Panels & Presentations

Don Palumbo presented a paper on "The Monomyth in Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun" at the 25th International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, March 25, in Dania, Florida.  Wolfe's Book of the New Sun series includes: The Shadow of the Torturer (1980), The Claw of the Conciliator (1981), The Sword of the Lictor (1982), The Citadel of the Autarch (1983), and The Urth of the New Sun (1987).

On January 29, Gay Wilentz was a featured speaker at RED de Desarrollo [a Rural Development Cooperative Symposium] and the University National of Honduras in Tegucigalpa.  Her talk was titled "A Curative Process: Women's Knowledge as a Way to End 'Mal-Development.'" On February 12, Wilentz also presented, "(Un)Speakable Abuse and Healing Stories: Women Writers Create Curative Visions" at Storyworks at the Greenville Museum of Art.

The TALGS Conference was held on the ECU campus on February 21. With over 18 presentations from experts coming from as far away as Germany and 90 attendees, the conference was a great success thanks to conference coordinator Josh Iorio who worked with Ahmar Mahboob.  The conference was sponsored by the Program in Linguistics and TESOL, Department of English and Carolina TESOL. More details about the conference and TALGS are available on the following website: http://core.ecu.edu/engl/talgs/conference/conference.htm

Peter Makuck read poems from his new chapbook, Into the Frame, at College of the Holy Cross on February 19.  Poems from the chapbook include "Through the Frame" and "Magdalene at the Mirror."

Graduate students Philip Bunn, Jeremy Hartzell, Dana Hay, and Chris Holloman presented papers on the poetry of Yusef Komunyakaa at the Tenth Annual Delta Blues Symposium sponsored by the Department of English and Philosophy at Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, March 25-27. The Symposium concerns "any aspect of Delta life (art, education, folklore, history, music, literature, politics, and sociology) and ... proposals which focus on the seven-state Mississippi River Delta and its culture during the 1950s."  Bunn's essay "3 Layer Pie: Loneliness, Despair, and a Jazz Poem," Hartzell's "A White Man Reads Komunyakaa," Hay's "Komunyakaa Sings Bird: the Only Biography He'd Ever Need," and Holloman's "Evolution of Master Narratives and Its Meaning for Contemporary Minority Literature" were moderated by Norman Stafford in a special session for East Carolina University scholars.

Brett Hursey and Christy Baker presented "Writing From Experience: Journal and Community Service Activities in First Year Writing" on Wednesday, March 24, in the faculty lounge.  Also, in the lounge, Gregg Hecimovich discussed his current research as part of the Brown Bag Presentation series on March 25th.  As part of that same series, on February 18, Maya Socolovsky presented a glimpse into her research on contemporary Cuban American literature, and Margaret Bauer spoke about her research on Faulkner's legacy in contemporary literature as well as in his own time.

Marie Farr presented "Tightening the North Carolina Bible Belt:  Biblical Allusions in Randall Kenan's A Visitation of Spirits" as part of the 20th Century Literature Conference at the University of Louisville, February 28th.  According to Farr, "For both blacks and whites, the American South has a tradition of 'old-time' Bible-based religion, especially Southern Baptist.  For black Americans, religion often became, especially during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, inextricably bound up with the search for freedom and equality.  In his first novel, A Visitation of Spirits, published in 1989, Randall Kenan both celebrates the strength of Old Testament-based religion and critiques the devastating effects of its inflexibility on the two main characters, a gay high school student, Horace Cross; and his minister and cousin, Jimmy Green.  Furthermore, Kenan presents several wives and mothers who were victimized by the misogyny of a largely patriarchal religion and culture."