News & Events
Upcoming Events
Student Writing: Submit Your Work to Department Prize Competitions
[Sep 11, 2009]
The Thelma Styles Igou Poetry Award: In the spring of
2010, the English Department at UTC will award the fourth annual Thelma Styles Igou Poetry Award. There will be two separate categories,
undergraduate and graduate. The winner in each category will receive a cash prize of $250 at the annual English Department Banquet
(scheduled for April 9, 2010) and may have his/her poem published in a campus publication. Submission Deadline is January 29, 2010.
Download guidelines and a submission form
The Ken Smith Fiction Award: In the spring of 2010, the English Department at UTC will award the third annual Ken Smith Fiction Award. There will be two separate categories, undergraduate and graduate. The winner in each category will receive a cash prize of $250 at the annual English Department Banquet (scheduled for April 9, 2010) and may have his/her work published in a campus publication. Submission Deadline is January 29, 2010. Download guidelines and a submission form
Creative Non-Fiction Award: In the spring of 2010, the English Department at UTC will award the first annual creative non-fiction award. There will be two separate categories, undergraduate and graduate. The winner in each category will receive a cash prize of $250 at the annual English Department Banquet (scheduled for April 9, 2010) and may have his/her work published in a campus publication. Submission Deadline is January 29, 2010. Download guidelines and a submission form <
The Sally B. Young Writing Award: Submit the best critical essay written for an undergraduate English course at UTC during the 2009 calendar year (Spring, Summer, Fall Õ09 terms) and win $250, in addition to having your name added to the award plaque in the Conner Reading Room. Winners will be selected via blind review by a five-member faculty committee and will be announced at the annual English Department Banquet on April 9, 2010. Submission Deadline is January 29, 2010. Download guidelines and a submission form
News
Courtney Houpt Discusses Her Experience as an English Major
[19 June 2009]
English major Courtney Houpt was recently interviewed about her experience as a student in the English department. The interview was conducted as part of a series of podcasts featuring UTC students talking about their majors. View the entire series
Bryan Hampton Wins UT Alumni Association Teaching Award
[5 Jan 2009]
Dr. Bryan Hampton, Assistant Professor of English and Co-ordinator of UTC's Humanities program,
was recently honored as 2008 Outstanding Teacher by the University of Tennessee National Alumni
Association. The distinction, which honors classroom excellence and unusual committment to students,
is given each year to only two faculty members from each of the four UT system campuses. Past
winners from the UTC English department include Professors Edgar McDowell Shawen, Katherine Rehyansky,
Christopher Stuart,
Gregory O'Dea, Immaculate Kizza, and Earl Braggs.
English Department Announces Scholarships
[5 Jan 2009]
The English Department Scholarships Committee invites applications for six scholarships specifically designated for English majors: the Arlie E. Herron Scholarship, the Sally B. Young Scholarship,
the Marian J. Tyte Scholarship, the Robert W. and Beatrice R. Anderson Scholarship, the Dr. Margaret N. Kelley
Scholarship, and the Chuck Pierce Scholarship. Download guidelines and application form
Richard Jackson Wins Garrett Award from Associated Writing Programs
[5 Jan 2009]
Richard Jackson, UTNAA Professor of English at UTC, has won the prestigious AWP (Associated Writing Programs) George Garrett Award. The award is given once a year to a nationally prominent writer who has contributed to the art and will be presented at the Annual AWP Conference in Chicago.
Jackson, who has also taught at the Prague Summer Program, Iowa summer Programs and Vermont College of Fine Arts Program, as well as programs across the country, has previously earned Guggenheim, Fulbright, NEA, NEH, and Witter-Bynner fellowships for writing. He has also received the Order of Freedom medal from the President of Slovenia for his Humanitarian and Literary work in the Balkans. A winner of a reader's Choice award from Prairie Schooner Magazine, Crazyhorse and other journals, he was nominated for the Garret Award by numerous former students, colleagues and internationally known writers.
He has published 9 books of poems, two anthologies of Slovene poetry, a critical book, several chapbooks of translations, and a book of interviews. His poems have been translated and published in 15 different languages and he has won 5 Pushcart prize appearances in the Pushcart Anthology, a Choice Award, and Agee Award, as well as Appearing in Best American Poets and the Pushcart Book of Poetry Anthology. He has also edited special sections of Poetry International and Hunger Mountain, and edits Poetry Miscellany and the PM East European Chapbook Series. He has also published nearly 100 reviews, essays and book introductions. A book of translations of the Italian poet, Pascoli and a book of his own poems, Resonance, will appear in the next two years.
A winner of college and system teaching awards at UTC and the Vermont College of Fine Arts, he has given about 100 readings and workshops and universities here and abroad including Romania, Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel, Switzerland, Italy, Bosnia and Slovenia. Jackson's poetry students have won numerous awards: they have published around 50 books, and 100% of his UTC Students have won fellowships to the best MFA programs in the country, a record no other program can equal, and which helps rank UTC's Creative Writing Program as one of the top couple of programs in the country. He founded the UTC Creative Writing Abroad Program 20 years ago which takes 10-15 students for three weeks a year to meet writers and students in Europe, a program he also adapted for Vermont College, and advised for several other national programs.
He founded and directs the bi-annual Meacham Writers' Workshop which has achieved an international reputation for its teaching and its philosophy of a free and open conference where students, faculty and townspeople mix with internationally known writers. He is assisting UTC Prof. Sybil Baker in founding an annual writers conference at UTC for high school, college, and graduate students as well as post-graduates next August.
Jackson joined the UTC faculty in 1976 after earning his PhD at Yale, and teaches in the University Honors Program as well as the English Department. He is married to Teresa Harvey.
Bryan Hampton and Rebecca Cook Honored for Teaching and Scholarship
[Nov 28, 2006]
Two members of the English department faculty were
recently presented with College of Arts and Sciences Awards at UTC's Faculty Honors Day. Dr. Bryan Hampton,
Assistant Professor of English and Co-ordinator of Humanities, won the College's Outstanding Teaching Award. Rebecca Cook, Lecturer,
won the College's Outstanding Creative Scholarship Award. Congratulations to both for these important recognitions!
Dr. Jennifer Beech's Scholarship Named by the Chronicle of Higher Education
[Nov 28, 2006]
For the second time since coming to UTC, Dr. Jennifer Beech's scholarship has
been recognized in the Chronicle of Higher Education. In the November 17, 2006 print and online versions of the Chronicle,
Beech's lead chapter from the book Reflections from the Wrong Side of the Tracks: Class, Identity, and the Working Class Experience in
Academe (Rowman and Littefield, 2006) is detailed in Robin Wilson's review of the book. In June 2004, Professor Beech's co-authored
article, "The Work Before Us," was recognized on the front page of the online Chronicle as an important piece of scholarship for
English studies. With Professors Ira Shor (CUNY) and William Thelin (University of Akron), Professor Beech is the co-chair of the
Working-Class Culture and Pedagogy Special Interest Group of the Conference on College Composition and Communications.
Dr. Edgar McDowell Shawen Named UTNAA Outstanding Teacher
[May 10, 2006]
Dr. Edgar McDowell Shawen, Associate Professor of English,
was recently honored as 2006 Outstanding Teacher by the University of Tennessee National Alumni
Association. The distinction, which honors classroom excellence and unusual committment to students,
is given each year to only two faculty members from each of the four UT system campuses. Past
winners from the UTC English department include Professors Katherine Rehyansky, Christopher Stuart,
Gregory O'Dea, Immaculate Kizza, and Earl Braggs.
Dr. Richard Jackson's Poetry and Prose Featured in Online Literary Magazines
[Jan 23, 2006]
The January 2006 issue of The Cortland Review, a prize-winning online literary magazine, features five
new poems and an essay by Dr. Richard Jackson,
UC Foundation Professor of English at UTC. Jackson's poems are presented as text and with audio; his essay, "Language-Driven
Poetry: An Introduction to the Principle of Generating Poems," "begins with Dante and Petrarch and walks us through poems of Wordsworth, Keats,
Robert Frost, Andre Breton, Cesare Pavese, Richard Wilbur,
Wislawa Szymborska, Anna Akhmatova, all the way to Heather McHugh to demonstrate that the imaginative vision possible to us through poetry
exists not in the dressing up of ideas, feelings or events that the poet tries to find words to describe, but in its exploration of language,
'not merely a record, but a gesture always trying to escape itself, escape our human condition towards something universal...'."
Jackson has also recently collaborated on a multimedia presentation of his poem "Midnight" in Born Magazine.
Dr. Gregory O'Dea Receives Humanities in Medicine Award
[Nov 5, 2005]
The Tennessee Chapter of the American College of Physicians has named Dr. Gregory O'Dea, UC Foundation Professor of English and
Director of UTC's interdisciplinary honors program, as the 2005 recipient of the Clifton R. Cleaveland Humanities in
Medicine Award. The award recogonizes outstanding contributions to humanism in medicine, as well as scholarly achievement in history,
literature, philosophy, and ethics. In presenting the award during the Tennessee ACP's annual meeting in Nashville, Dr. Stephen Miller,
Governor of the College, noted Professor O'Dea's "deep awareness of the importance of humane letters, particularly literature and
history, to the work of physicians" as well as his "unstinting commitment to teaching medical humanities, and his invaluable
contributions to the success of the humanities and medicine programs he directs in Tennessee, Georgia, and at the national level.
His teaching expertise is legendary; at each venue, his workshops and lectures are over-subscribed. His devoted audience
for the Tennessee programs alone is drawn from over half a dozen states."
Dr. O'Dea also delivered the keynote address at the conference, entitled "Who are the Humanists?: Reading and (Re)Writing the Human Body."
Dr. Jennifer Beech Elected to CCCC Nominating Committee
[Oct 12, 2005]
Dr. Jennifer Beech, Assistant Professor of English and Writing Center Director, has won a national
election for a seat on the 2006 Nominating Committee for the Conference on Composition and
Communication (CCCC). CCCC, an affiliate organization of National Council of Teachers of English,
supports and promotes the teaching and study of college composition and communication by 1) sponsoring
meetings and publishing scholarly materials for the exchange of knowledge about composition, composition
pedagogy, and rhetoric; 2) supporting a wide range of research on composition, communication, and rhetoric;
3) working to enhance the conditions for learning and teaching college composition and to promote professional
development; and 4) acting as an advocate for language and literacy education nationally and internationally.
As a member of the Nominating Committee, Beech will work with other CCCC elected officials to nominate
dedicated and qualified CCCC members for a variety of important committees within the
organization.
Recent Events
Meacham Writers' Workshp March 18-21
[March 15, 2009]
UTC's biannual writing conference is scheduled for March 19th-March 21st and
is free and open to the public! This conference will consist of readings by
visiting authors as well as Saturday morning workshops.
Visiting writers will include Marvin Bell, Nathan Bell, Xu Xi, Marc Fitten, Pamela Uschuk, William Pitt Root, Gaylord Brewer, Bill Rasmovicz, Chad Prevost, and Sebastian Matthews and will offer the following readings:
Thursday March 19th, 7:00pm @ Chattanooga State University Friday
March 20th, 12:00pm and 7:00 pm @ UTC's University Center Raccoon Mt.
Room Saturday March 21st 2:00pm @ Rock Point Bookstore
The writers will offer workshops on Saturday March 21st from 10:00am to
12:00pm at UTC's University Center, rooms TBD.
Please see http://www.chattanoogastate.edu/Meacham/schedule.htm for schedule information.
Richard Jackson and Sybil Baker Lead Students on a Creative Writing Tour of Europe Meacham Writers' Conference, February 28 - March 1 The Meacham Workshops are free. Jean Meacham, a former UTC professor and widely regarded as one of the University's finest teachers,
gave a generous endowment to UTC in memory of her husband, Ellis, a writer and judge. The terms of
the bequest, and a tribute to Jean's extraordinary vision, stipulate that the workshops be free and open
to the public with no formal registration. She intended the workshops to be a place where professional,
student, local, and amateur writers might freely meet, listen to each other, and help each other improve.
She also intended the workshops to include readers, not just writers, an audience that could hear
first hand some of the best national and international writers.
The Program is sponsored by: Tennessee Arts Commission, Allied Arts of Chattanooga, Chattanooga State Technical Commununity
College, UTC Speakers & Special Events Committee, UTC English Department, UTC Honors Program, and Poetry Miscellany.
Student Writing: Submit Your Work to Dunbar and Igou Prize Competitions
Paul Laurence Dunbar Essay Competition: All UTC students (undergraduate
or graduate) are invited to submit entries for a Paul Laurence Dunbar Essay Competition, in
connection with the Paul Laurence Dunbar Festival to be held on February 1, 2007. Download guidelines and a submission form
The Thelma Styles Igou Poetry Award: In the spring of 2007, the English
Department will award the first annual Thelma Styles Igou Poetry Award. There will be two
separate categories, undergraduate and graduate. The winner in each category will receive
a cash prize at the annual English Department Honors Day and may have his/her poem published
in a campus publication. Download guidelines and a submission form
Herbert Martin Inaugurates Paul Laurence Dunbar Celebration When: Wednesday, October 4, 7:30 p.m. One hundred years after Paul Laurence
Dunbar's death, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga is sponsoring a year-long celebration
of his life and work. The initial event occured October 4 when Herbert Martin, an internationally
acclaimed scholar and interpreter of the works of Dunbar, brought his one-man performance to
Chattanooga.
Through dramatic portrayals of Dunbar's work, Martin has captivated audiences for more than
three decades. A poet himself, with six published volumes, Martin is widely acknowledged
as Dunbar's foremost interpreter. He actually dresses in the role of Dunbar
and performs, rather than reads, a wide variety of Dunbar's work.
Growing up in Alabama, Martin says that he felt the spirit of Dunbar hovering over him, but
in a rather negative way. His physical resemblance to America's first nationally-acclaimed
African American poet was often noted, and teachers frequently asked him to read Dunbar's
poetry aloud. Martin grew irritated at the comparisons and was thus inclined to turn away
from Dunbar.
When he accepted a position at the University of Dayton in 1970, however, he found
himself in Dunbar's native city, and he began to study Dunbar. His attitude toward
Dunbar changed rapidly, and he soon became a champion of Dunbar's poetry. In 1972 he
organized a Dunbar festival that attracted top African-American poets.
That same year he also began performing his one man show, expanding on his earlier
experiences reading in coffee houses. Martin presents both the works written in standard
English and those in the dialect of the black community of Dunbar's day. He even sings
some of Dunbar's verses, emphasizing the musical nature of the poetry. He also captures
the humor inherent in much of Dunbar's work, emphasizing that Dunbar had the ability to
see humor in nearly everything.
Martin has performed numerous times for schools, reading clubs, the general public, Black
Entertainment Television, cable television, and even a Fortune 500 company. He is also an
accomplished scholar, teacher, poet, and musician. A biography entitled Herbert Woodward
Martin and the African American Tradition in Poetry traces his career as a writer and
performer.
The Mellon Poetry Prize, an honorary doctorate from the University of Dayton, a
Fulbright Scholarship, the 2002 Governor's Award for the Arts (Ohio), and the Mark
Twain Award for Creative Writing are among the numerous awards given to Martin.
The event is sponsored by the Departments of English,
Music, and Art and is free to the public. Take Five Lecture Series, May 2006: Contemporary International Fiction The English department is pleased once again to sponsor the acclaimed Take Five Lecture Series on Tuesday evenings in May 2006. This year's series will feature five lectures and panel discussions on contemporary international fiction. The series is open to the public; registration is not required. Each of the five evening sessions includes a 45-minute lecture and a one-hour panel discussion among presenters and audience members. Books are available at the UTC Bookstore and other local book sellers. For more information, please contact Verbie Prevost at verbie-prevost@utc.edu
Schedule May 2 May 9 May 16 May 23 May 30 Meacham Writers' Workshops to Feature Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award Winners Other writers include multiple prize winning authors Sebastian Matthews from North Carolina, Dara Wier
from the University of Massachusetts, Ann Marie Macari from Philadelphia, Evie Schockley from Rutgers
University, and Cherie Priest. A number of local writers also participate, including Meacham Director
Richard Jackson, winner of numerous International Awards; UTC Professor Earl Braggs, who has won
national awards for his poetry and his fiction; Rebecca Cook, who teaches creative writing at UTC and whose
poetry and prose has been published widely; Barry Graham, Laura Howard, Helga Kidder and others.
This year the program will also include a special workshop session for over 50 area high school students
on Saturday morning, October 29.
Anyone interested in having a manuscript discussed should send 3 COLLATED copies (of 3 poems or 12
pages of prose) to the English department by October 17.
The Meacham Workshops are free: everyone is welcome to attend and there is no formal registration.
Jean Meacham, a former UTC professor and widely regarded as one of the University's finest teachers,
gave a generous endowment to UTC in memory of her husband, Ellis, a writer and judge. The terms of
the bequest, and a tribute to Jean's extraordinary vision, stipulate that the workshops be free and open
to the public with no formal registration. She intended the workshops to be a place where professional,
student, local, and amateur writers might freely meet, listen to each other, and help each other improve.
She also intended the workshops to include readers, not just writers, an audience that could hear
first hand some of the best national and international writers.
The Program is sponsored by: The Meacham Fund, Allied Arts of Chattanooga, CSTCC, UTC Speakers and
Special Events Committee, UTC English Department, UTC Honors Program, and the Poetry Miscellany.
Schedule and Biographies of Participants
Sunday, September 11, 3:30 p.m. — Dorothy Hackett Ward Theatre
[August 15, 2008]
This past May Professors Richard Jackson and Sybil Baker led a
group of UTC creative writing students and alumni on a three-week tour of Europe, including prolonged stays in Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, and
Croatia. You can read Rowan Johnson's full report -- with pictures -- here (pdf document).
[March 15, 2008]
The Meacham Writers' Workshop took place February 28 - March 1, 2008 at UTC, Chattanooga State Technical
Community College, and at Rock Point Books in downtown Chattanooga. A full schedule and biographies of
award-winning visting writers can be found here.
[May 10, 2006]
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Poetry Competition: On February 1, 2007, UTC will host a Paul Laurence Dunbar Festival
with a variety of musical and poetic compositions being performed. The festival will include
recitation of original poems created by UTC students. All students are invited to participate
in the poetry competition for this event. Download guidelines and a submission form
[Sep 20, 2006]
Where: Roland Hayes Concert Hall
[Apr 23 2006]
Each Tuesday in May
7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Racoon Mountain Room, University Center
The Bridge on the Drina, by Ivo Andric
(Lecturer: John Trimpey, Professor of Humanities)
The English Patient, by Michael Ondaatje
(Lecturer: Gregory O'Dea, UC Foundation Professor of English and Director of The University Honors Program)
Remembering Babylon, by David Malouf
(Lecturer: Verbie Prevost, Kathryn Pryor Professor and Head of English)
Texaco, by Patrick Chamoiseau
(Lecturer: Victoria Steinberg, Assistant Professor of French)
The Leopard, by Giuseppe di Lampedusa
(Lecturer: Christopher Stuart, UC Foundation Associate Professor of English)
[Oct 10 2005]
The Meacham Writers' Workshop will take place this October 27, 28, 29 at UTC (Friday and Saturday) and CSTCC (Thursday).
This year two of the featured writers are Gerald Stern, National Book Award Winner in Poetry, and James Tate,
National Book Award Winner and Pulitzer prize Winner in Poetry.
A Lecture by Dr. Susan Willis (Auburn University):
"Pursuing Shakespeare; or, a Response to 'No, I've Seen Hamlet Before.'"
Dr. Susan Willis of Auburn University will deliver a lecture as part of a program sponsored by The Connor Society. In addition to teaching at Auburn, Dr. Willis has served as dramaturg of the Alabama Shakespeare Festival for twenty years. She directed this season's production of The Taming of the Shrew for ASF, and is the author of The BBC Shakespeare: Making the Televised Canon.
