sdsuliterature

Thanks for the Visit

2010-08-24T17:56:00.000-07:00

The Department of English and Comparative Literature no longer sends updates to this page; thanks to all the great visitors who supported our efforts here since this site's inception and thanks as well to all the amazing undergraduates and graduate students who made my life as Chair the experience of a lifetime!

Your Webmaster,

Bill Nericcio
Director, MALAS

Graduating Seniors and Other Students from SDSU's English 549, Dystopia, and Engl 563, DrugsSEX&Rock Classes! Congratulations Graduates!

2010-05-03T10:47:00.001-07:00

Get Your Younger Siblings, Cousins, and Friends' Children Hooked on Literature Young!

2009-12-03T06:35:00.000-08:00

Paper Over Electricity

2009-11-26T02:40:00.000-08:00

The History of Literature in the News: FROM HERE TO ETERNITY Edition

2009-11-18T12:37:00.001-08:00

Author/Alum Greg Bear to Speak Tomorrow at the Library

2009-11-17T10:17:00.000-08:00

Literati: The Library is proud to present a lecture by award-winning science fiction author and alumnus Greg Bear on Wednesday, November 18th at 2pm in LL430. As part of the Library's ongoing celebration of Darwin anniversaries, Bear will give a lecture entitled, "What Would Darwin Do? Fundamentalism in Science and Religion versus the Search for Scientific Truth."

Bear is a 1973 graduate of SDSU's English Department and the author of more than 30 science fiction and fantasy novels. He is the winner of two Hugo Awards and five Nebula Awards. His highly-acclaimed books Darwin's Radio and Darwin's Children deal with accelerated evolution and its consequences. Bear has been widely praised for his adherence to scientific fact in his crafting of science fiction. Special Collections already holds a collection of Bear's manuscripts and papers, as well as first editions of all Bear's books in the Elizabeth Chater Science Fiction Collection. Please join us for an exciting talk! The lecture is free and open to the public.

SDSU English Major and Associated Students President Tyler Bowden

2009-11-16T11:45:00.000-08:00

Books in the Public Domain

2009-11-10T13:43:00.000-08:00

At a Loss for Your Next Book?

2009-11-09T10:36:00.000-08:00

Apostrophe 101: We All Need a Review from Time to Time

2009-11-03T17:27:00.000-08:00

Books Come in All Shapes and Sizes

2009-11-02T18:15:00.001-08:00

Accompany us at the Agitprop Reading Series!

2009-11-02T17:18:00.000-08:00

Professor Joseph T. Thomas cordially invites us all to join him at the Agitprop Reading being held at the Agitprop Gallery.

Below is the 411 on the event and Professor Thomas' personal invitation:

AGITPROP POETRY SERIES
Saturday, November 7, 7:00pm
AGITPROP Gallery
2837 University Ave in North Park (Entrance on Utah, behind Glenn's Market) * San Diego, CA * 92104 * 619.384.7989

Dear Friends & Colleagues:
We hope you can join us this Saturday, November 7 at 7pm for the next reading in the Agitprop Reading Series featuring Joseph Thomas and Mark Wallace.

A libertine of unimpeachable taste, Joseph T. Thomas, Jr. is an assistant professor of English at San Diego State University's National Center for the Study of Children's Literature. He is the author of two books, Poetry's Playground: The Culture of Contemporary American Children's Poetry (Wayne State UP, 2007) and Strong Measures (Make Now Press, 2007). Poetry's Playground was named a 2009 honor book by the Children's Literature Association.

Mark Wallace is the author of more than fifteen books and chapbooks of poetry, fiction, and essays. Temporary Worker Rides A Subway won the 2002 Gertrude Stein Poetry Award and was published by Green Integer Books. His critical articles and reviews have appeared in numerous publications, and he has co-edited two essay collections, Telling It Slant: Avant Garde Poetics of the 1990s, and A Poetics of Criticism. Most recently he has published a short story collection, Walking Dreams (2007), and a book of poems, Felonies of Illusion (2008). Forthcoming in early 2011 is his second novel, The Quarry and The Lot. He teaches at California State University San Marcos.
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We hope to see you there and for festivities afterward!

"Edwardian" Intrigues

2009-10-28T16:52:00.001-07:00

Literary friends, what better time than All Hallow's Eve to show you our haunted and handsome, our merry and macabre, our delightful and dark Edward Gorey Collection? Special Collections has first editions, limited editions, original drawings, manuscripts, correspondence, proofs, realia, toy books, and prints (like this aquatint called Bat in Rain) in our wonderful Gorey Collection. The collection is particularly strong in Gorey's work in children's literature, and includes items which document his collaboration with our own Peter Neumeyer. Special Collections has also very recently acquired the papers of children's author Florence Parry Heide, which show her collaboration with Gorey on the Treehorn series, as well as Gorey's entire personal library of approximately 25,000 volumes. Many items in the Gorey Collection have been donated to the institution by SDSU alum and benefactor Andreas Brown, who was also Gorey's dear friend, publisher, and promoter throughout his career. Stop by Special Collections soon for a ghoulish Gorey treat!

(Original pen-and-ink drawing of a set design for Dracula, a production which Gorey worked on in 1977 and later issued as a toy theatre.)

For Your Friends Who Loathe Your Books! There is Hope

2009-10-28T16:14:00.000-07:00

Thanks to SDSU Alum, Michael Wyatt Harper for sending along this link--hit the chair above for the story.

Fiction Explained!

2009-10-24T21:27:00.000-07:00

source

The Technology of Electric Books: Barnes and Noble Edition

2009-10-20T11:29:00.000-07:00

New York Times Bestseller List Mashup with Amazon Ratings via BOINGBOING

2009-10-14T20:26:00.000-07:00

From the Depths of the Library Vaults....

2009-10-13T11:38:00.000-07:00

...Well, not really, but I've got to set a tone here! October greetings, literature lovers, this is your special collections librarian Anne over in the library. To get everyone in the mood for Hallowe'en, I'll be sharing a few of our more ghoulish and garish holdings with you--and where better to start than this lovely Gothic romance by Mrs. Radcliffe, The Mysteries of Udolpho. Abounding in all the necessary symbolic mechanisms and psychological elements of the perfect Gothic tale (drafty castles, old manuscripts, explorations of the sublime, decaying vaults, encounters with the uncanny, fainting, the terror of the other, and all that), The Mysteries of Udolpho was cited by Jane Austen in her parody of the genre, Northanger Abbey, in a list of many sensational tales recommended to the eager young heroine Catherine. Our Special Collections copy is particularly interesting because it bears the contemporary ownership signature of a Miss Juliet Georgiana Elliott--one wonders whether Miss Elliott was one of the very avid sighing readers of the genre that Austen intended to parody.

If you're writing or studying or teaching about Gothic fiction, Special Collections has several other editions of early Gothic novels, along with plenty of contemporary sources to contextualize the cultural scene of the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth- centuries: tour guides for ruined castles across Europe, criticisms of certain fashions in fiction, musings on the sublime and natural beauty, evidence of religious tensions, and much much more. And don't get us started on all the cool stuff we've got for researching the later Victorian Gothic! Stop by the department to see anytime. Up next--Gorey? Poe? Spiritualist writers? Creepy Victorian photographs? We shall see.....

Try Something More Avant-Garde for CHANGE!

2009-10-12T16:34:00.000-07:00

Neil KENDRICKS: Backstage and beyoooond!

I've been creeping around campus hearing the constant nagging of what monotonous lectures our students have... so why not change that. Jeezuhs! Broaden your taste palate. Maybe we should all look outside of our own bubble and start finding those innovative and intriguing lectures that are offered at our door step! Broaden your horizon and attend Neil Kendrick's lecture at SDMA on the late experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage and other avant-garde pioneers and their influence on music-video mavericks.

click on the flyer for more info!

BE THERE OR BE SQUARE!

Calling all writers! SEE Professor Joe Sutliff Sanders

2009-10-11T15:46:00.000-07:00

SALUTATIONS FROM: Joseph T. Thomas Jr.

Friends and colleagues--

In these trying times, there's no better way to forget the internecine travails of serving in a public university than attending a guest lecture by a visiting professor!

On Wednesday, October 21st from 4:00PM to 5:30PM, California State University, San Bernadino Professor Joe Sutliff Sanders will be giving a 50 minute lecture (with time after for questions) in Leon Williams Room of SDSU's library (LL 430). His lecture is sponsored by SDSU's National Center for the Study of Children's Literature and the Department of English & Comparative Literature.

Professor Sanders' lecture, "Assumptions of the Innocent: Marketing and Manipulation in Children's Comics," will be of interest to scholars and students of children's literature, children's culture, comics, graphic literature, and cultural studies more broadly. Please alert your classes and generally spread the word!

Professor Sanders has been reviewing graphic novels since 2002, including a long stretch at VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocates). He has served as the featured Graphic Novel review columnist for Teacher Librarian, an international journal for school librarians that is a sister publication of VOYA, since 2007.

His most recent publications have been about classic girls' novels (Children's Literature Association Quarterly), children's metafiction (Lion and the Unicorn), and Neil Gaiman's Sandman (The Sandman Papers). Contemporary American Comics, a new book from the University of Mississippi Press, will feature a new article by Professor Sanders on sexuality in comics. Last summer, Professor Sanders was one of the invited faculty at Hollins University, where he taught a special graduate course on comics and graphic novels for young readers.

Professor Sanders is also well-known for smelling good. Damn good.

Hope to see you there!

Joseph T. Thomas, Jr.
English & Comparative Literature
National Center for the Study of Children's Literature
San Diego State University

Narrative Breakthroughs Don't Always Happen Between the Pages of a Book!

2009-10-09T14:09:00.001-07:00

Nobel Prize Announced for 2009

2009-10-08T08:51:00.000-07:00

Prospective Screenwriters!-Get the Low-Down

2009-09-28T23:50:00.000-07:00

Sometimes attending a simple lecture can be as inspiring as the mystic muses themselves. One can be especially inspired if a talented speaker,such as our own Michael Mahin is the one speaking. Mahin will be lecturing at the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Orange County Chapter's Editor's Day this Saturday. Here, he will be speaking on the way screenwriting techniques can be applied to children's book writing--aspiring screenwriters/child lit authors, get inspired!

Deniz Perin LIVE in Steaming Video on THE LATENT PRINT

2009-09-28T08:47:00.000-07:00

One of our fab alumni is the latest addition to the Latent Print arts website--hit the image to the left to be connected. Perin is a graduate of our MFA in Creative Writing.

Deniz Perin is a poet and translator living in San Diego. Her work has been published in several literary journals, including Runes, The Atlanta Review, Sentence, and Pacific Review, as well as in the anthology, A Year in Ink, vol. II. She teaches in the English Department at the University of San Diego.

10 Bucks for a Night of Comedy and Maybe Even a Look Into our Own Souls

2009-09-27T17:57:00.000-07:00

With SD having an array of options for amusement, try an insightful night of entertainment and grandeur.

Come and support a fellow San Diego State student of ours, Rachael Van Wormer at the Mission Of New Village Arts

New Village Arts Theatre, located in Carlsbad, offers $10.00 student rush tickets to all students with a valid ID beginning 20 minutes before curtain. Tickets are on a first-come, first-serve basis, and subject to availability.

"THINGS WE WANT has to have the highest cool quotient of any show in town" - NY Times.

One Of Our own, Tyrone Nagai, Reflects On The Economic Tragedy of Today

2009-09-27T16:47:00.000-07:00

A member of the San Diego State Family Tree Shines with one of his own crown jewels published in the The New Verse News Journal online. Nagai speaks out on the harsh, yet ever so real realities that much of us are experiencing today.

His talented eloquence and down to earth sonnets can be found at the link below:

http://newversenews.blogspot.com/search?q=tyrone+nagai

Congrats Tyrone!

SDSU's Department of English and Comparative Literature Notes UNION TRIBUNE's Coverage of Marilyn Chin's New Literary Success!

2009-09-27T07:24:00.001-07:00

Hit the image above for the feature story and go here for a recent review, also from the pages of The SD Union-Tribune.

For more on Marilyn Chin's Revenge of the Mooncake Vixen, here or hit the bookcover opposite.

High Tech Edith Frampton in the News! literature.sdsu.edu and the Social Networking Scene!

2009-09-24T14:46:00.001-07:00

Click the image below for the original story at the SDSUniverse!

In Beta: New literature.sdsu.edu Logo

2009-09-23T07:50:00.001-07:00

What do you think? Comments welcome!

Art + Literature = Magic!

2009-09-20T08:11:00.000-07:00

Hit the image above for a great site with portraits of writers by an amazing group of indy illustrators--the Carlos Fuentes portrait is really rad!

ENGL 577 Student Makes His Film and Gets into SDFF

2009-09-18T17:30:00.000-07:00

Neil Kendricks, part of the literature.sdsu.edu faculty familia and a local director and film curator for MCASD, writes in with the following tidings:

"This Sunday, the U-T's Arts section is publishing my article on the challenges of making short films and select short films - including "Rocket" - featured in SDFF."

Heres a still from Phil's short film:

"Two of my former ENGL 577 students have short films in next week's San Diego Film Festival. One of the students, Phil Wilson, a grad student in TFM, actually went out and filmed the short script that he wrote in last semester's class and he finished the film. Phil's short film "Rocket" is among the shorts featured in SDFF."

For more information on the San Diego Film festival visit http://www.sdff.org/

Cool Trends in Literature! Jane Austen Novel Mash-ups!

2009-09-17T15:25:00.001-07:00

click the image for a scanned facsimile; click here for the original source online.

Ilya Kaminsky wins the LEVINSON PRIZE!

2009-09-16T16:57:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Professor Kaminsky!

With all the grumblings and angst raging through our furlough/budget-cut besmeared corridors, it brings great happiness to share that Ilya Kaminsky, Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature, and Director, Spring 2010, of the MFA Program in Creative Writing, SDSU has won another award:

THE LEVINSON PRIZE, presented annually since 1914 through the generosity of the late Salmon O. Levinson and his family, for the sum of $500, is awarded to Ilya Kaminsky for his poems in the May 2009 issue. Kaminsky was born in Odessa, in the former USSR, and came to the United States in 1993, when his family received asylum from the American government. He is the author of Dancing in Odessa (Tupelo Press, 2004) and currently teaches poetry and comparative literature at San Diego State University.

Before Vermicious Knids, There Were Gremlins

2009-09-15T16:17:00.000-07:00

Happy September, English Department, from Anne in Special Collections. This weekend marked the birthday of children's author Roald Dahl, known for his beloved classics such as James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. One of Dahl's very first stories for children, called The Gremlins, was published in 1943 at the height of World War II. As a Royal Air Force pilot, Dahl became familiar with a superstition among air force men about the nasty little creatures who tinker with plane machinery to sabotage and cause all sorts of annoying mishaps. After being injured on duty and sent to Washington, D. C. as an air attaché, Dahl began writing the story and sent it to Walt Disney. And though he published as a book and made into several cartoons, Disney never made The Gremlins into the feature-length film he had originally wanted, supposedly because he decided there were too many "war films" being produced. Disney and Dahl parted ways (editorial: thank goodness!) after this effort, and The Gremlins was lost to history.

Special Collections just received a really brilliant copy of the rare first edition (published in an edition of only 5,000) from generous donor Carolyn Connor. The book would be at research home in a cultural study of later mythical figures in children's literature, or in textual/illustrative depictions of war for children, or...the list can go on and on! Stop by Special Collections to check out this gem and to see how it might contribute to your research. Tidbit: Dark Horse Comics reissued the original and did a strange tribute to this partnership in 2006.

Edgar Allen Poe Archive Now Available Online! Thanks to boingboing.net!

2009-09-11T22:34:00.001-07:00

literature.sdsu.edu and hyperbole books tout LALO ALCARAZ @ AIR CONDITIONED LOUNGE, 7pm, THURS. September 3, 2009

2009-09-03T06:06:00.001-07:00

Click here for the coordinates and more!

Spread the Word! Professor Joseph Thomas is Hanging His Hat with SDSU MALAS this Fall 2009

2009-08-31T13:07:00.001-07:00

Malas600D Thomas

SMITH: An Extraordinary Literary Online Magazine

2009-08-24T08:35:00.000-07:00

Don't miss the comics! Hit the image above to be jettisoned out of here and onto their delicious litlandia!

New Fall 2009 Test Logo for literature.sdsu.edu | Comments Welcome!

2009-08-22T20:57:00.000-07:00

source

Felonious Professors Run Amuck!!!! literature.sdsu.edu Profs Frown in Dismay!

2009-08-22T12:00:00.001-07:00

New Test Logo for literature.sdsu.edu

2009-08-19T06:07:00.000-07:00

...this one riffs off a 60s Olivetti Typewriter manual I found on a design blog; click to enlarge.

comments welcome!

SDSU English Graduate Goes to Hollywood

2009-08-17T21:05:00.000-07:00

UPDATE

Brenda Melissa Ocampo, our Joe Gillis Internship award winner in 2008, is now a bona fide Nash Entertainment employee one year later in 2009. Just another example of literature.sdsu.edu helping to change the lives of our amazing students! Ms. Ocampo is pictured on the left working on the set of a recent interview.

original posting, August 27, 2008

Not too long ago, May 1st, 2008 to be exact, you may have received a very enticing email from the English department announcing an internship opportunity in Hollywood via the First Annual Joe Gillis Internship. This opportunity was offered to English and Comparative literature majors interested in a unique experience in the world of film and TV.

If you wondered about the endless opportunities the aforementioned internship could provide, recent graduate Melissa Ocampo, who studied English literature at SDSU and answered Hollywood's call, will now satisfy your curiosity. Not only does she write that "It was a great way to spend my summer and quite the learning experience" but she was also able to land a job as a junior researcher for Nash Entertainment. Melissa will be contributing to the shows "Most Daring" and "Most Amazing" airing after the holidays.

Calling All literature.sdsu.edu Graduate Students! Get Published!

2009-08-17T15:56:00.001-07:00

literature.sdsu.edu alumni ANICK BOYD update!

2009-08-17T13:03:00.000-07:00

Cheers to one of our cool alums presently travailing at the CUNY Graduate University and wowing young minds in Harlem! Click the image on the left for details!

It's Not True, We Swear!: Pop Culture Meditations on the Joys of Tenure!

2009-08-16T20:52:00.000-07:00

Finally--Comics!

2009-08-14T11:26:00.000-07:00

Hola, English Department, Anne from Special Collections here for another installment of "cool stuff in Special Collections to use in research and teaching." The Comics Collection in Special Collections is a little different from other libraries' comics collections. Though there is an emphasis on self-published and small press titles in our modest collection, there isn't really any specific focus topic or type. There's a comics something for everyone--fantasy, manga, horror, humor, romance, adventure, superhero, DIY, feminist, "grand space opera" comics, comics on phonics (yes phonics), fairy tale comics, erotica comics, robot comics, terrible mid-1990s educational comics, Japanese comics, Canadian comics, Mexican comics--you get the picture. More generally, the Comics Collection fits under our broad collecting area of "literature intersecting with art." Besides comics, this includes our delightful Edward Gorey Collection, our sexy Donna Barr Collection, and the gorgeous Janus Press Collection, just to name a few. And though we haven't been able to attend Comic-con for the past couple of years and are not currently building the collection actively, we have been able to make a couple of recent acquisitions in this area--a full run of Spiegelman's Raw, for instance.

So if questions of visual literature, reading strategy, or linearity are nagging at you, come peruse the Comics Collection for some answers! Stop by during our open hours* to check out these fantastic resources.

*The Dreaded Furloughs (if not a comics title, at least a bad band name?) will be affecting the department's (and the library's) service schedule--but alas, we don't yet know what exactly that means. As soon as we DO know anything, it'll be posted on our website, k?

Image from The Perils of Mr. Comics, written by Liz Schiller and drawn by Donna Barr at the "San Diego Comic-Con Street Theatre," 1995.

Cool Writers' Cribs!

2009-08-13T23:25:00.001-07:00

Emeritus Professor Larry McCaffery on William Vollman's Monster New Tome, IMPERIAL

2009-08-09T09:07:00.000-07:00

Our remarkable colleague, Larry McCaffery, has the lead review article in the Books section of today's San Diego Union-Tribune. Click the image for the story!

Joseph Thomas Reading in LA! Worth the Road Trip to LALALandia!

2009-08-06T09:16:00.000-07:00

CLICK the wicked bio for more info!

Friends,

On Thursday, August 13th, Joseph Thomas will be reading at the Poetic Research Bureau, in Los Angeles. He will read from Measured and Contemporary Poetry, his two latest manuscripts of conceptual writing/poetry. The reading begins at 8:00PM. Doors open at 7:30.

The Poetic Research Bureau
3702 San Fernando Blvd
Glendale, CA 91206

ABOUT THE BUREAU

The Poetic Research Bureau is a storefront library and adjoining pocket theater situated at 3702 San Fernando in Northeast Los Angeles. As a non-profit organization, it serves as an irregular literary umbrella for projects such as Ara Shirinyan's house of concept & constraint, Make Now Press; occasional poetry journal The Germ ('97-'04), edited by Andrew Maxwell and Macgregor Card; and art-lit mag Area Sneaks, edited by Rita Gonzalez and Joseph Mosconi.

As a literary service, the PRB attempts to cultivate composition, publication and distribution strategies that enlarge the public domain. It favors appropriations, impersonations, 'compost' poetries, belated conversations, unprintable jokes and doodles, 'unoriginal' literature, historical thefts and pastiche. The publication emphasis is on ephemeral works, short-run magazines and folios, short-lived reprints and excerpts in print-on-demand formats, and the occasional literary fetish objects of stupidly incomparable price and value.

The Bureau also hosts a reading series that invites writers whose work lacks the 'commercial tendency' while harboring the bright, high-minded intentions that often lead to broad panic, righteous perversions, improbable arguments, and the ill-served cul-de-sacs of genius. The series is programmed by the aforementioned Messrs Maxwell, Mosconi and Shirinyan.

Contact them at: directors@poeticresearch.com

SDSU MFA Student News: Andy Stewart

2009-08-05T09:01:00.001-07:00

One of our ace graduate students, Andy Stewart, checks in with literary tidings:

From: Andrew Stewart wordslikewater AT gmail.com
To: "William A. Nericcio" litchair AT mail.sdsu.edu

Hello, Bill

This is Andy Stewart, an upcoming 3rd year MFA fiction student at good ol' SDSU. I don't generally believe in shameless self promotion, but I am quite excited about my first short story publication, "Kimchi," in the online literary magazine, Big Bridge. Here is the link. I hope things are well!

Best, Andy

Here at literature.sdsu.edu we utterly believe in all kinds of promotion when it comes to the arts! With NEA funding in the toilet, we have to do all we can to make sure the world knows about our genius writers! Congratulations

Poetry International Double Issue Launch! Click for More Info!!!

2009-08-04T16:15:00.001-07:00

The Latent Print Launch Party

2009-08-04T13:14:00.000-07:00

For those of us in San Diego universities who dream of a joint literary and arts outlet outside of the confines of our illustrious classrooms, The Latent Print shows promise of fulfilling such dreams. And this Wednesday the collective forces at The Latent Print are making redundant the connotation of their name by celebrating the manifestation of a project spurned by group of friends who felt that the artistic talent in their community should be seen and heard.

SDSU's Jessica Brubaker, Tina Cabrera (above), and Matthew Diaz (below) are among the featured artists who will in attendance Wednesday night. The party will also feature video screenings by featured artists and live performances by Trio Gadjo, Drew Andrews, and DJs.

"No Where Travelers" from Rockstep Productions on Vimeo.

Get involved. Get down to Whistle Stop Bar this Wednesday, August 5 from 8pm to 11:30pm, and start thinking about submitting work to a promising publication.

Children's Lit at SDSU! Harry Potter Central!

2009-07-31T14:31:00.000-07:00

'POTTER' SPUTTERS
{source}

Harry Potter, the orphaned wizard responsible for record-breaking billions in book sales and movie box-office receipts, found himself nearly orphaned again at Comic-Con. Only one hour-long panel was devoted to Potter lore and a few scattered samples of Potterana were reported on the exhibitor floor.

But devoted fans began lining up more than an hour before yesterday's panel, moderated by Eric Bowling, 31, a children's literature graduate student at San Diego State University. (He's writing a thesis on Harry Potter.)

University of Southern California professor Henry Jenkins said Harry's absence at the San Diego Convention Center was perfectly understandable. “They see the Harry Potter franchise as presold,” Jenkins said of Warner Bros.

The maker of the movies that have grossed nearly $5 billion so far – the sixth film, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” ranked first at the box office last weekend and second this weekend – now needs to find new fans for its upcoming “Avatar” movie and other hoped-for blockbusters, Jenkins explained.

Besides, said Heidi Tandy, one of the founders of FictionAlley.org, a Web site devoted to fan-generated fiction about Potter's world, there's the Wizarding World of Harry Potter to look forward to; it is scheduled to open next year at Universal's Islands of Adventure theme park in Orlando, Fla.

– ROGER SHOWLEY

Damn the Budget Torpedoes! In Fall 2009, literature.sdsu.edu is going to ROCK the house!

2009-07-31T07:46:00.001-07:00

REVISED LITERATURE.SDSU.EDU FALL 2009 COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

2009-07-03T02:06:00.000-07:00

UPDATED!

Greetings and welcome to online access for our revised Fall 2009 course descriptions written by the frighteningly talented faculty of literature.sdsu.edu (some of our newer faculty are pictured opposite!) Please note that several ADDENDA classes appear below the main viewer below--they can be accessed by clicking on the small, thumbnail facsimiles.

Fall 09 Revised

note: scribd.com may want you to register to download the .pdf--if you are in the mac universe, merely opt to print it and save that "print" as a .pdf in preview. pc workarounds should be forwarded to pc_sdsu_literati users via the comments section below. If all this computer nonsense makes your brain hurt, then just walk into Arts and Letters 226 and take a printed copy of these descriptions off the wall--you'll be glad you did!

Humorous Bits (or, Not The Comics Collection, Again)

2009-07-02T16:41:00.000-07:00

Happy Fourth of July (almost) to all, from Librarianne in Special Collections. Independence Day makes me think of patriotism, and patriotism, for some reason, makes me think of Mark Twain. Special Collections will soon receive an outstanding small collection of rare Twain items from a generous donor, but until then, we turn to Twainish items already in the collections...

A noted rival of Mark Twain's, Bill Nye was a lecturer, essayist, and humorist from Wyoming, who wrote satire and humor pieces for the newspaper The Boomerang. Though his works are of course not as well known now as Twain's, they still provide a wonderful glimpse into popular topics of American humor and the comic style of the times. Baled Hay: A Drier Book Than Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass is a compilation of Nye's comic vignettes, stories, jokes, and poems, meant at least in its title to mimic Whitman. Piece titles include "Genius and Whiskey," "Let Bald-Headed Men Rejoice," "Regarding the Nose," and the intriguingly named "The Maroon Sausage." The copy of Baled Hay located in Special Collections is extra-special, because it bears its original 1884 (!) dustjacket, an exceptionally early one. Usually, when dustjackets of this time survive at all, they are seen without illustration and with only the title and name of the author printed briefly on the front. This one, as you can seen, is a very lively example of an emerging art. Stop by Special Collections to check it out!

Cool Science Fiction Class Back on the Roster for Fall 2009!!!

2009-06-18T02:54:00.000-07:00

Here's the course description (watch for more details when the schedule goes live on June 22, 2009):

English 409: Science FictionDr. Stephen Potts

You find yourself in a world that is decaying, but the question is, are you alive? In a far-future galactic civilization, a group of mismatched pilgrims journey to the shrine of an enigmatic killing machine that may be from the farther future. Tentacled aliens have saved the human race from self-destruction, and ask only two things in return: they will keep the earth, and any human who wishes to endure must mate with them. These adventures and more await you in this course devoted to science fiction. We will read novels that span the genre’s history as well as space and time, and pursue science fiction through other media such as movies and graphic novels. In the process we will explore matters (and antimatters) from physics to metaphysics, from the alien to alienation, from the human to the posthuman. And expect a visit from an award-winning science fiction author. Prepare to have your mind blown open, reassembled, and perhaps even replaced.

Chicana Poet Gloria Vallina, Teaching Intro to Creative Writing, Summer 2009

2009-06-13T11:50:00.000-07:00

Gloria Vallina, SDSU MFA Alum and a lecturer in the Department of Chicana/o Studies and the Deparment of English and Comparative Literature, is teaching a summer intro class in creative writing for literature.sdsu.edu, Engl 280. Take it if you can! Here's some of her work from 2004 on your right {click to enlarge}.

Our Door is Always Open

2009-06-11T17:02:00.000-07:00

SDSU Lit-heads should always make the time to come by our offices and say "Hi." Here's the note that awaits you on your left. Click it to make it humongous!

literati in tights...

2009-06-07T22:09:00.001-07:00

See Your Words in Special Collections

2009-06-04T12:07:00.000-07:00

Hello again to all of you in Literature Land from Anne in Library Land! In response to an energetic request to "do comics soon!" I reply that I shall, soon--but until then, as a teaser, here's a neat little item from our children's literature collections. A New Hieroglyphical Bible, for the Amusement and Instruction of Children was published in New York in 1815. In this palm-sized gem, the author selected the most memorable and memorizable Bible verses for little minds, and substituted some words with pictures meant to represent the word itself. A significant break from the rote memorization methods common to the time, these "hieroglyphs" were intended to "make the lesson delightful as well as profitable to the juvenile mind" and to teach reading skills while improving recall of religious lessons. The book is unusual not only for its inventive approach to literacy, but also for the fine quality of the wood engravings themselves. Pictures appearing in children's books of the early nineteenth century, when they appeared at all, were usually very crude cuts, worn from frequent reuse in multiple titles. These are striking in their detail, and must have been great fun to see for new little learners.

Though of course these emblematic verses might not count as "comics" as we define them today, they do represent a fascinating shift in American visual culture and help set the stage for the more expansive blending of word and image that would develop continuously throughout the century and end up later with early comics like The Yellow Kid and Little Nemo. This is a great primary source for anyone studying reading in America, religion and literature, or general visual culture. (Also, there's neat pictures of dragons and unicorns, yes, unicorns!)

To see our copy, stop by Special Collections! For more about hieroglyphical Bibles, see David Morgan's awesome Protestants and Pictures published by Oxford UP, 1999.

Pictures from the Diane Ackerman Reading at SDSU April 2009

2009-06-03T16:30:00.000-07:00

Photography from the Diane Ackerman reading at SDSU in April 2009--Bianca Chapman reading from The Zookeeper's Wife; Ackerman with Professor D. J. Hopkins, Theatre, SDSU; Diane Ackerman at her reading/luncheon at the San Diego Zoo; another shot of Chapman's dramatic reading (note mood lighting!); and, finally, a shot of English and Comparative Literature Chair Bill Nericcio with Ackerman after her conversation with the audience.

An Inspirational Profile of Cornel West

2009-06-03T13:03:00.001-07:00

Cornel West

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Non-fiction Books writers profile

Our Own Children's Literature Guru, Jerry Griswold, in the New York Times Review of Books!

2009-06-03T11:54:00.001-07:00

{click to enlarge}

literature.sdsu.edu to Host Major International Women's Writing Conference

2009-06-03T11:37:00.000-07:00

San Diego State University: A History in Word and Image

2009-06-02T14:18:00.001-07:00

SDSU: A History in Word and Image is now available via SDSU Press's Amazon.com outlet mall! The perfect gift for recent graduates and alumni of San Diego State University!

Another One of our Cool, Super-Talented Alumni: Sydney Brown

2009-06-02T13:51:00.000-07:00

New Logo Tests

2009-05-30T05:34:00.000-07:00

Lisa Hemminger in the Mississippi Review! Kudos! Cheers!

2009-05-29T11:39:00.000-07:00

A giant tip of the hat to Lisa Hemminger, a recent SDSU MFA Poetry graduate and an outstanding member of our faculty, for her publication in The Mississippi Review.

Click the image below to read her most recently published poem

You can always learn more about our cool MFA Program here.

San Diego's Very Own Little Magazine

2009-05-22T14:29:00.000-07:00

Greetings, lovers of all things literary! I am Anne Bahde, Special Collections and University Archives Librarian over at the Library, and I'm honored to be guest-blogging here from time to time (thanks Bill!), and sharing some of the awesome primary sources in our collections with you.

First up: Troubadour: A Magazine of Verse, was published in San Diego between 1928 and 1932, and was one of hundreds of "little magazines" published all over the country in the early part of the twentieth century. The little magazine rose to popularity after Harriet Monroe began Poetry in Chicago in 1912, and this format became an essential tool for the dissemination of modernist works of literature and art during this time. Little magazines emphasized the experimental and the daring in poetry and art, and exposed little-known authors and ideas to new audiences. In many ways, the little magazine can almost be seen as a precursor to the modern zine, in that they were often produced by younger editors, generally had small print runs, and blended art with word in new and appealing ways.

Not many of the contributors’ names to Troubadour have withstood the test of time, though there are some surprises. Ansel Adams contributed three poems to the May 1929 issue featuring California poets, identifying himself there as a “photographer, poet, and mountaineer,” and Booth Tarkington guest-edited the issue devoted to Indiana poetry. Troubadour often features lovely Art Deco covers like these, though sadly the artist is not always noted within. Special Collections has most issues of Troubadour and is seeking more—stop by the Special Collections Reading Room to sample some of San Diego’s literary heritage!

Neil Kendricks' COOL Comics Class @ SDSU LIT, Fall 2009!!!

2009-05-18T10:56:00.000-07:00

pacificREVIEW 2008-09 is Now IN PRINT!

2009-05-07T15:20:00.001-07:00

Hit the image to be instantly transported to SDSU's greatest undergraduate/graduate west coast arts review annual!

literature.sdsu.edu proud to co-sponsor robert a. rosenstone at san diego state university, may 4, 2009 in gmcs 301

2009-05-03T09:15:00.000-07:00

The Department of English and Comparative Literature, SDSU, is proud to co-sponsor with the Baron Fund for Ethics Education, Phi Alpha Theta, and the Departments of Africana Studies, and History the visit of Robert Rosenstone to Montezuma Mesa Monday! Here's the skinny:

If you study or teach about feature films, you should attend Robert Rosenstone's lecture:

"Why Directors Invent the Past to Tell the Truth: An Analysis of the Movie Glory"

May 4th at 3:00 PM in 301 Geology, Math, and Computer Science Building

Rosenstone is arguably the leading historian working in the field of film. His biography of John Reed was the basis of Warren Beatty's Reds.

Robert A. Rosenstone
Professor of History
Division of the Humantities & Social Sociences
California Institute of Technology (CalTech)
Pasadena, California, USA

Founding Editor, Rethinking History: The Journal of Theory and Practice
Associate Editor, Film Historia

My current research runs along two parallel lines, continuing the investigation of issues that have concerned me for the last two decades. One involves the intensely contemporary issue: what it means to construct works of history in a culture where the visual and the electronic media are not only supplementing but to a great extent replacing the written word as the chief means of communication. The other line has to do with creating alternative ways of presenting history (on the page, on the screen, on the internet), which of necessity involves questions of the relationship between historical data and argument, as well as that between fact and fiction. Robert A. Rosenstone

Publications

Books: AUTHOR

Crusade of the Left: The Lincoln Battalion and the Spanish Civil War - 1969 Romantic Revolutionary: A Biography of John Reed - 1975 Mirror in the Shrine: American Encounters in Meiji Japan - 1988 Visions of the Past: The Challenge of Film to Our Idea of History - 1995 King of Odessa - 2003 The Man Who Swam Into History - 2005 History on Film / Film on History - 2006

Books: EDITOR AND CO-AUTHOR

Protest from the Right - 1968 Seasons of Rebellion: Protest and Radicalism in Recent America - 1972 Los cantos de la conmocion: Veinte años de rock - 1974 Revisioning History: Filmmakers and the Construction of the Past - 1995 Experiments in Rethinking History - 2005

SDSU MALAS and literature.sdsu.edu Collaborate on a Cool Summer Class!

2009-04-30T12:20:00.000-07:00

Joanna Brooks, our award-winning*, fab Americanist, is teaching a new class for graduate students into literature and cultural studies at SDSU--the course is inter-disciplinary and open to all majors! Click the image above to get the scoop! This is the first of hopefully many cross-pollenizations between literature.sdsu.edu and SDSU's MALAS program.

*American Lazarus: Religion and the Rise of African-American and Native American Literatures, William Sanders Scarborough Prize, Modern Language Association, 2004

Apply for the 2nd Annual Joe Gillis Internship in Hollywood Competition!

2009-04-30T11:37:00.000-07:00

More information appears below the clickable image here:

Our 2009 Cool Summer Schedule is now ONLINE!

2009-04-26T14:00:00.000-07:00

Click the image below to be instantly teleported to the literature.sdsu.edu mothership! Hit the beachball on the top of the page and you'll be looking at our Summer menu of literati delights!

CCC, NCCL & literature.sdsu.edu host GENE YANG @ SDSU, Wed. May 6, 2009

2009-04-26T11:09:00.000-07:00

Stop the presses! Stop the presses! Gene Yang, comic book superstar extraordinaire, is coming to SDSU on Wednesday, May 6, 2009; hats off to Professor June Cummins-Lewis and the rest of the SDSU Children's Literature cohort for making this happen. Hit this image for all the details {more below}:

For more on Yang and his work, go here.

ps: you may have heard we are going to have a Comics/Graphic Narrative class at literature.sdsu.edu this Fall 2009--it will be led by our cool, indy-film prof Neil Kendricks!

English and Comparative Literature Chair Invades the SDSU Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Wednesday, April 29, 2009

2009-04-26T11:07:00.001-07:00

When not alligator-wrestling colleagues over departmental politics, Bill Nericcio tries to keep himself busy being a scholar and cultural studies writer. He's been invited by the generous graduate students in Spanish and Portuguese at SDSU to share his latest findings filed under the salacious working working title Eyegiene: Permutations of Subjectivity in the Televisual Age of Sex and Race--his follow-up book with UT Press to Tex[t]-Mex: Seductive Hallucinations of the "Mexican" in America. Go to Professor Nericcio's blog or click the image opposite for more details.

Logo Prototype | literature.sdsu.edu

2009-04-26T05:13:00.001-07:00

Jericho Brown Reads and Talks to Students @ SDSU's literature.sdsu.edu

2009-04-24T13:11:00.001-07:00

Crisis Carnival Recap

2009-04-24T11:08:00.000-07:00

Now that two weeks have passed since this year's SDSU English Department sponsored graduate student conference, allow me to supply a rundown of the day's proceedings. As organizer of this year's event, I was pleased by the quality and contrast of the presentations, and was glad to see so many people turn out in support.

The title of the conference, "The Ecstasy of Speed," was selected due to its relevancy to current issues of study, and allowed for an array of presentation topics ranging from from crank addict surfers to Craigslist ad surfers; we saw Corpus Christi Pageants and Facebook fanatics, and had analyses on everything from Doctorow's Ragtime to Danielewski's Only Revolutions. Since the panels were set up thematically in an attempt to simulate the debilitating effects of escalating speed, it came as no shock when the unexpected ending left many in attendance craving more.

The event ended after keynote speaker Derek Pell captivated the crowd with anecdotes and satirical readings of his work ranging from "deconstructing" art to tips on how to write a successful suicide note, ending with a clip from his reworking of Plan 9 From Outer Space, aptly titled Plan 9b From Outer Space.

In a comment to a rousing presentation by Larry McCaffery, MFA graduate and author Kimball Taylor may have summed up the overall feeling of the day when by saying that the most dangerous effect of speed is not the acceleration but coming to a quick stop.

As a result of my own confusion with the unexpected ending, I failed to thank the people I had meant to (besides Pam Fox Kuhlken for supplying us all Cracker Jacks), so allow me to use this space to thank everyone whose hard work went into making this conference happen:

Thank you Gaelan Gilbert for all your help in co-organizing the event; Bill Nericcio for running the Crisis Carnival website and basically guiding us through the whole process; Nathan Leaman for helping in the transitioning from last year's amazing conference; Larry McCaffery for all the arrangements with the keynote; Derek Pell for acting as keynote; Mark Young, Quentin Bailey, Joanna Brooks, and the other respondents already mentioned for giving your time; Annie Foral for reserving rooms; Adam Pike and everyone at Ponce's for supplying our lunch; Megan E. Gilbert for displaying her artwork; Charlie Yi of The Latent Print for help with the flier (see above); and thank you again to all of the panelists for sharing their work under the rigorous pressures of an academic conference.

I enjoyed the entire experience and look forward to seeing what comes of next year's conference after I pass the torch on to the next unsuspecting grad student. Any volunteers?

Kevin Gossett

Carey Wall in Mississippi Quarterly

2009-04-24T09:50:00.000-07:00

Our congratulations go out to Carey Wall, an SDSU professor and former department chair whose article "`The Burning' : Extreme Reversal to Meet Life's Obligations" will appear in this month's Eudora Welty Centennial Supplement. For subscription information click here.

Jericho Brown Reading from PLEASE this Thursday Morning @ 8am, West Commons 220! Free

2009-04-22T04:30:00.000-07:00

Jericho Brown is in the house @ SDSU this coming Thursday morning to dazzle listeners in Professor Bill Nericcio's Sex in Film and Lit class with readings from his jaw-droppingly compelling new collection, PLEASE. The talk begins at 8am (yikes!), Thursday, April 23, 2009 in SDSU's WEST COMMONS 220; admission is FREE, but seating is limited, so make sure to get there early to secure your ringside seat. Brown's liable to burn the house down with his searing, lyric musings, so brace yourself for incoming! Here's a cool interview with Jericho Brown.

Music, classic R & B music, rules the pages of this slim, potent volume with cameos by Donny Hathaway, Roberta Flack, and Marvin Gaye rolling in and out of its pages. Here's a classic taste of Marvin Gaye to set the vibe for Thurday's reading:

Marvin Gaye - Sexual Healing

J.G. BALLARD | RIP

2009-04-20T23:20:00.000-07:00

boingboing.net

WAR OF THE TITANS! SDSU versus UCSD

2009-04-19T14:40:00.000-07:00

cool newspaper story about the clash:

More info with maps to the UCSD LOFT here!

UPDATED

SPECIAL, DETAILED Parking info HERE.

UCSD is going DOWN!!!! Go Aztecs! Pity the Tritons!

Click this image for the literary "tale of the tape."

More About Diane Ackerman @ SDSU, Monday, April 20, 2009 at 6pm | Hardy Tower

2009-04-16T17:01:00.000-07:00

literature.sdsu.edu welcomes DIANE ACKERMAN to SDSU, Monday, April 20, 2009!!!

Poet, essayist, and naturalist, Diane Ackerman is the author of many highly acclaimed works of nonfiction, including A Natural History of the Senses--a book beloved by readers all over the world and the volumes Deep Play, A Slender Thread, The Rarest of the Rare, A Natural History of Love, The Moon by Whale Light, and a memoir on flying, On Extended Wings. Her poetry has been collected into six volumes, among them Jaguar of Sweet Laughter: New and Selected Poems and, most recently, Praise My Destroyer. Ms. Ackerman has received many prizes and awards, including the John Burroughs Nature Award and the Lavan Poetry Prize. A Visiting Professor at the Society for the Humanities at Cornell University, she was the National Endowment for the Humanities Distinguished Professor at the University of Richmond. Ms. Ackerman also has the unusual distinction of having had a molecule named after her -- dianeackerone. She lives in upstate New York. [thanks Harper Collins, for the bio]

More on the event, with maps!, here:

http://www.kpbs.org/onebookkickoff

literature.sdsu.edu helps welcome DIANE ACKERMAN to SDSU!!!

2009-04-15T21:17:00.001-07:00

MFA Graduate Martin Woodside Going to Romania on a Fulbright Fellowship

2009-04-15T21:04:00.000-07:00

The last time SDSU's stellar MFA graduate Martin Woodside was mentioned here it was to advertise his recently published chapbook, Stationary Landscapes (available from Pudding House Press for ten dollars). In addition to having his poetry published, Woodside now has two new impressive accomplishments to add to his literary resume. Woodside answered Fulbright's call and has been offered a fellowship to research poetry in Romania. And yet, this was not enough for the ambitious artist/scholar. He has also won the very prestigious Presidential Fellowship at Rutgers-Camden. Rutgers-Camden are allowing him to defer admission there for a year so he can take the Fulbright in Romania. When Woodside returns from Romania he will begin in the new Childhood Studies Program at Rutgers.

Oliver Mayer at SDSU, April 16, 2009

2009-04-15T20:22:00.000-07:00

You are an early-riser and lover of the arts, wondering, "what should I do this fine Thursday morning?" We've got the solution. Oliver Mayer, the West Coast's hottest American playwright, is hanging out in Bill Nericcio's English 493, Sex in Film and Literature class at SDSU.

JOY OF THE DESOLATE: THEATRE OF THE AMERICAN DIASPORA

where: WEST COMMONS 220
when: the ungodly hour of 8:00am
why: amazing literature/theatre
hosts: ENGL 493, sdsu; SDSU PRESS, the Department of English and Comparative Literature, Hyperbole Books and pacificREVIEW

The lecture is FREE and open to the public!

literature.sdsu.edu welcomes DIANE ACKERMAN to SDSU

2009-04-15T20:20:00.000-07:00

Diane Ackerman Coming to SDSU! Mark Your Calendars! April 20, 2009 @ 6pm in Hardy Tower!

2009-04-15T17:10:00.000-07:00

We take our Children's Literature seriously at SDSU!

2009-04-08T08:59:00.000-07:00

update for this posting

Not for nothing does SDSU have one of the most prolific and dynamic Children's Literature cohorts on the planet! One of our top lecturers, Dr. Mary Galbraith, forwards this communiqué regarding the devotion of one of our undergraduates. Let's just say he lets Children's Lit get under his skin! Here's Galbraith's missive (with picture!).

Transmitting the Body of Children's Literature:

Max's wild rumpus in Where the Wild Things Are as recently published on the chest of Lance Dela Llana, a student in English 306A (the department's course in Children's Literature for Liberal Studies majors).

Diana Garcia! SDSU Poetry Alumni Sighting!

2009-04-06T16:06:00.000-07:00

Emeritus Professor Gennaro Santangelo, 1929-2009 | R.I.P

2009-04-04T15:53:00.000-07:00

Literati and Friends in the College of Arts and Letters,

Once again mala Fortuna visits and I am called upon to forward sad tidings.

Professor Emeritus Gennaro A. Santangelo, an outstanding retired member of our faculty has passed away. Santangelo was an amazing mentor to me my first years here on Montezuma Mesa--funny, wise, brilliant, and well-versed in the mysteries of academe. Join me in sharing my condolences to his wife Beth and his entire surviving family. Riposa in pace.

My thanks to Emeritus Professor Federico Moramarco for bringing this to my attention; Fred writes: "Gennaro's the guy who interviewed me at MLA and recommended I be hired at SDSU, so had a pretty large impact on my life."

Please send your pictures, written memories, reminiscences, and the like to me at this address, litchair@mail.sdsu.edu, so that we can honor Professor Santangelo with a memorial on our web site.

William A. Nericcio

Memories of Professor Gennaro Santangelo

Fred Moramarco reading a poem on the occasion of Jerry Santangelo's retirement--also pictured, Bill Rogers and Jerry Farber. Picture courtesy of Carey Wall.

Gennaro Santangelo was the Department's town crier. (Except for the negative and generally feminine connotations of the word, I would call him the department's "Yenta," but he would know I mean that very lovingly.) No one ever knew anything about the department before Jerry knew it, not even the chairs. He had his fingers on the pulse of the university and was a familiar figure in the hallways of the Adams Humanities Building talking to one person or another to one person or another about the latest administrative outrage, and lobbying for what we used to call in more innocent times, "department autonomy." Unlike many faculty members, Jerry loved being at SDSU and conveyed a sense of pride about the department and the university. He and his wife Beth were also the semi-official department host and hostess for many years, holding various gracious and generous parties at their beautiful, art-filled Mt. Helix home. He practiced what we Italians call "convivio," making people feel welcome and comfortable when hosting them. He loved to travel and did so widely, to virtually all parts of the world. He loved to visit museums and galleries and to talk about connections between literature and art, which was the subject of his favorite course. He was a passionate art collector, especially of high quality limited edition prints which he had a special feel for. Over the years he suffered from various physical ailments, and had difficulty walking, but he rarely complained about it, and walking across campus with him at his slow, measured pace, was a kind of revelation. When I did so, I always noticed things I usually breezed right by. Though I saw him rarely recently, I did visit him just a week ago and even though he looked very ill, he remained curious, interested in what I had to say, inquisitive about the department and my family as always, and the same old Jerry underneath his frail and ravaged body. I will miss his presence in the world.

Federico Moramarco
Emeritus Professor
English and Comparative Literature, SDSU

In the fall of 1991, I was one of twenty or so students in the Monday night Introduction to Graduate Studies seminar at SDSU. We were an enthusiastic bunch, eager to engage the work of pursuing a graduate degree. But for all of our gusto, our collective understanding of the realities of life in the academy was, at best, myopic. Fortunately for us, the professor assigned to teach the class was Genarro Santangelo. And one could not hope for a better or more benevolent taskmaster for what lay ahead.

From the moment he walked in the room on the first night (I can still see his purposeful entrance, taking us all in, nodding and smiling genially) he began giving shape to our enthusiasm, making us into the teachers and researchers we would become. The next fifteen weeks would be a series of challenges in learning the finer points of teaching, research and writing. Whether we were navigating the stacks of Love Library in search of an answer to one of his carefully considered research problems or preparing for the daunting task of the in-class presentation, Santangelo sat at the front of the room, Yoda-like, smiling and nodding at our attempts at insight, questioning that which was unclear, encouraging that which showed promise. He was exacting (and at times, demanding) but his standards were always tempered with fairness and kindness, and we learned a great deal that term.

But beyond the course material, Santangelo provided insights into the culture of the profession. Using terms like "expert," "professional" and "colleague," he provided countless examples of just what we had gotten ourselves into. Outside of class he led seminars on applying to doctoral programs and job searches, providing practical anecdotes from his own experiences from a life spent in academia. I fondly remember the class party he and his wife hosted at their home. With the entire seminar seated in the living room, Santangelo held forth on topics as wide ranging as the relationship between art and literature to how the Chargers were faring that season. In these times and others, he gave a sense of our future selves, and with that emerging picture came the lesson of the obligations that came with such aspirations.

His constant reminder that we were all "here to learn" has served me often and well; it is a mantra that I now repeat to my own students, and I cannot repeat it without hearing it in Jerry's voice. I am saddened to hear of his passing, but I am grateful for the good fortune to have had him as a teacher and thankful for the lessons he taught me.

Michael Harper
Professor of English
Mount San Antonio College

Jerry Santangelo was one of my oldest and dearest friends. I first met him in Binghamton, New York, in the mid-1960s, where he was a faculty member and I was a faculty wife and independent (read "unemployed") researcher. At that time I had the pleasure of reading Jerry's doctoral thesis on George Eliot's Romola (which I found marvelous--and told him so).

When I moved to San Diego in 1971, our friendship continued as Jerry and his wife, Beth, welcomed me with generous hospitality. Over the years, as colleagues in the Department of English and Comparative Literature, Jerry and I enjoyed countless hours of schmoozing over coffee or over lunch. Jerry loved discussing a wide range of subjects, including literature and art (about which he was passionately interested and extremely knowledgeable).

We shared a London Semester of teaching, going to plays, and taking field trips in 1988. In our retirement, we--with our spouses--travelled together in Italy and in Mexico.

I treasure memories of our shared adventures, discussions, and friendship--both abroad and at home. I shall miss him terribly.

Elsie McKaskle Marini
(formerly Elsie B. Adams)
Professor Emerita
English and Comparative Literature, SDSU

Jerry Santangelo at his retirement dinner, 1992, the Gaslamp, San Diego--picture courtesy of Carey Wall.

Genarro ("Jerry") Santangelo was, as he was for Fred Moramarco, the SDSU professor who interviewed me at the MLA meeting in NYC, December 1968. A quality that struck me about him even in that first meeting, and continued to impress me through the years I knew him here, was his genuine happiness about his colleague's accomplishments. He was lacking in jealous envy of others' work and rewards, and was glad for them and what they had done. This is, perhaps, sadly, not a virtue as wide-spread in academia as it should be, and made Jerry stand out as a model for me.

Ron Gervais
Professor
English and Comparative Literature, SDSU

Hi, I was a long-time friend of Gerry's, being a fellow philatelist. We'll certainly miss him as he was a fine philatelist as well as a good friend. In 2007, he received an award in Los Angeles, at SESCAL 2007. You might take a look at http://www.sescal.org/fedawd2007.htm for the award presentation speech.

Sincerely,

Jerry Kasper

In Memory of Dave Wallace

2009-03-27T18:33:00.000-07:00

Assistant Professor Joseph T. Thomas, Jr., who wrote recently on this blog about his friend and associate David Wallace and David's untimely death (10/4/08), would like to spread the word about Illinois State University's newly instituted David Foster Wallace Memorial Fund.

Illinois State University has created this fund in order to bring to campus writers who will energize and challenge the community, this fund will also periodically have a cash award to honor a graduate or undergraduate student whose writing engages its subject from an original, committed, and humane perspective. Whether poetry, fiction, non-fiction, drama, or a hybrid combination, the award winning work should be an articulate and thought-provoking text that pushes a paradigm, extending rather than following traditional genre expectations. The award winning entry shall be selected by a committee appointed by the English Department Chair and consisting of that Chair, at least two English Department faculty members, and at least one member of the community at large. Although submissions for the award will be solicited annually, the award will be given only when the committee determines that an entry satisfies the criteria listed above and thereby exemplifies the spirit of David Foster Wallace's work.

Tax deductible donations may be mailed to Illinois State University Foundation, Box 8000, Normal, IL 61790-8000. Checks should be made to ISU Foundation, David Foster Wallace Memorial Fund. Donations may also be made on-line at <http://www.development.ilstu.edu/credit/credit.phtml?id=8000>. Gifts should be designated as restricted to the David Foster Wallace Memorial Fund. David was a member of the English Department faculty at Illinois State University from 1993-2002. During his productive years at ISU, he completed Infinite Jest, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, and Brief Interviews with Hideous Men.

Come see Christina Rivera-Garza at SDSU March 24th @ 8:00 am!

2009-03-20T00:03:00.000-07:00

One of Mexico's foremost writers of fiction, Christina Rivera-Garza will be at SDSU for a lecture, reading, and signing of her book No One Will See Me Cry. A professor of writing at UCSD, Garza's works have been translated into English, Italian, Portuguese, German and Korean. To learn more about Christina Rivera Garza, visit her blog at http://www.cristinariveragarza.blogspot.com/.

CRISTINA RIVERA GARZA

LECTURE READING SIGNING

No One Will See Me Cry and More...

West Commons 220

8 am; Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Open to the public. Seating is limited.

Ilya Kaminsky Shares His Poetry With Amherst College

2009-03-15T17:31:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, March 5 SDSU creative writing professor Ilya Kaminsky was invited to read from his poetry at the Center for Russian Culture on the campus of Amherst College. In promoting this event, Amherst College's Creative Writing Center and the Department of Russian (sponsors of the event) reminded us that when Kaminsky was awarded with a Metcalf Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters wrote, “With his magical style in English, poems in [Kaminsky’s collection] Dancing In Odessa seem like a literary counterpart to Chagall in which laws of gravity have been suspended and colors reassigned, but only to make everyday reality that much more indelible.”

Screening Update of Kendricks' Film "Beholder"

2009-03-15T17:25:00.000-07:00

Kendricks'short film, "Beholder" which he co-directed and co-photographed with an artist-friend Jim Cavolt will be screened at the San Diego Latino Film Festival. "Beholder" screens on Saturday, March 14 at 12:30 p.m. in the "Cine Mujer" program on Screen one, and Wednesday, March 18 at 6:30 p.m. in the "Frontera Filmmakers" program on Screen one. Make sure to note these dates on your calendars!

A New Installment to Kendricks' Photo Ops in Union Tribune

2009-03-15T16:55:00.000-07:00

As reported here earlier, filmmaker, artist, photographer, writer, Film Curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and SDSU lecturer Neil Kendricks has been commissioned to write a new column, PHOTO OPS for the San Diego Union-Tribune. The column Kendricks describes it as "what I hope will be a comprehensive and engaging column for photographers and artists, photography enthusiasts and general readers alike, who share a passion for delving into the best and most innovative new volumes focused on photography-oriented issues coming from such respected publishers as Aperture, among others."

In the Photo Ops second instalment entitled "Star Search", Kendricks reviews various coffee table volumes of celebrity portraiture. In this review, Kendricks will not only direct you towards a wise purchase, but he also explains the subtle distinctions that separates a photographer like Rollingstone's Mark Seliger (whose work Kendricks finds is "too carefully composed, too wary to let chance enter into the frame" from Annie Leibovitz, who "is far more versatile when it comes to shaping celebrity portraits."

SDSU Alumni Greg Gutierrez Talks Zen, Surfing, and Nostalgia

2009-03-12T14:50:00.000-07:00

Congratulations go out to Greg Gutierrez for his new book Zen and the Art of Surfing: A Collection of Short Stories. Go pick it up! For ordering information and to check out Greg's original artwork, visit him online at http://www.greggutierrez.com/.