Whether you live in the area or will be traveling to Fort Collins for the weekend, we would love for you to join us in our homecoming festivities on October 16th. Come help us celebrate our return to the new and renovated Eddy! Drop by our open house between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. on the third floor of Eddy Hall, where there will be a band, tours of the new building, refreshments in the Whitaker Conference Room, and a special presentation at 3 p.m. Please RSVP to Louann.Reid@colostate.edu so we can be sure to have enough refreshments on hand.
In the days leading up to the English department’s “Homecoming Celebration” (October 16th from 2-4pm), we will be highlighting some special memories from our alumni. Here is a special memory from alumnus Robert King (MA 1961):
I was an English major at Colo. A&M 1955-57 and later graduated with a Master’s before going to Iowa’s Writing Workshop as a Ph.D. student. The dates indicate I went to class in “Old Main,” the wonderful stone castle on College Ave. I can still name many of the professors at that time but the one I would like to mention was Dr. Aurelia Harlan, a figure both friendly and imposing. In a survey course in English literature, she read the opening of Beowulf in Old English, a work and a language I had never heard of. I still remember the resonance of those sounds as they bounced around the high-ceilinged Victorian room. Later, that thrilling introduction helped me get through a year of Anglo-Saxon at Iowa, a requirement that, W. D. Snodgrass told me, pushed him into the MFA program rather than the Ph.D.
To read more memories from our alumni in honor of Homecoming, you can find the whole series here. If you would like to share your own memory from your time with the CSU English department, please send a description of your favorite memory and an accompanying photo to Joelle Paulson at jpaulso2@gmail.com. We’d love to hear what you remember!