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.

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.