Bad Poetry Night: Warren Literary and Art Journal

Big Dog Reading Series: Jerry Wemple & Claire Lawrence

Don't forget to go to Monty's on Thursday and hear two of our own professors in the English Department, Prof. Jerry Wemple and Dr. Claire Lawrence, share their work. The event starts at 7 pm in Monty's Assembly Room on upper campus.

We can't wait to see you there!

COLA Symposium

If you’re taking any English class whatsoever (and I hope you are!), you probably know about the 4th annual College of Liberal Arts Symposium. Make sure to check out the schedule found here to see what lectures you want to see the most—like our multiple English Department alumni. The event is taking place this Thursday and Friday in multiple buildings around campus, so be sure to attend.

Sigma Tau Delta New Initiates

Congratulations to our new Sigma Tau Delta members! Initiation was held at Dr. Francis’s house last Sunday and included a lovely potluck dinner and some light poetry for dessert.

Our three initiates:



Sheila Patoka (right), Sophomore Secondary Education major
Caroline Vandivere (left), Junior Secondary Education major
Robert Leonard, Sophomore Creative Writing major

In addition to initiation, guests also talked about upcoming events in the honors society, like the Ervene Gulley Faculty Lecture Series on November 20th. Their main speaker, Dr. Stuart, is focusing on the topic “Inheritance.” Be on the lookout for more info when we get into November.
The whole of Sigma Tau Delta is also hosting their international convention in Las Vegas next spring, and submissions for that event are open until October 28th.


(President Jose Gamboa, emphasizing a talking point so hard his hand blurred)

The night was filled with laughter and fun, and was a hugely successful initiation overall. We warmly welcome our newest members to the Theta Kappa chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, International English Honors Society, and wish the best for them in their future scholarly endeavors.

(About Sigma Tau Delta: The International Honor Society of English Majors and Minors has a capture here at BU and is housed in the Department of English. The society seeks to recognize students who excel in literary studies and supports their work as they grow through enriching their knowledge through academic and scholarly endeavor.)

Law (Enforcement) Career Expo: Not for English Majors?

Dr. Decker’s English 488 class went to the recent “Law, Legal and Government” Expo to see what job opportunities they had to offer and what experience they could get from this event. The expo was held on the 9th of October in Kehr Union Ballroom, from 11:30 to 1 pm.

While the expo had numerous opportunities, the majority of them were for law enforcement rather than the other titles stated in the name of the event. Several students interviewed about their experiences after the event, including Jose Gamboa, Madeleine Malley and Anna Jaskiewicz all said that it was “not anything like the university advertised.”

One job representative at a booth there outright said “we’re not hiring teachers.” After the students said that they even though they were English majors, they were not focusing on teaching, the representative only repeated their initial statement.

Another student started a great conversation with a representative from another law enforcement table. Unfortunately, when he learned this student’s major, he dismissively said that they weren’t looking to hire English majors.

Despite these negative interactions, the experience was still instructive. The main lesson these students learned was to actively scout out potential employers and inform potential employers about all the skills that English majors have to offer besides being “teachers" (all those critical thinking skills learned in reading analysis are helpful in many legal careers, for example). Hopefully, this experience will help the university as well as its students in holding and attending more successful career expos in the future.

Kicking Back After the English Department Cookout

English Department Cookout chez Dr. Francis (or, more accurately, her backyard):



A fun time was had by all who got to come to the English Department Cookout at Dr. Francis’s house yesterday. Everyone who came got to meet up with friends and professors, meet some new people, eat some good food and pet some good dogs.

We took pictures and interviewed some of the people who were there:

Alexis Mucci:



What’s your major?
Creative writing, with a minor in ASL interpreting.
What inspired you to do this as a major?
Well, I had to write stories for third grade English, and they did contests every week. As the year went on, I found that I was winning all of them. And then I was like, “Huh.” And I just went with it.
How are you liking the cookout?
 . . . a lot? It’s really fun.

Madison Fick:



What’s your major?
English, secondary Ed.
What inspired you to choose this as a major?
My family, they were always pounding it in, “Get your education, get your education.” I want to make it a priority for people who don’t have that.
How are you liking the cookout?
I’m enjoying it. It’s very relaxed, and a lot less stressful than I thought it would be.

Prof Jerry Wemple



What do you teach this semester?
Lit and Society, English 101 and English 316
What inspires you to teach every day?
Teaching is fun. I like helping people, and always changing up the class. The 101 I taught 2 years ago is nothing like the one I’m teaching now. I’m always thinking about different approaches, it makes things interesting for me and the students.

Picture time!

Fraggle, being adorable 

Finn and Dr. Francis

The late end-of-the-party crowd

Tyler Mills Poetry Reading Cover

Featured as the guest reader for the 20th season of the Big Dog Reading Series, Tyler Mills read for us all yesterday in Monty's assembly room.



Mills read a selection of poetry from her book, Hawk Parable, covering themes about nuclear bomb testing in the Pacific and exploring her family's mystery of her grandfather's involvement in the bombing of Nagasaki.



Her poems were varied in tone and perspective, jumping from the point of view of a soldier to searching for bomb testing sites that were wiped out on Google Maps, but each work held a deep respect for their subjects and themes.

During the Q & A at the end of the session, Mills said that she started researching these topics for her poems before 2009, some of her poems taking as long as 3 years to write, and some only taking a few hours. She especially became invested in digging through old videos of released footage of bomb testings. "[At times] I found myself pausing these videos and wishing I could stop the bombing," she told the audience.



The evening was a powerful, instructive, and enjoyable one for all of her audience members, full of poignant and moving poems. Tyler Mills' presence at Bloomsburg and her poetic insights were greatly appreciated by all attending. In hearing her poetry, we all agreed with her statement, "To me, poetry has a power to create a voice that's eternal."

English Department Fall Cookout!

The English Department is having a Fall Cookout at Dr. Francis's backyard September 26th! Dr. Francis's house is an easy walk down the hill from main campus, and is sure to have lots of great (free!) food to eat, great people to meet, and cute dogs to pet.



Hope to see you there!

Department Events This Thursday 4/9

Hello everyone!
We have two great events coming up on Thursday.

At 5:30 PM in Bakeless 207, Dr. Entzminger will be reading a non-fiction essay about her great aunt's interesting marriage.

At 6:30 PM at Monty's Upper Campus, the Big Dog Reading Series will host Daryl Sznyter and Brian Fanelli, two poets.

Be sure to attend these events and show your support!

Upcoming Event: Warren Open Mic Contest

Happy Monday!

Guidelines for Warren's Open Mic Night have been released. Read below to find out how to join this event!

Bloomsburg University's Warren Literary Journal will be hosting an Open Mic Night that will be held at 6pm in the Student Service Center (SSC) room 004 on Tuesday, April 9th. Submissions are due no later than Monday, April 1st to the litmag@bloomu.edu email. The email subject must include the category of the submission that corresponds with one of the categories listed below.

Categories for Open Mic Night contest April 9th:

Poetry: Maximum 350 words, no specific form/style is required

Fiction: Involves imaginary events and people in the form of prose. Please limit pieces to 2,000 words maximum.

Creative Nonfiction: Wikipedia defines creative nonfiction as a genre of writing that uses literary styles and techniques to create factually accurate narratives. Please limit pieces to 2,000 words maximum.

Critical Essay: Thoughtco.com defines critical essay as a form of academic writing that analyzes, interprets, and/or evaluates a text. In a critical essay, an author makes a claim about how particular ideas or themes are conveyed in a text, then supports that claim with evidence from primary and/or secondary sources. Please limit pieces to 2,000 words maximum.

Contest winners will be notified no later than Friday, April 5th and are encouraged to read their pieces aloud at the Open Mic Night. However, all participants are welcomed to attend and read their submissions to the public. There will be pizza and refreshments available during the event.

Find the contests here:  

https://warrenliteraryjournal.wordpress.com/contests/

Taste of the Arts Today!

This is just a reminder that the Taste of the Arts will be held today (Saturday 3/2) from 2pm to 5pm at the Greenly Center, 50 E Main St. This is an event sponsored by the BU College of Liberal Arts and the Center for Visual and Performing Arts, and it will feature performances by student musicians, video productions from mass comm majors, poetry/prose, and art gallery demonstrations.
Be sure to stop by and check it out!