john guzlowski

I've been doing a lot of writing since retiring, and I have two new books about my parents and their experiences. Lightning and Ashes is out already from Steel Toe Books (www.steeltoebooks.com), and a chapbook called Third Winter of War: Buchenwald will be released this summer from Finishing Line Press (www.finishinglinepress.com).

I've also started writing fiction again after more than 30 years. My first story, "The German," was accepted by Joyce Carol Oates and Ray Smith for the Ontario Review.

When I told my daughter Lillian about this, she said, "Dad, you've been wasting your time on poems!"

Oh, and I am editing a special issue of Polish American Studies devoted to Polish American poetry. And I was asked to serve on the board of the Polish American Historical Association. There is so much of this stuff that floats around waiting to be done, and when we're teaching we're too busy teaching to tap into all of this.

That's it from here. Except for a bunch of poems that are coming out in various journals, and the fact that I'm the featured poet in Bruce Guernsey's first issue of Spoon River Poetry Review.

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julie campbell

The English Department at Texas A&M University has awarded Julie Campbell its Outstanding Former Graduate Student Award. She will travel there to receive the award, meet with TAMU graduate students, and present a talk for the department entitled "Querelle Rhetoric and the Transmission of Renaissance Literary Culture."

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john kilgore

In New Orleans recently to deliver a paper at the College English Association Conference, I took the Gray Line tour of the Katrina damage. A sobering spectacle indeed, both because of the mile after mile of ruined houses and the tour guide's eloquent anger at the federal government and the national press. . . . My Vocabula Review column this month is a long, silly poem, "The Frog Princess," based on a Filipino folk tale. . . . The new issue of TheScreamonline is finally up, containing an essay of mine and a novel chapter by Mary Maddox. The poetry has been edited by John Guzlowski, and appears with his notes.

In May Dollie and I will saddle up the camper and head out through Kansas and Colorado to California to see son Jay, who last we heard had a callback from an agent who does soap operas. We'll be camping near Sequoia and Yosemite, then at Malibu Beach, and returning through my hometown of Albuquerque. Wish us luck staying on the road this time!

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david radavich

David’s new book, America Bound: An Epic for Our Time, has just been published by Plain View Press. This work examines the nation's history and culture from World War II to the present, as told through the voices of everyday Americans of differing backgrounds over three generations.

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angela vietto

After the semester ends and I can close my advising drawer, I'm headed to two conferences in two places dear to early Americanists: the American Literature Association in Boston and the Society of Early Americanists in Williamsburg. I hope to come back ready to finish a couple of articles that have been languishing all year.

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Alumni Notes

Jennifer Rardin, '87 has a new novel, the first of three, debuting from Orbit books in the fall. The publisher's blurb for Once Bitten, Twice Shy is already posted at the Orbit Books Site.

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Hello again from Taegu-gwangyoksi, South Korea! By the way, if you've noticed I spell the name of my city different ways, it's because there are different Romanization systems they use and none of them are authoritative, so I just go with whichever one I feel like at the moment.

I have the internet now, so I should be able to post more from here on. Things have been really busy, but it's going well. I already feel a lot more comfortable than I did when I first arrived. So here are a few things I thought I should mention:

One great bit of news is that if I re-sign with my school, I do get a month off and a round-trip ticket paid for by my school. I thought at first that was standard, then thought it wasn't. I guess it is, after all. Combined with the pay and my apartment, I'm thinking right now that this is a pretty decent gig. I mean, I don't know of another job that I can get that would pay like this one and where I'd have a month of paid vacation, a month's pay bonus, and another month of unpaid vacation, should I be so inclined to take it.

My apartment--I know I already talked about it, but I'll mention again that it's really quite nice. I got a smaller one, compared to what most of the other teachers get, but mine has a bit more of a view than most of the others (not much of one, though still) and anyway it's big enough for me. It's quite cozy.

I think I alluded to the fact already that I have a literal "bath room," which is a room with a sink, toilet, a shower head and some spigots. So yeah, I just stand near my sink and shower. So the majority of the day the inside of my bathroom is all wet, but it doesn't really bother me, and it makes it easier to clean, I guess.

I believe that I also mentioned the heating system before, which is just a heated floor which works quite nicely. It looks like I have fake hardwood, and underneath it, there are apparently tubes that heated water runs through. It's uniquely Korean and an excellent design idea. Now if I could just convince them that smoke detectors and fire safety are a good idea . . .

The building I'm in also houses several other teachers at the school. There is another place that the school primarily uses to house its teachers, and I think my place is a bit closer, which is cool. It only takes me about 10 minutes to walk to or from school.

The other teachers are mostly pretty helpful and friendly. They are from all different English-speaking countries as well as Korea. My desk is located right next to 3 guys from England, and they are all very nice and helpful. There are a few Americans as well, one from New Mexico, one from Ohio, and even a guy from Chicago. Otherwise there is at least one teacher from Ireland, one from New Zealand, and lots of Canadians.

I think there are probably more Canadians than any other foreign nationality, with about the same number of American and English teachers as well. Oh, and there are probably about as many Korean teachers here as there are all the foreign teachers combined.

The kids I teach are almost all middle school aged, so grades 7 and 8 in the US, about ages 14-16. The teaching stuff is a little difficult with middle schoolers, because by and large they are so unenthusiastic. It's pretty understandable though, considering how much time they spend in school and how much effort they have to put into their other studies. That doesn't mean I go easy on them.

Anyway, most of the classes are fine and it's pretty easy to startle Korean children and frighten them into listening to you. At least, in most cases. I don't hit them though, like many of the Korean teachers will/do, so I guess I can never be a true hardass over here.

Sometimes I feel very much like a comedian who's dying onstage. It's hard to tell sometimes if they aren't responding because they don't understand, or just don't care. Sometimes I'll even tell them things that they totally don't get, like for example I told one class that my favorite type of movies is "adult movies" one day. I thought that would get some kind of response and it didn't, then I realized I was actually relieved. I should be more careful what I joke about, I guess.

Yesterday morning I'd meant to start going to Korean language classes at the YMCA downtown, but I decided to sleep instead. I will try to go and start next weekend instead, and I should be able to catch up to where they're all at by then if I put some time into learning the alphabet. That would at least make it a lot easier to order out.

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