The YAWP: Villanova's Graduate English Program Blog

Incoming MA student Adam Riekstins recently presented at a conference hosted by the Hidden Nabokov Society, as part of its first international conference in over two decades. The conference took place from June 15th to June 19th at Wellesley college, where Vladimir Nabokov once lectured.  According to Riekstins, "It was such a humbling experience to chat, dine and interact with Nabokov experts from everywhere around the world for nearly a week straight. It was, as most of us joked, a beguiling Nabokovian Summer Camp." Riekstins presented on Lolita as a gothic novel, tracing structural similarities it shares with Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde .  As part of the proceedings, presenters even had an opportunity to view Nabokov's personal butterfly collection, which is housed at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology. "Thank you," said Riekstins, "to Wellesley College for hosting the event and to Harvard's Museu

Groovy and glamorous English program merch is still available for those who are interested. We have water bottles, tote bags, shirts, and hats (as well as bookmarks/stickers, which are gratis if you swing by the office). Reach out to program coordinator Mike Malloy for more information!

 Summer 2022 Reading Recommendations Welcome to the faculty's ninth annual summer reading recommendations list! When you're done with this one, you can check out previous years' lists here .   And don't forget that Professor Alan Drew has a new book out , too! Kimberly Takahata Time is a Mother  by Ocean Vuong For me, summer is a time to slow down, and Ocean Vuong's recent collection of poetry demands all the time we can give it. Hauntingly beautiful, these poems weave together worlds of feeling in just a few pages. In one, entitled "Amazon History of a Former Nail Salon Worker," Vuong collects lists of objects, leaving us as readers to fill in the gaps. I'll be thinking about that record of orders every time I receive a package. Crystal Lucky Two books are at the top of my summer reading recommendations, one that I just finished and one that I just started. The first,   Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Lite