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

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

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

Crisis Carnival Recap

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

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

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

boingboing.net

WAR OF THE TITANS! SDSU versus UCSD

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

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!!!

MFA Graduate Martin Woodside Going to Romania on a Fulbright Fellowship

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

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!