The YAWP: Villanova's Graduate English Program Blog

On Tuesday, September 20 The University of Pennsylvania English Department selected Don James McLaughlin (Villanova Grad English Class of 2009) as the winner of its annual William Patrick Day essay contest. This was a contest in which any grad student can submit a piece of writing completed in the last year. Two professors then judge the submissions anonymously. McLaughlin's piece is part of his dissertation--tentatively titled "Color-Phobia: Rabies, Race Prejudice, and the Mad Cry of Analogy in U.S. Antislavery Print Culture."

On Thursday, October 7, over a hundred undergraduates gathered to take in a presentation about the Great Gatsby. Dr. Lutes performed a miracle of precalculation to order pizzas, we moved the chairs out of the way to make room for whomever might come, those of us in costume read our parts over, and then all we had was to wait. We started being surprised at around 50 students, but in the end over 100 students showed up. The goal of the evening was to remind them of what they knew of the Great Gatsby, and perhaps to challenge them to think about it in new ways. Dr. Lutes gave a quick presentation on new possibilities for reading The Great Gatsby , especially reminding the students how pronounced race is in the text. The four volunteer readers read a passage from the novel, the scene in which Gatsby shows Daisy his shirts and she bursts into tears. Then we broke into groups. The discussion was lively! Each student was eager to contribute what they remembered to the discussion, and

On October 6, the Villanova English Department took a collective study break in the form of our newest tradition - Coffee Break! Dr. Hicks, Dr. Radcliffe, and other professors were in attendance, along with undergraduate and graduate English students, for conversation and the all-important ingredient: truly good coffee.

LISA SEWELL is the WINNER of the First Annual Tenth Gate Prize! English department professor Lisa Sewell has won the 2014 Tenth Gate prize for her poetry manuscript, Impossible Object. The prize includes a cash award of $1000 and book publication in the spring of 2015. The imprint was founded to honor and publish mid-career poets. Impossible Object is Sewell's fourth poetry collection, following the chapbook Long Corridor (Seven Kitchens Press, 2009), and full-length collections Name Withheld (Four Way Books, 2006) and The Way Out (Alice James Books, 1998). Says Series Editor Leslie McGrath, "Lisa Sewell's poems are shot through with an adhesive intelligence born of the accretion of craft, discernment, and engagement with the world. This is exactly the kind of collection for which the Tenth Gate prize was developed." Sewell is also co-editor, with Claudia Rankine, of two essay collections that focus on 21st Century North American poets. Her poems have app

The English Department Invites You to a Midterm Coffee Break! Come hang out with English majors, graduate students, and faculty and enjoy free cookies and gourmet coffee. Monday, October 6th at 4:00 p.m. in the Second Floor Lounge of Falvey Library (Located in the back area of the second floor). http://www1.villanova.edu/villanova/artsci/english.html