The YAWP: Villanova's Graduate English Program Blog

Each week, for the next few weeks, we'll be talking with an alumnus/a from our graduate English program, catching up on their studies and/or careers. This week, we'll be talking with Michael Nace, MA '08, the Brand Director for Rare Disease Advisor with Haymarket Media. 1. What do you do at your job? What are some advantages and some challenges of working in your field? I am the Brand Director for Rare Disease Advisor (RDA), which is part of Haymarket Media’s network of Advisor websites. RDA is a news-driven web brand that fills informational gaps within the rare disease community with much-needed news, perspectives, and resources. Our goal is to foster increased awareness of rare diseases and decrease the time to diagnosis — a nearly-universal problem among those with rare diseases and disabilities. As Brand Director, I am responsible for every facet of RDA’s operation. I was initially brought into Haymarket to launch the brand, given my experience at another company spec

Each week, for the next few weeks, we'll be talking with an alumnus/a from our graduate English program, catching up on their studies and/or careers. This week, we'll be talking with Franki Maria Rudnesky, MA '22, a staff writer with the Philly Voice . 1. What do you do at your job? What are some advantages and some challenges of working in your field? As a staff writer, I research, interview sources and curate information to write articles related to the happenings in Philadelphia and the surrounding region. I particularly love writing about all the vibrant events, restaurants, fashion and people that make the city unique. I always enjoyed writing, social media and being creative, and this job allows me to marry so many of my interests together. It can be challenging to experience writers’ block at times and to find new and interesting story ideas, but many of the skills I learned through my studies allow me to push through. 2. Did the Nova English MA help you get your job

We are happy to announce that Ethan Shea, MA '23, has won second place in the Adult Division of the Charlotte Miller Simon Poetry Contest. Now in its 18th year, the contest is presented by the Ardmore Free Library. You can learn more about the contest here . Here is Ethan's poem:   Per aspera ad astra Tonight, we clutch at celestial bodies, unable to distinguish satellites from stars, eager to learn which color we bleed. Tires on wet roads like tearing flesh, toothless attempts to escape your gravity. The liminal space between your sheets, nebulous moments discerning spring from winter, summer from fall. Ours is no season, only a makeshift raft in your bedroom, tethered to the heavens. ~ Ethan Shea Congrats, Ethan!

  Professor Joseph Drury wrote the afterword for a recently published collection of essays,  British Literature and Technology, 1600-1830.   The afterword, “On the Uses of the History of Technology for Literary Studies and Vice Versa,” takes the essays in the collection as an occasion to reflect on what literary scholars can learn from the history of technology and what historians of technology can learn from literary studies (per Drury, it "kind of does what the title suggests"). It argues that the history of technology provides valuable models and terminology for thinking about the uses of literary forms and that literary studies can provide historians with insight into the cultural meanings and imagined uses of technologies, both of which can have a significant impact on their actual development in the real world.

 Professor Kamran Javadizadeh has another piece in The New Yorker , this time a review/essay centered on the recently released book of poems Couplets: A Love Story , by Maggie Millner. Javadizadeh's essay delves into Millner's use of rhyme and other poetic conventions, the relationship of rhyme to eroticism, and the transformation of the self in romantic relationships (among other things). Be forewarned, you will never look at IKEA beds the same way after reading this piece! You can read the piece in full on The New Yorker's website . 

Interested in putting your literary analysis and research skills to good use and writing for the media? Interesting in meeting Jennifer Wilson, a contributing essayist at   The New York Times Book Review  and a contributing writer at   The Nation  magazine ?  Come to "Going Public: A Guide for Humanists"--a writing workshop sponsored by the English department--on Wednesday, February 15 at 5:20 in Falvey 205. If you're interested in attending,   RSVP here   or follow the QR code on the poster.