Prof. Mallon Releases New Novel About the Watergate Scandal

Prof. Thomas Mallon's new book about Watergate appeals even to those born after Pres. Nixon's 1974 resignation.

"I don't think that a leader can control, to any great extent, his destiny. Very seldom can he step in and change the situation if the forces of history are running in another direction."
-Richard Nixon


"And Watergate? Well, I’d have to say that Nixon feels like the public figure who most dominated my life — from the time I went to fourth grade wearing a Nixon-Lodge button in the fall of 1960, through my college years, which overlapped with Kent State, Cambodia, the China trip and all the rest. That I live across the street from the Watergate complex in Washington no doubt also had a lot to do with my getting around to this book."
-Thomas Mallon

Prof. Thomas Mallon, director of creative writing, has published a new novel, his eighth. Written about what was perhaps this country's most devastating political scandal in history, Watergate (Pantheon, 2012) is teeming with "glitter, glamor, suave grace and subtlety." Alliterations aside, the national book press is going absolutely crazy about this book, praising everything from its understated humor to rich, clever depictions of familiar political characters.

Although many books have been written about the scandal, Prof. Mallon shares an important distinction in Watergate. Says Mallon, "I try to see things from inside several different characters---to imagine things as intimately as possible from the points of view of seven different people caught up in the scandal." This format, written in "the close-third person," offers him a chance to reinvigorate the forty-year-old event with a stunningly creative set of voices.

I spoke to Prof. Mallon on behalf of students at GW and everywhere across the country, who cannot seem to recall the original scandal because---well, we didn't exist yet. He didn't seem too worried, though: "The book no doubt is easier for older readers who remember the actual events. But I think that just about anybody with a basic knowledge of Watergate can plunge in and catch on quickly."

"And," he quips, "there's always Google to fall back on. Nixon, by the way, would have LOVED the Internet."

Prof. Mallon is currently serving as distinguished visiting professor at Davidson College during the spring semester. For determined autograph-seekers, though, take heart. He will be in Washington this very weekend, doing a much-anticipated reading at Politics & Prose Bookstore at 6 p.m. on Saturday, March 3. I would strongly recommend attending, to see a true literary master in action. And look for a major, campus-wide event centering on the book in Fall 2012.

Congratulations to Prof. Thomas Mallon, for adding an excellent novel to GW English's literary tradition!

-Andrew Mendelson

Jewish Lit Live Hosts Nicole Krauss

Interested in learning about the relationship between history and narrative creativity? -- Ever had the opportunity to meet an award-winning, international bestselling author at GW?

 

 

Come to Jewish Lit Live's Evening with author Nicole Krauss. Nicole Krauss is one of the most successful writers of Jewish-American literature. Her first novel, Man Walks Into a Room, was a finalist for an LA Times Book Award. Her works, Great House and The History of Love, are international bestsellers. In 2010, The New Yorker named her one of the 20 best writers under 40.

 

 

Krauss's works have been translated into over 35 languages and she currently resides in Brooklyn, New York. Don’t miss this unforgettable evening as Nicole Krauss discusses her life and writing.

***Thursday, March 1, Marvin Center Continental Ballroom @7pm***

~Jewish Literature Live is made possible by the generous support of David Bruce Smith. All of our events are FREE and open to the public~

- By JLL Intern Megan Moore

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

F Street House Reception Honora New Head of Folger Shakespeare Library

Pres. Knapp and Prof. Alex Huang at the Witmore Event

On Feb. 24, the English department cosponsored an event with the Office of the President honoring new Folger Shakespeare Library Director Michael Witmore, who assumed the position in July after the retirement of GW Prof. Emerita Gail Kern Paster. Pres. Knapp and Diane Knapp opened the F Street House to about three dozen invitees, including Jim Leach, the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

After an introduction by Pres. Knapp and brief remarks from English Chair Gayle Wald, Witmore--the author of two monographs and many articles on Shakespeare and a former Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin, Madison--addressed the group, noting that one of his goals as Folger Director is to make the Library's resources available to as many people as possible. Programs such as the GW Folger Seminar, which allows GW undergraduates access to rare books and other manuscripts, is part of this vision.

Folger Director Michael Witmore

Witmore told the GW group that more than half of the world's population will encounter a Shakespeare text in some form in their lifetime. As one of the world's leading Shakespearian archives, he said, the Folger has unique opportunities and responsibilities.

We wish Witmore all the best in his tenure, and look forward to ongoing collaborations with the Folger.

Q & A With English Honors Alumni Darci Frinquelli

We English majors, like other GW undergraduates, are often concerned about our future career prospects and the worth of our degrees. GW alumna Darci Frinquelli helps us realize that we shouldn’t worry so much. After graduating in 2010 with honors in English, Frinquelli enrolled at NYU Law School, where she has applied the knowledge gained from her English coursework both in the classroom and in her social life. Though she’s “not entirely sure” what’s next for her, don’t worry--Frinquelli certainly has plenty of options.  

English Alumna Darci Frinquelli at the 2010 Commencement on the Ellipse

How has your English academic background helped you in law school?

First of all, a huge chunk of law school is simply getting the reading done and due to my time at GW I am certainly used to do doing a lot of reading outside of class. In addition to the reading, we do have a few writing assignments, including a 30-page "substantial writing" paper, and all of them include a great deal of research. I am more accustomed to writing these kinds of papers than classmates who majored in finance or the sciences. After writing a 70-page thesis, I am luckily not too daunted by the prospect of a 30-page paper. 

Lastly, almost every second-year law student works on a law journal and we spend most of our time proofreading articles and fixing footnotes so that they conform to the legal style guide. I have always been a bit of a grammar nerd and I can definitely say that this work is made substantially easier by all of the years I spent writing and editing both for my classes at GW and with the GW Review, which I can objectively say is the greatest literary journal this country has ever seen.

What is the most valuable skill/concept that you've learned from your undergraduate studies?

Definitely the ability to bring together a group of disparate works and find a common theme between them. The whole point of every law school course is to make connections between prior cases and the situation at hand. My courses at GW taught me to find parallels and analogies between texts as well as to explore a work's context to see how the author's place in history affected his writing. Cases, just like novels, are shaped by the era from which they emerge and are colored by the judges' private opinions. For instance the Supreme Court determined both Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education by looking to the Constitution, but the Court's interpretations of that document were greatly affected by the eras in which they were determined.

How else has your English degree helped you since graduating?

I do occasionally talk to people outside of law school and I find that my English degree is pretty useful in my social life and the outside world as well. Even though I don't often get to read for pleasure anymore, most of my non-English major friends who spent their college years immersed in textbooks which they no longer remember have a way to go before they will catch up with the number of literary classics I have read. This fact is very surprisingly useful for making general conversation, erudite allusions, and successful nights of pub trivia.

But ultimately I like to think that all of the reading I did in college has stayed with me now to make me a more well rounded person. All of those wonderful books I studied at GW have helped me to hone my own value set, see situations from a great deal of perspectives, explore contemporary texts with some background knowledge of the Western canon, and analogize to a Wharton novel when giving relationship advice or watching Downton Abbey.

What’s next for you?

I am not entirely sure--I am largely focusing on environmental law at NYU (American literature has always been my favorite and I blame the Transcendentalists for my choice) but I would also like to be involved with religious liberty work. I will be working at the EPA this summer and then I have another year of school. After that I'll hopefully be working in environmental law, perhaps with the government or an advocacy group.

Sorry, I can’t resist asking the most cliché English major question: What’s your favorite book?

The Great Gatsby. Almost every sentence in there could be a poem by itself. 

Kudos

English alumna Magai Armallis-Tiseyra will be joining the faculty at the Univ. of Mississippi

.... to Magali Armillas-Tiseyra (BA '05), who is completing a PhD in Comparative Literature at New York University. Magali just landed a position as assistant professor at the University of Mississippi.

... to Prof. Holly Dugan, whose recent book The Ephemeral History of Perfume: Scent and Sense in Early Modern England (Johns Hopkins University Press) received an appreciative and laudatory brief review in the current Times Literary Supplement (Feb. 17, "In Brief," p. 26). The reviewer, Katharine Craik, Senior Lecturer in Early Modern Literature at Oxford Brookes University, concludes: "Together, Dugan's six early modern scentscapes challenge the assumption that early modern England was simply smellier than our deodorized present.  Full of surprising, colourful detail, The Ephemeral History of Perfume sheds new light on Renaissance bodies, environments, and the relationship between them forged by various kinds of 'stinking-gere'."

... to Prof. Thomas Mallon, whose new novel Watergate continues to garner rave reviews. Look for him to be reading from the novel March 2 at the National Press Club and March 3 at Politics and Prose bookstore.

The Last Layer of Toni Morrison's 80th Birthday Cake

Prof. Evelyn Schreiber brought this cake to the department lounge today. It's one layer of a birthday cake made to celebrate Toni Morrison's 80th birthday at the Library of Congress last year. (This layer spent a year in Prof. Schreiber's freezer.)

Here is the cake in its original incarnation:

This layer represents Morrison's latest novel, A Mercy. It's also got a nice message from Evelyn.

Slices might still exist. Hurry now to the lounge for yours!

Two Upcoming GW MEMSI Events

GW MEMSI, the Medieval and Early Modern Studies Institute, promotes and provides a venue for intellectual inquiry and debate for faculty and students. Headed by English Prof. Jeffrey Cohen, MEMSI sponsors a number of yearly events--including some geared toward the wider community of students and scholars. Here are two upcoming MEMSI events of particular interest:

Ecological Movement: A panel co-sponsored by the Medieval and Early Modern Studies Institute and the Program in Graduate Studies in English at GW
Friday, February 24, 2102
Rome 771, 5:30 p.m.

Speakers: Stacy Alaimo (University of Texas at Arlington)
Lowell Duckert (GWU)
Jennifer James (GWU)
Eileen Joy (Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville). 

More information about  speakers may is here.

Cultural Translations: Medieval / Early Modern / Postmodern: A GW MEMSI Symposium

9:30 am - 4:00 pm, Sunday, March 25, 2012

Location (on GW campus) TBA

Website: http://www.gwu.edu/~acyhuang/culturaltranslations.html#top
Texts travel. Empires are lost and won, and stories are marred and rediscovered through cultural translation--the transformation of genres, manipulation of ideas, and linguistic translation. Cultural translation is one of the most significant modes of textual and cultural transmission from medieval to modern times. Estrangement and transnational cultural flows continue to define the afterlife of narratives. Translation, or translatio, signifying “the figure of transport," was a common rhetorical trope in early modern Europe that referred to the conveyance of ideas from one geo-cultural location to another, from one historical period to another, and from one artistic form to another.

Over the past decade "translation" as an expansive critical concept has greatly enriched literary and cultural studies. In response to these exciting new developments, this one-day symposium brings together leading scholars from the fields of medieval and early modern studies, history, film, English, Spanish, Italian, Arabic and comparative literary studies to engage in transhistorical and interdisciplinary explorations of post/colonial travel, globalization, and the transformation of texts, ideas, and genres.

Schedule: Sunday March 25, 2012
Venue: TBA
9:20 - 9:30 am Coffee and Tea

Medieval
Chair: Jonathan Hsy (GW, English)
9:30-9:50 am Suzanne Conklin Akbari (Toronto, English and Medieval Studies): Translating the Past: World Literature in the Medieval Mediterranean
9:50-10:10 am Marcy Norton (GW, History): Parrots in Translation: The Amerindian Contribution to the European Pet
10:10-10:50 am Discussion
10:50-11:10 am Coffee

Early Modern
Chair: Lowell Duckert (GW, English)
11:10-11:30 am Barbara Fuchs (UCLA, English and Spanish & Portuguese): Return to Sender: "Hispanicizing" Cardenio
11:30-11:50 am Christina Lee (Princeton, Spanish & Portuguese): Imagining China in a Golden Age Spanish Epic
11:50 am -12:30 pm Discussion
12:30 - 1:30 pm Lunch

Postmodern
Chair: Alex Huang (GW, English)
1:30 - 1:50 pm Peter Donaldson (MIT, Literature): The King's Speech: Shakespeare, Empire and Global Media
1:50 - 2:10 pm Margaret Litvin (Boston, Arabic and Comparative Literature): What Can Arab Shakespeares Teach the Field of World Literature?
2:10 - 2:50 pm Discussion
2:50 - 3:00 pm Coffee

Roundtable
Chair: Lynn Westwater (GW, Italian)
3:00 - 4:00 pm Roundtable on Cultural Translations
Suzanne Miller (GW, History)
Peter Donaldson (MIT)
Barbara Fuchs (UCLA)
Suzanne Conklin Akbari (Toronto)

10 Things I Love About GW English

• Our new lounge
• Our Jenny McKean Moore Writer-in-Washington, Tim Johnston
• Our office coffee maker and candy bowl
• Our connections to GW MEMSI and Africana Studies
• Jewish Literature Live with Prof. Faye Moskowitz
• Our office staff: Constance Kibler, Linda Terry, and work-study students Elisa Valero and Tori Kerr
• The EGSA!
• Our majors in English, Creative Writing, and Dramatic Literature
• New books by our faculty and PhDs
• Our Rate-My-Professor rankings

GW Today on Tom Mallon's "Watergate"

The trompe-l'oeil cover of Tom Mallon's new novel.

GW Today published a lovely piece about Thomas Mallon's new novel Watergate, which also recently got a stellar review in Washingtonian. And more enthusiastic press is sure to follow.

Watch this space!

Nadia Kalman Reads Thursday Night in "Jewish Literature Live" Series

Novelist Nadia Kalman reads Thursday at 7 p.m.

 

Nadia Kalman, an immigrant from the former Soviet Union, currently works with Teachers & Writers Collaborative in New York City. 

 

Her first novel, The Cosmopolitans, won the Emerging Writer Award from Moment magazine and was a finalist for the Rohr Prize in Jewish Literature. Kalman also received a 2012 Literature Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Cosmopolitans tells the story of a Russian family living in the suburbs of America. Kalman's witty prose and vivid character descriptions keep the novel fresh and interesting with each short segment.

 

Kalman's reading is on Thursday, Feb. 9 in Marvin Center 308 at 7pm. Jewish Literature Live is made possible by David Bruce Smith and all of the events are free and open to the public.

Q&A with English Work-Study Student Elisa Valero

A couple of weeks ago, I received the following email:

"Dear Employers," it reads. "As we plan for National Student Employment Week (April 9 - 13, 2012) we'd like to hear what your office has done in the past to recognize your student employees. We'll organize and publish what we learn."

So ... in honor of National Student Employment Week, the GWEnglish blog offers a profile of work-study student Elisa Valero. (Previously, we featured work-study student Tori Kerr.)

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English work-study student Elisa Valero

 
Elisa Valero, an English major/ history minor, originally hails from DC, although she grew up in Miami. She is currently enrolled in the English dual-degree program, which allows students to earn their MA in as little as one year (instead of the more typical two). Students who enroll in this program usually come from English Honors.


Did you know about National Student Employment Week? How do you feel about being recognized?

I had no idea there was a Student Employment Week, so I'm really surprised and pleased! It's really wonderful to be recognized as a part of the department and made to feel like the work I do is appreciated by my professors and fellow students. I guess I really feel like part of the team now.

What's the best thing about working in the English department?

Oh, definitely the company. We usually don't take ourselves too seriously in the English department. Every time I go into work I know I'm going to be laughing hysterically for a significant portion of the day. Everyone in the department is so sharp and witty, and it's great to get to joke around and learn so much at the same time. Getting to see my professors out of class and establish a less formal relationship with them has also made me appreciate their intelligence even more.

What's the oddest thing you've been asked to do or the oddest phone call you've answered?

I think the oddest thing I've been asked to do was go buy flowers. I walked into the office one morning last semester and the first thing I was asked, before I sat down or anything, was "How's your taste in flowers?" I was still waking up, so I was just like, "Am I hearing this right?" But as it turns out, the department wanted to congratulate a professor on an event she'd organized the night before, so I went on a little journey to pick out pretty flowers and bring them back. I was actually really nervous about it the whole time because I was terrified I would pick something I thought looked nice and return with them only to discover my taste in flowers was horrible and tacky, but they got a lot of compliments over the day, so I was feeling pretty smug that day.

On a more serious note: How does work-study fit into your experience at GW? What are your thoughts about affording college--not necessarily GW specifically, but private colleges and universities generally? Students elsewhere (in California, for example) have been protesting student debt. Are you and your friends also concerned about student debt?

Definitely. Because I am about to graduate, my debt is really weighing on me right now (I've been content to ignore the problem for the last three years). It's a big concern. I do think that student debt is a huge problem, like everything else economically right now, it's got to change or something is going to break. It's not fair that so many bright students are forced to spend decades of their lives paying off loans because they wanted the best possible education. I have been very lucky with GW, however. The financial aid I get from work study helps me save up a little for when the interest starts piling on my loans, and the tuition benefits I get from my father's time at GW helps a lot, as well.

Are there particular courses/professors/areas of literary or cultural study that you've particularly enjoyed at GW?

I took two Shakespeare classes with Professor Harris last year, and I think those were the ones that have stuck with me the most. He had a perfect balance between making classes absolutely brilliant and thought-provoking and making them hilarious and enjoyable, too. He pushed us to think so much harder, but he did it in a way where it didn't feel like work. He also always made us go a step further, and I definitely think a lot more critically now than I did before those classes. They are a huge part of why I am going to go on and do grad school in English next year.

New Lounge Is Space for Students & Faculty

A student enjoying the new space.

Upon their return from winter break, English department students and faculty  were greeted with a new lounge designed by Interior Design MA students Elise Katzif Walker and Laura Van Biber.

Having never been to the previous lounge, and without any knowledge that there ever was one, I wasn’t sure where to begin looking for the new one once it was completed. So I ventured off to the Rome Hall assuming that it would be tucked away in an inconspicuous corner of the English Department. On my way through the hallways, I glanced into a room right outside the central office and said to myself, “Oh, that’s a nice room.” About 2 seconds later I realized it was the new department lounge. Needless to say, I was impressed to see what looked like one half of my ideal future studio apartment. 

The space combines a seemingly impossible mixture of mature and childish design elements fitting for both faculty members who are young at heart and students who are 21 going on 81, and everyone in between. Blue and green walls as well as small green and blue ottomans are married with white leather lounge chairs and a 1960’s inspired silver floor lamp, creating a middle ground in maturity reminiscent of a university environment. The homey vibe that results exudes comfort and ensures its utilitarian intent. This is not your typical lounge that you run into to get your coffee and run out as quickly as possible.

The chalkboard wall. Note new coffee maker. Coffee pods are $1 in the Main Office. Cheaper than Gelbucks!

By far the most exciting feature of the new lounge is the chalkboard wall where students can write down their favorite quotes or write notes to their favorite faculty members. Katzif and Van Biber have created a space that by all means should be as well-received and popular among students as it is among faculty. One thing is certain, however: I will be a frequent visitor. Come say hey.  

- Posted by Kevin Callahan

GW English PhD Joseph Fruscione Publishes Faulkner & Hemingway Book

English alumnus Joe Fruscione's new book

The world of GW English has a fantastic new book to add to its already impressive repertoire.

Dr. Joseph Fruscione, a GW alum and current faculty member, recently published an extensive dual biography chronicling the competition between two of America’s legendary writers. Faulkner and Hemingway: A Biography of a Literary Rivalry (Ohio State University Press, 2012) is the first book-length work analyzing the relationship between these two luminaries. 

According to the book’s introduction (which you can read online), this book provides a detailed account of the authors’ interrelationship by analyzing “psychological influence, cross-textual reference, and gender performance over some three decades.” Says Fruscione, he evaluated each author’s “writing, literary sensibility, and sense of masculinity.” All this is to say that he did oodles of research, dissecting writings both published and private.

The rigorous exploration of modern American mythology is sure to draw praise from some and criticism from others. Fruscione acknowledges the “potential for disagreement,” claiming that it is a vital aspect of contributing to the scholarly dialogue about what it means to be an American writer.
 
The book is an improved version of Dr. Fruscione’s PhD dissertation. He received his doctorate from GW in 2005, and has nothing but positive memories from this time. “Every faculty member,” he says, “was great and supportive.” He said that the list of inspirational GW teachers includes, but is not limited to, Profs. Sten, Moreland, and Soltan (who composed his dissertation committee), as well as Profs. Miller, Schreiber, Romines, and Combs. He also says that Prof. Seavey was a positive influence, telling him to “get it right.” 

Dr. Fruscione currently teaches at GW in the University Writing Program and at Georgetown University. He has been teaching with the UWP since 2007, and praises the program, saying that the variety of courses offers something of interest for every student.

As if he isn’t busy enough, Dr. Fruscione will also be giving a book talk at the Library of Congress on March 16, from 12 to 1 PM. 

Come see him talk if you possibly can. And if you can’t, buy the book; it’s an essential piece of reading for everybody interested in these authors and the psychology of competition. GW English is proud to add Dr. Fruscione’s wonderful new book to its ever-expanding library.

- Posted by Andrew Mendelson

Q&A with English Work-Study Student Tori Kerr

Earlier this week, I received the following email:

"Dear Employers," it reads. "As we plan for National Student Employment Week (April 9 - 13, 2012) we'd like to hear what your office has done in the past to recognize your student employees. We'll organize and publish what we learn."

Who knew there was such a thing as National Student Employment Week? Turns out it's sponsored by the National Student Employment Association, "a non-profit association of professionals involved with programs for students who work while attending college."

What would be more fitting, we thought, than to feature our two wonderful work-study students in English this year? Every semester, the English department employs a couple of students, ideally majors, to work with office secretary Linda Terry and manager Constance Kibler. So, in looking forward to the week of April 9, we offer this profile.

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English work-study student Tori Kerr

Meet Tori Kerr, a sophomore English major and creative writing minor from Virginia Beach, Virginia, who is one of this year's two work-study students. "I may be from Virginia, which is geographically close to DC, but my beach town is vastly different than the urban environment here," Tori writes.

 

Did you know about National Student Employment Week? How do you feel about being recognized? 

I actually did not know about National Student Employment Week!  I think it’s wonderful to be recognized.  I think people sometimes forget that the life of a college student is not all parties and all-nighters.

What's the best thing about working in the English department?
The best part of working in the English Department is the wonderful conversations I get to have with witty and intelligent people.  There’s definitely a sense of community among the English-loving folk.

What's the oddest thing you've been asked to do or the oddest phone call you've answered?

The oddest phone call I’ve received was from Pakistan.  A man called inquiring about paperwork for international students so his son could apply.  It was clear that he really cared about sending his son to an American school to study English. 

On a more serious note: How does work-study fit into your experience at GW? What are your thoughts about affording college--not necessarily GW specifically, but private colleges and universities generally? Students elsewhere (in California, for example) have been protesting student debt. Are you and your friends also concerned about student debt?
 Student debt is definitely a looming shadow on my college career, as it is for most students.  GW, though often called “America’s most expensive college”, has been extremely helpful financially.  Work-study is great, not only because of the obvious monetary compensation, but because it allows me a few hours every week to separate myself from the stressful, competitive side of scholarship.  While I may be working on a paper, I’m not surrounded by other students (as I might be in Gelman), which creates a clearer intellectual atmosphere—at least, for me.
 
Are there particular courses/professors/areas of literary or cultural study that you've particularly enjoyed at GW?
It’s quite difficult to discern specific aspects of GW academia that have impacted me—I’m a product of all my Creative Writing and English Literature professors.  What I can specify is the impact of a Women’s Studies course I took last year, with Bonnie Morris.  I was, admittedly, one who scoffed at the idea of “women’s studies”, but that was only because I was so ignorant of the subject.  It was an eye-opening experience not just as a woman but as a scholar and writer.  The feminist lens is hardly a narrow, radical, bra-burning perspective of the world, but one that is crucial to understanding society then and now.  I recommend women’s studies to everyone and anyone—especially boys.

Aryeh Lev Stollman Kicks Off Jewish Literature Live 2012

 

Dr. Aryeh Lev Stollman, who kicks off this year's Jewish Literature Live readings, is one of those remarkable polymaths: an award-winning fiction writer whose "day job" is as a neuroradiologist at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. 

 

His first novel, From the Far Euphrates, was an LA Times Book Review Recommended Book of the Year, winner of a Wilbur Award, a Lambda Award, and other recognitions. It has been translated into German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, and Hebrew. He is also author of the award-winning novel The Illuminated Soul and the short-story collection The Dialogues of Time and Entropy.  Stollman's story "Love Returns!" (listen to it here) was commissioned by NPR and broadcast in 2008.

 

The Jewish Literature Live readings series is supported by a generous gift by GW alumnus and trustee David Bruce Smith and curated by Prof. Faye Moskowitz, who teaches the course Jewish Literature Live, a unique GW offering in which students meet in an intimate seminar setting with notable Jewish authors of the day.

 

Aryeh Lev Stollman's reading is Thursday, January 26 in Marvin Center 310 at 7 pm. The event is free and open to everyone.

Meet the New Student Bloggers

Kevin Callahan

It's a pleasure to welcome two new student bloggers for English for spring 2012. 

Junior Kevin Callahan,  an English major and journalism minor, is editor of the G.W. Review, one of GW's two literary magazines. Since last fall, he has also been features editor of the GW Cherry Tree yearbook. In his free time, Kevin reports, he plays tennis and "is an avid collector of nutcrackers." He is very excited to be writing for the English Department blog. Welcome, Kevin!

Andrew Mendelson

 Sophomore Andrew Mendelson, who hails "from the mystical land of Connecticut" [Ed's note: his words] is an English major with minors in psychology and creative writing. He enjoys reading Kurt Vonnegut, J.D. Salinger, and "the backs of cereal boxes." He also loves music and "all things sports," especially baseball. 

Aside from taking lots of English classes and contributing to this blog, he also periodically updates his own blog, Ironwaffles.

Andrew and Kevin will write about department events, news, and people, including professors, students, and alumni. Please let them know if you have story ideas, or if you have news you'd like to share with the wider GW English community. 

You can find Andrew at amen127@gwmail.gwu.edu. Kevin's email is kevincal@gwmail.gwu.edu.

"Newsweek" Dubs Mallon's Novel "Watergate" One of 12 for 2012

In February, GW English Professor Thomas Mallon's new novel Watergate will be published by Pantheon. (Go here to pre-order your copy.) A historical novel that "conveys the drama and high comedy of the Nixon presidency through the urgent perspectives of seven characters we only thought we knew before now," Watergate is a highly anticipated work--and the first of Prof. Mallon's works to be released simultaneously as an audiobook. It recently made Newsweek magazine's list of 12 books "not to miss" in 2012, a list reprinted by The Daily Beast.

Currently director of the English department's program in creative writing, Prof. Mallon will spend the spring 2012 semester at Davidson College, where he will be the visiting McGee Professor of Creative Writing.

New Lounge Near Completion

Jenny Moore Writer-in-Residence Tim Johnson relaxes in the new lounge.

The renovations of the English Department lounge are almost complete. You've got to love a makeover--care of the wonderful Laura Van Biber and Elise Katzif Walker, MA students in Interior Design and members of Project George--that includes mod touches such as knitted "poofs" and Lucite chairs. There's also the amazing wall--not shown in this photo--covered in HudsonPaint chalkboard paint and colorful chalk for messages, doodles, and inspiration.

Next up: a few minor repairs, installation of a couple of wall magazine racks, and the hanging of several pictures, including a print of a circa-1940 Works Progress Administration (WPA) poster by the artist Arlington Gregg. Are you a member?

Look for an announcement soon of our lounge dedication party.

Renee Calarco's Kicks Off Theater J's "Locally Grown" Initiative

The Religion Thing, a world premiere comedy by GW playwriting professor Renee Calarco, kicks off Theater J's "Locally Grown: Community Supported Art/From Our Own Garden" Initiative. In it, according to Theater J,

Mo and Brian are a picture-perfect DC couple: they’re smart, they’re witty, and they have a beautifully remodeled kitchen. But when Mo’s best friend Patti announces she’s found Jesus and is putting her own career on hold, Mo must take a closer look at the harder truths surrounding her own marriage. A brand new comedy about relationships, faith and the fine line between compromise and regret.

The Religion Thing runs through January 29 at the Theater, which is in the Jewish Community Center at 16th and Q Streets, NW. Theater J has special pay-what-you-can performances, and offers weeknight tickets at a discount to theatergoers 35 and younger.  While you're there, check out the Locally Grown festival, which runs through February.

Students reading this might be interested in Prof. Calarco's "Dramatic Writing" course, ENGL 2250.80, which meets this semester (spring 2012) on Mondays from 3:30-6 p.m. (ENGL 1210, Introduction to Creative Writing, is a prerequisite.) There are still spaces available!

Prof. McRuer Makes a "Top-10 Most Provocative" List--of Books, That Is

Just in time for Christmas or Hanukkah: Sex and Disability, a collection of essays co-edited by Prof. Robert McRuer and Anna Mollow, a PhD student at UC Berkeley, will be published by Duke University Press on December 22. And it's already making Top 10 lists!

Here, DailyLoafing's Shawn Alff calls it one of the "10 most provocative books out this December."

According to the publisher,

The title of this collection of essays, Sex and Disability, unites two terms that the popular imagination often regards as incongruous. The major texts in sexuality studies, including queer theory, rarely mention disability, and foundational texts in disability studies do not discuss sex in much detail. What if "sex" and "disability" were understood as intimately related concepts? And what if disabled people were seen as both subjects and objects of a range of erotic desires and practices? These are among the questions that this collection's contributors engage. From multiple perspectives—including literary analysis, ethnography, and autobiography—they consider how sex and disability come together and how disabled people negotiate sex and sexual identities in ableist and heteronormative culture. Queering disability studies, while also expanding the purview of queer and sexuality studies, these essays shake up notions about who and what is sexy and sexualizable, what counts as sex, and what desire is. At the same time, they challenge conceptions of disability in the dominant culture, queer studies, and disability studies.

Contributors include Prof. McRuer and GW University Writing Professor Abby L. Wilkerson.

Tom Mallon on Christopher Hitchens

A portrait by Jeff Singer. (Click through for more about the photographer's memory of the shoot.)

A year ago this week—at which point he’d been thinned by chemotherapy but not yet harrowed with radiation—a few of us sat with Christopher Hitchens around his dining-room table, trying to come up with a title for the essay collection he had scheduled for publication.  The question hovering over us, of course, was whether or not Hitch would still be here to see the book appear, but we set that aside and went merrily to work.  The evening proved inconclusive, and I can see from a search of my e-mail files that we were still at it the next day.  I wrote to him:

How about Persuasion?  It's what you've engaged in all your life.

It's got its Jane Austen echo--a certain ironic delicacy--and seems somehow to combine the political and literary sides of you.  It also seems to suggest the art involved in what you do (the gentle art of making enemies, etc.).  And it makes the book into a single entity, rather than a collection of items.

He wrote back, with one of our usual joke-salutations:

angelface and dream-rabbit,

this is thought, despite its near-uncanny percipience, to be just a shade genteel. can you continue to cudgel?

love,

C

The collection appeared—and he was here to see it—as Arguably.  As titles go, it’s not bad, but when I consider it now, it seems faintly misleading.  It suggests arguments undertaken just because they can be made.  Hitch did love the pleasures of argument—why shouldn’t he?  he was argument’s Michael Jordan—but for all that, I never, not once, saw him argue a point merely to display his wit (incomparable) or to hear his own voice (soft and seductive).  His beliefs were always authentic, passionate, and wholly sincere; he regarded cynicism as the most boring form of naivete.

Our country and city have suffered a terrible loss.  Christopher Hitchens was a wonderful friend, a brave man, and (I can now hear him saying “if you insist”) a great soul.

New Course on Asian American Cultural Studies for Spring 2012

Spring 2012 is the first semester in which English will be offering ENGL 3965, a new topics course in Asian American Cultural Studies. Next semester, Prof. Patty Chu--known to many majors as our Director of Undergraduate Advising (she probably signed you up for the major!)--will be teaching the inaugural course under this new rubric. 

As you'll see below, "Globalization and Its Discontents" has students reading works by a wide range of Asian American authors, from Korean American novelist Chang-Rae Lee to Iranian-French graphic novelist Marjane Satrapi, whose award-winning book Persepolis, adopted as a 2007 Academy Award-winning animated film of the same name. Here's a fuller description:

English 3926.10 Globalization and Its Discontents: Asian American Cultural Studies

Tu-Th 2:20-3:30 (67249)

This course examines the cultural legacies of Asian North Americans from China, Japan, Korea, Sri Lanka, India, Iran, and the Philippines.  We’ll discuss race and identity, orientalism and neocolonialism in the U.S.; adopted, queer, and colonial subjects; trauma, memory, and racial melancholy; real and imaginary homelands; and the ongoing project of inventing Asian American literature.  Representative texts:  The Inheritance of Loss, M. Butterfly,  The Namesake, Native Speaker, Persepolis.  Fulfills the theory/culture studies or the minority/postcolonial requirement for the English major.

"Jewish Literature Live" Authors Announced for 2012

Spring 2012 will mark the fourth iteration of Jewish Literature Live, the unique course in which students read the works by writers who then visit their classroom for an intimate discussion. As before, each author visiting campus will give a free public reading. 


This year, the inimitable Prof. Faye Moskowitz has assembled a line-up of writers that includes the author a 1965 bestseller (Bel Kaufman's Up the Down Staircase) as well as younger writers of a 2010 novel about Russian-Jewish immigrants in Connecticut (Nadia Kalman's funny The Cosmopolitans).  


Mark your calendars now for these public readings, and check in to our department calendar for updates about the times and locations of talks. One again, Jewish Literature Live at GW is generously supported by English department alumnus David Bruce Smith.


Thursday, Jan 26, Aryeh Lev Stollman, author of The Far Euphrates

Thursday, Feb 9, Nadia Kalman, author of The Cosmopolitans

Thursday, March 1, Nicole Krauss, author of The History of Love

Thursday, March 22, Pearl Abraham, author of The Romance Reader

Tuesday, April 10 Erica Jong, author of Fear of Flying

Tuesday, April 24, Bel Kaufman, author of Up the Down Staircase