Reading Matters, Vol. 1, Issue 1

Publications, Presentations, and other Faculty Matters

Matt Brown's essay "The Thick Style: Steady Sellers, Textual Aesthetics, and Early Modern Devotional Reading" is forthcoming in PMLA, for a special issue on the history of the book and the idea of literature.

Ed Folsom is giving the John Howard Birss, Jr. annual humanities lecture at Roger Williams University in Bristol, RI, on February 15 and will present the annual DeGraaf Lecture at Hope College in April. He will be the keynote speaker at the "Leaves of Grass 150th Anniversary Conference" at the University of Nebraska at the end of March. He is bringing Alan Trachtenberg to campus on March 30 for this year's Carver Lecture ("The Naked Reader in Melville and Whitman," 7:00 p.m., Gerber Lounge). His essay "'What a Filthy Presidentiad!': Clinton's Whitman, Bush's Whitman, and Whitman's America" appears in the spring issue of the Virginia Quarterly Review.

Tom Lutz's “The Cosmopolitan Midland” is coming out in American Periodicals 15:1 (2005). Tom's “Spending Time,” an essay invited by R.L. Rutsky and Sande Cohen, will be out next month in Consumption in an Age of Information, forthcoming, Berg Publishing/New York University Press, 2005. Tom also notes that a very short “Coda” will appear in the Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies' issue on nostalgia that he co-edited with Sean Scanlan with the help of Doug Dowland; Tom notes that they did the vast majority of the work for the issue. Tom gave a talk on internet responses to the Bush re-election at a conference on compassion in Potsdam, Germany in December and a similar lecture at the University of the Aegean in Mytilene, also in December. In January Tom gave talks at the University of Kentucky on normalcy in the 1920s and at the new UC campus in Merced on literary value.

Chris Merrill's book Things of the Hidden God: Journey to the Holy Mountain was published last week by Random House.

Claire Sponsler and her recent book Ritual Imports: Performing Medieval Drama in America were featured in an Iowa City Press Citizen article last week.

Doug Trevor was awarded the Iowa Short Fiction Award for his short story collection The Thin Tear in the Fabric of Space which will be published in October, 2005.

Graduate Matters

Eddie Mallot has just accepted a position as an Assistant Professor of Anglophone Postcolonial Literature at Rhodes College in Memphis. Rhodes is one of the top 50 liberal arts colleges in the country.

Barbara Eckstein reports that seven 2005 applicants to our graduate program have been awarded Presidential Fellowships by the Graduate College. The graduate program is now engaged in trying to recruit these women and men who will soon be visiting campus.

Those being awarded the fellowships include:

Ashley Barnes, BA 1995 in English and Religious Studies from the University of Virginia; MAT from the University of North Carolina; Editorial Assistant for Norton from 1995-2000 and high school teacher from 2000-present; Interest in religion, secularism and ethics

Adam Bradford, BA 1998 from the University of Utah; MA from BYU; Head Master at a private school in Utah; Interest in 19th-century American Literature, especially Whitman

Maureen Hattrup, BA 2005 from Notre Dame; Participant in Notre Dame's Irish Seminar in Dublin (for doctoral students); Interest in Victorian literature

Britt Johnson, BA 2005 from the University of the South (2000-2002 at Haverford College) English major and Latin minor; Interest in early modern literature

Erin Mann, BA 2003 from Rice; Fulbright teaching assistant in Austria 2003-04; Interest in critical theory, memoir, and new media

Brenton Thompson, BA 2005 from Missouri Southern State College; 1998-2002 pursuing stardom in Hollywood; a year studying in Ireland

Jason Vredenburg, BA 1998 in journalism from the University of Oklahoma; finding no room for muckraking in journalism, he is turning to literature; Interest in nineteenth-century American literature and history (American broadly construed)

Upcoming Events

Wed., Feb. 16, 12 p.m.-1 p.m., Oasis Falafel Restaurant, 206 N. Linn Street - Join Aaron Lansky for a lunchtime discussion of Sholem Aleichem's short story "Chava." Copies of "Chava" will be available for photocopying in the Department of English (308 EPB), at the Writers' Workshop, and at Hillel, 122 E. Market Street. HALF-PRICE LUNCH for anyone who says "Yiddish Festival" when ordering. (For more about Lansky, see the next entry below.) This event is part of the University of Iowa's first festival of Yiddish literature and culture. If you have questions about this event, please contact Lara Trubowitz at lara-trubowitz@uiowa.edu, Jerry Sorokin at gerald-sorokin@uiowa.edu, or Aviya Kushner at AviyaK@aol.com.

Wed., Feb. 16, 8 p.m., Prairie Lights Bookstore - Aaron Lansky, president of the National Yiddish Book Center, MacArthur recipient, and author of "Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books (2004), will be speaking on "Live from Prairie Lights" (WSUI). This event is part of the University of Iowa's first festival of Yiddish literature and culture. If you have questions about this event, please contact Lara Trubowitz at lara-trubowitz@uiowa.edu, Jerry Sorokin at gerald-sorokin@uiowa.edu, or Aviya Kushner at AviyaK@aol.com.

Thr., Feb. 17, 6 p.m., Gerber Lounge - James McPherson of the Writers' Workshop will talk about Isaac Babel, whose mother tongue was Yiddish. Here's a chance to hear how a Jewish writer from Odessa who grew up speaking Yiddish affected a major American writer from Savannah. This event is part of the University of Iowa's first festival of Yiddish literature and culture. If you have questions about this event, please contact Lara Trubowitz at lara-trubowitz@uiowa.edu, Jerry Sorokin at gerald-sorokin@uiowa.edu, or Aviya Kushner at AviyaK@aol.com.

Fri., Feb. 18, 12 p.m.-1 p.m., Oasis Falafel Restaurant, 206 N. Linn Street - Join us for a lunchtime discussion of I. B. Singer's short story "The Cafeteria" with Aviya Kushner, graduate student in the Nonfiction Writing Program and book reviewer for The Jerusalem Post. Copies of "The Cafeteria" will be available for photocopying in the Department of English (308 EPB), at the Writers' Workshop, and at Hillel, 122 E. Market Street. HALF-PRICE LUNCH for anyone who says "Yiddish Festival" when ordering. This event is part of the University of Iowa's first festival of Yiddish literature and culture. If you have questions about this event, please contact Lara Trubowitz at lara-trubowitz@uiowa.edu, Jerry Sorokin at gerald-sorokin@uiowa.edu, or Aviya Kushner at AviyaK@aol.com.

Sat., Feb. 19, 7 p.m., 101 BCSB - Don't miss this opportunity to see a newly restored 35mm print of Edgar Ulmer's 1938 Yiddish film The Singing Blacksmith, which will be introduced by Claudia Pummer from the Department of Cinema and Comparative Literature. This event is part of the University of Iowa's first festival of Yiddish literature and culture. If you have questions about this event, please contact Lara Trubowitz at lara-trubowitz@uiowa.edu, Jerry Sorokin at gerald-sorokin@uiowa.edu, or Aviya Kushner at AviyaK@aol.com.

Mon., Feb. 28, 8 p.m., Art Building Auditorium, Room E109 - Ian Duncan, Chair of the English Department at the University of California at Berkeley, will give a talk titled "The Exterminating Angel: The French Revolution and the Fate of the Historical Novel." This talk is hosted by the Interdisciplinary 18th- and 19th- Century Colloquium and the English Department and is part of the speaker series for this year (in celebration of the Year of Arts and Humanities): "Global History through the Eyes of the Artist: War and Revolution in the 18th and 19th Centuries." Professor Duncan has published widely on British and Scottish fiction, Romanticism, and narrative theory. His talk sweeps across history, the history of science, revolution, the novel, and The Tale of Two Cities. He's also an engaging and witty speaker. A reception will follow.

Thr., Mar. 3, 7 p.m., University of Iowa Museum of Art - Claire Fox will introduce the Collage Films directed by Ximena Cuevas, part of the University of Iowa Museum of Art's "Interventionist Collage" exhibit. Discussion will follow screening.

Fri., Mar. 4, 4 p.m., Gerber Lounge - Claire Sponsler and John Raeburn will present a Faculty Colloquium.

Thr., Mar. 10, 7:30-8:30 p.m., University of Iowa Museum of Art - Rudolf Kuenzli will give a gallery talk about the "Interventionist Collage" exhibit.

Fri., Mar. 25, 4 p.m., Gerber Lounge - Chris Merrill and Barbara Eckstein will present a Faculty Colloquium.

Wed., Mar. 30, 7 p.m., Gerber Lounge - Alan Trachtenberg will give the Carver Lecture: "The Naked Reader in Melville and Whitman."

Fri., Apr. 8 - Sun., Apr. 10, IMU - The 5th Annual "Craft, Critique, Culture" conference

Fri., Apr. 8, 4 p.m., Gerber Lounge - Matt Brown and Huston Diehl will present a Faculty Colloquium.

Fri., Apr. 8, 7:30 p.m., IMU - Garrett Stewart will be a guest speaker at the "Craft, Critique, Culture" conference.

Thr., Apr. 28, 7:30 p.m., Gerber Lounge - Joan Landes, Ferre Professor of Early Modern History and Women's Studies at Pennsylvania State University, will give a talk titled "Women and the French Revolution." This talk is hosted by the Interdisciplinary 18th- and 19th- Century Colloquium and is part of the speaker series for this year (in celebration of the Year of Arts and Humanities): "Global History through the Eyes of the Artist: War and Revolution in the 18th and 19th Centuries."

Fri., May 6, 4 p.m., Gerber Lounge - Lori Branch and Doug Trevor will present a Faculty Colloquium.

Future Issues

Please send any items for Reading Matters to Carolyn Jacobson at carolyn-jacobson@uiowa.edu. Reading Matters will appear every other Wednesday, and submissions should be received by 5 p.m. on the preceding Monday. Please send submissions for the next issue by 5 p.m. on Feb. 28. Thanks very much.