Fern Kory

I'm on sabbatical! (Note the only appropriate use of the exclamation mark in formal writing.) Among other things, I'm on three--count 'em, three--book award committees. I'm reading recent children's and young adult books to help determine the 2005 Blue Ribbon books for the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books. I've got 21 books--mostly novels, but also poetry and non-fiction--to evaluate before our next meeting in two weeks. Later in the semester when I serve on the Gryphon Award committee, I'll be focusing in on those books--sometimes called "easy readers"--that fall right between picture books and novels. The Center for Children's Books (housed within the University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science) sponsored this award since these books tend not to win the major awards that already exist, like the Caldecott and the Newbery. I will also get to read some grown-up lit since I was elected to the book award committee of the Children's Literature Association: for this, I read recent scholarly books on children's literature (next up: Making American Boys: Boyology and the Feral Tale). Sound like fun? It is.

 

Angela Vietto

In June I attended and presented a paper at the American Antiquarian Society's Conference on the History of the Book in Worcester,Massachusetts, without a doubt the best academic conference I've ever attended. In May I finished a round of revisions--I hope the penultimate round--to my manuscript Women and Authorship in Revolutionary America.
In August I did just a bit of traveling--drove to New Jersey, where I visited Judy Duffield (Marty Scott's mother) as well as visiting Whitman's grave (but I never got to Whitman's house, which is in a part of Camden where I recommend not getting lost, though the worst thing that happened to me was getting stopped by the security guards in the parking lot at the Campbell's Soup plant).


John Kilgore

The epic trip Dollie and I promised in last issue came to a bad end on the first day, when (to give the VERY short version) a bad electrical connection to our camper trailer caused us to lose the brakes going downhill. We ended up with both vehicles lying on their sides, totaled, though blessedly still on the road rather than in the scary ravines on either side. Like those people you hear being interviewed in trailer parks after tornadoes, we couldn't believe our GOOD luck, to walk away with nothing worse than a few bruises. See pictures of the event at my home page; and of the new camper we bought in August, proving whatever good sense we ever had was used up long ago. If the bank calls, tell them you don't know us.

An essay called "The Uses of Euphony," on which I had a lot of help from Tim Shonk and Daiva Markelis, appeared online in the July issue of The Vocabula Review. Vocabula Bound Quarterly, the print version of the journal, has now begun publication, and the January-March volume includes my essay, "Frisking the Governor's Daughter: On Puns."

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Alumni News

James Harris,'86, writes, "I'm very happy to report that my second novel, A Bottle of Rain, has just been accepted for publication by Livingston Press out of the University of West Alabama. Cover artwork and galley proofs are scheduled for release in January 2006, then simultaneous Library Edition hardback / trade paper release in September."


Jim's first novel is Nowhere Near the Sea of Cortez, available through Amazon.com. Excerpts from the new novel were featured in the May 2003 Agora. Jim's recent story, The Hula Girl on Lot Six, appears at the literary site Projected Letters, which has also published a literary analysis of the style of Bottle of Rain. Jim's current project, a novel entitled Lucy Wants to See the Ocean, will be excerpted at Projected Letters in the near future.

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Prof.Anne Zahlan reports that,"Graduate alumna Hsiao-chien Lee, from Taiwan, who completed her MA in English here in 1993, came back to visit the campus on Saturday, September 3. Accompanying her were her husband, Tony, and their two boys, Henry and Andy. Tony is also an Eastern graduate, with a degree in Industrial Technology. Hsiao-chien has been teaching in Taiwan since 1993 and has won a number of teaching awards there. The family have all come to the States so that Hsiao-chien can complete her doctorate at the University of Missouri in Columbia. Her visit included a peek into the new Writing Center, where in her days as a tutor she spent many hours working with students. She loved the recent renovations."

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Laura Meyer,'05, reports that "Things with me are great. I'm putting grad school on hold for a bit. After graduation I worked part time at my old high school job. It's a small gymnastics facility. Good people, but not really my thing. However, the owner decided to expand (a 4 million dollar project), and needed someone to help her run the show. So now I'm General Manager. Who knew! I'm in charge of accounting, marketing and all the rest."

"I never thought I would love it so much. I'm learning all the time. And I can't tell you how much an English degree has helped! I earn so much respect from fellow gym owners (all wealthy middle aged men) because I understand the use of good/well."

"I have written college recomendation letters for a bunch of our graduating gymnasts, and even had to write a 30 page report for one of our international coaches who was applying for citizenship. So I'm still writing!"

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Michael San Filippo,'99, reports that he is joining the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) as media relations assistant.

San Filippo joins the AVMA from the American Academy of Pediatrics, where he served as a publications specialist for the Academy’s Healthy Child Care America program. He began his career in public relations at Lake Land Community College before spending three years as a writer-editor for a variety of trade publications at Adams Business Media and Schofield Media.

Founded in 1863, the AVMA is one of the oldest and largest veterinary medical organizations in the world, comprised of more than 72,000 member veterinarians engaged in a wide variety of professional activities. The association website gives detailed information about the organization's policies and activities.

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