Amaryah Armstrong wins Corinne Dale Award and Crabb Award

by Shannon Smith

Amaryah Armstrong, Senior BU English major, recently won the new Corrine Dale Award for Achievement in Writing about Gender. She took a gender studies class in the Fall 2009 semester with Dr. Caresse John where she wrote the paper as a final project for her class. Dr. John then contacted Amaryah asking her if she wanted to submit the paper for the award. Amaryah then edited her piece with the help of Dr. John and her advisor, Dr. Annette Sisson.

The paper is entitled "Community and Creation: Life and Survival in Tony Morrison’s Sula." Amaryah attempted to connect several things within the paper: how community is tied to creativity in the novel and how this community creates an alternative way of survival inside of an oppressive dominate culture.

Of course, Amaryah was delighted to have won the award. “It was really exciting. It’s funny because I took a couple classes with Dr. Dale, and she was always really challenging and she was always trying to prove to me I could handle the English major.”

Amaryah’s paper also went on to compete against papers from all departments across campus for the Alfred Leland Crabb Award which she also won! Congratulations, Amaryah!

Shannon Smith is a Junior BU English Major.

Five Questions with Carly Escue

Over the next several days, we'll profile many of the graduating seniors that comprise our biggest class ever (32 graduates!). We'll start with Carly Escue, co-winner of the Virginia Chaney Award, given annually to the outstanding female English Major.

What were the most valuable experiences of your English major (and of course, why)?

This question is a difficult one for me because I tend to think of my English major experiences as a unified whole. It's hard for me to pull out pieces that aren't somehow connected to something else. However, I can say that classroom discussions in my literature courses have been extremely valuable. Both my professors and my peers consistently offered new perspectives which always informed, if not changed my own.

What are your immediate post-graduation plans (including educational/professional ones)?

Although I haven't secured my position yet, I plan to spend the next year teaching English in Russia. I completed a Teaching English as a Second Language certification course last summer, so I'll be putting that experience to use. I took Russian here, and I really want to improve my language skills before deciding upon the if's, what's, and when's of graduate school. This summer I'll be working in Nashville, saving pennies for rubles.

Have your favorite writers changed since you’ve been here? Who are they now and why?

My favorite authors have surely changed over the past four years. I've definitely matured as a reader thanks to the brilliant people by whom I've been surrounded here at Belmont. My absolute favorite is Vladimer Nabokov, though I hadn't read any of his works before I started college. My infatuation with Nabokov was inevitable. His prose is poetry, and his insights are spot on, every time. Of course, my interest in Russian literature and culture fuels my passion for him, especially since he translated much of his own work that wasn't originally created in English. Finally, I love to love him because I can I think of him as "mine": I didn't discover him through any course or reading list.

True or False: "April is the cruellest month."

False. It is cruel in its constantly reminding me of the brevity of my time left here, but this specific April has already been full of experiences which I know I'll carry with me for the whole of my life. It's been the most beautiful April I've known.

Any shout outs on your way out?

The utter selflessness of the English faculty here is reason enough for me to shout out to all of my professors. Thank you for your time and your minds. They weren't wasted on me.

What would it have been valuable for you to know as you were starting your English major? Would you have done anything differently, knowing what you know now?

I definitely would have tried harder to complete an internship. That's the one academic regret I have.

New Bookstore Downtown: Sherlock’s Book Emporium and Curiosities

by Shelly Reed

Don’t be fooled by the name. Sherlock’s Book Emporium and Curiosities is not just a mystery bookstore. It has a little bit of everything. Owner Steve Guynn compares the store to “shopping in a Hard Rock Café, but where you can buy everything you see.”

Since opening on January 22, 2010 the store has made three times the amount it expected to. After visiting the bookstore myself, this comes as no surprise; they sell a wide selection of unique items. Book topics range from reference, travel, cooking, Christian fiction, rare first editions, signed by the author, young adult, science fiction, and horror. There are large selections of erotic horror and black interest books. The store is also considered a hobby shop, as it sells movies, cards, board games, planners, journals, scrap booking supplies and even lunch boxes.

Sherlock’s is known for its selection of classic films and Guynn suggests buying one of these films and a matching lunch box to make a “one of a kind present.” I personally came home with a small bread recipe book and a DVD birthday card for my father. The DVD shows important events and people from the year he was born.

Another special quality of the store is its dedication to finding rare and out of print books. Guynn believes he plays the role of Sherlock Holmes by searching for these books. His investigative method involves a book search that encompasses four different continents.

The downtown store is a miniature version of the giant Sherlock’s bookstore in Lebanon. The thirty-minute drive is well worth it according to Guynn, as it is the largest independent bookstore and hobby shop in America. This store includes a theater, a café, and even an outdoor racecar track.

If you are looking for rare books, unique collectables, or just a different shopping experience, check out Sherlock’s Book Emporium and Curiosities at 235 Fifth Avenue North. Open Mon-Fri 10-4 pm.


Shelly Reed is a Senior BU English Major.

BU English Major a National Champion Debater

by Shannon Smith

English Major Kate Tully is a valuable asset to Belmont’s Speech and Debate Team. Since enrolling at Belmont this past fall, she has won numerous awards at competitions around the country. On March 5, 2010, Kate was awarded first place overall for the novice group at the National Christian College Forensics Invitational held at Cedarville University in Ohio. She competed in multiple events, including individual and group, where she was judged on all aspects of her performances.

Kate started out as a member of the team at the beginning of the school year competing only in individual events such as literature interpretation, in which she would act out monologues from literary works, and speech competition, in which she would present prepared speeches.

Kate’s talents as an individual competitor led her to be recruited to compete in group/partner events. Each debate group is composed of two people, although the entire team is allowed to prepare together since they have the same case. They are allotted fifteen minutes of preparation time and given a legal pad on which to brainstorm thoughts, ideas and main points. A fifty-minute debate process follows in which the groups break up and argue their cases.

“My favorite part is being on the team because we [have] all become so close. It’s like we’re a second family,” Kate notes.

Kate believes that she is a better speaker because of her background in writing—and vice versa. “Being on the Speech and Debate Team has helped me develop as a writer,” she says, because during some events we’re forced to speak on the spot. These events help me quickly and fluently articulate my thoughts. Writing the speeches has helped me grow because they are very structured and precise—the organization allows me to efficiently and effectively catalog information.”

Shannon Smith is a Senior BU English Major.

Advising and Course Number Changes

Hey, all you English majors. Please make appointments with your advisors for the advising period, April 12-21. Priority Registration begins April 26.

A couple of course changes for this year: Senior Seminar, formerly ENL or ENW 4900 is now listed as ENG 4900 on the "English" tab in Classfinder. Junior Seminar, formerly ENL or ENW 3000, is on the same page, listed as ENG 3000.

Cheryl Glenn to Give Two Talks Next Week

(submitted by Dr. Cynthia Cox): Please join the Belmont University English Department for two talks by Dr. Cheryl Glenn, Professor of English and Women’s Studies at Penn State University.

On Monday, April 12, at 10:00 in Massey 104, Dr. Glenn will present "Rhetoric, Gender, and the Possibilities of Moving Beyond Women." In this talk, Dr. Glenn, an award-winning teacher and prominent scholar, will discuss innovations in the field of rhetoric, a millenia-old discipline that interrogates persuasion and its role in our culture. The presentation will trace the trajectory of a research agenda in rhetoric studies, one that includes "doing" rhetorical history, theory, and pedagogy (teaching).

At 5:30 on the 12th in Wheeler 102, Professor Glenn will discuss "Developing a Career in Rhetoric and Composition: Preparation and Possibilities." This talk will lay out the preparation necessary for developing a career in this field, a broad academic discipline with many different possibilities. The emphasis will be on conversation, question-and-answer, and deliberation about the future. Come for all or part of this discussion!

Cheryl Glenn is Liberal Arts Research Professor of English and Women’s Studies and co-director of the Center for Democratic Deliberation at The Pennsylvania State University. She has been Visiting Professor at University of New Mexico, University of Cape Town, and University of Alberta and has lectured widely throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and Africa. In the summers, she teaches at the Bread Loaf Graduate School of English. In 2008, Glenn served as Chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC). Her publications include Rhetoric Retold: Regendering the Tradition from Antiquity Through the Renaissance, Unspoken: A Rhetoric of Silence, Rhetorical Education in America, The St. Martin’s Guide to Teaching Writing, The Writer’s Harbrace Handbook, Making Sense, and The Harbrace Guide for Writers. Glenn’s rhetorical scholarship has earned her National Endowment for the Humanities and Mellon fellowships, the Richard Braddock Award from College Composition and Communication, and the Outstanding Article Award from Rhetoric Review. She has received four teaching awards.

Lakota Poet Ron Colombe Reading April 7

On Wednesday, April 7 at 10:00 Ron Colombe will perform his poetry in Beaman A&B. On the back of his first book of verse, Silent Shouting, Quiet War, the Lakota poet, speaker, powwow dancer, and feather and bead artisan declares: “I was born into tragic circumstances, a child of tragic people, loved like a tragic child—what else, but a poet, could I become?” He was referring to the fact that in 1954, at the tender age of two, he was taken from his parents on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota and put into foster care in an attempt by the federal government to end Native culture by assimilating its children into mainstream American life.