~from Communications Coordinator Jill Salahub

Those of us in it know that the English department is a diverse place where the possibilities for study and work are boundless. That said, even I am amazed when I hear what sorts of things people are working on – reading, studying, researching, teaching, writing, collaborating. We’d like to share more of that, so have started collecting the details of how exactly the Humans of Eddy are spending their time.

Towards that end, I recently sent an email asking that faculty help by sending a reply letting us know what they are working on (writing, researching, producing, studying, submitting, collaborating, etc.) and what they are reading (for school, work, or pleasure). Here are some of their responses:

 

Leslie McCutchen, English Instructor

I am currently reading for fun: Michael Pollan’s Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation (2013). And now he has a series on Netflix! I will use more of Pollan’s research in my CO150 classes under our theme of “Food.” From Pollan’s website for the series: “Explored through the lenses of the four natural elements – fire, water, air and earth – Cooked is an enlightening and compelling look at the evolution of what food means to us through the history of food preparation and its universal ability to connect us. Highlighting our primal human need to cook, the series urges a return to the kitchen to reclaim our lost traditions and to forge a deeper, more meaningful connection to the ingredients and cooking techniques that we use to nourish ourselves.” http://michaelpollan.com/videos/netflix-documentary-series-cooked/

 

Todd Mitchell, Assistant Professor and Director of Creative Writing Pedagogy

Right now, I’m writing a middle grade novel that I think of as a “tragedy of the commons deforestation fable” inspired by a series of outstanding reports Lulu Navarro did on rainforest destruction in Brazil. I’m also working on an urban fantasy hybrid text YA novel (a book with art) about art, perception and the end of the world. And I’m working on an independent comic book series involving an invasion of empathetic environmental aliens, and rebel groups resisting their control.

Reading-wise, right now I’m reading Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Water Knife, so it’s no surprise that my mind has been traveling down some very apocalyptic roads.

 

Sarah Louise Pieplow, English Instructor

I’m working on some articles about Mr. Robot (tv show) and about Lake Oahe and Cheyenne River, where the DAPL protest is happening.

I’m reading The Hidden Life of Trees, recently released by German forester by Peter Wohlleben, and Chameleon Couch by Yusef Komunyakaa.

 

Zach Hutchins, Assistant Professor

Right now, for fun, I’m reading Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad, which is awesome. It’s a brilliant look at slavery in the antebellum South—first with a graphic recounting of its horrors and then with several imagined alternative futures/possibilities in the states through which our main character journeys north, on the way to freedom. I’d highly recommend it.

 

Rebecca Snow, English Instructor

I am working on my second novel, untitled speculative fiction set in the Pacific Northwest and featuring trolls.

I reviewed Anthony Doerr’s novel All the Light We Cannot See on my website, (Doppelgängers of Darkness and Light). It’s my new favorite novel (after having the same favorite novel, Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson, for twenty-five years)!

 

Mary Ellen Sanger, Associate Director Community Literacy Center

Reading: Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead.

 

Jill Salahub, Communications Coordinator

I’m writing a memoir called “Stay” about how I saved myself through practice, (yoga, meditation, writing, and dog), along with regular posts for my blog.

I’m reading Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.