Undergraduate Night at State Street

Welcome back, and happy spring semester!

The new semester got off to a terrific start with Undergraduate Night at the State Street Reading Series.  This is the second year organizers Michael Cocchiarale and James Esch have featured student writers from local colleges and universities, and once again it was a great success.  Turnout at the Media Arts Council Gallery was high, and the student performers shared poetry and fiction touching on topics ranging from documentary verse on women in science to the struggles of mental illness.  The voices of the students, and the voices they brought to life on the page, were profoundly moving.

Michael Cocchiarale introduces Undergraduate Night

Featured were Marianne Donley from Villanova University, Colette Gerstmann from Swarthmore College, Francesca Malin from Cabrini University, and Jennifer Rohrbach from Widener University.

Jenn, a senior English and Creative Writing double major (and editor-in-chief of The Blue Route), read from a novella produced over the fall semester in her Longform Fiction course with Dr. Cocchiarale.  The narrative was told from the varying points of view of three characters, all of whom share a secret from their past.  After the reading, Jenn shared that her influences for the piece included Faulkner, and that she wanted to make sure that each perspective carried a unique voice.

Jenn Rohrbach reads (photo credit Michael Cocchiarale)

Mark your calendars for the next State Street Reading:  March 15 at 7pm, with Sam Gridley and Jasmine Combs.  Follow on Facebook for updates!

Welcome Back!

We here at Widener English and Creative Writing are very excited to get back in the classroom—to meet new majors and minors and greet returning ones.  There are already a number of exciting activities on the horizon, and we encourage you to stay in touch and get involved.

Below you can find a run-down of everything on our events calendar.  In the meantime, seek out opportunities at our literary magazines The Blue Route and Widener Ink, our digital-first student-run media site The Blue & Gold, our theatre company Lone Brick Theatre, and our undergraduate research opportunities in digital humanities and textual scholarship.  We are here to help, with everything from courses to careers, and we look forward to seeing you on the third floor of Kapelski!

Save the dates:

• English and Creative Writing majors and minors opening meeting:  September 6, noon, KLC 339 (pizza will be served!)
• State Street Reading Series:  September 21, 7pm, Media Art Gallery (more info here!)
• Fall Faculty Lecture:  Dr. Daniel Robinson on the Shelleys:  September 28, 3:30pm, UC Room F
• Ken Pobo Poetry Reading:  October 5, 4pm, Widener Art Gallery (to be confirmed)
• Open Mic:  October 19, 7pm, LC 1
• Reading:  Distinguished Visiting Writer Stephanie Powell Watts:  November 15 at 4pm (learn more about her work here!)

Save the Dates: English and Creative Writing Events

The next few weeks are BUSY here at Widener English and Creative Writing.  Save the dates!

• The Reading for Unity is being held tomorrow, Saturday, April 1, at 2pm in the Webb Room in University Center.  Widener students along with undergraduate writers from other colleges in the Philly region read works inspired by the call for social justice.
• The Distinguished Visiting Writer, poet Christine Butterworth-McDermott, will be reading Wednesday, April 5, at 4pm in LC 1.
• Dr. Daniel Robinson will be giving this spring’s President’s Lecture on his scholarship in the editing of Romantic-period texts.  This takes place on Monday, April 17 at noon in Lathem Hall.
• The Creative Writing Senior Seminar reading will take place on Thursday, April 20 at 4pm in the Drost Room of the Library.  Kelsey Styles, Evan Kramer, David Kelly, and Aly Amato will be reading their original work.
• Our annual Humanities Award ceremony will take place on Thursday, April 27—we will be recognizing the winner of the Roelofs Award at this event, as well as our first recipient of the Hastie Award.
• The final reading for the 2016–2017 season of the State Street Series will take place on May 18 at 7pm in the Media Arts Gallery.  Come here the work of Sham-e Ali Nayeem and Curtis Smith.

  

  Carla Spataro performing at the March State Street Reading

Rahul Mehta performing at the March State Street Reading

Undergraduate Night at the State Street Reading Series

The second half of the 2016–2017 State Street Reading Series season opened with our first Undergraduate Night.  Writers from Cabrini, Swarthmore, Villanova, and Widener shared their fiction and poetry to a packed house.

Michael Cocchiarale introduces Undergraduate Night

Widener was represented by two seniors:  Kelsey Styles (Creative Writing/Communication Studies) and Evan Kramer (Creative Writing/English).  Each read original works of fiction.

SAVE THE DATE!

• The next State Street Reading will take place on March 16 at 7pm, featuring Carla Spataro and Rahul Mehta.
• Undergraduate writers from around the region will convene at Widener on April 1 at 2pm for a Reading for Unity.  Students will read inspiring works on the theme of social justice.  Open to all in the Webb Room of the University Center.

 

State Street Reading Series: Tamara Oakman and Simone Zelitch

Last week saw a great crowd at the Media Arts Center for another installment of the State Street Reading Series.  Featured were Tamara Oakman, Executive Editor of Apiary Magazine and Instructor of English at Widener University, and Simone Zelitch, Associate Professor of English at Community College of Philadelphia.  Oakman read a series of poems speaking to issues both personal and political, and Zelitch read from her most recent novel Waveland, the story of a woman experiencing Freedom Summer.

Ken Pobo introduces Tamara Oakman. Photo credit: James Esch

The State Street Reading Series, sponsored by the Media Arts Council and Widener University, is a wonderful opportunity to meet local authors and hear their work.  Don’t miss the next one:  Thursday, March 17 at 7pm, where you’ll have a chance to hear M. Nzadi Keita and Carmen Maria Machado.

Simone Zelitch. Photo credit: James Esch

Jayne Thompson and Lise Funderburg at the State Street Reading Series

On January 15, Jayne Thompson and Lise Funderburg performed at the latest installment of the State Street Reading Series at the Media Arts Council Gallery.  Thompson, a Widener English faculty member, read excerpts from her recent anthology of prison writing, Letters to My Younger Self; the event was advanced by this great piece on the Widener Magazine blog which features some details about Thompson’s project.  (You may recall the interview she gave with Marty Moss-Coane on Radio Times a while ago, too.)

Funderburg followed, reading a chapter from her recent memoir Pig Candy: Taking My Father South, Taking My Father Home.  Funderburg’s work has appeared in many venues including The Philadelphia Inquirer, The New York Times, and Salon; she teaches at Penn and Rutgers-Camden.  You can check out more about Pig Candy, a moving, funny, delectable piece of writing, here.

 

Jim Esch and Randall Brown Read in the State Street Series

Last week Jim Esch and Randall Brown performed in the second round of the State Street Reading Series at the Media Arts Center.  Esch read a short story entitled “Zig Zag,” and Brown read a selection of flash fiction.

Esch has received some recognition in recent months for his collaboration with Ken Pobo in the publication of Pobo’s most recent book, When the Light Turns Green, which came out with Esch’s Spruce Alley Press.  (Read a story about this project on the Widener website here.)  Esch’s work has appeared in a number of venues, including Martian Lit (read his story “Big Deal” here) and Stoneslide Corrective (read his story “Warning Light” here).

Randall Brown teaches Creative Writing at Rosemont College and blogs at FlashFiction.net.  Pieces appearing recently online include “Origin” in Fiction Southeast and “We’ll Be Doing This Forever” at Spork Press.

Come to the Media Arts Center in January for the next round of readings:  January 15, 7pm.

And:  we’d like to take this opportunity to share that Widener English now has a YouTube playlist!  Check it out:

 

 

 

Professor Pobo Launches State Street Reading Series, Publishes New Book with Professor Esch

Last week saw the inaugural reading in the State Street Reading Series, a new event in Media sponsored by the Media Arts Council and Widener University.  The featured readers were our own Professor Ken Pobo, joined by Dilruba Ahmed.  The reading was held in the Media Arts Center Gallery, an intimate space displaying the work of local artists and a venue for a number of exciting events.

Professor Pobo reads at the Media Arts Center for the State Street Reading Series

Professor Pobo read poems from over the course of his career, displaying his range and wit with lively performance.  We were particularly glad to hear work from his new collection, When the Light Turns Green, the publication of which is an especially exciting event because it is the first book produced by colleague Professor Jim Esch through his new independent small publishing company Spruce Alley Press.  When the Light Turns Green, a 32-poem chapbook, is a mix of poetry and art, with Stacy Esch contributing 12 full-color digital art pieces.   This is the 19th chapbook in Professor Pobo’s distinguished career; he has also published five collections of poetry. Stacy Esch has published writing and artwork in wordriver, Oddball Magazine, and Ibbetson Street. She is an English instructor at West Chester University.

The book’s title stems from the last poem in the collection, “Funeral Homes.” Professor Pobo explains: “For me, the light is a changing force. What I saw as light at twelve seems quite different now at sixty.  Green means go.  It is also a central color in nature, restorative, an essence of spring.  A steadying color, one to rest in.”

Professor Esch, who also edits the literary zine Turk’s Head Review, had been planning to launch the press for years. “With all the changes going on in the publishing world, there are doors opening for small, independent publishers to offer high quality books that can be distributed worldwide with minimal startup costs. I want Spruce Alley to be a channel for independent literary voices, as well as a local and regional cultural presence in our community. Plus, I get a chance to indulge my passion for book design.”

Professors Pobo and Esch have been getting a lot of great press for this project, including an interview here with Professor Esch and one here with Professor Pobo.

The book is available print-on-demand at Lulu.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and can be special ordered from independent booksellers everywhere. E-book versions are also available at Apple’s iTunes, and a Kindle version at Amazon.com.

We’re looking forward to the next event in the State Street Reading Series, to be held on November 20, and featuring Professor Esch.