Department of English at Temple University

It’s not too late to declare a minor in creative writing for fall!

Open to students of any major who want to discover their voice and develop their writing in fiction or poetry. More info at bit.ly/CWMinor.

Reach out to our Undergraduate Advisor, Anne Layman Horn, with questions: [email protected].

English Prof Liz Moore's new book, The God of the Woods, was just chosen for Jimmy Fallon's summer book club! Congratulations Liz!!

Pick up your copy at the link in our bio.

“Riveting from page one to the last breathless word.”—Rebecca Makkai, New York Times bestselling author of I Have Some Questions For You

“Brilliant, riveting .. an epic mystery, a family saga and a survival guide…I loved this book.” —Miranda Cowley Heller, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Paper Palace

Where in the world is English Prof Amy Friedman? Flying all around the world on sabbatical! It has been a break from teaching, but certainly not a break from learning.

Follow Amy’s travels (and satire) on her blog: www.where-no-mangoes.blog

Support Philly authors and add to your ever-growing summer reading list with these book recommendations from Emma Copley Eisenberg, co-founder of Blue Stoop Philly! Temple English Prof Liz Moore is featured for her new book, The God of the Woods.

https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/emma-eisenbergs-local-book-recommendations/

This Saturday, 6/15! Temple Professor Emeritus Samuel R. Delany is giving a talk on science fiction and music with the Free Library of Philadelphia!

Samuel R. Delany | Pride Month: How Science Fiction Dances to the Music of Time
More info here: https://libwww.freelibrary.org/calendar/event/137092

“A visionary novelist & a revolutionary chronicler of gay life” (The New Yorker), Samuel R. Delany speaks with Music Department library trainee & Hollywood indie film composer Mark Inchoco on the intersections between science fiction & music. Hear how great musicians, librettists, & musical events such as Cab Calloway, Pete Seeger, the Newport Folk Festival, Igor Stravinsky, Bob Dylan, Samuel Barber, Leontyne Price, & Macy Gray came into Delany’s art & life.

Samuel R. Delany is a novelist, literary critic, & emeritus professor. He is the winner of four Nebula Awards, two Hugo Awards, the William Whitehead Memorial Award for lifetime contribution to gay & le***an literature, & the Anisfield-Wolf book award. He was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2002. In 2013, he was named the 31st Damon Knight Memorial Foundation Grand Master by the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America.

Celebrate Pride Month with a poetry recommendation from English Prof Pattie McCarthy!

A Library of Light by Danielle Vogel

"Danielle Vogel is an alchemist of language, time, and the body. Reading A Library of Light, I almost expected my thoughts to materialize in front of me. What a strange, intense pleasure it is to feel the categories dissolving, to be allowed to accompany Vogel in her journey 'through the door of [her] mother's body' and into all the light she both finds and makes beyond." -Heather Christle, author of The Crying Book

"This gorgeous elegy and meditation on light moves into hidden interiors and considers essential questions of love, loss, and self as frequency or vibration. Vogel consults the library of light, revisiting a psychic silence, a death, shards of memory and intergenerational trauma through a vantage of multi-dimensional being."
-Laynie Brown, author of The Poet's Novel

Check out the new online issue of Barrelhouse Magazine, “What’s That Smell?”, put together by English Prof Mike Ingram’s Writers at Work class this past fall!

https://www.barrelhousemag.com/online-lit/whats-that-smell

A note from the editors:
With the invaluable supervision of our editor, teacher, and literary chaperone, Mike Ingram, we read more than 500 submissions over the course of a semester, whittling down our selections with lots of impassioned arguments that passersby on the 11th floor of Mazur Hall may very well have overheard, and wondered about. Rumor has it some of us are still debating the efficacies of toe cheese and what “punk” really is.

We have curated this issue of Barrelhouse in an attempt to pay homage to smells: the good, the bad, and the hold-your-nose awful. Though while scent was the jumping-off point for these stories, poems, and essays, it was a starting place, not an end in itself. The pieces we ultimately selected do what great writing always does, illuminating what it means to be alive on this planet, in this moment, in all its wonderful (and smelly!) complexities.

Aromatically yours,

The students in Mike Ingram’s fall 2023 Writers at Work class at Temple University

Syd Bladen, Trager Bos, Andrew Castro, Matt Cohn, Paul Dobry, Jenny Galkin, Holland Gaudelli, Sean Renaud, Isaac Kim, Henry Koonce, Tiffany Li, Brandi Maddrey, Mitch Marti, Tim Martin, Brett Myszkowski, Katina Rollins, Hannah Salerno, Kylie Sokoloff, Devon Stoots, Emily Suranie, Aalana Vasquez, Carly Whiton

English folk! You might enjoy LitFriends – a podcast that focuses on the intersection between literature and friendship. Temple’s own Professor Liz Moore was a guest in the first season.

Hosts Annie Liontas and Lito Velázquez on the project:
“When we launched LitFriends, we could not have imagined how moving, beautiful, funny, and intimate these conversations would be. You will love these special stories from your favorite writers! From bad reviews, to sexy emails, miracles in bathtubs, and tender invitations in response to unfathomable grief—these connections remind us why we do this work, and who keeps us going.”

Check it out where you get your podcasts, Owls!

Born and raised in Hawaii, English Prof Ryan Omizo is bringing us some great reads by native Hawaiian authors in honor of .

- Aina Hanau / Birth Land by Brandy Nalani McDougall
- Ulu by Kai Gaspar

English Professors Carissa Harris and Steve Newman were among the five CLA faculty members awarded Humanities and Arts Research Awards in 2024. This program fosters faculty research, scholarship, and creative activity in the humanities and arts.

Congratulations, Carissa and Steve!

In honor of AANHPI Heritage Month, we’ll be recommending books by Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander authors all month long!

Kick off your reading with these recommendations from English Professor, Sue-Im Lee:

Fiction: Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

Poetry: Time is a Mother by Ocean Vuong

Essays: Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong

Congratulations to all our English grads! You made it 🎉🎉

Meet Dr. Miller, Dr. Kane, and Dr. Luck – our latest English PhD grads! Swipe to read about their fascinating work.

Thanks to the graduating Creative Writing MFA students who shared their art with us at our end-of-year reading! We can’t wait to see your books out in the world someday 📖✨

May will be a month full of congratulations… just the way we like it!

Shoutout to our English majors who earned departmental awards for their reading, writing, or leadership skills this year. 🎉🎉

The English department has had the honor of guiding two students to win Livingstone Undergraduate Research Awards this year for work produced in their English classes!

Bella Sophia Baldini
English, ‘23
Faculty advisor: Priya Joshi

Rocco Haeufgloeckner
Engineering, ‘26
Faculty advisor: Eunsook Ha Rhee

Congratulations, Bella and Rocco!

Read their full interviews here: https://linktr.ee/englishattemple

Another awesome Hyphen Lit Mag open mic for the books. We hope the memories of stories well told will help sustain you through this week of finals!

Hyphen cover art by Violet Bader. Access the 2023-24 edition digitally here: https://sites.temple.edu/hyphenlit/2024/04/17/hyphen-23-24-edition/. Email [email protected] if interested in snagging one of the limited print copies!

Good luck with your finals this week, Owls! The English department (and our pal Oscar) are so proud of the wonderful creations you are and all you’ve learned this semester.

This Saturday, 4/27! Don't miss the end of year showcase from Temple's Babel Poetry Collective. Attendees will enjoy music and poetry about language, authenticity, culture, motherhood, and more, as well as refreshments and an open mic portion.

Tickets at the door. We hope to see you there!

This Earth Day, explore the impact of climate change and the relationship between humans and nature with these book recommendations from Temple English Prof Cara Blue Adams.

Open Throat by Henry Hoke.
“A terrific, funny, and moving look at how the climate crisis is already affecting us.”

The Second Body by Daisy Hildyard.
“Great (and accessible) ecocriticism.”

Something New Under the Sun by Alexandra Kleeman.
“Imagines a fascinating dystopic near-future world in which water is in scarce supply and people drink Wat-R instead, to unnerving effect.”

Ray Epstein (English/Communication and Social Influence, '25) is the sixth person in Temple's history to receive the prestigious Truman Scholarship.

As part of the scholarship, Epstein, who is well known on campus for her activism on preventing sexual assault and supporting its victims, will receive a $30,000 award toward a public service-related graduate degree, an amount that can be matched by her chosen higher education institution as she pursues a law degree. She hopes completion of law school will allow her to write and enable sexual assault survivor reporting legislation, continuing work she has led at Temple.

Congratulations, Ray! We are so proud of you.

Read the full announcement here: https://news.temple.edu/news/2024-04-12/student-activist-ray-epstein-receives-prestigious-2024-truman-scholarship-0

Pick up a copy of Hyphen lit mag’s latest issue and share your writing at the spring open mic event!

Weds, 4/24
5-7 PM
Mazur 821

If the art isn’t enough to draw you, consider this: free pizza.

This Friday! English Professor Casarae Abdul-Ghani will be moderating an author talk with renowned poet Nicole Sealey in celebration of National Poetry Month. This event is hosted by the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection.

Friday, April 19th
2 PM EST
Charles Library
1st Floor Event Space
1900 N. 13th St.
Philadelphia, PA 19122

Register here!
https://library.temple.edu/events/1613

Nicole Sealey was born in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, and raised in Apopka, Florida. She received an MFA from New York University and an MLA in Africana studies from the University of South Florida. Sealey is the author of Ordinary Beast (Ecco Press, 2017), which was a finalist for the PEN Open Book and Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards. Her chapbook, The Animal After Whom Other Animals are Named (Northwestern University Press, 2016), was the winner of the 2016 Drinking Gourd Chapbook Prize. In 2019, Sealey was named a 2019-2020 Hodder Fellow at Princeton University. She has received fellowships and awards from CantoMundo, the Cave Canem Foundation, the American Academy in Rome, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Elizabeth George Foundation, among others. She was the Executive Director at the Cave Canem Foundation from 2017–2019 and was the curator for a special series of Poem-a-Day from August 31–September 11, 2020. Sealey lives in Brooklyn, New York.

English doctoral students! Be sure to join us via Zoom next Thursday for a useful workshop on demystifying life after coursework.

Are you preparing reading lists? Studying for exams? Writing the dissertation?
Or perhaps you’re just wondering how to make productive use of the summer?

This workshop is for you.

Thurs, 4/18
3:30-4:30 PM
Via Zoom: https://temple.zoom.us/j/6313021646?omn=97948969431

Ashley Bach, Temple Creative Writing MFA alum, is hosting a workshop with Blue Stoop!

Rethinking Narrative Structure
Wednesday, May 1, 2024 6-9PM

"In Rethinking Narrative Structure, we will analyze the concept of narrative structure as well as its paradigms as a way to develop your own narrative structures, honing and amplifying your narrative voice. Once we understand structural models, we will examine stories that experiment with form and examine how structural models apply to an experimental text., writing a flash piece that tells a story in another form of writing."

Registration is open until 4/24. Sign up here: https://www.bluestoop.org/classes/ashley-bach-rethinking-narrative-structure

Ashley Bach holds an MFA from Temple University. She works as an editorial assistant in Philadelphia. Her writing has been featured in HAD, Drunk Monkeys, Mauldin House, Feels Blind Literary, and elsewhere.

Happy National Pet Day from the English department and our furry friend and advisor, Jasper Layman Horn.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by papers and finals as we approach the end of the semester, remember that Jasper here would do anything to be able to read and write like you! Tragically, he cannot, because he is a cat.

Thanks to all the English students and faculty who made this year’s Graduate English Association Conference so great! Our grad students ran excellent panels on decolonial literature, rhetorics of trauma, disabled and q***r rhetorics, and more.

A big thanks to our keynote speaker, University of Pennsylvania's Dr. Chi-ming Yang, as well!

Still looking for the perfect English elective to round out your fall roster? Check out this list of English electives that also count toward the Creative Writing minor!

Contact your advisor to register. Visit bit.ly/CWMinor to learn more about the minor program.

Learn about William Shakespeare’s enduring impact on film and culture this fall in ENG 0822: Shakespeare in the Movies.

Students will study several major plays and various film adaptations, including their cultural, social, and historical contexts, and learn to use appropriate technical terms for discussing drama and film.

This course fulfills the Arts (GA) GenEd Requirement.

Contact your advisor to register!

Did you know that there were attempts to ban more than 4,240 books in U.S. schools and libraries last year? This is the highest number since the American Library Association began tracking it over 20 years ago!

This fall, we’ll dive into the ideology and historical context behind these book bans in ENG 2222: Banned Books.

Students will read books that have been repeatedly challenged in recent years and explore why these books are under attack now.

Contact your advisor to register!