SDSU Continues a Rememberance for Dave Wallace

With all due apologies for posting this in an untimely manner, I would like to once again take a moment to remember Dave Wallace. If you did not have the opportunity to read Joseph Thomas' moving email honoring Wallace's memory, below is another chance to reflect on Wallace's lasting contribution to the literary community.

While I was a graduate student at ISU, I was lucky enough to get to know David Foster Wallace, a wonderful man and an extraordinarily talented writer. A few hours ago, I received the tragic news that he died Friday, a victim of suicide. This is crushing news.

I would consider it a personal favor if you could alert our colleagues about Dave's death. Perhaps next week they could mention his passing to their students and encourage them to investigate his life and work.

I know we value rigorous, cutting edge work here at SDSU. Dave had an incredible intellect and has left us with a rich body of work of fiction and non-fiction that will outlast us all. At only 46 years old, he was much too young to die. We will never have a chance to grapple with a new work by Dave. That loss is almost as terrible as the loss of his witty, vibrant, and gracious self.

Below you will find a link to a short story with some details about his death and his life:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080914/ap_en_ot/obit_wallace

Sincerely,

Joseph Thomas

Thomas' Poetry's Playground Nominated for Prestigious Award

Joseph Thomas' Poetry's Playground has been nominated for the History of Education Society's (HES) 2008 Outstanding Book Award. This award of $1,000 is made annually to an author whose published book best represents the values of HES.

HES is an international scholarly society whose purpose is, among other noble causes, to promote the teaching of the history of education at colleges and universities. The fact that Thomas has been nominated for this award is indicative that his book represents their core values. Poetry's Playground examines children's poetry within the world adult poetic discourses.

If selected Thomas will be in the illustrious company of 2007 winner Catherine Kerrison, writer of Claiming the Pen: Women and Intellectual Life in the Early American South (Cornell University Press, 2006).

Joseph Thomas' Review: Adventures Into Otherness

Professor Joseph Thomas reviews Maria Lassen-Seger's book, Adventures into Otherness: Child Metamorphs in Late Twentieth-Century Chidren's Literature for the International Research Society for Children's Literature. Thomas examines Lassen-Seger's exploration of child metamorphs as reactions/repressions against/by the colonizer (adults). Thomas appreciates Lassen-Seger's wide utilization of children's texts not commonly talked about while he also recognizes her ability to enlighten some of the more canonical texts. He criticizes both Lassen-Seger's neglect of the text's social and historical context as well as her dissertation -like structure and "dissertationese" prose style. A full text version of the review is available here.