New Test Logo for literature.sdsu.edu

...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

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!

literature.sdsu.edu alumni ANICK BOYD update!

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!

Finally--Comics!

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!

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

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!

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

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!!!

The Latent Print Launch Party

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.