Elaine Treharne Uncovers 16th-Century Love Poem
Elaine Treharne's recent discovery of a sixteenth-century poem that originated in England and eventually found a home in a West Virginia University library is sparking interest among scholars about the poem's author and her suggestive expressions.
After giving a lecture as a visiting professor at WVU in the summer of 2011, Treharne accompanied her students to the Rare Book Room in the Charles C. Wise Library. At one point during the trip, Treharne opened a 1561 edition of works by Geoffrey Chaucer; pasted in the back of the book was a Latin love poem: "Ad Anthoninus Cokinij" ("To Anthony Coke").
Having barely any facts on hand or any supporting information from other scholars, Treharne began the arduous task of translating the poem and researching the story behind it. What she uncovered was possibly an affair involving Lady Elizabeth Dacre Howard, the poem's author, and Sir Anthony Cooke, who was a tutor to King Edward VI, son of King Henry VIII. Cooke may have also tutored Dacre, and the age difference between the two at the time would have been close to 25 years.
Treharne's subsequent research was enough to merit the publication of a journal article in Renaissance Studies. Treharne writes in the article—currently published online and scheduled for publication in 2012—that if scholars "take the work at face value, the poem becomes a declaration of love with erotic overtones."
Beyond the more intimate details of the poem's intent, the "discovery of the poem and its aristocratic female author adds considerably to the debate on English women writers and their education in the Renaissance," Treharne writes in her article.
Not just the academic world took notice of Treharne's find. The London Times, LiveScience, and National Public Radio, among other media outlets, covered the story.
"It's very unusual for women to write in Latin at all in this period, but especially something non-religious, like this," Treharne says. "It might be the earliest love poetry written by a woman in English literary history."
English Alumna Karlanna Lewis: Rhodes Scholar Finalist
Shortly after graduating in Spring 2011 from FSU with a degree in English, Karlanna Lewis was in the middle of the demanding application process for a Rhodes Scholarship. This long and intense competition culminated with a final interview in mid-November. Unfortunately, she was not selected as a 2012 Rhodes Scholar, but Lewis says that the guidance of three English department faculty members—Barbara Hamby, David Kirby, and Robert Olen Butler—helped her reach that last stage.
"When I told Dr. Hamby, Dr. Kirby, and Dr. Butler I was a finalist for the scholarship, they all shared a few positive words with me," Lewis says. "My confidence and writing abilities would not be the same without everything these professors inspired in me."
Lewis, who submitted a collection of her poetry for her honors thesis and who also received a bachelor's degree in Russian, is an accomplished artist outside of the languages as well. The Tallahassee native attended Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School in her teens with hopes of becoming a professional ballet dancer, and she recently performed as the Snow Queen in a production of "The Nutcracker" by Tallahassee's Pas de Vie Ballet company.
While living in Pittsburgh, Lewis earned her GED after taking advanced placement courses through the Florida Virtual School and finished with a 4.0 grade point average. With a perfect 2400 score on her SATs, Lewis came to FSU and the English department, where she finished her undergraduate work in a mere two years with another 4.0 grade point average.
Hamby directed Lewis's honors thesis and says, "As her thesis took shape, I was continually impressed by how hard she worked. She was rarely satisfied and reworked poems over and over while writing new ones. Her poems deal with the intersection of the self and the world, and her world is a complex one."
During Lewis's thesis defense, Hamby says she was shocked when she found out that Lewis was only 19.
"In two years she has finished her undergraduate degree in our demanding honors-in-the-major program, written a 50-page poetry thesis, learned to read and speak Russian, and maintained a demanding schedule of ballet practice and performance," Hamby says. "Karlanna is a complex young woman, who has developed expertise in three very different worlds—poetry, ballet, and language studies. I admire her willingness to explore more than one art form. It is a quality I rarely see, even in superior students."
Lewis says that Hamby was particularly instrumental in preparing her to be a Rhodes candidate. While working together on Lewis’s honors thesis, Hamby encouraged her to submit poetry to journals for publication. Hamby also helped Lewis to apply for writers' residencies, and while attending one in Colorado in the summer of 2011, Lewis published her first book.
"Every faculty member I have worked with at Florida State has treated me as a colleague, and I appreciate the honest feedback I received from Dr. Hamby, Dr. Kirby and Dr. Butler," Lewis says. "I now hope to become an English professor someday, and I know the wisdom and care these professors showed me was a major influence in that decision. I hope to become a professor on par with the outstanding faculty members in the English department at Florida State."
For a full profile of Karlanna Lewis, visit http://www.fsu.com/News/In-quest-for-Rhodes-Scholarship-Florida-State-s-Karlanna-Lewis-advanced-to-final-round
English Department Faculty Take Part in FSU Authors Day
The Office of Faculty Recognition (OFR) and Dean of Faculties hosted the 2011 FSU Authors Day, held March 21 at the Turnbull Center. All FSU faculty who authored books published during the previous year were invited to participate.
The English Department was well represented—both Elizabeth Stuckey-French and Barry Faulk were featured readers, while five other members of the English Department attended to sign books. In all, seventeen English faculty reported book publications in 2010.
"The goal was to recognize our faculty authors, particularly of the book, which is still the touchstone for academics, and we have many faculty who produce important and noteworthy books," Margaret Wright-Cleveland, director of the OFR, explained. "So we wanted a chance to recognize that, advertise that to the public, and let people know what we are doing and thinking here at FSU, as well as let faculty look at other people's work, to learn what their colleagues are working on."
Stuckey-French read from her new book, The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady, and Faulk read from British Rock Modernism, 1967-1977. Other English faculty who participated in the event were Janet Burroway and Ned Stuckey-French (Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft); Robin Goodman (Feminist Theory in Pursuit of the Public); Meegan Kennedy (Revising the Clinic: Vision and Representation in Victorian Medical Narrative and the Novel); Jerrilyn McGregory (Downhome Gospel: African American Spiritual Activism in Wiregrass Country); and Maxine Montgomery (The Fiction of Gloria Naylor).
NRC Ranks FSU Among Nation's Top English Departments
On September 28, 2010, the National Research Council (NRC) released its new rankings of doctoral programs, placing FSU among the country's strongest English Departments. The NRC is a division of the National Academies, a federally chartered, private non-profit institution, and its rankings include five thousand doctoral programs in sixty-two different fields at more than two hundred universities.
"What these NRC rankings show is simply what our students and faculty have known for years: that FSU's English Department is a remarkable place," department chair Ralph Berry says.
The NRC generated several sets of rankings for each field, some based on narrow criteria such as Research Activity, Student Outcomes, or Diversity, and others that were overall rankings, based either on reputation or on an all-inclusive set of criteria chosen by departments in that field. FSU's English Department was particularly distinguished in the area of Research Activity, where it ranked between 4th and 18th of the 119 departments under consideration, placing it among such programs as Johns Hopkins University, University of Illinois-Chicago, and University of Michigan. In the overall ranking based on all-inclusive criteria, FSU was ranked between 15th and 44th, placing it close to programs at Emory University and Rutgers. Its reputational ranking was 26th to 69th, and its Diversity ranking was 22nd to 67th. The only ranking in which FSU was not securely in the top half of U.S. English departments was Student Outcomes, where the comparatively low level of state funding for higher education in Florida proved disadvantageous.
"Already my colleagues and I are receiving cheers from our professional peers around the country," Berry says. "Everyone is happy that a dedicated and talented faculty at a modestly-funded state university like FSU can compete with programs at the wealthiest elite institutions in the country."
The NRC rankings are among the most trusted indicators of academic standing, both for prospective students and for professionals in higher education. These rankings, which update and replace the last NRC rankings that were published in 1995, included 119 English doctoral programs and were based on data collected during the 2006-2007 academic year.
"There's nothing unusual about these rankings," Berry says. "We simply have some of the most talented faculty and students in the country."
The NRC rankings can be found at, http://www.nap.edu/rdp/, or can be accessed through the Chronicle of Higher Education's website, http://chronicle.com/page/NRC-Rankings/321/.
Ned Stuckey-French wins Arts and Humanities Program Enhancement Grant
Ned Stuckey-French has been awarded an Arts and Humanities Program Enhancement Grant from FSU's Council on Research and Creativity. He will use the funds from this award to build a digital archive of materials on the American personal essay, which will be available to students, scholars, and teachers.
Graduate students in the English department will assist Stuckey-French in building the site, collecting ads, illustrations, letters, images, and other material that originally appeared alongside classic essays in various magazines or that were contemporary with their appearance.
This project supplements and develops from Ned's two forthcoming books, The American Essay in the American Century (U of Missouri P), and Essayists on the Essay: Four Centuries of Commentary (U of Iowa P), co-edited with Carl Klaus.
Dennis Moore chosen as president of the Southern American Studies Association
SASA, the Southern American Studies Association, has chosen Dennis Moore as its new president. His two-year term began at SASA’s biennial conference, held February 17-19, 2011, in Atlanta.
With 500-plus members in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, the Carolinas and Virginia, SASA is the largest regional chapter of the interdisciplinary American Studies Association. SASA's biennial conferences focus on new developments and findings in American Studies scholarship as well as ongoing areas of debate about the nature of America and its culture, both nationally and regionally.
"It's a pleasure to be involved in this dynamic organization, working with so many bright and knowledgeable colleagues and graduate students," Moore says. "Being able to serve as president is a special honor, and I look forward to finding ways to get more people actively involved."
Moore has been an active participant at seven of SASA's eight most recent biennial conferences, and his contributions to the organization have been varied and valuable. In 2003, he and FSU art historian Karen Bearor co-hosted the SASA conference on the Florida State campus. That year's theme was "Regionalisms in This Age of Globalization." Since 2004, he has chaired SASA's Critoph Prize competition, which recognizes the best paper by a graduate student at each biennial conference.
"Dennis Moore has become a figure to whom others in our profession consistently look for leadership," says Ralph Berry, chair of the English department. "He is particularly well known for his organizational role in the Society of Early Americanists, where he has repeatedly brought together influential scholars, and he has held offices in several national and regional associations."
In 2007, outgoing SASA president John Lowe of Louisiana State University nominated Moore as his successor representing SASA on the American Studies Association's Regional Chapters Committee, and Moore is currently serving a second three-year term on that national committee. He also leads the national organization's Early American Matters Caucus, which he created in the summer of 2004 and which currently has nearly 400 members.
Later this year, Harvard University Press will publish Moore's revised and enlarged edition of J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur's 1782 book, Letters from an American Farmer. Moore spent last May studying some of the writer's previously unpublished manuscripts, courtesy of the Reese Fellowship in American Bibliography and the History of the Book, from the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University.
"Along with others of his colleagues, Dennis has helped establish our English Department as a national center for far-sighted guidance in the profession," Berry says.
Julianna Baggott and Erin Belieu to be published in Best American Poetry 2011
Julianna Baggott and Erin Belieu have reason to be doubly pleased as 2011 begins. Not only did the editors of Simon & Schuster's Best American Poetry series select the Creative Writing professors' poems for publication in the forthcoming 2011 volume, but this is the second time that the two have appeared in the volume at the same time. They previously had their poems published in the 2000 volume.
"It's a thrill to be included again in Best American Poetry with my fabulous friend and colleague Julianna Baggott," Belieu says about the repeat accomplishment. "This is a nice way to start the new year."
The editors for the series go through thousands of poems that are published in the past year before picking around seventy-five for publication in the annual anthology. For the 2011 edition, the editors chose Belieu's "When At A Certain Party In NYC" and Baggott's "To my Lover, Concerning the Yird-Swine."
"I wander the fringes of the poetry world so it's like someone—well, the editor Kevin Young—shouted my name out from this list of real, true poets, and it startled me," Baggott says about being included in the collection. "I'm a fan of Belieu's work from way back, which adds to the honor."
The Best American Poetry 2011 is scheduled for release in September.
William Boyce graduates in Spring 2011, but he has already received quite a gift for his achievement For more on Boyce's success, click here.
Boyce, an undergraduate in the FSU English Department's creative writing program, has been selected as a Fulbright Full Grant Scholar to the United Kingdom, one of only thirty-five in the United States. Beginning in September 2011, he will spend one year at the Centre for the Study of Literature, Theology, and the Arts at the University of Glasgow, conducting research on theological aesthetics, an interdisciplinary field that focuses on the cross-pollination of religion and the arts. Boyce is specifically interested in the relationships between poets with religious convictions and their creative works.
"As a graduating senior, I am honored to represent my family, friends, and Florida State University in this wonderful opportunity of cultural exchange," he says.
Boyce, also majoring in history and religion, specializes in poetry. David Kirby directed Boyce's Honors in the Major project, titled "Ah! Bright Wings," a 50-page compilation of his writings.
"William goes way beyond the often narrow borders of the undergraduate experience," Kirby says. "He’s a man of parts—his knowledge of books, history, philosophy, and other subjects goes way beyond that of the average undergraduate, and he works this knowledge into his writing in a manner that makes it richer than it would be otherwise. His high-calorie poems you want to devour them again and again."
Boyce will receive a Masters of Literature while at the University of Glasgow. He says, "At least in Scotland I won't be the palest person in the room. But in all seriousness, I want to thank those who encouraged and labored alongside me through the application process. This award is very much shared with them."
Eric Walker Wins SAMLA Book Award
The South Atlantic Modern Language Association awarded Eric Walker the 2010 SAMLA Book Award for his book, Marriage, Writing, and Romanticism: Wordsworth and Austen After War (Stanford UP, 2009). One reviewer praised Marriage, Writing, and Romanticism as "beautifully written, and the result of a career-long investment in a variety of issues whose uncanny connectedness is perhaps paramount among the study's many virtues." Rutgers University Professor William Galperin continues, writing that Walker's book is "as close to the paradigm of the scholarly book as a study is likely to get."
"SAMLA meetings were the first professional gatherings I began attending as a graduate student," Walker says, "so it is especially gratifying to be honored with an award from an organization that helped me learn to take those early professional steps."
Walker will be recognized during the Presidential Address at the November 6, 2010 SAMLA convention in Atlanta, where he will receive the award and a $1,000 prize.
For more on Marriage, Writing, and Romanticism, see Walker's recent profile.
Stan Gontarski wins Bogliasco Fellowship
S. E. Gontarski has been appointed Resident Fellow at the Bogliasco
Foundation's Liguria Study Center for the Arts and Humanities in
Bogliasco, Italy, for spring 2011. In residence at the Villa dei Pini, he
will continue his work assessing the impact of Tennessee William's theatre in and on Europe, predominantly in and on Italy where Williams spent a significant amount of time.
Kristie Fleckenstein's Book Wins W. Ross Winterowd Award
Kristie Fleckenstein's book, Vision, Rhetoric, and Social Action in the Composition Classroom (Southern Illinois UP: 2009) has been selected by the Journal of Advanced Composition (JAC) as winner of the 2009 W. Ross Winterowd Award for the most outstanding book in composition theory. JAC is an interdisciplinary journal that publishes work on rhetoric, writing, culture, and politics and is recognized for its theoretical approach to issues in rhetoric and composition.
In a feature on fsu.com, Fleckenstein states that the award offers validation for her research and for her contribution to the scholarship in her field. "When researchers write a book, we believe pretty passionately in the argument we present and in the importance of that argument," she says. "But we don't always know if that belief resonates with our readers. An award of this stature provides that feedback. . . . That is a pretty heady experience."
Fleckenstein also gives credit to the English department for reinforcing the importance of teaching and for supporting the research process. "My colleagues are exceptionally generous in their intellectual and emotional support. It is quite simply a wonderful place to develop a scholarly project."
Ralph Berry says that the award confirms Fleckenstein's "tremendous scholarly achievement. This well-deserved honor is a source of pride for all her colleagues here."
For more on Vision, Rhetoric, and Social Action, see Fleckenstein's recent profile.
Recent Graduate Student News
Meaghan Brown Wins International Dissertation Fellowship
Meaghan Brown has been awarded an International Dissertation Semester Research Fellowship for 2011-2012.
Florida State's Graduate School offers the fellowships to advanced doctoral students to facilitate research and timely completion of a doctoral degree that requires extended research time abroad.
Meaghan, under Anne Coldiron's direction, is writing a dissertation that will produce an in-depth historical analysis of the print industry and English identity in the sixteenth-century. Her research on this project itself developed in part out of Meaghan's earlier research trip to London that was supported by a fellowship from the Bibliographical Society of America. In the coming year, she will be doing archival research at the British Library and in the Lincolnshire Archives.
Other Meaghan news: she has been accepted into a Folger Shakespeare Library Seminar, which brings together a selected group of scholars to study the History of the Company of Stationers, 1557-1710. This accomplishment follows the Bibliographical Society of America fellowship she won to do research at the British Library in the summer of 2010; in both cases she was competing with international scholars at all levels—from advanced graduate students to very senior professors.
Other News
The English Department made a strong showing at the recent College English Association national conference in San Antonio: Paul Ardoin (PhD, Literature), "The Affective Voice of the Author"; Jenise Hudson (PhD, Literature), "Killing the 'Strong Black Man': Re-reading of William Faulkner's 'Pantaloon in Black' from the New Theoretical Voice of the Black Male Feminist Perspective"; Fiona McWilliam (PhD, Literature), "Telling it Slant: Dorothy Allison's True 'Stories'"; and Aimee Wilson (PhD, Literature), "Lovely Monster: Unspoken Villainy in Richard Marsh's The Beetle."
Catherine Altmaier has received the Julia Burnett Bryant Award, given by the English department to a graduate student advanced in her doctoral study.
In October, Sator Press will officially release The Complete Works of Marvin K. Mooney, a novel, by Christopher Higgs (PhD, Literature). The book is current availably directly from the publisher's website.
<-->Pete Kunze (PhD, Literature) presented a portion of his dissertation, "Slaughterhouse 9/11: Foer, Vonnegut, and the Poetics of Atrocity," at the annual meeting of the American Literature Association in San Francisco. He also has three entries in the recently released Encyclopedia of Contemporary Writers and Their Work (editors, Geoff Hamilton and Brian Jones).
Lucy Littler (PhD, Literature) has an article, "The Implications of 'Chosenness': Unsettling the Exodus Narrative as a Model for Black Liberation in Randall Kenan's A Visitation of Spirits," forthcoming in The Southern Literary Journal.
Josh McCall (MFA, Creative Writing) published "The Land of Cockaigne," a nonfiction piece, in The Florida Review (Winter 2009-10). His story "The Ballad of Scrub and Shelly" appeared in Surreal South '09.
April McCray (PhD, Literature) presented her paper "Your Blues Ain't Like Mine, Mine's Better: Investigating Blues Ideology and Marriage in Black Women's Narratives" at the National Council for Black Studies Conference in New Orleans.
David Moody (PhD, Creative Writing) presented his paper "True Identity: Bakhtin, Superman, and 'the American Way'" at the 2010 Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Social Imagery 20th Annual Conference at Colorado State University, Pueblo. He also presented "Poetically Controlling a Commodity of Attention" at the annual AWP conference in Denver.
Two translations by Jacob Newberry (PhD, Creative Writing) will be included in the forthcoming anthology, The Other Francophone World: Francophone Writers of Romanian Origin: Monique Jutrin's "The Trans-Cultural Journey of Benjamin Fondane" and Catherine Rossi's "French as the Language of Free Exchange in the Works of Panaït Istrati."
Natalie Perfetti (MA, Literature) published her chapbook moon's edge with Bronze Man Books. Atlas Poetica will soon publish her tanka sequence "At the Volcano's Rim" as well as her tanka trio "Dream Walk: A Summer Tanka Trio" (written with Randy Brooks and Carmella Braniger).
"Images of Enslavement and Emancipation in Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own" by Deborah C. Solomon (PhD, Literature) will be published in the Enslavement and Emancipation volume (editor, Blake Hobby) of Bloom's Literary Themes (series editor, Harold Bloom).