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English Professor Erin Belieu comes from a family of educators, and she remembers dinners when her father would speak eloquently about the potential nobility of teaching as a calling.

Professor Kathleen Yancey has collected numerous awards and honors during her 30-plus years as a professor of rhetoric and composition and a sometime administrator. Her most recent achievement, however, is one she never expected nor sought to win: the 2018 Conference on College Composition and Communication Exemplar Award.

Professor Andrew Epstein’s book "Attention Equals Life: The Pursuit of the Everyday in Contemporary Poetry and Culture" (Oxford, 2016) has been named as one of the Outstanding Academic Titles for 2017.

Assistant Professor Alisha Gaines places her first book-length publication, Black for a Day: White Fantasies of Race and Empathy (U of North Carolina P, 2017), high on her list for career achievements.
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The Department of English honored its outstanding undergraduate and graduate students Friday, April 20 during the annual awards ceremony. Professor Gary Taylor, chair of the department, welcomed those in attendance by saying the event is a way to celebrate past and present accomplishments.

By Tara Keimel
Joy to the world was the focus one recent afternoon on Florida State University’s campus. Or, at least, joy to the poems we’re able to share, enjoy, and discuss.
FSU English Professor David Kirby coordinated and led the first-ever “Poetry Celebrates,” an event aimed at inspiring and encouraging poetry that celebrates the shared and unique experiences humanity encounters.
The realization of a lifelong dream is something most people aspire to achieve but not everyone experiences. Fulfilling that dream could be even more meaningful when your life has spanned more than a century.

By Amber Deschene
We don’t always realize the impact we have on people in our day-to-day lives, or the impact they may have on us. Teachers specifically have a unique chance to influence the lives of many individuals on a daily basis. They strive to pass down their love for knowledge to their students.
Florida State University alumnus Bobbie Cavnar, who graduated from FSU in 1999, is one of those teachers. In mid-February 2018, the National Endowment for the Arts Foundation named Cavnar the Nation’s Best Teacher for 2018.

By Lauren Olster
Students who are earning advanced academic degrees find many ways to enhance their research and scholarship. They rely on professors to mentor them and guide them through the process. They engage and collaborate with other graduate students who have similar interests. And they read. A lot.

Come out to the Knott House Museum tonight as Yolanda J. Franklin reads some of her original pieces from her new book of poetry Blood Vinyls (Anhinga, July 2018), as well as work from several classic jazz poets.
Born and raised in Tallahassee, Franklin earned both her undergraduate degree and a PhD in English from Florida State University. In a previous interview with english.fsu.edu, Franklin said, “growing up in the South is the backbone of my writing.”