BU English Alum Needs Your Help

(from BU English Alum and current Instructor Kristen House): Hi Belmont! Andrew and I entered our short film, "I had weekends in Paris; I wore sparkly things" into The Doorpost Film Project. It's a multi-stage festival competition with a grand prize of $100,000! We were selected into the first round of 100 merited films (out of a pool of thousands!) and now we need your help.

To get through to the next round (of 20 films), we must survive an online vote. The process takes a little effort, and I am really nervous about the outcome. I'm recruiting you because we need that Belmont spirit behind us!

Go to http://www.facebook.com/l/a92e8;www.thedoorpost.com and register. Then you'll see a link at the top of the page that says "voting." The system will present five films to you (none are longer than 7 minutes), which you must watch in their entirety before you rank them with your vote. If you could watch a few batches for us, and vote our film UP! we would be much appreciative. It is a process - but maybe you'll have some free time over spring break that you can dedicate to independent film!

Also, this batch of entrants are interesting and beautiful. Please recruit anyone among your friends (or students!) who you think would enjoy watching some independent shorts! Thank you so much!

Dr. Curtis Named Associate Dean

Dr. David Curtis, Chair of the English Department, has been selected to be the Associate Dean for the School of Humanities starting June 1. Dr. Curtis's new position became available when Dr. Monteverde was promoted to Assistant Provost for international education last August.

The English Department will be selecting a new Chair some time later this month.

English Majors Kick Off Women's History Month

Dr. Caresse John and Dr. Sarah Bowles, faculty co-sponsors again of Women's History Month at Belmont, invite you to the first event of this year's celebration--a student panel discussing Feminism at Belmont. Panelists include BU English majors Amaryah Armstrong, Nathan Haney, Gia Vangieri, and Shawn Willis. PG convo will be offered at this event, slated for Wednesday, March 3 at 10:00 in Beaman A & B.

Stay tuned to the blog for details on further events in this series!

BU English Major Releases EP

See this piece in the Belmont Vision about Michael Huff, multitalented English major (see his write-up of the Staunton, Virginia trip here). You can catch Michael live tonight at The Rutledge.

Wells, Fallis to Speak at Homecoming Events

Dr. James Wells will deliver the Simmons Lecture on Wednesday, February 24 at 10:00 in the Massey Board Room. The title of his talk is "'And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine': Tantalizing Prospects in Shakespeare's Theatre."



On Thursday at 11:00 in the Vince Gill Room, Dr. Richard Fallis will discuss "What is the Future of the Liberal Arts?" Dr. Fallis is a former faculty member and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Belmont, is is currently Professor of English and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Mercer University.



Hope to see you all there.

Poems to Songs for BU English Alum

BU English alum Aaron Briggs just received word that two of his poems--turned into lyrics as part of a song cycle "From Nashville to Dalton" by Rachel Fogarty--will be performed by the Boston Metro Opera at the 1st Annual Contemporary AmericanaFest in May. You can find the text of the poems on Aaron's blog here.

In other Briggs family news, Aaron and fellow BU English alum Ashley (Bienvenu) Briggs welcomed baby Ansel Franklin Briggs into this world February 15. Congratulations all around!

Support "Local Literacy"

On Friday, the English Club will continue to collect money to create a basket full of goodies to be auctioned off during Homecoming to raise money for Literacy Day. The theme of the basket will be "Local Literacy," both in the sense of reading and of learning about local businesses. You are encouraged to ask the place where you work or any other local businesses you frequent to contribute gift certificates we can put in the basket.

Professor Trout will be bringing more baked goods to the Writing Center tomorrow for a second "fake bake sale," so come by and give a couple of bucks to Denise Mabry and enjoy the taste of good citizenship.