Miscellany

Congratulations to Slobodanka Dimova and Pepi Angjelovski!  Their son, Stefan Angjelovski, was born Sunday, June 11, at 12:26 pm.  He weighed 8 lb 11 oz and measured 20 inches. Both Slobodanka and Stefan are doing well!

Clancy Ratliff's comments about business travel blogging appear in a current issue of The New York Times.  The column reads: "'Bloggers have the potential to change business travel,' said Clancy Ratliff, an assistant professor of English at East Carolina University, in Greenville, N.C., who wrote her dissertation on blogging. 'Maybe they haven't reached a critical mass yet, the way bloggers have in other places.  But their influence may be growing.'"  For a full text of the story, please see: http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/09/18/business/businessspecial2/18blogs.html

The Women's Studies Program is working with North Carolina Women United and Democracy NC to co-host the Pitt County Women's Agenda Assembly Saturday,  October 7, on the ECU campus.  Beginning at 1 pm, participants will meet in Bate 1031 and split into small groups to discuss and prioritize women-centered issues that need to be addressed by the NC General Assembly. There will be tables available for program and  "cause" brochures, as well as a voter registration table. Refreshments are being provided by the Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences and by Phi Kappa Phi.  In the Spring, the Women's Studies Program will host a workshop concerning successful lobbying practices and will travel to Raleigh while the legislature is in session.  All events are free and open to the public.  For more information, see the "events" page of the Women's Studies Website: http://www.ecu.edu/WOST

Under the direction of Timm Hackett and Jim Barker, The Oakwood Reader publishes first-time writers from the Oakwood School in Greenville, NC.  This year's mentors and editorial assistants from the ECU English Department included: Leanne Smith, Beth Corson, Erica Plouffe-Lazure, and Chris Young.  The web version of the 2006 Oakwood Reader is now available online at:  http://core.ecu.edu/engl/hackettt/oakwood.html

Rachel Mills and Nancy House, Department of Art and Design, have organized a series of journal workshops at Cypress Glen Retirement Community in Greenville for the month of October.  The series is called "Sketching a Life in Words and Pictures" and uses simple writing and art exercises to invoke memory.  House's dissertation focused on adult learning and art, and Mills has been conducting journal workshops throughout the country for the past twenty-five years.

The TALGS Conference, scheduled to take place on February 10, 2007 in Greenville, announces a "Call for Papers."  The deadline for submission is January 5, 2007.  The organizers of the conference, Stephen Hinman and Jennie Whitehead, have invited Dr. Donna Christian, President of the Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington, D.C. to be this year's keynote speaker.  According to Lida Cope, faculty adviser for the Conference, "The purpose of this small, student-run conference is to provide a relaxed but serious environment where graduate students in Applied Linguistics and related fields can have the experience of presenting their work and receiving feedback. The TALGS Conference provides graduate students a forum to showcase their research and experiences. TALGS is committed to bettering the educational experiences of language learners in the community by providing a comfortable environment where an interaction between theory (the researchers) and practice (the teachers) is possible." For more information about submissions and the upcoming conference, see:  http://core.ecu.edu/engl/talgs/conference/conference.htm

The 2006 issue of the North Carolina Literary Review edited by Margaret Bauer is now available.  This year's issue features "Children's and Young Adult Literature in North Carolina" and includes essays about the work of Eleonora Tate, Sarah Dessen, Mebane Holoman Burgwyn, Jill McCorkle, et al.  Other writers featured in this issue include Michael Parker, David Cecelski, AR Ammons, Mary Moss, John Kessel, and Henrietta Goodman Chausee.  ECU faculty members instrumental to this year's issue include: Cheryl Dudasik-Wiggs, Sally Lawrence, Randall Martoccia, Marinella Macri, Elizabeth Corson, and Lorraine Hale Robinson, among others.

On September 29-30, the 3d Annual Eastern North Carolina Literary Homecoming was held on the ECU campus.  The Homecoming honored the work and life-time achievement of William S. Powell, who received the Roberts Award for Literary Inspiration presented by Maury York of Joyner Library.  Tim Tyson, author of Blood Done Sign My Name (2004), and Shelby Stephenson, editor and poet, spoke in recognition of Powell and his influence on generations of North Carolina writers.  This year's homecoming also featured Children's and Young Adult Literature in North Carolina.  Elisa Carbone, James Ransome, Nancy Roberts, Barbara Braveboy-Locklear, Linda Beatrice Brown, and Louise Shivers were among the presenters.  Michael Parker, author of  If You Want Me To Stay (2005), delivered the keynote address in the Willis Building.