Dear MA Students,
This month’s message contains information about summer session courses, teaching opportunities, a thesis information session, the MA conference, fiction readings, and some other scholarship opportunities.
MA PROGRAM ANNOUNCEMENTS
Summer Session Classes
Course descriptions for summer sessions classes are now available on the English Department’s website<https://cuny907-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/personal/john_rice45_login_cuny_edu…>. In the first session, which runs in June, we have two classes: Classics of American Drama, with Rhoda Sirlin, and the Medieval Epic, with Edward Curry. In the second session, which runs for six weeks in July and early August, we have two classes: Richard Marotta’s course on Romantic Poetry, and James Richie’s class on American Poetry from Modernism to Postmodernism. You should now be able to register for these classes on CUNYFirst.
Thesis Information Meeting
Are you planning to write your thesis essay in Spring 2023? If so, we will hold an information session on Thursday, November 17 at 6 pm to discuss how to find an adviser, how to write a proposal, strategies for navigating the process, and how to register for the English 791 class. Email MAEnglish(a)qc.cuny.edu<mailto:MAEnglish@qc.cuny.edu> if you plan to attend, and we will respond with the Zoom link for the meeting. Also, speaking of theses, congratulations to Will Clemens for defending his thesis, “I’m Dead, Wanna Hook Up?: American Horror Story and the Re-imagining of the Modern Grotesque,” last week. Congratulations Will!
Teaching Opportunities at Queens College:
Occasionally, a very limited number of one-course adjunct and graduate assistant teaching positions, primarily in freshman composition (ENGL 110 and 130), may be available. Although these opportunities are limited—usually just one or two courses per academic year—we would like to build a list of students who would be interested in teaching. The strongest applicants will be those who have completed or in the process of completing about a half of the courses required for the program, and who have performed well (3.7 GPA and higher) in these courses. Please complete the following form<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdXzUyF9na1eG1zBG0savGDWCciXrfvHim…> if you would like to be considered for opportunities that might become available for the next academic year.
Graduate Conference Committee—Last Call!
The date for the Graduate Student Conference has been set for Wednesday, March 29, 2023, and now we need a THEME! Do you have ideas for our 2023 conference theme? We are looking for MA students to help us brainstorm and draft our call for papers. Click here<https://qcenglish.commons.gc.cuny.edu/graduate/ma-in-english/graduate-confe…> to see past themes, and fill out the following form<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe3r4Z2OyYS7-WjgMtQxdpypirkbOois-m…> if you’re interested in being on this committee. The committee will have its first meeting later this month.
NOVEMBER EVENTS
NOVEMBER 15/ READING: Manuel Muñoz in the Off the Page Series
Manuel Muñoz is considered by many to be one of the finest short story writers in American literature, and will be reading from his newest collection The Consequences. He will be in conversation with Professors William Orchard and Vanessa Pérez-Rosario. His stories are largely set in California’s Central Valley, chronicling the lives of migrant workers, the Mexican American families that live in the region, and the lives of gay men figuring out ways of surviving in rural settings. The Booker Prize-winning writer George Saunders recently offered an extended analysis of Muñoz’s story “Anyone Can Do It” in his substack Story Club<https://georgesaunders.substack.com/p/anyone-can-do-it-367>. You can read more about Muñoz in this interview with Sandra Cisneros<https://orionmagazine.org/article/sandra-cisneros-manuel-munoz-interview/> and in this interview<https://lithub.com/manuel-munoz-on-writing-through-uncertainty/>. Free. 7 pm in Choral Room 264 at the Aaron Copland School of Music. Register here<https://kupferbergcenter.org/event/off-the-page-a-conversation-with-manuel-…>.
OPPORTUNITIES
John Lent Scholarship in Comics Studies
The Lent Scholarship is awarded by the International Comic Arts Forum to a current student from across the globe who has authored or is in the process of authoring a substantial research-based writing project about comics. Preference is given to master’s theses and doctoral dissertations, but all students of comics are encouraged to apply. More information can be found here<http://www.internationalcomicartsforum.org/lent-scholarship.html>. Deadline: December 20.
November brings us Thanksgiving. If you have had a class with me, you know that I usually bring a few poems or short pieces to share before the Thanksgiving Holiday. I end this month’s message with two recent works that I’ve shared with classes: Joy Harjo’s poem “Perhaps the World Ends Here” (pasted below, but you can listen to her read it at this link<https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49622/perhaps-the-world-ends-here>) and a short piece<https://beaugordon.medium.com/a-story-on-giving-retold-by-anne-lamott-autho…> by essayist Anne Lamott, which she calls the best true story about giving that she knows.
Wishing you all a great November!
Best,
Bill
Perhaps the World Ends Here
Joy Harjo
The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what, we must eat to live.
The gifts of earth are brought and prepared, set on the table. So it has been since creation, and it will go on.
We chase chickens or dogs away from it. Babies teethe at the corners. They scrape their knees under it.
It is here that children are given instructions on what it means to be human. We make men at it, we make women.
At this table we gossip, recall enemies and the ghosts of lovers.
Our dreams drink coffee with us as they put their arms around our children. They laugh with us at our poor falling-down selves and as we put ourselves back together once again at the table.
This table has been a house in the rain, an umbrella in the sun.
Wars have begun and ended at this table. It is a place to hide in the shadow of terror. A place to celebrate the terrible victory.
We have given birth on this table, and have prepared our parents for burial here.
At this table we sing with joy, with sorrow. We pray of suffering and remorse. We give thanks.
Perhaps the world will end at the kitchen table, while we are laughing and crying, eating of the last sweet bite.
Anne Lamott Story on Giving
An 8 year old boy had a sister who was dying of leukemia, and he was told that without a blood transfusion she would die. His parents explained to him that his blood was probably compatible with hers, and if so, he could be the blood donor. They asked him if they could test his blood. He said sure. So they did and it was a good match. Then they asked if he would give his sister a pint of blood, that it could be her only chance of living. He said he would have to think about it overnight.
The next day he went to his parents and said he was willing to donate the blood. So they took him to the hospital where he was put on a gurney beside his 6 year old sister. Both of them where hooked up to IV’s. A nurse withdrew a pint of blood from the boy which was then put into the girl’s IV. The boy lay on his gurney in silence while the blood dripped into his sister; until the doctor came over to see how he was doing. Then the boy opened his eyes and asked, “How soon until I start to die?”
