-
The recent death of Heather Tanner's significant other, for whom she
has been primarily responsible throughout her degree work in our department
and on into her current teaching position. He was afflicted with Hodgkin's
disease and had been on a progressive decline.
-
My
husband's relocation to Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, where he serves as plant
manager for Hearth and Home, an 800-worker plant producing fireplaces.
Is the weekend commute ever over for professionals in education?
-
My
daughter Amanda (21) at SIU changed majors again--from theater to
interior design to art history??? Now she wants to be a university
professor. I suggested finishing one undergradutate semester with
this major before deciding. :)
-
We
have a delightful AFS daughter, Annika Leonhard, from Germany with
us for this full year, and have learned much about her culture--and
ours--as a result of her joining our family. Her father is a civil
engineering professor in Frankfort.
|
| John
Kilgore
An
essay, "Frisking the Governor's Daughter: On Puns" appeared
in the January issue of The
Vocabula Review. And now it seems that plans are in the works
to bring out a parallel, print version of that online monthly, where I
have a semi-regular column. . . My granddaughter Norah celebrated her
six-month birthday on the 17th. Though otherwise happy as a baby can be,
she has been fighting colds all winter. The most recent one took her to
the emergency room on Sunday the 20th, but she is doing much better as
I type this. She turned out to have a nasty case of RSV, of which brother
Ethan is also a veteran. Anyone who has been dying to see pictures of
these two should report to Christy's
website for prompt alleviation of symptoms. Well . . . I guess I can't
resist including just one:
Elsewhere
in the news, I have been happy to hear from Erin Barber, one of our 2002
graduates, who writes as follows:
.
. . I received my English Dept. newsletter from EIU the other day
and thought of you. I finished my Master's Degree over the summer.
Writing a thesis was quite an experience! I ended up writing on the
fiction writer Jhumpa Lahiri's collection of short stories, The
Interpreter of Maladies, focusing on issues of gender as they
intersect with questions of transnationalism. And while I certainly
learned a great deal. . . I'm glad it is finished! I'm staying on
at SIUE as a lecturer, teaching English 101 and 102. I also picked
up a developmental writing course in the fall. I love working in the
university setting, but as you know, it can be difficult to make ends
meet on the adjuct salary. So this semester I'm working on becoming
certified to teach high school english as well. I have not ruled out
a PhD program, though I've been slightly hesitant about jumping into
another few years of full time schooling. But I love my classes so
much, and I love having the opportunity to discuss literature with
my students, which is a big incentive to keep going in that direction.
|
I'm sure Erin
would appreciate hearing from former teachers. You can email her here. |
