Tea and Mortality

Congratulations to Prof. Tara Wallace, whose book Imperial Characters: Home and Periphery in Eighteenth-Century Literature is now out in print from Bucknell University Press, in its Studies in Eighteenth-Century Literature and Culture series edited by Greg Clingham. During the long eighteenth century, Britain won and lost an empire in North America while consolidating its hegemony…

To mark the beginning of June and as a nod to our 2009 graduates, this week GW English News will feature a five part interview with alumnus Mark Olshaker. A 1972 graduate of the English Department, Olshaker has put his B.A. in English to good use as a writer, filmmaker, and dilettante who has collaborated…

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…

In the past few days more than three hundred visitors to this blog have come seeking information about Jon Lucks, an alumnus of this department whose recent death has left those who knew him in shock and in mourning. I wish I could provide a personal memory, but it was never my privilege to have…

In results that surprised everyone me, our poll has declared that the Hippo mascot will LIVE. One hundred and six votes were received, forty-two for execution and sixty-four for preservation. That means 60% of our blog readers like the pudgy beast. Even Obama didn’t win by that kind of margin. So … vive l’hippopotame! Now,…

It is with great sorrow that we note the sudden death of Jonathon Lucks, an alumnus of the English Department (class of 2006). He is fondly remembered by our faculty, as well as by those majors who took classes in the department with him. We offer our deepest sympathy to his family and to his…