Hello! My name is Louann Reid. I have been department chair since 2011 and a faculty member at CSU for 20 years. I am thrilled that we are launching this department-wide blog. In it we can showcase the people, programs, and publications that are the life and shape of our vibrant and diverse department.  We hope that alumni, faculty, and both current and potential students will find much of interest here.

Under the editorship of Jill Salahub, posts from our communications interns and others, and feedback from you, the readers, this blog will become a virtual community of readers, writers, and thinkers who are passionate about all that English studies offers. In my posts, I will highlight department news or comment on relevant topics circulating on the Internet or on social media. Sometimes, like today, I will share a favorite text. This is one of my favorite poems by CSU Professor Emeritus Mary Crow and comes from her collection, Borders.

Hard Things: Colorado

Home: Goat mountain, frozen hillside,
shale rubble on the slope
where I struggled to climb
against the slipping and slippery
scrim up to the small caves,
lairs of mountain lions, or old graves
full of fine dark dust.

I used to drive home, feeling the weight
lift off my shoulders mile after mile.
Friends asked how I could bear
living so far out, but I loved
driving toward the light, turning into the gate,
the dog and horses racing to greet me,
the sound of the river pounding against
my ego, my pitiless self.