Dear MA students,
September went by swiftly, and now we find ourselves at the start of October and in weather that feels decidedly autumnal. There a lot of things going on in October, so we have
divided this month’s message into three sections: one relating to the program, one relating to events on campus, and the last devoted some funding and prize opportunities at CUNY and beyond.
Please remember, too, that we will supplement these monthly messages with regular postings on our social media accounts:
THE MA PROGRAM
Graduate Student Conference:
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 to see past themes, and fill out the following
form
if you’re interested in being on this committee.
Pre-registration:
Pre-registration occurs early this year during the week of October 24. Course descriptions and instructions on pre-registering will be sent out the week prior. In recent years, there has
been a high demand for on-line and hybrid courses. Please note that we will need to enforce enrollment limits on these classes, and will maintain waitlists for courses that reach capacity. We therefore urge you to register for courses early.
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
if you would like to be considered for opportunities that might become available for the next academic year.
Graduation Deadline:
If you plan to complete the program this semester, remember that the deadline to apply for graduation is
November 1. You apply for graduation on CUNYFirst.
OCTOBER EVENTS
OCTOBER 13: READING:
Queens College’s own John Weir will be reading with Queens College MFA alumna and poet Camila Santos at 7pm in the Godwin-Ternbach Museum in Klapper Hall. A reception and book signing will
follow the event.
OCTOBER 18: READING:
Queens College’s Off the Page Series welcomes
Daphne Palasi Andreades. A graduate of Baruch College/ CUNY, Andreades is the author of
Brown Girls, a novel about a group of women
who grew up together in an outer borough of New York City. The novel was a New York Times Editor’s Pick and longlisted for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize. You can read more about Andreades
here and
here.
The reading happens at 7:30 pm. Click
here to register for this free event.
OCTOBER 21: OPEN HOUSE: The
English PhD program at the CUNY Graduate Center is hosting an Open House for students who are considering applying to their PhD program in English. For those considering applying to a PhD programs this year or later,
this event will give you an overview of the process in addition to explaining the particular strengths and features of the Graduate Center’s program. The Open House takes place at 3 pm, and will happen virtually. Click
here to register for this event.
OCTOBER OPPORTUNITIES
We want to make students aware of some of the funding opportunities and writing prizes available to MA students. If you plan to apply for any of these, Hillary and
I are happy to talk with you about your application before you submit it.
Women Writing Women’s Lives Kathy Chamberlin Award: This award provides a grant of $500 to women who are
writing about women’s lives. The grant funds support research to be completed in 2023, and would be well-suited to a student who is planning to write a thesis on a woman writer. The details about the grant are available
here, and the deadline for applications is
November 1, 2022.
CLAGS Graduate Student Paper Award:
Each year, CLAGS (The Center for LGBTQ Studies at CUNY) sponsors a student paper competition open to all graduate students enrolled in the CUNY system. A cash
prize of $250 is awarded to the best paper written in a CUNY graduate class on any topic related to gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer, or transgender experiences. Papers should be between 15 and 50 pages. Deadline:
November 23, 2022. More details on the prize can found here.
CUNY Career Opportunities List: CUNY maintains a weekly listserv that lists job opportunities, internships,
careers fairs, and other job search resources. If you are considering a job outside of academics or teaching after graduating, this is a useful resource. You can subscribe to the list at this
link.
As always, feel free to reach out to Hillary Miller or me if you any questions or concerns. Hillary’s student hours are Mondays from 2 to 4 pm in Klapper 707, and mine are Tuesdays
from 3:30 to 5 pm and Wednesdays from 5:30 to 6:30 pm in Klapper 637. You’re also welcome to contact us by email if you can’t make those times.
Last week, Ada Limón gave her inaugural reading at the Library of Congress as the new Poet Laureate of the United States. I leave you with one of my favorite poems of hers, “Instructions
on Not Giving Up.”
Best,
Bill
Instructions on Not Giving Up
Ada Limón -
1976-
More than the fuchsia funnels breaking out
of the crabapple tree, more than the neighbor’s
almost obscene display of cherry limbs shoving
their cotton candy-colored blossoms to the slate
sky of Spring rains, it’s the greening of the trees
that really gets to me. When all the shock of white
and taffy, the world’s baubles and trinkets, leave
the pavement strewn with the confetti of aftermath,
the leaves come. Patient, plodding, a green skin
growing over whatever winter did to us, a return
to the strange idea of continuous living despite
the mess of us, the hurt, the empty. Fine then,
I’ll take it, the tree seems to say, a new slick leaf
unfurling like a fist to an open palm, I’ll take it all.