Study/Reading Days

Final Exams

Graduation

1. The Association of College English Teachers of Alabama (ACETA) is sponsoring its annual Mary Evelyn McMillan Undergraduate Award, presented each year to the undergraduate student at an Alabama college or university whose informal essay is judged most outstanding by a panel of judges chosen by ACETA. The essay, written for a class taken during the current or previous academic year, may be on a personal or literary topic, and it may be descriptive, reflective, or analytical, but it may not be a formal research paper. The catch here is that the essay must be submitted by the instructor of the course, not the student, but if you feel that something you wrote should be considered you might try to elicit such cooperation. Deadline is February 1, 2002.

2. W. W. Norton and Company (publisher of all of those wonderful anthologies and critical editions, among other books) is offering a cash prize of $2500 for an outstanding undergraduate essay on any literary topic. Four runners-up will each receive a cash award of $1000. Student essays may cover any topic in English, American, or comparative literature and must be typed or printed, double-spaced, between 1750 and 3000 words in length, and should follow the latest MLA guidelines for format and citation of sources. Deadline is April 15, 2002. For more information, see http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/scholar/scholars2002.htm

3. ROSEBUD, "the magazine for people who enjoy good writing," announces the 2nd William Stafford Prize for Poetry. Entrants should send 3 to 5 printed poems, any style or theme. First prize is $1000 and publication in ROSEBUD. Send entries to R. Virgil Ellis / Stafford Poetry Prize / P.O. Box 614 / Cambridge, WI 53523. Deadline is May 31, 2002 (Please check submission requirements before sending.)

4. The Ayn Rand Institute is offering hefty cash prizes (would you expect anything less from that avatar of capitalism?) for its Fourth Annual Essay Contest on Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged. Rules and conditions can be found on the Institute's website at http://www.aynrand.org/contests/atlas.html. Deadline is September 16, 2002--so get shrugging!

5. Sigma Tau Delta offers a veritable cornucopia of scholarship, award, internship, and grant opportunities. They post more information and all the forms on their website (www.english.org). Tens of thousands of dollars are available--but one does have to apply!

Internship

Turner offers internships to undergraduate students who have completed their sophomore or junior year, or students currently enrolled in graduate school. Internships are designed for student volunteers who receive course credit, and are unpaid (darn!). But here's your chance to learn "from the best in entertainment, news, sports, and business." To apply, visit www.turnerjobs.com, and follow the link "opportunities for college students."

• Department Ph.D.-holders Barbara Baker, Regina Dragoin Ammon, and Fred Thiemann have published multi-page entries in the just-issued The Companion to Southern Literature: Themes, Genres, Places, People, Movements, and Motifs, ed.  Joseph M. Flora and Lucinda H. MacKethan (Louisiana State University Press, 2002).  Instructor Keith Perry is also a multi-entry contributor to this new reference volume.

• The 7th edition of AMERICAN SHORT STORIES, edited by Margaret Kouidis and Bert Hitchcock, has just been published by Longman. This textbook, co-edited originally by Auburn professors Walton R. Patrick and Eugene Current-Garcia, and published by Scott, Foresman, first appeared in 1952.

• Kelly Gerald presented a paper titled "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman: Flannery O'Connor's Early Work as a Cartoonist" at the annual MLA convention held in New Orleans, December 2001. She has also been invited to present her research on O'Connor and the visual arts at an international symposium on O'Connor to be held at the Sandbjerg Manor House in Southern Jutland, Denmark, July  2002. Prior to attending the MLA convention in December, Kelly accepted the position of Assistant Director for the Mississippi Humanities Council, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and is now living in Jackson. Kelly Gerald completed her dissertation on O'Connor at Auburn University during the summer of 2001 under the direction of Bert Hitchcock.
  Dr. Kelly Gerald, Assistant Director
  Mississippi Humanities Council
  3825 Ridgewood Road, Room 311
  Jackson, MS 39211-6463
  Phone: (601) 432-6752
  FAX: (601) 432-6750

• Patsy Fowler presented a paper entitled "Haywood's Dangerous Formations: Creating Texts and Readers that Challenge Cultural Ideology" at the annual meeting for the British Society for 18th Century Studies held January 4-6 at Queens College in Cambridge England.

• The American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies has named a fellowship fund in Paula Backscheider's honor.  Fellowships will be awarded for work in archives, special collections, and public record offices.  In addition to recognizing her scholarly work, the fellowship recognizes her as a mentor; it was initiated by her former students and NEH seminar fellows. Paula was president of the Society during her first year at Auburn. Contributions, marked for the Backscheider Fund, should be made out and sent to ASECS, c/o Byron Wells, P. O. Box 7867, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC  27109.

• John Kwist will be reading two papers at conferences this semester: one of Tennessee Williams and Pedro Almodovar at the annual Florida State Film and Literature Conference (later this month), and the other on issues of race in Walker Percy's Lancelot at the annual meeting of the SSSL (Society for the Study of Southern Literature) in Lafayette, LA in March.