Hungry?

Haven't gotten your fill of The Hunger Games yet? Then come out to the forthcoming roundtable, "Another Way of Looking at a Mockingjay: Teaching The Hunger Games in the College Classroom." On Wednesday, April 11 as part of the English Club's Spring Lecture Series, Dr. Marcia McDonald, Dr. Cynthia Cox, and Professor Sue Trout will hold a discussion on how to successfully incorporate a pop culture hit like The Hunger Games into a college class. The roundtable will be at 10 a.m. in Beaman A&B. Academic Lecture convo credit will be offered.

Alex Lemon Reading on April 13

On Friday, April 13, 2012, to celebrate National Poetry Month, poet/memoirist/professor Alex Lemon will be giving a reading and lecture at Belmont, followed by a Q&A. The even will be at 7:00 p.m. in McWhorter Hall 110 (Culture and Arts convo credit offered). Alex is a phenomenal poet, one gifted with both the ability to write incredible poems on the page and then perform them equally well. More information can be found on his website, linked here: http://www.alexlemon.com

Here’s Alex’s bio: Alex Lemon is the author of Happy: A Memoir (Scribner), the poetry collections Mosquito (Tin House Books), Hallelujah Blackout (Milkweed Editions), Fancy Beasts ( Milkweed Editions), and the chapbook At Last Unfolding Congo (horse less press). His writing has appeared in Esquire, Best American Poetry 2008, AGNI, BOMB, Gulf Coast, jubilat, Kenyon Review, New England Review, Open City, Pleiades and Tin House, as well as other venues. He was awarded a 2005 Literature Fellowship in Poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts and a 2006 Minnesota Arts Board Grant. He co-edits LUNA: A Journal of Poetry and Translation with Ray Gonzalez and frequently writes book reviews. He lives in Fort Worth, Texas and teaches at Texas Christian University.

Belmont Chapter of Sigma Tau Delta Inducts Twenty-eight New Members

Dr. Cynthia Cox, Belmont's advisor for Sigma Tau Delta would like to recognize this year's new members. On Sunday, April 1, the Belmont Chapter of Sigma Tau Delta inducted twenty-eight members in a ceremony at Dr. Annette Sisson's home. Sigma Tau Delta is the international English honor society with over 800 chapters across the United States. Membership in the society confers distinction for high achievement in English language and literature studies as an undergraduate, graduate, or professional. Congratulations to the following inductees from Belmont!

Kristen Allerton
Hannah Baggott
Jill Loftus Barrett
Austin Boling
Amanda Buckner
Jessica Rheay Duble
Betti-Chandrea Frazier
Caroline Hart
Jennifer Hamrick
Abigail Lee Henry
Allison Hill
Rainu Ittycheriah
Jessica Lavender
Hilliel R. Levin
Daniel Ross Logan
Emily Lynd
Alyson McHargue
Scott Maddux
Richard T. Martin
Anna Matlock
Melanie Meriney
Jeremey Minor
Brittney Morey
Jessica Spradlin
Laura Elizabeth Stack
Heather Thompson
Kate Tully
Layne Walton

Meet Alison Ng Hays, English Graduate Student

English Department graduate student Tara Ng Hays completed her degree here at Belmont in 2011, majoring in Liberal Studies. She was born in the Bay Area of Califonia but moved to Nashville at the age of eighteen. Tara currently lives in Spring Hill with her husband Matt, daughter Aria, son Axle, and dog Chloe. Tara loves creative writing and is pursing the Writing Track in the graduate program. Her favorite things to write are children’s books, creative pieces, and text messages. When she completes her degree at Belmont, her dream job is “to be a travel journalist who writes about places and food.” But she’ll also be happy with “being an English teacher.” Some of her favorite books include: Game of Thrones, The Help, The Twilight saga, dystopian literature, and “all great children’s books.”

Tara chose to enroll in the English Graduate Program because she really enjoyed her experience at Belmont during her undergrad years. She wasn’t interested in a completely on-line Master’s program and needed evening classes—so Belmont was a perfect fit. So far, her favorite things about Belmont are the friends she's made as well as "Belmont's awesome professors." If you see Tara, please welcome her back to Belmont as part of the English Graduate Program.

- Profile by Misty Wellman.

English Faculty Present at Service-Learning Summit

English Department faculty members, Dr. Charmion Gustke (pictured at left) and Dr. Jason Lovvorn, recently delivered a panel presentation entitled “Transforming Voices through Service Learning: Personal Narrative, Community Partnership, and Student Citizenship” at the Gulf-South Summit on Service-Learning and Civic Engagement in Higher Education, held March 21-23 in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Gustke and Lovvorn discussed ways in which they and fellow faculty member Dr. Linda Holt (English) incorporate service learning and writing into their classes. Their community outreach involves partnerships with Dismas House Nashville (Gustke), Carter-Lawrence Elementary School (Holt), and Nashville Adult Literacy Council (Lovvorn).

Belmont English Club at Family Literacy Day

Members of the Belmont English Club recently participated in Family Literacy Day, an annual event that promotes reading engagement for Nashville elementary students and their families. The focus of the event involves Reading Circles hosted by various groups. This year, the English Club hosted circles with a wide variety of themes: camping & outdoors, school, animals, monsters & dinosaurs, seasons, and Dr. Seuss. Counting Belmont English majors and minors, along with their friends, the English Club engaged over forty volunteers at this year's Family Literacy Day.

Part III of Spring Lecture Series

The English Club announces its third installment of the Spring Lecture Series. Tomorrow, March 16, from 10 to 10:50 a.m. in Beaman A&B, Dr. Gary McDowell will deliver a talk titled "Exploratory Poetry: The Syntax of Disjunction and Juxtaposition" (Culture & Arts convo credit offered). Dr. McDowell will offer a poetry reading and comment upon and illustrate contemporary exploratory poetry’s leanings toward disjunction, disruption, association, and juxtaposition. Whether it’s through syntax, content, or a combination of the two, exploratory poems, as McDowell puts it, “do not aspire to be comfortable or comforting;” instead they wish to “stretch the boundaries of the sayable.”

Dr. McDowell is an Assistant Professor of English at Belmont who specializes in creative Writing and contemporary American poetics. He is a widely published poet and critic. His first full-length book of poetry, American Amen (Dream Horse Press, 2010), won the 2009 Orphic Prize for poetry, and he's the author of two previous volumes of poetry, Blueprint (Pudding House, 2005) and They Speak of Fruit (Cooper Dillon, 2009). He's also the co-editor of the best-selling anthology, The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Prose Poetry: Contemporary Poets in Discussion and Practice (Rose Metal Press, 2010).