Brown Bag talk with Lyn Tribble

“‘A Strange, Hollow, and Confused Noise’: Prospero’s Start and Early Modern Magical Practice”

In The Tempest, Prospero’s wedding masque fails. As its height of the spirits’ performance, he “starts suddenly and speaks, after which to a strange, hollow, and confused noise, they heavily vanish.”

The reasons for Prospero’s start and its emotional aftermath are never fully explained in the play.  In this talk Lyn Tribble will argue that we can explain Prospero’s psycho-physical state after the dissolution of the masque through two related avenues of inquiry. First, she will explore the ramifications of the start or startle itself, arguing that starts often occur on stage as characters emerge from an altered state. This point leads to a consideration of the way that early modern magical practitioners were trained to alter their states of consciousness in order to perform the emotionally gruelling labour of conjuring spirits.

Lunch will be served.

Kate Capshaw (Children’s Literature) and Cora Lynn Deibler (Illustration) published “From ‘Wild Horses’ to ‘Wild Things,’ a window into Maurice Sendak’s creative process” in The Conversation. The article teaches us what we can learn through study of the Maurice Sendak Collection at the University of Connecticut’s Archives and Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Center. The collection “contains Sendak’s original sketches, book dummies, artwork and final drafts of his work, amounting to nearly 10,000 items [and] allows us to begin to trace the trajectory of Sendak’s creative process.”

Congratulations to Sarah Berry (PhD ’18), who has just secured a position as Assistant Professor of English at Grove City College, Pennsylvania.

The Long River Review Blog is a community where literary voices are heard. Directly following the journal’s manifesto, the Long River Review staff brings light to a variety of literature-based topics. We sincerely invite fellow word enthusiasts to join the conversation.

Mary Burke discusses “When Irish Fashion Swept the USA” in an interview by Ken Best on UConn 360 podcast. Mary’s section begins 4:50 into the podcast and continues to 13:04. It is about her cover article  “The Cottage, the Castle, and the Couture Cloak: ‘Traditional’ Irish Fabrics and ‘Modern’ Irish Fashions in America, c. 1952–1969” in the Journal of Design History 31.4 (2018), pages 364-82.

We are pleased to announce Neag’s Integrated Bachelor’s/Master’s program acceptances for this year.  These students are all sophomores.

The Special Education and Elementary Education admits are all pursuing at least a Concentration in English, and some will get a BA in English.  All have to complete at least 24 credits in English.

The Secondary English Education students have to complete at least 36 credits in English, and so most (but not all) will earn a BA in English, too.

Special Education: Madison Chiulli, Daniel Claxton, Lauren Granville, Shannon Jones, Bridget Laselva, Stephanie Palmucci, Marissa Rondinone, Anamaria Sousa, Olivia Troy, and Nicole Wiggins

Elementary Education: Emma Braun, Caitlin Davidson, Francesca Depalma, Angelo Fiondella, Brianna Gaffney, Angelica Gasper, Emma Harter, Darcus Henry, Sheila Higgins, Elizabeth Jacobs, Jaria Khan, Jennifer Lusier, Gabriela Lynch, Kayla O’Sullivan, Kayla Peck, and Jane Yalof.

Secondary English Education: Britney Augeri, Caroline Crouse, Alex Klein, Johnny Liang, Grace Mandy, Jenesis Miranda, Katrina Ptyza, Ailia Rohbar, Katelynn Romanchick, Rebecca Socha, Sydney Spizzoucco, Sammy Vanvalkenburg, Vanessa Vazquez, and Caitlin Willis.

 

Acclaimed Author Claudia Rankine to Feature in the 56^th Annual Wallace Stevens Poetry Program at UConn and the Greater Hartford Classical Magnet School.

Wednesday, March 13, 2019

The Greater Hartford Classical Magnet School, 12:30 pm

Konover Auditorium, The Dodd Center, Storrs. Reception 6:00pm, Reading  7:00 pm

 

Claudia Rankine, a MacArthur “Genius” and National Book Critics Circle Award winner, will read from her work at UConn’s main campus in Storrs and at the Greater Hartford Classical Magnet School on March 13, 2019. She will appear at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday March 13 at the at the Greater Hartford Classical Magnet School, 85 Woodland St, Hartford. She will offer a second reading at 7 p.m. that night at the Konover Auditorium of the Dodd Center, 405 Babbidge Road on the UConn Storrs campus. Both readings are free and open to the public.

 

Rankine is the author of five collections of poetry including Don’t Let Me Be Lonely (Graywolf 2008) and the bestselling Citizen: An American Lyric (Graywolf 2014), which uses poetry, essay, cultural criticism, and visual images to explore what it means to be an American citizen in a “post-racial” society. As the Judges Citation for the Jackson Prize notes, “The moral vision of Claudia Rankine’s poetry is astounding. In a body of work that pushes the boundaries of the contemporary lyric, Rankine has managed to make space for meditation and vigorous debate upon some of the most relevant and troubling social themes of the 20th and 21st centuries.” Among her numerous awards and honors, Rankine is the recipient of the Forward Prize for Best Collection, the NAACP Image Award, the PEN Open Book Award, and the LA Times Book Award for poetry as well as fellowships from the Lannan Foundation and the National Endowment of the Arts.

 

The Wallace Stevens Poetry Program began in 1964 with funding from The Hartford to honor modernist master poet Wallace Stevens, a former vice president of The Hartford. In the last half century, the program has brought a roster of the most important national and international poets to Connecticut. This year’s program is sponsored by The Hartford, with additional support from UConn’s African American Cultural Center and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences’ English Department, Humanities Institute, and Creative Writing Program. For more information, please visit our website at http://wallacestevens.uconn.edu/

 

Student Winners Poetry Reading

UConn is happy to host the winners of the Connecticut Poetry Circuit Student Poetry Contest, including UConn’s own Christine Byrne.

 

Tuesday, March 5, 6pm; Stern room, Austin 217.

Featuring: Christine Byrne, UCONN; Genie Johnson, Quinebaug Valley CC; Rachel Kaufman, Yale University; Louisa Mahoney, Trinity College; Maxim Schmidt, Albertus Magnus.

 

The Connecticut Poetry Circuit was established in 1968 to continue the work of the New England Poetry Circuit, which was founded in 1964 by the Academy of American Poets and Holly Stevens, daughter of the acclaimed poet and Hartford insurance executive Wallace Stevens. The work of the Circuit is guided by a panel of poets: Dick Allen, Randall Horton, Vivian Shipley, Clare Rossini and Kate Rushin. The Circuit is directed by James Gentile who is an English professor at Manchester Community College, the Circuit’s permanent home.

Is there a woman you admire—a personal hero, a special ancestor, an overlooked trailblazer, or marginalized voice? Time to honor her in an original literary work—your work! Ginny Lowe Connors, publisher of the anthology, Forgotten Women, and poet Sheryll Bedingfield will lead a writing workshop on how to turn facts into creative writing. They will also provide source materials for students looking for an inspiring woman to celebrate. There will be a voluntary open mic and info on how to submit work for publication.

Ginny Lowe Connors is the author of several poetry collections, including Toward the Hanging Tree: Poems of Salem Village (Antrim House, 2017), as well as The Unparalleled Beauty of a Crooked Line and Barbarians in the Kitchen. Her chapbook, Under the Porch, won the Sunken Garden Poetry Prize and she has earned numerous awards for individual poems. As Publisher of Grayson Books, Connors has also edited a number of poetry anthologies, including Forgotten Women: A Tribute in Poetry. A Board Member of the Connecticut Poetry Society, she is the editor of Connecticut River Review.

March 4 (Snow date 3/11), 4:00-6:00pm, Austin 217, Stern.

      PIZZA PROVIDED!  RSVP: Margaret.Shea@uconn.edu

 Sponsored by the Aetna Chair of Writing and the Creative Writing Program.

English major Marisa Nazzaro (First-Year Programs and Learning Communities: Pre-Teaching Fall 2017 and FYE Mentor 2017) has been elected to the 2019 Executive Board of University Student Government.