Fall 2009 Newsletter
- Welcome (back)!
- Thorp Lecture 9/22
- Poet Mark Doty here 9/15
- Shoreline
- Faculty news
- Library and Writing Center Collaborate for Students
- Writing contest
- Advising for spring registration
Welcome (back)!
Welcome to the RIC class of 2013, and welcome back everyone else. As I write, it's the beginning of the second week of classes and there are already many events planned that I hope will interest you and that you will attend. Study after study shows that the students who report the greatest satisfaction with their educations and the highest degree of success (as measured by grades and timely attainment of the degree) also report a high level of involvement in campus activities. In other words, attending an English Club meeting, for example, is not only a fun way to meet other English majors, it’s also a valuable contribution to your own success. Do it! Hope to see you at all the events mentioned in this newsletter...
Thorp Lecture 9/22
In the fall of 2008, Dr. Meradith McMunn was named the Mary Tucker Thorp College Professor for 2008-09, the highest award RIC offers faculty. Normally, the Thorp professor gives a lecture in the spring of his/her Thorp year, but since Dr. McMunn was on sabbatical last year, she arranged to give her talk this fall. On Tuesday, September 22, at 4 pm in Alger 110, Dr. McMunn will be speaking about her research, in a talk titled "The Mirror in Her Hands: Women Patrons, Producers, Readers, and Critics of the Roman de la Rose." The program will open with three songs by the RIC Chamber Singers.
Poet Mark Doty here 9/15
The Rhode Island Veterinary Medicine Association, bless their literature- and animal-loving hearts, are partnering with the RIC English Department to bring poet and memoirist Mark Doty to campus on Tuesday, September 15. Doty will read from his memoir Dog Years and respond to questions, Alger 110, 7 pm.
From his website (
markdoty.org):
"Mark Doty's Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems won the National Book Award for Poetry in 2008. His eight books of poems include School of the Arts, Source, and My Alexandria. He has also published four volumes of nonfiction prose: Still Life with Oysters and Lemon, Heaven's Coast, Firebird and Dog Years, which was a New York Times bestseller in 2007...Doty's work has been honored by the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, a Whiting Writers Award, two Lambda Literary Awards and the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction. He is the only American poet to have received the T.S. Eliot Prize in the U.K., and has received fellowships from the Guggenheim, Ingram Merrill and Lila Wallace/Readers Digest Foundations, and from the National Endowment for the Arts."
Shoreline
Shoreline, the literary arts magazine of Rhode Island College, is seeking poetry, short fiction, and creative nonfiction for the next issue. Please email submissions to ric.shoreline@gmail.com by September 30th. If you have any questions, please email faculty advisor Cathleen Calbert: ccalbert@ric.edu
Faculty news
Two new faculty members have joined the department this month. Becky Caouette, our new Director of Writing, comes to us from the University of Connecticut, where she earned her Ph.D. in composition and rhetoric. Her dissertation focuses on the readers used in composition courses. Dr. Caouette’s office is CL257. Also coming to us from UConn is Anita Duneer, who recently taught at Holy Cross, and brings expertise in American literature and literary theory, among other areas. Dr. Duneer, who is with us on a one-year appointment, is in CL352. Interesting tidbit about Dr. Duneer: she was here for one year from the University of Alaska as an undergraduate under the National Student Exchange program. Two faculty members-Stephen Brown and Zubeda Jalalzai---are on sabbatical leave this term, but will be back in the spring. Dr. Marjorie Roemer retired in June after 16 years at RIC. We all miss her. Karen Boren’s essay "The Quest," which first appeared in the Lonely Planet anthology Rites of Passage: Backpacking 'Round Europe has been selected for The Best of Lonely Planet's Travel Writing, forthcoming Fall 2009.
Library and Writing Center Collaborate for Students
In a collaborative effort beginning September 12, the Adams Library and the RIC Writing Center will offer tutoring appointments in the Library's Reinhardt Room on Saturdays and Sundays from 1:00-4:00 p.m. Writing Center tutors will provide traditional services but, when needed, can tap into the on-site resources of the Library and its staff—all during convenient weekend hours for students. Further, the tutors will attend two orientation sessions conducted by Librarian Carla Weiss to help ensure that they are informed about the latest Library offerings.
The Writing Center has planned three available hours on Saturday and three on Sunday during the initial trial program. Appointments should be made directly through the Writing Center at 456-8141; walk-in service may be available if the tutors are not previously booked. Please inquire at the Writing Center or the Adams Library for further information.
Writing contest
RIC alum and former Writing Center peer tutor, Matthew Lawrence, is the founder of the local non profit Not About the Buildings, whose current newsletter has this interesting info:
"We're now accepting entries for the second annual Not About The Buildings Writing Prize. Unlike last year, though, the 2009 prize will be awarded to the best submitted work of creative non-fiction. Like last year, the winning piece will be published as a limited-edition handmade chapbook, but additionally this year the winner will receive a membership to the Providence Athenaeum [$150 value], and a reception/release for the book will be held at the Athenaeum in mid-November. The prize will be judged this year by longtime Not About The Buildings friend Anne Elizabeth Moore. Moore is a Chicago-based writer, founder of Punk Planet Magazine, founder of the Best American Comics series and author of Unmarketable: Brandalism, Copyfighting, Mocketing and the Erosion of Integrity. Check out the website for more info and details about where and how to send your entries. Entries must be received--not postmarked--by October 15. http://www.notaboutthebuildings.com/writingprize.html"
Advising for spring registration
Check your own RIConnect page for your advisor’s name and contact info. Advising meetings for spring begin October 5. Spring 2010 registration begins 10/26.
Page last updated: Thursday, September 17, 2009
