The YAWP: Villanova's Graduate English Program Blog

For the first time ever, the Villanova English grad program put on their very own literary bake-off! All contestants had to bake a Shakespeare-inspired sweet for the Bard's 452nd birthday. Our graduate participants in front of their work! The entries were as delicious as they were creative! Traditionally made Elizabethan Lemon Cakes Romeo & Juliet inspired apple crumb Opeelia! - candied orange peels dipped in chocolate Coffee and Chocolate two layer cake "Blood will have blood" so says this Red Velvet cake And finally the bake-off winner, Laura Tscherry's There's Rosemary and Lemon Tart - That's for Remembrance

Dr. Mary Mullen organized and hosted our Alice's Adventures in Wonderland  event this March, to get success! Dr. Mary Mullen - picture from Villanova English blog "Yes, that's it!," said the Hatter with a sigh. "It's always tea time!"  There were games, prizes, trivia and a live reading of the tea party scene! And what would a birthday be without cake? Happy 150th birthday, Alice!

Kicking off this year's Literary Festival is Pulitzer Prize winning poet Gregory Pardlo. Come down to the Connelly Center Cinema at 7:00PM this Thursday, January 28. We can't wait to see you there!

Show your love for the Villanova English department this year! The shirts were unveiled at the Holiday Coffee Break in December (pictured below), and you can pick yours up from the department office for just $10. These cool, funny tees were designed by the department's undergrads Christie Leonard and Kevin Madden. Dr. Chiji Akoma and Dr. Crystal Lucky pose with some of our grad students We hope to see you all at the next department coffee break!

Alumna Kerry Hasler-Brooks ('10) is presenting at the Study of American Women Writers Triennial Conference in Philadelphia this weekend. Her presentation "Anita Scott Coleman, The Crisis, and a New Negro in the Borderlands” will be a part of the panel titled "Blurred Space, Hybrid Life in the Early 20th Century." Hasler-Brooks is now a faculty member of Messiah College. Don James McLaughlin ('09) is also participating in the conference. He is giving a paper titled “Is Transneglect a Transphobia?” as part of a roundtable discussion titled "Inbetween: What Gender Variance Means to the Study of American Women Writers" which was organized by our own Dr. Jean Lutes.

On December 5, 2014, Chiji Akoma gave the keynote speech, "The Space Between: Re-Imagining Africa in Latin America," at the Conference on Latin American Studies and Open House, sponsored by the Greater Philadelphia Latin American Studies Consortium at Villanova University. Dr. Akoma also presented a paper, “Rewriting the Confessional: African Diaspora Narrative Aesthetic and the Problem of ‘Global Citizenship’” at the Canadian Association of African Studies conference held at University of Ottawa, June 3-5, 2015.

Lauren Shohet, Luckow Family Professor of English, presents: “The Fragrance of the Fall: the Semiotics of Smell in Paradise Lost” Haverford Room, Connelly Center Wednesday, November 11 at 12:00PM Lunch will be provided. Please RSVP by November 6 to sharon.rose-davis@villanova.edu