Newsworthy: Professor Paula Backscheider Wins the James Russell Lowell Prize from the MLA
Paula R. Backscheider is the co-winner of the Modern Language Association's thirty-seventh annual James Russell Lowell Prize for her book Eighteenth-Century Women Poets and Their Poetry: Inventing Agency, Inventing Genre, published by Johns Hopkins University Press.
The prize is awarded annually for an outstanding book- a literary or linguistic study, a critical edition of an important work, or a critical biography-written by a member of the association.
The committee's citation for Backscheider's book reads:
"In a pioneering archival and interpretive contribution to literary
history, Paula Backscheider recovers a lost world of writing by
eighteenth-century women.
She situates forty poets and their genres-occasional poems, pastorals,
fables,public poems, religious narratives, devout soliloquies, friendship poems-within the important contemporary contexts of modes of
literary circulation, the varying shapes of poetic careers, and the
status of poetry not only as a lyric form but also as a medium of news,
entertainment, and correspondence. Urging us to defamiliarize,
rehistoricize, and reenvision the canons that have excised these works, Backscheider shows us how to read and value a counteruniverse of poetic achievement."
Eighteenth-Century Women Poets and Their Poetry: Inventing Agency, Inventing Genre is an expansion of Dr. Backscheider's essay on eighteenth-century women poets in The Cambridge History of English Literature. Her perseverance led her to take a subject she did not know well and write an entire book dedicated to it.
Dr. Backscheider is the only person to have received the British Council Prize, for her 1989 biography of Daniel Defoe, and the James Russell Lowell Prize, both highly prestigious awards for literary scholarship. "It is a delightful and completely unexpected honor," Dr. Backscheider says of the Lowell Prize. It is special also because no one from the South, with the exception of Fredric Jameson at Duke University, has previously received the Lowell Prize. "I am really happy to bring the prize home to Auburn," she says. "I love working here. Auburn has freed me to write about what I want to and given me the funds I needed."
Dr. Backscheider is currently working on another book. This work will look at salon fairytales and their influence on the early novel and on how fairy tales converge with the eighteenth-century feminist view of the good life. In addition to this book, she is also working on an anthology of poems by Restoration and eighteenth-century women to be published by Johns Hopkins University Press and co-edited by Catherine Ingrassia of Virginia Commonwealth University.
The English Department will host a reception honoring Dr. Backscheider on January 10, 2007, in the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Art.
Faculty Meeting
There will be a professorial faculty meeting January 8, 2007, the first day of the spring semester, to discuss hiring. The meeting will be in HC 3104 at 3 p. m.
Emma Bolden's Short Story Wins in Georgetown Review Contest
Emma Bolden's short story, "Sympathy," was chosen as the winner of the 2007 Georgetown Review contest.
EGO to Sponsor a Reception December 7
Please help the English Graduate Organization (EGO) celebrate the accomplishments of the Masters and PhD students who have examined or defended this semester. EGO is sponsoring a reception to be held on Thursday, December 7th, from 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. in HC 8009 to congratulate our members for reaching this important milestone. The reception is open to all members of the department and will be held in honor of those who have completed (or will have completed) their exams or defenses by December 7th. We look forward to seeing you there!
Calendar for 2006-07 Academic Year
Here is information about Departmental events for academic year 2006-07.
- January 10, 2007 - Reception for Dr. Backscheider (Jule Collins Smith Museum)
- January 18, 2007 - World Literature Lecture: Aiola Irele, Professor of African Studies and French, Harvard University (afternoon- faculty seminar; evening- World Literature lecture)
- March 1-2 - Walter Benn Michael's visit sponsored by Phi Beta Kappa
- March 10 - Graduate Student Colloquium
- March 15 - Trudier Harris (English Symposium Series)
- April 20 - Department Awards Ceremony (3:00 PM)
Here are dates for departmental faculty meetings.
Faculty Meetings
- January 8
- January 31
- February 7
- February 14
- April 4
- April 18
Here are the important dates for the fall 2006 and spring 2007 semesters.
- December 6 - Last Class Day
- December 15 - Commencement
- January 5 - Lead-Teacher/Co-Teacher Workshop
- January 8 - First Day of Class
- March 26-31 - Spring Break
- April 30 - Last Class Day
- May 10 - Commencement
For more information on these events and more, visit the Department's Calendar page.
English Channel Message
This is the last English Channel of the semester. We wish you all a relaxing and healthy semester break.
To include an item in The English Channel, submit text items by Tuesday at 10 AM for publication Wednesday. Submit items by email to Heather Finch or Margaret Kouidis or put the information in their mailboxes. Please check your submission for accuracy and completion—all calendar items and meeting announcements must include the date, time, and location of the event.
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Last updated December 6, 2006