructor for one semester. In exchange, teaching an adolescent literature class at CSU during that same semester proved to be a challenging experience for me.” The endowment was established to advance partnerships in this tradition.

The McBride Teacher-Scholar and William G. McBride

Paul De Maret completed a B.A. in English at CSU in 1988, and he’s been in education since 1991, when he started as an English and social studies teacher in Houston, Texas. Following that, he completed an M.A. in English at CSU, then spent two years at the University of Wyoming, teaching College Composition, Introduction to Literature, and Technical Writing. From 1998-1999, he taught English in Japan before returning to Fort Collins and taking a position at Rocky Mountain High School as a Language Arts teacher and Forensic Speech and Debate coach. For the past 15 years, he’s taught everything from Creative Writing to Argumentation and Debate, and from English 9 to AP Literature and Composition.

Following in the footsteps of his former CSU teacher/adviser and longtime mentor/friend, Bill McBride, he also works as a writing consultant and national trainer for the College Board’s SpringBoard English Textual Power program. In fact, it’s his desire to honor Bill’s impact on his life that continues to motivate Paul to pursue excellence in the classroom and beyond. Paul’s wife, Jennifer, is a kindergarten teacher at McGraw Elementary, and his daughters Katherine (11) and Josephine (8) both attend PSD IB World Schools.

William G. McBride taught an estimated 10,000 students in his career and countless more indirectly through the teachers he prepared. His leadership in the state’s organization for English Language Arts teachers further shaped teaching and learning in Colorado schools. One of the founding members of the Colorado Language Arts Society, he served as president, conference program chair, and editor of both the journal and newsletter. He was the group’s executive secretary-treasurer for 23 years.

In 1950, Bill graduated from CSU with a BS in Animal Science. He earned a master’s degree and a lifetime certificate in teaching from the University of Northern Colorado in 1957 and a doctoral degree from the University of Nebraska in 1970. He joined the faculty at CSU in 1969. Honors and awards include Colorado Teacher of the Year, NCTE Distinguished Service Award, a College of Liberal Arts Distinguished Service Recognition, the CSU Harris T. Guard Award for distinguished teaching and service and election to the Poudre District School Board and NCTE’s Secondary Section Steering Committee. Perhaps the greatest honor for this consummate educator comes from the contact he has with the many former students who are now in teaching or other careers, raising families, and leading productive lives. What better words for a teacher to hear than these from a former student: “Long after you have quit teaching, you will still be teaching through me.”

McBride Teacher-Scholar Paul De Maret’s story in his own words.

How would you describe your work in the English Department?

As the McBride Teacher-Scholar, I’ve had the unique opportunity to work with the English Education Methods team, teaching the same class (Teaching Composition) that was the first class I took with Bill McBride 28 years ago.

What brought you to CSU?

As a professor, Bill McBride always had a foot in both the public school and post-secondary worlds. When he retired, the English Department wanted to do something to honor him, and the McBride Endowment was created with the intent of bringing in a public school teacher to teach an English Education class at CSU, continuing the link between secondary (in my case) and post-secondary classrooms.  Since Bill was my former teacher, undergraduate and graduate advisor, and mentor (a role he still fills today), I was honored to be asked to be the first recipient of the endowment.

What do you enjoy most about your work?

More than anything, I love the opportunity to mentor students. A close second, though, is the opportunity to work with people who challenge me to grow as a teacher. Last fall, I had the pleasure of co-teaching Teaching Composition with Louann Reid, and it was wonderful sharing ideas with her. I learned from her vast knowledge of current research and professional literature, and from watching her craft as a classroom teacher. The transition from teaching high school students to teaching English Ed students was significant, and I don’t think I could have managed it without Louann’s mentorship.

What is the biggest difference between CSU and where you usually teach?

I teach at Rocky Mountain High School and I’m also a national trainer for the College Board’s SpringBoard English Language Arts program. The students I’m teaching at CSU in the Teaching Composition class are a completely different audience than either of these audiences—and while that sounds kind of obvious, it’s something I’m still learning to adapt to. They’re emerging teachers, but most of them have no formal class experience yet. So their understanding of how to teach writing is largely informed by their own experience as writers and by their exploration of this subject in other methods classes. While I’ve got decades of experience with being able to read, and respond to, the needs of the other two audiences, I’m still learning how to do so with my E402 students.

Why are the Humanities important?

I think the Humanities are central to critical thinking and to understanding the complexities of culture and society.

What inspired you to pursue a degree in English, the Humanities?

In 5th grade, I wrote a 70-page mini-book on sharks, and I initially attended the University of Miami with the intent of becoming a marine biologist. But when I started taking a heavy load of science classes, I realized I wasn’t finding any joy in what I was doing. My mother was an English major—and sometime teacher—and I think that was always in the back of mind; but when I returned to Humanities classes, and my English classes in particular, I realized that I was on the right path because I was finding joy again.

What had the greatest influence on your career path?

Meeting Bill McBride. Everything I am today as a teacher, I can trace back to him and his impact on me. And that’s largely true of the kind of person I try to be, too.

What special project are you working on right now?

First and foremost, I’m trying to get better at teaching my class of prospective English teachers in E402. But I’m also, as part of the McBride Endowment, taking a class in Cognitive Theory and Learning Transfer, and I’m using it as a spring board to do research on the link between writing instruction, metacognition, and learning transfer. And I’m also involved in a SpringBoard effort to develop a computer program that analytically scores student essays to provide formative assessment feedback to the students and their teachers.

What moment in the classroom stands out as the most memorable?

I’ve been teaching for 25+ years, so there have been a lot of moments. But one recent one I’ll treasure was when Louann and I had Bill McBride visit our E402 class last semester and I got to see Bill standing in front of the classroom as he did when I was a student in the class 28 years ago.

What is your favorite thing to teach? Favorite thing about teaching?

I love doing close readings of film as a way to teach close readings of literature, but I also love teaching argumentative writing—which is probably why I’ve loved coaching debate for the past 15 years. I love that every lesson, every student, every class is different, and how I’m always surprised—and learning from—things students say and do in my classes.

What advice would you give a student taking a class in the English Department?

Get to know your teachers; most of us are in this profession because we love teaching, not just content.

What or who inspires you?

I’m always inspired by students who are eager to learn. They challenge me to do my best each day. I’m also inspired by Bill McBride. I can only dream of positively impacting as many students’ lives as he has over the course of his life.

What are you currently reading, writing?

I’m reading Scott Anderson’s Lawrence in Arabia.

When you’re not working, what do you do?

I spend time with my daughters, Katherine and Josephine, and my wife, Jennifer, including a lot of youth soccer games, gymnastics meets, ski trips, traveling, and family movie/game nights.

What don’t your colleagues know about you?

I’m the world’s biggest Jaws fan. I try to slip a clip or two from it into every class I teach at Rocky.

What will your students and/or the English department remember about you after you leave CSU?

That I was grateful for the chance to share my experience and knowledge with English Ed students, and that I tried to honor Bill McBride’s legacy every time I did so.

What will you take away from your time here?

A lot of memories of students who I hope will be able to maintain their passion and commitment as they confront the complex, rewarding, but sometimes overwhelming task of being a language arts educator.

The Future of the William G. McBride Endowment

We are grateful to the many donors who have helped us achieve the first of the endowment’s goals. Continued growth is necessary to reach the remaining goals: 1) to provide tuition for the teacher-scholar’s use toward an advanced degree; 2) to increase the frequency of the teacher-scholar from biennial to annual teaching at CSU; and 3) to provide more salary support as school districts are less able to do so. Contributions can be made to https://advancing.colostate.edu/GIVE (browse for funds in the English department in the College of Liberal Arts and select McBride Endowment) or contact the Colorado State University Foundation, 410 University Services Center, Fort Collins, CO 80523. Phone: 970-491-7135.

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Three English Faculty Who Take Teaching and Learning Beyond Eddy Hall

Eddy Hall is empty. “Where Did They Go?” banners direct students to the Writing Center in Johnson Hall and to the three buildings housing Philosophy and English faculty and staff: Clark, Behavioral Sciences, and Ingersoll Hall, where dorm rooms have become offices. Despite the relocations, English faculty continue to demonstrate that innovative teaching and learning are more about people than place. They are reaching beyond the traditional classroom in exciting ways. Here are just three examples.

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From Dan Beachy-Quick:

On July 22-24, 2015 we’ll be hosting a 3-day interdisciplinary symposium organized around the theme of “Crisis & Creativity.” In an effort to find a useful dialogue between sciences and arts in relation to the pressing issues of the day, we’ll be looking at “crisis” in all its forms — from sociological definition of an event that affects every strata of society, to the political in which crisis reveals the underlying disorders that allow injustice of many sorts to persist, to “crisis” as a primary metaphor for those purposes and motions that result in the making of a work of art.

Poet and activist Brenda Hillman, artist and curator Michael Swaine, and a colleague (soon to be determined) from CSU’s own esteemed faculty on Environmental Sustainability, will lead a group of writers, artists, educators, archeologists, scientists drawn from near and far through morning workshops designed to foster engaged collaboration across disciplines too often at a distance from one another.

Each afternoon will include open house “maker’s spaces” in which the community will be invited to join the conversation and its larger hopes of creating work of many sorts that address those crises affecting us all. Each evening will conclude with a public event: round-table discussion, presentation of work, and a reading/presentation by those involed in the workshop. We’ll also have a website that invites all who visit it to join in the effort of the whole, be they here or afar — details in greater abundance are soon to come.

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From Camille Dungy:

This semester, in E479, Recent US Poetry, students have the chance to meet seven acclaimed contemporary poets. American Book Award winner Jericho Brown, Kingsley Tufts winner Matthea Harvey, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist Adrian Matjeka, National Poetry series winning Julie Carr and Yale Younger Prize winning Eduardo Corral are among the esteemed poets who will visit the class either in person or via teleconference.

After having read a book by each author as well as selected accompanying poems that demonstrate the robustness of contemporary poetry, students have the opportunity to speak directly with each poet about his or her influences, poetics, and practice. We’re learning a lot, and we’re having fun, too!

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From Antero Garcia:

Through a Creative Works Commercialization Award from CSU Ventures, Antero Garcia is currently developing The Educator’s Game Design Toolkit. Created in collaboration with a current high school teacher, this project is focused on developing a commercially viable product for teachers and teacher educators to increase the preparation of students’ 21st century learning. Building off of Antero’s research on game design within schools, this product will allow teachers to collaborate and create powerful gaming-centered opportunities in which youth can learn.

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