MARK YOUR CALENDAR: OCTOBER 23

I met last week with the staff of GW’s Advancement office to speak about projects with which they might assist the English Department in fundraising. I was surprised to learn that most of what we seek is so modest that donors probably would not be that interested: significant gifts are those above $25,000. As an…

Painting by Joseph Citro The GW Africana Studies Program, Latino Studies Program, and Medieval and Early Modern Studies Institute are proud to sponsor in partnership two events that focus upon William Shakespeare’s The Tempest and its legacies. You may read some background here, and see the program for TemFest I here. Rereading the Tempest a…

Many of the readers of this blog know about Poetry Out Loud, the phenomenally successful national poetry recitation and performance competition. Co-sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation, Poetry Out Loud builds on the contemporary resurgence of poetry as a spoken-word art. It’s not exactly a poetry slam, since the…

by J J Cohen So you may have heard that the DC area has gone a bit overboard in prepping for the Inauguration and its attendant hoopla. All bridges to Virginia, for example, will be closed — apparently to prevent Karl Rove from leaving his home in Arlington and mingling with the multitudes. I am…

Mark DeCicco won the award for best graduate paper at the recent meeting of the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts (check out the guest speaker). His prize: publication in the Journal for the Fantastic in the Arts, a scholarly journal with a substantial  readership. Lowell Duckert was selected for Honorable Mention in…

While not Valentine’s themed, Robert Hass’s “Privilege of Being” is the first poem that jumps to mind when I think of great romantic poetry. For the in-love and love cynics alike, enjoy and Happy Valentine’s Day. Privilege of BeingRobert Hass Many are making love. Up above, the angelsin the unshaken ether and crystal of human…