The Department of English, University of Arkansas

**NWA BOOK FEST HAPPENS SAT. AT THE FAYETTEVILLE TOWN CENTER***

And remember that a number of our amazing department folks will be speaking at several of the scheduled events:

LOCAL AUTHOR READINGS (NON-FICTION) - Brandon Weston (former staff member with the English Department Office) speaks at 12:45.

MAGIC AND MONSTERS: EXPLORING THE REALITY THROUGH YA FANTASY (PANEL) - English doctoral candidate Andrea Rogers speaks on a panel at 1:15.

LOCAL AUTHOR READINGS (SCI FI/ FANTASY) - English B.A./M.A.T. alum Jeff Ayers speaks at 2:15.

HAUNTS AND HOLLERS: ARKANSAS HORROR/SOUTHERN GOTHIC (PANEL) - English B.A. alum Jeremy Billingsley speaks on a panel at 3:00.

THE AUTHOR'S JOURNEY: GROWING ARKANSAS' LITERARY FUTURE (PANEL) - Professor Jane Blunschi Larson speaks on a panel moderated by Creative Writing M.F.A. alum Brody Parrish Craig at 4:45.

TRUE VOICES: THE POWER OF NONFICTION AND REAL STORIES (PANEL) - Professor Toni Jensen speaks on a panel at 6:00 p.m.

General 2 — NWA Book Fest BOOK FEST IS BACK book fest 2024 | AUgust 17 SAVE THE DATE We’re excited to bring nwa book fest back for year two! August 17, 2024 | 10 AM TIL 7 PMFayetteville Town Center About the event Panel DiscussionsThis year we will be bringing together some of Arkansas’ most prolific authors across all d...

**HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND** The NWA Book Fest will take place at the Fayetteville Town Center on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.! See, below, the flyer for a panel at 4:45p.m., featuring Professor Jane Blunschi Larson and M.F.A. alum Brody Parrish Craig! In addition, Professor Toni Jensen and doctoral candidate Andrea Rogers will be speaking at the festival, as well as two of our undergraduate alumni, Jeremy Billingsley and Jeff Ayers! :-) https://www.nwabookfest.com/book-fest-2024

**HEADING INTO THE WEEKEND** Ready to relax a bit? Consider checking out Emily Temple's wonderful justifications for her "Best Book Covers of July" list (on Literary Hub)! 🙂

The 17 Best Book Covers of July Another month of books, another month of book covers. July has been hot and hectic (where’s the summer lull everyone is always talking about?) and the book covers are no different—in the best…

***AMAZING*** Major congratulations to MFA Poetry alum Alison Pelegrin, who just received a Poet Laureate Fellowship from the Academy of American Poets to fund her Lifelines Prison Poetry Project!!! Read more, below, about this exciting program, and way to go, Alison! :-)

The Academy of American Poets Awards $1.1 Million to Twenty-Two Poets Laureate New York, NY (August 6, 2024)—The Academy of American P

Interested in the Postmodern Novel? Note that Dr. Booker's Fall 2024 graduate course (see the flyer below) still has some spots open.

**CHECK IT OUT** Check out M.A. alum ('15) Alex Abrams' article on Nevin Harrison, 2020 gold medalist in sprint canoe single, who is defending her medal at the Paris Olympics this week! (She will be competing in the semifinals on Saturday.) Way to go, Alex!!! 🙂

Nevin Harrison Did Her Thing With The Motorcycle; Now She’s Ready To Defend Her Gold Medal In Paris Among the many life changes since her historic sprint canoe gold medal in Paris was buying a motorcycle.

READY FOR THE WEEKEND? Take some time this weekend to read for fun, or at least consider watching some literary-inspired film/tv. Here are a few suggestions! :-)

The Literary Film & TV You Need to Stream in August Every month, all the major streaming services add a host of newly acquired (or just plain new) shows, movies, and documentaries into their ever-rotating libraries. So what’s a dedicated reader to w…

Congratulations to the most recent cohort of Arkansas Teacher Corps fellows (the largest cohort so far)! From the article, linked below: "The Arkansas Teacher Corps partners with school districts to recruit, train, license and support committed Arkansans as empowered teachers who facilitate excellent, equitable education in the state. The program provides an accelerated path to teaching at a time when many Arkansas schools face severe teacher shortages." :-)

Arkansas Teacher Corps Recruits, Trains Largest Cohort to Date Forty-four fellows participated is a partnership between the College of Education and Health Professions, the Walton Family Foundation, the Arkansas Department of Education and participating Arkansas K-12 school districts.

**GPSC GRAD STUDENT LEADERS' SUMMIT** Graduate Students - Take note of this upcoming opportunity on campus!

RSVP for GPSC Grad Student Leaders' Summit The theme for this summit is

Major congratulations to M.A. alum Robert Ellis ('16) on being hired as the new Assistant Director for the Office of Nationally Competitive Awards on campus!!! :-)

**EXCITING JOB NEWS** We are so happy to announce that Robert Ellis (M.A. '16) has started a new position as Assistant Director for the Office of Nationally Competitive Awards on the U of A campus!!! Way to go, Robert!!! :-)

**BOOK PUBLICATION NEWS** Major congratulations to M.F.A. alum Steve Yates on the release of his new novel, _The Lakes of Southern Hollow_!!! :-)

The Lakes of Southern Hollow Three kids from Southern Hollow fall in and out of love with each other at all the wrong times. It’s a Thursday night, September 2019. Casey’s band packs them in at a club in Springfield, Missouri, but the pandemic is about to show them the limits of true confinement and the power of music, love...

Major congrats to English Ph.D. alum Rob Griffith on recently receiving the Paragon Award for New Presidents by the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society! :-)

PTK honors OTC Campus President with award for new presidents The Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society (PTK) awarded OTC Table Rock Campus President Dr. Robert Griffith with the Paragon Award for New Presidents.

So excited to see this recent announcement about Professor Calabretta-Sajder in WLLC, who has given wonderful support to our English students! Major congratulations, Ryan!!! :-)

Ryan Calabretta-Sajder Named Director of International and Global Studies Program Calabretta-Sajder, associate professor and section head of Italian as well as associate director of the Gender Studies Program, brings a wealth of academic leadership and interdisciplinary expertise to the role.

Take note of these two upcoming free writing workshops at Two Friends Books (Bentonville) and Pearl's Books (Fayetteville)!!! (And thanks to Professor Pritchard for sharing this info!) :-)

Congrats, again, to doctoral candidate Tate Aldrich for being one of this year's recipients of the Hudson Doctoral Fellowship in the Humanities through the Graduate School! Awesome!!! :-)

English Doctoral Candidate Receives Hudson Award in the Humanities Department of English doctoral candidate Tate Aldrich was recently selected for an award of the James J. Hudson Doctoral Fellowship in the Humanities for 2024-2025 through the office of the Graduate School and International Education.

Major congrats to Dr. Hurt and M.F.A. alumni Michael Ray Taylor and Brody Parrish Craig on receiving 2024 Individual Artist Fellowships from the Arkansas Arts Council! Read more below--and way to go Bryan, Brody, and Mike!!! :-)

Arkansas Arts Council announces 2024 Individual Artist Fellowship award | Stuttgart Daily Leader LITTLE ROCK – The Arkansas Arts Council is pleased to announce the 2024 Individual Artist Fellowship grant for creatives living and working in Arkansas. “Arkansas creatives are an important part of our culture and each tell our state’s story in a unique way,” said Shea Lewis, secretary of th...

**MAJOR CONGRATULATIONS** We congratulate Dr. Rebecca Gayle Howell, one of our outstanding Creative Writing professors, for recently being awarded a prestigious Connor Faculty Fellowship for 2024! From the Newswire announcement: "Howell is the author of two collections of original poetry and two published and performed librettos, the translator of two collections of international poetry and the co-editor of an anthology. She will use Connor Fellowship funds to support her work on her third book of original poems, _Erase Genesis_, a set of erasure poems made from redacting the creation myth found in the Book of Genesis. The work will be one of the inaugural titles published by Southern Methodist University's Bridwell Press next spring." Way to go, Rebecca!!! :-)
https://news.uark.edu/articles/70542/fulbright-college-announces-the-2024-connor-faculty-fellows

**TAKE NOTE** Major congratulations to Nigerian author and inaugural _Arkansas International_ Writer-at-Risk Fellow Uchenna Awoke, whose first book, _The Liquid Eye of a Moon_, will be released this summer! Take note of these two upcoming events you may want to attend:

Friday, June 21, 7 p.m. - Book Release at Pearl's Books, 28 E. Center St., Fayetteville

Thursday, June 27, 5:30 p.m.
Facts and Fiction in West Africa - A Conversation With Uchenna Awoke

Read more about Uchenna Awoke in today's _Newswire_ article, linked below! :-)
https://news.uark.edu/articles/70581/inaugural-arkansas-international-writer-at-risk-anticipates-first-novel?utm_source=arkansas-news&utm_medium=email_2024-06-12&utm_campaign=news_headlines&utm_content=inaugural-arkansas-international-writer-at-risk-anticipates-first-novel

**FACULTY ACHIEVEMENTS** Two of our amazing faculty members, Professor Kat Gray and Professor Lisa Hinrichsen, recently completed several programs offered on campus. Professor Gray completed the "Mentoring Graduate Students and Post-Docs Professional Development Workshop" this past spring, and both Professor Gray and Professor Hinrichsen earned the AUAI in Education Explorer badge after completing a 2023-2024 program, offered by the Southeastern Conference (SEC) in partnership with Auburn University, which "involved eight online modules and took approximately 25 hours to complete, including writing materials to be used in AI and reflections based on classroom observances." Way to go, Kat and Lisa!!! :-)
https://news.uark.edu/articles/70266/faculty-recognized-for-mentorship-at-provost-s-faculty-recognition-reception
https://news.uark.edu/articles/70427/u-of-a-faculty-complete-teaching-with-artificial-intelligence-course

**CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OF OUR AMAZING STUDENTS WHO GRADUATED THIS SPRING!!!** :-)

**ARKANSAS INTERNATIONAL LAUNCH PARTY THIS THURSDAY** Please note that the launch party for the latest issue of _The Arkansas International_ will take place at Mount Sequoyah on Thursday, May 16, 5-8 pm! There will be good snacks and drinks and a couple of brief readings to round out the evening. Event tickets are being offered through Eventbrite (see the link below) for a suggested donation of $20, which includes a copy of the new issue! All donations will support the Arkansas International magazine and the Arkansas International Writer-at-Risk Residency. :-)
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-lit-night-with-the-arkansas-international-tickets-881686466957?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR3W3NdKGoZPUPxc-YdJ1HAPNoSU-p9wrixF6Obr4TaBzem7CTCdTgUb0jE_aem_AYecr7SY5ti7O6NsxoxKrUcalUWRt5wtDVuTmhqkoZnpOUO-YMzfy58A44K9OqjDgV7SACgmEVmrlhbRvTxUrBYD

A Lit Night with the Arkansas International Join the Arkansas International magazine for a spring 2024 issue release party, with local author readings, drinks, and snacks.

REMEMBERING POET AND PROFESSOR MICHAEL HEFFERNAN

As many of you have heard, Dr. Michael Heffernan died one week ago today. In addition to being incredibly talented and accomplished as both a poet and a professor, he was also wonderfully supportive and kind to so many of our students and faculty over the years (including myself). Our love goes out to Ann Heffernan and the rest of Michael's family. It was an honor and a pleasure to have him as a part of our Creative Writing & Translation Program and our department community for more than three decades. We will miss you, Michael! ❤️

Please read, below, Michael's obituary, which includes information on the upcoming service, visitation, and reception.

Michael Heffernan, Man of Letters 1942-2024

The poet Michael Heffernan has died. He was 81 years old. Attended by family, he was briefly in the care of Circle of Life Hospice, in Springdale, Arkansas. Dr. Heffernan suffered from complications of Alzheimer’s and died peacefully on the afternoon of Friday, the 3rd of May, with his wife, Ann, by his side.

Born on 20 December 1942, in Detroit, he was the son of Susan (Schneider) and Joseph Heffernan. A native Detroiter, he was a long-time resident of Fayetteville, Arkansas, where he taught for 32 years in the graduate writing program at the University of Arkansas. He’d been a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, a Bread Loaf Scholar, and the recipient of three grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1998 he won the Porter Prize for Poetry.

He authored a dozen collections of original, prize winning and critically acclaimed poetry, from his first book in 1974 _The Cry of Oliver Hardy_ and _Love’s Answer_, which won the Iowa Prize in 1994, to _The Bureau of Divine Music_, published as part of the Made in Michigan series by Wayne State University Press in 2011. He published five books with Salmon Poetry in Ireland, the last was _The Night-Watchman's Daughter_. He pressed the limits of traditional forms, sonnets, sestinas and iambic pentameters, in the diction of the everyday conversation and theological mystery. His work was informed by his voracious reading; few subjects were not worthy of his attention over time. His constant advice to his students and would-be writers was, “read and invent.” His life was spent in service to that dictum.

Michael Heffernan counted syllables, stressed and unstressed, saw metaphor in most things, and believed in the power and gifts of language. All of his life he kept up a running conversation with himself, and anyone in earshot willing to listen, in search of the essential meaning of things. Wry and irreverent, intimate, and professorial, it was informed by his curiosities and erudition, no less his religious praxis and Jesuit training. Some of this life-long colloquy became poems, some lectures, some correspondence, and some became the easy and instructive conversations he carried on with spouses and children, students and colleagues, and a wide circle of bookish and appreciative friends. When none was available, he’d amiably hold forth with perfect strangers on a variety of topics from the Fall of Rome to the dramas of Shakespeare, Mozart sonatas, and the poems of Robert Frost, William Carlos Williams, Walt Whitman, or W.B. Yeats, many of which he knew by heart.

Michael Joseph Heffernan grew up on Morell Street, in southwest Detroit. He attended Holy Redeemer Catholic School, where he also served as an altar boy. He graduated from University of Detroit Jesuit High school in 1960 and graduated in 1964 from University of Detroit where he studied English literature and Language.

He studied briefly at Oxford and held a PhD in English from University of Massachusetts.

After his studies, he travelled widely in Europe returning many times, especially to Paris and Ireland. He started a writing program as a joint venture with University of Galway in Ireland and the University of Arkansas in 1988. He shared his love of Paris with month long stays at the Irish Cultural Center in Paris with friends and anyone interested from 2010-2018.

After receiving his doctorate, he returned to Michigan to take up a teaching fellowship at Oakland University in Rochester where he taught from 1967 until 1969 before taking a position at Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg Kansas where he taught and edited _The Midwest Quarterly_ from 1969-1986.

In Pittsburg he met and married Kathy Spigarelli in 1975 and they had three sons. The family moved to Fayetteville AR, in August of 1986 at the invitation of Miller Williams and Jim Whitehead to join one of the nation’s earliest MFA Programs in Creative Writing at the University of Arkansas. He retired from teaching in 2018. It was in Fayetteville, “Heff ” and Kathy raised their three sons, Joseph, James (Leigh), and Mickey (Ashley Creek), who survive. They divorced in 1994. He finally married the love of his life, Ann Pinson Heffernan on May 10, 2003, and they were married 21 years.

In addition to his wife and sons, he is survived by three grandchildren, Thomas and Peter Heffernan and Elizabeth Perry, a stepdaughter Natalie Luer, his sister, Anne Marie (John MacDougall). He also leaves two nieces, Susan and Kathleen and a nephew, John, and their families. Also surviving are a host of former colleagues and students, dear friends, avid readers, and fellow writers who join with his family in mourning the death of a good man and distinguished man of letters, while giving thanks for his life among them, and for the legacy of his work in words which outlives him on the shelves of libraries throughout the English-speaking world.

A lifelong if occasionally lapsed Catholic, his Funeral Mass will be said at St. Joseph Catholic Church, 1722 N. Starr Dr. in Fayetteville, on Friday May 24, at 11 AM. The service will also be live streamed. There will be a visitation at Moore's Chapel, 206 W. Center also in Fayetteville, on Thursday May 23 from 5-7. He is to be buried in Fairview Cemetery around the corner from his home in Fayetteville following the Mass. There will then be a reception at Millar Lodge on Mt. Sequoyah from 1-4:30, where we can share stories and poems.

Pallbearers will be Randolph Thomas, David Lowmiller, John Cylkowski, Joshua Whitton, Christian Perry, and Thomas and Peter Heffernan.

Gifts in Michael's memory may be made to St. Jude's Children's Hospital (www.stjude.org), Alzheimer Association (wwwalz.org), or Circle of Life hospice (901 Jones Rd., Springdale, AR 72762).

**MAJOR CONGRATS** Congratulations to all of the undergraduate students who worked on the latest issue ( #9) of _The Diamond Line_ literary magazine (check out the link, below, to today's Newswire article) and to Professor Jane Blunschi, their wonderful faculty advisor!!! Also, undergraduate creative writers and artists take note: "_The Diamond Line_ is currently seeking submissions of original fiction (including flash and creative non-fiction), poetry, drama and visual art for Issue 10"! Instructions for submissions are included in the attached article. :-)

Diamond Line Undergraduate Literary Magazine Releases Issue 9, Seeks Submissions for Issue 10 Issue 9 of The Diamond Line, produced by students taking the Literary Magazine Production course, is available online. The magazine staff is seeking submissions of fiction, poetry, drama and art for the next issue.

**FINAL M.A. PORTFOLIO PRESENTATIONS** Congratulations to all of our amazing second-year English M.A. students who made excellent presentations on their final portfolio projects yesterday! :-)

**MAJOR CONGRATULATIONS** We congratulate all of our wonderful second-year English M.A. students who presented on their outstanding portfolio projects yesterday and who will be graduating this spring: Mitchell Carabio, Camden Burris, Victoria Trammell, Shelly Aschliman, Jenna Carey, Ashleigh Severson, Aura Comer, Abigail Reese, Olivia Lynch, Collette Bliss, Mohi Uddin, and Forhad Kasem. Thanks, as well, to Professor Lissette Szwydky for doing an amazing job with teaching the Portfolio Workshop course! :-)

**UPCOMING DOUBLE-RELEASE PARTY!!!** Drop by CORD 324 at 3 p.m. this Thursday (May 2nd) for the double-release party, celebrating the release of Issue 9 of The Diamond Line + the release of the first ever issue of The Anthropocene from the Hill! :-)

**AWARD NEWS** Major congratulations to two of our outstanding doctoral students on their recent awards! Doctoral candidate Tate Aldrich has been awarded one of two 2024 James J. Hudson Doctoral Awards in the Humanities (by the Graduate School), and doctoral candidate Scott Hendry has been awarded one of two 2024 ARSC Dissertation Research Awards (from the College of Arts and Sciences)! The award funding will assist Tate and Scott as they continue to research and write their respective dissertation projects. Way to go, Scott and Tate!!! :-)

**BOOK LAUNCH TONIGHT AT PEARL'S** Take note that Professor Brock will be launching three(!) books tonight at Pearl's Books in Fayetteville at 7 pm! :-)

- his brand new book of poems, _After_, from which he will read tonight
- his translation of _Before Nightfall_, a YA verse novel by Italian writer Silvia Vecchini
- his translation of _Social Fiction_, a graphic novel by pioneering French artist Chantal Montellier

Major congratulations, Geoff!!!

**EXCITING PUBLICATION NEWS** Major congratulations to Dr. Afrin Zeenat (Ph.D. '15), whose co-edited book _Veil Obsessed: Representations in Literature, Art, and Media_ was just released by Syracuse University Press this month! Way to go, Afrin!!! :-) You can read more about Afrin's book here: https://press.syr.edu/supressbooks/6267/veil-obsessed/

**UPCOMING LECTURE** Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Professor Shawkat Toorawa, professor of Arabic studies and comparative literature at Yale University, will present a public lecture titled “Doing It Justice: Translating the Qur’an’s (Most?) Important Features.” Happens Thurs., 4/25, KIMP 105, 5:30-6:30 p.m.!

**MAJOR CONGRATULATIONS** Major congrats to Catherine Heath, one of our amazing Instructors for the English Department! Catherine was mentioned in today's _Newswire_ for her being one of eight faculty members across campus who were recently awarded certification in effective college instruction through the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE) and the American Counsel on Education. Read more using the link below, and way to go Catherine!!! :-)
https://news.uark.edu/articles/70265/2024-teaching-awards-presented-during-faculty-appreciation-week