Author: GWEnglish

Every president should commence a term in office with poetry. The arts are too often separated from government, and for no good reason. Only two presidents have invited poets to read from their work during inauguration: John. F. Kennedy (Robert Frost) and Bill Clinton (Maya Angelou, Miller Williams). Good news: Barack Obama has likewise named…

Read all about why this gravestone matters at the website for Professor Gayle Wald’s Shout, Sister, Shout! An excerpt: Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the pioneering gospel musician and instrumentalist, finally has a gravestone marking her resting place at Northwood Cemetery in Philadelphia. Since her passing in 1973, the gravesite of Sister Rosetta had been a barren…

From the latest issue of By George!: In January, James Arthur Miller, chair of GW’s Department of American Studies and professor of English and American studies, will leave for University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he will collaborate with a colleague on a course on black Atlantic literature. Dr. Miller explains the subject…

Those of you who read University Diaries know that our own Margaret Soltan was recently interviewed by the BBC about Norman Maclean. You can listen to her interview here (scroll down a bit).

KNOWING “THE KNOWN WORLD” Conversation and Reception with Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author Edward P. Jones Wednesday, February 18 | 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. Alumni House @ 1918 F Street, NW Washington, D.C. Please join Edward P. Jones, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and spring 2009 Wang Visiting Professor in Contemporary English Literature, and four renowned GW professors, for…

Our sincere gratitude to the following alumni who contributed to our departmental mission last month: Michael Y. Bennett (2002) Winston Eldridge (1985) Dr. Richard M. Flynn (1987) Dr. Robin Meader (1992) Laura A. Springer (1997) Mr. John George Sussek (1979) We will mail a copy of Edward P. Jones’s novel The Known World to each…

… but if you missed out and are not so benighted that you have no interest in reading The Known World by Edward P. Jones come to the English Department main office (Academic Center, Rome Hall 760) right away. We have a few copies that we are willing to part with. They even come with…

Through the generosity of a GW donor, the English Department will hold a competition this spring for the best student poem. The contest will be open to all students, graduate and undergraduate, regardless of major. We will award this substantial prize annually for the next five years. So, get writing. [image from here]

If you want to keep up via Facebook with all things related to the Edward P. Jones residency, join this group. And in case you’ve only recently emerged from a cave on a deserted island and/or have just been released after long abduction by alien beings of uncertain but unwholesome intent, the English Department at…