Graduate Student Presents Work

Allison Belt (show below), a Master's student in the English graduate program who was featured back in February, recently presented her work at two different conference settings in less than a week.

• On September 22, at Middle Tennessee State University's EGSO Conference, Allison presented a paper titled "The Road to Hell: Intentions in Conrad's Heart of Darkness." 
• On September 27, in conjunction with Dr. Annette Sisson, Allison presented at Belmont University's Eleventh Annual Humanities Symposium. Her portion of the talk was called, "Toward a Global Perspective: Wendell Berry and the Ties That Bind." 

English Graduate Student Publishes Work

Shellie Richards (pictured below), an undergraduate alumna of Belmont University and a Master's student in Belmont's Graduate English program, has had a fruitful 2012 when it comes to publishing her writing.  She has placed her poetry and short fiction in a variety of print and online venues. This impressive list includes:

• Bartleby Snopes, "Quick & Painless" (fiction short story). Winner, Story of the Month January 2012.
• Belmont Literary Journal, "The Price of Doubt" (fiction short story) & "South Carolina in July" (poetry). Spring 2012.
• The Chaffey Review, "Primetime" (creative non-fiction short story). Volume VIII, Summer 2012.
• Tabula Rasa: Vanderbilt University Journal of Medical Humanities, "The Diagnosis" (short story).  Spring 2012.
• Pyrokinection, "On the Way to Gautreau’s in New Orleans" (poetry). June 2012.
• The Mindless Muse, "One-Horse Town Life," "Errands," & "Academia Unraveled" (poetry). July 2012.
• Jellyfish Whispers, "Dusk" & "The Hundred Year Flood" (poetry). August 2012.

Congratulations to Shellie on her growing corpus of work!

Humanities Symposium Writing Awards Named In Honor of Sandy Hutchins

On Sunday, September 30, the Belmont Humanities Symposium committee announced that, going forward, the Symposium writing awards will be named in honor of Dr. Sandy Hutchins, a longtime member of Belmont’s English Department.  

Dr. Hutchins earned her Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University and is an Associate Professor of English with teaching focuses in writing, including creative writing and composition, and in British literature. Her research interests include daughter/father relationships, social festivity in literature, Australian literature, literary/cultural study, and teaching and pedagogy, especially the teaching of creative writing. In 2010, Dr. Hutchins was the recipient of the Leo Love Merit Scholarship as part of the Taos Summer Writers Conference. She has published fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction and is now working on her third novel, Already Kindled, told from the perspective of a young girl growing up in Mississippi.  

Please help us in congratulating Dr. Hutchins for  this most recent distinction!

L to R: Dr. Regine Schwarzmeier, Dr. Sandy Hutchins, Dr. David Curtis, Dr. Cynthia Cox, Dr. Gary McDowell

Humanities Symposium Writing Contest Winners

This year’s Humanities Symposium writing competition received over 100 submissions in three categories: fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. Dr. Sandy Hutchins, Dr. Andrea Stover, and Dr. Gary McDowell served as judges for the contest and are proud to announce the following winners:

Fiction:
1st place: Hannah Baggott's "Fighter"
2nd place: Jessica Auville's "Dry Bones"

Creative Nonfiction:
1st place: Erin Turberville's "Operation Desert Storm"
2nd place: Melanie Bond's "The Fall of My Junior Year"

Poetry:
1st place: Austin Boling's "After the wars,"
2nd place: Alissa Lindemann's "The Chaos Sound"

L to R: (seated) Erin Turberville, Alissa Lindemann, Hannah Baggott, Austin Boling, Melanie Bond, Jessica Auville; (standing) Dr. Gary McDowell

Last week, as part of Belmont’s 11th Annual Humanities Symposium, Civility and Its Discontents, the winning writers read from their pieces as part of a symposium panel. Congratulations to all the participants, and especially to the award winners for their deserving work!

Belmont English Professor Publishes in Nashville Arts Magazine

In this month's issue of Nashville Arts Magazine, Gary McDowell, Assistant Professor of English at Belmont, features local artist John Jackson and focuses on Jackson's Technology Series, a collection of paintings that explore the complex effects of technology on our culture. McDowell writes, "The artist exposes the loneliness and vulnerability in contemporary relationships by laying bare the human figure and exploring our cultural obsession with technology." The October issue of Nashville Arts Magazine can be viewed by clicking here.

Belmont Alum Reads from Her Novel

Today, at 5:00 p.m. in the Leu Art Gallery, recent Belmont alum Erica Williams (M.A. English, Creative Writing, 2010) will read from her self-published first novel, Love Lifted Me, and talk about the writing and publishing process. Come and hear about a recent graduate’s success in her field! After the author talk, Erica will be available to sign books and answer questions. Books will be available to purchase for $8. More information about the novel can be found at: https://www.createspace.com/3899355 

Former English Major Teaches Abroad

Below are notes from the field by Shelly Reed, a Belmont English major and recent graduate who spent time in Greece teaching English:

This past school year I received the Hellenic American Educational Foundation Teaching Fellowship, which awarded me the incredible opportunity to teach English in Greece. My placement was at Athens College, and consisted of teaching advanced high school students Shakespeare, running creative writing workshops for the literary journal, and coaching duet acting for the forensics team. As a recent Belmont graduate wondering about my career path, this was the perfect chance to discover what teaching is all about. 

The fellowship provided housing, a stipend, great health insurance, a transportation pass, and meals at the school. It also provided a free Greek language class. The stipend was enough to allow for travel and I took full advantage of exploring the Greek islands! 

 Not only did the fellowship offer a lot of professional experience, including valuable ESL experience, but it also changed me profoundly. While living abroad is exotic and exciting, it is also fraught with challenges. I now know what it is like to be a minority, to not speak the language, and to be truly disconnected from home. All of my time in Greece---the exciting times and the challenging times led me to a richer understanding of humanity, one that I believe I could not have gotten any other way. 

 So to those of you dancing with the decision about whether or not to teach abroad, my advice is to go for it! I guarantee the experience will teach you something, like not to eat oranges off the trees in Athens! 

- Shelly Reed