Chowder Fest is Coming

The Clark University English Department Chowder Fest is coming to Anderson House again this year.  This annual English Department event has been happening since at least 1999 and featuring guest speakers since 2002.  That year, Alex Abramovich, BA ', Irene Fogarty, MA '95, and Karina Holyoak Wood, MA '94, spoke to English Department majors, minors, and graduate students about the ways in which the English Department prepared them for their careers.

Every year the English Department serves up hearty soups and clam chowder as part of an evening discussion with distinguished alumni who once studied literature in our department.

Last year's speakers were Lana Cohen, BA '08, pursuing her MBA at MIT Sloan School of Management;
Genie Giaimo, BA '06, MA '07, a doctoral candidate at Northeastern University's English Department; and Jeffrey Siegel, BA '81, of United Wealth Management Group.

Chowder Fest this year will be held 

Wednesday, November 6, at 5:30 p.m. 

and will feature


Susan Munroe, BA '05, co-founder of Rios to Rivers and freelance writer from New Hampshire. Susan is  now based in southern Utah and has a great passion for travel and a love for wild places.

Karina Holyoak Wood, MA '94, Director for Tobacco Free Rhode Island, is an organizer, advocate, and communicaions professional in diverse public policy issue areas including open government, urban planning, education reform, gun control, and arms control and disarmament.

Be sure to stop by and join us for great conversation, soup and chowder.

It's Almost Thanksgiving

Who else cannot wait for Thanksgiving Break? I have to say I am so excited for it my hands start shaking when I start thinking about it. Just think about it! Those mashed potatoes, turkey with gravy, my mom’s Kaluah cake… oh that food. My stomach is begging for it. Then there is my bed. That soft, big, bed that I will be able to curl up in and not worry about getting up for class, work, or homework at 7 in the morning. I might actually sleep enough so I wake up refreshed instead of just begging for one more minute. Of course my family is there. Although I have to say seeing them is amazing my priorities will be sleep and food. Still right before finals family time is like a shot of strength and forbearance that I so desperately need. So yes I am excited. Very excited. So so so excited. The next week and half cannot go by fast enough.

Yet there is one problem with Thanksgiving Break. It’s timing. I wish it was a week or two earlier. And not just because I really want to go home, but because Thanksgiving is RIGHT before finals. When you go home, the whole time you are counting down the days until that last project is due, or that paper deadline is. So you can’t really relax. Because even if you are not doing homework or studying you know you SHOULD be.  So you feel mildly guilty even as you are stuffing those mashed potatoes or Kaluah cake into your mouth.

But let’s ignore all that stress. Today is a day to forget about those deadlines and focus on the positives. This year Thanksgiving is going to be really exciting at my house because we are also going to celebrate my mom’s and sister’s birthdays when we all get home. So I get 3 celebrations all in one weekend.  I am also hoping my sister and her husband will bring their new puppy Josie with them. I haven’t met her yet and it would be amazing if they did.

The English Department is also trying to catch up with this very fast moving semester. Professors are trying to schedule evaluations, finals, and still fit in time to finish the lectures. The English Department has some fun events coming up too. We are getting the house ready for Chowder Fest tomorrow. And Wassail Party is also coming up. Everyone is busy. It feel like it was just New Year’s doesn’t it? Can you believe we are approaching 2013? Well on that note I hope you all enjoy your Thanksgiving Break and I hope to see you all at Chowder Fest and Wassail! Good luck on finals!

Fall Ramblings and Senior Voes

Fall semester is running a marathon, at a full sprint. I’m serious. Does anyone else feel that there is less and less time every day? With each day passing more quickly than the last, it seems like I can’t keep up with this marathon sprinter of a fall. Or maybe it’s just senioritis talking. Either way, it’s terrifying.

The English house is keeping its busy schedule successfully and even though students, staff, and professors are flying around the house like busy little bees no one seems quite as haggard and run down as I feel. Did everyone here figure out some magical way to make time slow down and not let me in on the secret? If you are one of these secret keepers please sneak me a note under the workstudy desk and help a girl out.

Chowder Fest is coming up and everyone is very excited. It’s an amazing event at Anderson house that really showcases the close community here and lets everyone mingle and enjoy some great food. I can’t wait. My last chowder fest… and here comes the melancholia. Senior year really is a rainbow palate of emotions.

Another thing that has been skulking around the campus is this terrible plague of a flu. Students are sniffling and our selection of teas is shrinking rapidly. Its ok all you fellow survivors of this plague. We are replenishing our assortment. Stop by the kitchen when you are in Anderson house and replenish your weapon supply against this flu. We even have tissues and cough drops in the office. See the English house is always prepared! My own battle against sickness is ending in a decided victory on my part. Although it’s been a long few weeks of battle my immune system has finally decided to kick into gear. May I say, YAY.

Fall leaves are decorating both the inside and outside of the Anderson house and I just wish I had more time to enjoy the bright colors. Maybe I should suggest to the Goddard staff to decorate the library with colorful leaves as I am spending most of my waking hours there. At least then when I am staring at the wall in a desperate wish for inspiration I would at least be looking at something pretty.

It’s getting chilly with winter fast approaching, but the sun is shining, it’s almost the weekend, I am sipping delicious hot chocolate so I cannot complain. I hope all of you are finding more relaxation this fall than me. If not stop by the English house and we can brainstorm ways to get through it together. I’ll even share my hot chocolate.

Here Comes the Sun!

Spring is slowly but surely making its way to Worcester. The past week has been gorgeous, even if today is breaking the lovely pattern. And this weekend is St. Patrick’s Day, which means the campus students will soon be decked out in green. I am so exited for flip flops and dresses and sitting on the green, I am on the edge of my seat with anticipation. I know there is still a bit of a wait ahead of me, but still. Warm weather is so close I can almost feel it.

With Spring coming I can’t help but notice the damage on the trees around campus again. Especially because one of my closest friends is in a class that is actually making a plan on how to replant campus and also plan what to do with the aging trees. In around 20 years the big gorgeous trees around campus are going to be gone because they are so old now. So there is a lot of planning to be done on how we want the campus to look. It’s a fascinating idea and the students in the class are doing an amazing job. They just held a forum discussing ideas with students and I was amazed at all the work they are doing. Already with all the renovations to campus in the next two years Clark will look very different, but then to think your favorite “thinking” tree might be gone too.. I was feeling a bit sentimental, but also exited about coming back in 10 years and seeing a whole new Clark University.

The English department is also buzzing with activity. The flowers and spring decorations are up, so come visit! Everything is colorful and bright! The professors are running around with projects and ideas. Professor Neuman has a speech coming up on March 26th at 4pm in Lurie. It is sponsored by the Women’s and Gender Studies and will be great. Professor Kasmer is presenting in next week’s Colloquium as well as speaking at a library in Holden next Thursday. Such a busy bee! Us work studies are organizing for the summer, getting ready for spring fling, and generally enjoying the energetic environment.

Early Science Fiction in the Arab World

Written sometime between 1268 and 1277 CE, Ibn al-Nafis' Theologus Autodidactus is an often-overlooked treasure in the literary canon of the Middle Ages. It features the first instance of a coming-of-age story, the earliest recorded desert island (or isolation log) story and, perhaps most remarkably, is considered by many the first example of a science fiction story. Copies are fairly easy to find online (try Amazon) and the book is definitely worth a read. As a harrowing theological/philosophical journey, al-Nafis' book is a well-crafted work of art.

Word of the Day: Carious.
Book of the Day: A Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
Author of the Day: Jorge Luis Borges, surrealist/magical realist/modernist and possibly the most widely-read man in recorded history.

Enter The Martin

Greetings, sports fans.

I'm Micah Martin, a History Major, English Minor, and one of the department's indentured laborers. I handle mail, archival and secretarial duties and any miscellaneous tasks that spring up. In the coming months, preceding my graduation in May, I'll be posting here about life at Anderson House and goings-on in the department. I'll also discuss theory, writing, conventions of genre and style and the science of tropes in modern fiction mediums. To those of you with questions about the department, literature or anything related to English in general, please post! I'd like to get a few good discussions going here on the blog.

Micah out.

Word of the Day: Vociferous.
Book of the Day: Moby Dick by Herman Melville.
Author of the Day: Canadian Sci-Fi and Fantasy author R. Scott Bakker, a strong advocate for the inclusion of philosophical themes in genre fiction.

Bill Tapply: In Memoriam

Bill Tapply died Tuesday, July 28th of complications from his leukemia. It is a tragedy for the English department and Clark University as a whole. Here are the tributes from the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald. [Note: The Herald obituary has been archived and is not available without subscription.] Here, as well, are two blogs which announced it, blogs on which you may enter a comment if you wish, or see the comments made by others: a fishing publication site and a mystery writer's blog, Confessions of an idiosyncratic Mind (See July 29). His death is doubly tragic given his summer solstice "message" to us all from his own website: He was clearly feeling better and looking forward to more fly fishing and vacation time before the start of school, as well as the start of a new semester.
I will miss him tremendously, and I know you all will too. Please join me in condolences, prayers and support for his family.

--Jay

Here We All Are. . . .

At the English Department retreat on Saturday, October 27th, Alden, Ginger's husband, snapped this group photo of all the full-time members of the department. In the front are Lisa Kasmer, Ginger Vaughan, and Betsy Huang. Left to right in back are Jay Elliott, Fern Johnson, SunHee Gertz, Meredith Neuman, Winston Napier, and Steve Levin.
We conducted some good business--lots of consensus, which one might say is rare in academia these days! In any case, maybe this will help you put faces to the names in the course catalogue. Cheers!

--Jay