Heidi Brinker is a student in the English Studies program. She will be graduating this semester (Spring 2013) with her Master’s degree and will continue taking courses to finish up her Teaching Writing Certificate, which will be completed in the fall. After graduation, Heidi will be moving closer to home and is in search of a position that allows her to help students in their own academic journey. As you can tell from her interview questions, she has enjoyed her experience here and is grateful for the professors and staff of the English Department in reassuring her that MNSU was a wonderful choice for completing her Master’s degree.
What are your plans after graduation?
Although I’m finishing my Master’s in English Studies this semester, I’m still going to be working on earning the Graduate Certificate for Teaching Writing. I will be finishing that Fall Semester this year. As for what I’m doing for a job? Currently, I’m working as a pharmacy technician, but have been applying to various teaching and advising positions closer to my home near Saint Cloud, Minnesota.
What was the best part of being a graduate student at MNSU?
The best part of being a graduate student here was the knowledge I gained in the classroom, which I know I will take with me forever. Also, I could not have asked for a better experience with the professors here. They are always willing to go out of their way to help you. That’s something I never had as an undergraduate. Oh, and how could I forget my graduate assistantship? Working as Melissa’s assistant has been a great learning experience. Not only did I get to work closely with other grad assistants, but I had the opportunity to answer questions and give tours to potential students. I guess you can say I’ve been pretty satisfied with my overall experience in Mankato and I will definitely miss it.
What is something you learned that you will take with you long after graduation?
One of the things I will take with me is the knowledge I gained in the classroom. Some examples are how to edit a document, how to find job listings, searching for conferences, and how to put together a curriculum vitae or teaching philosophy. All of these things have been extremely helpful and something I will always take with me. And I think it’s important to note that I truly found passion in wanting to help students and I have my professors to thank for that. This is why I’ve been applying to various colleges in Central Minnesota. They taught me how rewarding helping students really is and that’s something that I want to hold onto in my future career.
Do you have any advice/tips for students interested in becoming a graduate student at MNSU?
Get involved! This could mean joining an organization such as the GSEA or becoming a Teaching or Graduate Assistant. Not only do you get to meet and get to know your fellow classmates, but you get experience you can use in your future career. And always remember that the professors here are outstanding and they will do anything to make your experience as a grad student the best it can be.
Kristin Hueneburg is currently a student in the Teaching English as a Second Language department. She will be graduating with her Master’s degree this semester (Spring 2013), but will be continue her studies as she works towards earning her Graduate Certificate in Technical Communication. After finishing her certificate, Kristin has high hopes of relocating to Europe to teach. As you can see from the interview questions below, Kristin has enjoyed her time here and gained so much knowledge she can take with her into “the real world”. Congratulations on your graduation and best of luck to you, Kristin!
What are your plans after graduation?
Since my field of interest is not just in TESL, but also in Technical Communication, I plan to continue with a Graduate Certificate next year. After completing that, I hope to go back to Europe and find a teaching position. I have already had some contact with International Schools and hope that one of them will hire me for English and/or German and a foreign language.
What was the best part of being a graduate student at MNSU?
The close contact with professors and the practical applications really made the classes enjoyable. At home, I never would have had such a close relationship with professors. It really made learning easier and much more enjoyable. I also liked that focus is not just on academic knowledge, but also the application of that knowledge.
What is something you learned that you will take with you long after graduation?
I really learned a lot about different cultural values, work ethics and academic standards in different disciplines and cultures. The wide range of international students really opens your eyes to other cultures and how this influences many factors in life.
Do you have any advice/tips for students interested in becoming a graduate student at MNSU?
Follow your interests and be open to knowledge! I have learned so much more beyond my major, especially about English. Also, don’t let any complications keep your from doing what you love. In the end it will be worth it.
Angela Mason is a student in the Creative Writing program. She will be graduating this semester and hopes to continue on with her education by getting a Ph.D in English. Angela has enjoyed her time at MNSU by going to many of the Good Thunder Reading events and getting to know her fellow students and writers. The English Department wishes her the best of luck in her future. We know it will be bright!
What are your plans after graduation?
My plan is to find a teaching position and hopefully pursue my Ph.D in English.
What was the best part of being a graduate student at MNSU?
Definitely the writing community. My classmates and the faculty at MSU were all very supportive. I also enjoined going to the Good Thunder events. We had some amazing writers come to our school while I was in the program. I never imagined that I would get to have lunch with Sharon Olds while in Mankato.
What is something you learned that you will take with you long after graduation?
The process of putting together a book length manuscript. Also, the teaching experience I gained was invaluable.
Do you have any advice/tips for students interested in becoming a graduate student at MNSU?
When you apply to the program look for funding opportunities throughout the university. My first two years at MSU I was a graduate assistant for Health Services.
Bethany Cox has been awarded a scholarship to study film production at Han University in the Netherlands next fall. Her studies include an internship at a multi-media agency where she will be working on projects for internal and external clients. Bethany is a minor in the department’s Film Studies Program.
As many of you know, the Nadine B. Andreas gift to the College of Arts and Humanities allows the English Department to name a mid-program creative writing graduate student who, through performance in writing workshops and in other ways, demonstrates strong potential as an emerging professional artist. The student will assume the Nadine B. Andreas Graduate Assistantship during his or her final year of full-time graduate study. The student will also give a public reading of his or her work, usually in conjunction with a visit by the Andreas Visiting Writer.
The Nadine B. Andreas Graduate Assistant for 2013-2014 is Angela Duryee. During the term of the assistantship, she will be a third-year MFA student in Creative Writing at MSU Mankato. Duryee went to Southwest Minnesota State University and MSU Mankato as an undergraduate and is concentrating in creative nonfiction.
The Andreas Visiting Writer for 2013-2014 will be Luis Alberto Urrea. He will visit campus on Thursday, November 14, and he and Angela will read that evening.
The English Department is hosting this first-ever graduate student conference on Friday, April 26. The conference seeks to explore connections amongst these sub-disciplines, but also to make broader connections between texts, authors, theories, identities, experiences, and perspectives. Check out the conference schedule!
All English Department students and faculty are welcome to attend all events. Hope to see you there!
Three faculty members won MN Book Awards last week! Congratulations!!
Gwen Westerman won in the "Minnesota" category for her book (with Bruce White) Mni Sota Makoce: The Land of the Dakota (Minnesota Historical Society Press).
Geoff Herbach won in the "Young People's Literature" category for for his book Nothing Special (Sourcebooks Fire/Sourcebooks, Inc.).
And our MFA graduate Nick Healy was a finalist in the "Novel and Short Story" category for his book It Takes You Over (New Rivers Press).
As part of the Minnesota State University, Mankato, Faculty Residency, the Good Thunder Reading Series welcomes fiction writer Geoff Herbach and fiction and creative nonfiction writer Diana Joseph on Thursday, April 25th.
Geoff Herbach is the author of the award-winning Stupid Fast YA series and the literary novel The Miracle Letters of T. Rimberg. His short work has appeared in Metro Magazine, InDigest, on Minnesota Public Radio and in upcoming anthologies from Zest and Soho Press, among others. He is a veteran radio writer and performer, a former facilitator of the MnArtists MiniStory competition, and a board member of the Children's Literature Network. He teaches creative writing at Minnesota State Mankato.
Diana Joseph is the author of the short story collection Happy or Otherwise and the memoir I'm Sorry You Feel That Way: The Astonishing But True Story of a Daughter, Sister, Slut, Wife, Mother and Friend to Man and Dog. Her fiction and nonfiction has appeared in River Teeth, Willow Springs, Marie Claire, Country Living, Best Sex Writing and elsewhere. Her work has been listed in Best American Short Stories, Best American Essays, and the Pushcart Prize anthology, and her memoir won the Great Lakes Colleges Association Award for Creative Nonfiction. Joseph teaches at Minnesota State Mankato.
Geoff Herbach and Diana Joseph will be interviewed on "Authors in Transit" on public-radio station KMSU-FM 89.7 airing Thursday at 1:00 p.m. and Friday at 11:00 a.m.
They will lead a talk on craft at 3:00 p.m. in CSU Ostrander Auditorium, followed by a reading at 7:30 p.m. in CSU Room 253.
The English Department is pleased to announce the keynote speaker for our upcoming graduate student conference, Making Connections: Languages, Perspectives, & Identities Conference on Friday, April 26th—Professor Maria Damon (University of Minnesota). Professor Damon holds a PhD. in Modern Thought and Literature from Stanford University and currently teaches at the University of Minnesota as a creative writing professor, specializing in poetry. Her most recent publications include Post-literary 'America:' from Bagel Shop Jazz to Micropoetries and Poetry and Cultural Studies: A Reader. She has also had the honor of receiving many awards, which include being the recipient of the Award for Outstanding Contributions to Post-baccalaureate, Professional, Graduate and Professional Education; Induction into Academy of Distinguished Teachers and the Imagine Fund Grant from the year 2009 to 2012.
All graduate students and faculty are welcome to attend her keynote speech at noon on April 26th in CSU 284. If you plan on attending this speech, please send an RSVP to Professor Melissa Purdue at melissa.purdue@mnsu.edu. Hope to see you there!
I've added one final career workshop for this semester. The session will give you a chance to bring in drafts of your CVs, job application letters, and conference submission abstracts for feedback. We'll have faculty on hand to work with you one-on-one.
The workshop will be held Wednesday, April 17th from 12:00-1:30 in CSU 284A. Stop on by at any time during the session.
Note: We'll be able to give you better advice if you bring the job advertisements and CFPs you're responding to with you.
Online students: We will be able to assist you too! If you email me your documents I can pair you up with a professor for help via email.
As part of the Minnesota State University, Mankato, Alumni Residency, the Good Thunder Reading Series welcomes poet Kris Bigalk and fiction writers Thomas Maltman and Scott Wrobel Thursday, April 11, 2013.
Kris Bigalk is the author of the poetry collection Repeat the Flesh in Numbers. Individual poems have also appeared in the anthologies Poetry City, USA and Open to Interpretation: Water's Edge, and she is authoring a forthcoming creative writing textbook for Cengage Books. She has been awarded two Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grants in Poetry, and a MnSCU Board of Trustees Award for Excellence in Teaching. Director of Creative Writing at Normandale Community College, Kris holds two degrees from MSU Mankato: an MAT, and an MFA in Creative Writing.
Thomas Maltman's essays, poetry, and fiction have been published in many literary journals. He has an MFA from MSU Mankato. His first novel, The Night Birds, won an Alex Award, a Spur Award, and the Friends of American Writers Literary Award. In 2009, the American Library Association chose The Night Birds as an “Outstanding Book for the College Bound.” He's taught for four years as part of the AFA program in Creative Writing at Normandale Community College and he lives in the Twin Cities area. His second novel, Little Wolves, was recently published.
Scott Wrobel has published in Great River Review, Identity Theory, Minnesota Monthly, Night Train, Pindeldyboz, The Rake, Word Riot, and other places. He is winner of a Loft Mentor Series Fiction Award and the Third Coast Creative Nonfiction Contest. His book of darkly comic and inappropriate stories about suburban men, Cul De Sac, was published by Sententia Books in April 2012. He has taught fiction at The Loft Literary Center and currently teaches English at Anoka Ramsey Community College.
Kris Bigalk, Thomas Maltman, and Scott Wrobel will be interviewed on "Authors in Transit" on public-radio station KMSU-FM 89.7 airing Thursday at 1:00 p.m. and Friday at 11:00 a.m.
They will lead a talk on craft at 3:00 p.m. in CSU Ostrander Auditorium, followed by a reading at 7:30 p.m. in CSU Room 253.
Beginning this semester, the English Department’s Film Studies Program will have its own designator. Students wishing to take our department’s film courses can find these courses listed under FILM. For more information, see The Film Studies Program page or contact Prof. Donna R. Casella, Director of Film Studies.
Saul Carliner will speak to the student chapter of the Society of Technical Communication at Minnesota State University, Mankato from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. central standard time on Wednesday, April 10. We will meet in Adobe Connect. Please click here to enter the presentation.
Saul's presentation is titled "Certification and Other Professional Development Opportunities for New Technical Communicators." This session explores some key issues to consider including networking to get your first--and later--jobs, the brand new Certified Technical Communication Professional credential, maintenance of your knowledge and skills, and alternate paths you can take with your technical communication experience.
Saul Carliner is the e-Learning Fellow at Concordia University in Montreal, as well as an Associate Professor and Director of the Education Doctoral Program. He is editor-in-chief of the IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, serves on the boards of the STC Certification Commission and the social service agency, Agence Ometz, is a past board member of the Canadian Society for Training and Development, and is a fellow and past international president of the STC.
The Good Thunder Reading Series welcomes fiction writer Brett Biebel and poet Robert Hedin as part of the Robert C. Wright Minnesota Writer Residency Thursday, March 28, 2013.
Brett Biebel is an MFA student at Minnesota State Mankato. When he isn't writing or teaching, he enjoys playing tennis and listening to Milwaukee Brewers baseball. His work has appeared in Line Zero, The Writing Disorder, and Ascent Aspirations, and is forthcoming in the White Whale Review.
Robert Hedin was born and raised in Red Wing, Minnesota and was educated at Luther College and the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. He is the recipient of numerous honors and awards for his writing, including three National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, three Yaddo Foundation Fellowships, and two Minnesota Book Awards. He is the author, translator, and editor of nearly two dozen book of poetry and prose, recent ones including Where One Voice Ends Another Begins: 150 Years of Minnesota Poetry, The Dream We Carry: Selected and Last Poems of Olav H. Hauge (co-translated with Robert Bly), The Lure-Maker from Posio: Prose Poems of Dag T. Straumsvag (co-translated with Louis Jenkins), and Poems Prose Poems. He is co-founder, along with his wife Carolyn, and current director of the Anderson Center, the Upper Midwest's largest artist community, and serves as editor of Great River Review, Minnesota's oldest literary journal. In 1998, he was honored by the Minnesota State Arts Board with an Arts Leadership Award for his writing and contributions to the arts in Minnesota.
Brett Biebel and Robert Hedin will be interviewed on "Authors in Transit" on public-radio station KMSU-FM 89.7 airing Thursday at 1:00 p.m. and Friday at 11:00 a.m.
On Thursday, February 21, they will lead a talk on craft at 3:00 p.m. in CSU Ostrander Auditorium, followed by a reading at 7:30 p.m. in CSU Room 253.
Tuning the Pulse, directed and produced by English Professor Ashkan Soltani and written and co-produced by Professor Craig Matarrese (Chair of Philosophy Department), will premier at the 2013 Chicago International Movie and Music Festival April 18-21. For more information about the film, visit http://cimmfest.org/tuning-the-pulse/.
The English Department is hosting this first-ever graduate student conference on April 26, 2013, designed to build a sense of community among graduate scholars across our programs. The conference seeks to explore connections amongst these sub-disciplines, but also to make broader connections between texts, authors, theories, identities, experiences, and perspectives. We invite papers analyzing all periods and genres of literary, linguistic, and visual culture; investigations of cultural studies, critical theory, and film; creative works; papers on pedagogy; and presentations on technical and professional writing.
For paper ideas and submission information, please download our [PDF] Call For Papers (60 KiB).
All English majors, minors, and faculty are welcome to join Sigma Tau Delta in the Maverick Bullpen Monday, February 18, from 6:30-8:00 p.m. for Bowling Night!
Minnesota State Mankato's Society for Technical Communication Student Chapter, an organization dedicated to advancing the arts and sciences of technical communication, has announced this year's chapter officers.
John Maxwell, President: John is a junior pursuing a BS in Technical Communication. Since childhood, he has wondered who writes the manuals and other documentation that come in the botton of electronic and gadget boxes. Now he knows. In his free time, he enjoys playing with his three children, hockey, and reading.
Annemarie Chapdelaine, Vice President/Social Media Chair: Annemarie is in her final semester at Minnesota State Mankato in the Technical COmmunication program. Her focus areas are technical product support, technical marketing, project management, and web design and usability.
Katrina Reed, Communications Officer/Secretary: Katrina is currently pursuing her MA in English: Technical Communication from Minnesota State Mankato. She works full-time for an engineering consulting firm where she serves as a grant and proposal writer/editor, and also serves as an editor for the Center for Excellence in Scholarship and Research (CESR) at MNSU. In her free time, she teaches English and literacy classes for the Kalamazoo Literacy Council.
Gere Hirsch, Speaker Coordinator: Gere is currently pursuing her MA in English: Technical Communication from Minnesota State Mankato. She has experience working as a technical communicator for a major mid-western university, as a proposal developer for a federal contractor, and as a contractor developing and writing the licensing documentation for an allied health sciences school. Gere's next venture is going to be working in the Decision Support System for the local Veteran's Administration region. In her free time, she enjoys woodturning, playing with various computer technologies, reading and spending time with her husband and daughter.
The Chapter also welcomes back co-advisors Dr. Lee Tesdell and Dr. Jennifer Veltsos to this year's committee.
For more information, including STC goals and ethical principles, visit the STC website.
The Good Thunder Reading Series welcomes fiction writer Marlon James and poet Bao Phi as part of the Eddice B. Barber Visiting Writer Residency Tuesday, February 19 through Friday, February 22.
Marlon James was born in Kingston, Jamaica. his first novel, John Crow's Devil was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Commonwealth Writers Prize and was a New York Times Editors' Choice. His second novel, The Book of Night Women, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, The NAACP Image Award, and The Minnesota Book Award, which he won, and was on New York Magazine's list of best books of the year. He currently teaches at Macalester College and is working on his third novel.
Bao Phi has been a performance poet since 1991. He was featured on HBO's "Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry," and was included in the Best American Poetry 2006 anthology. His first collection, Song I Sing, was published by Coffee House Press in 2011. He currently works at the Loft Literary Center, where he creates and maintains programs for communities of color and marginalized voices.
Marlon James and Bao Phi will be interviewed on "Authors in Transit" on public-radio station KMSU-FM 89.7 airing Thursday at 1:00 p.m. and Friday at 11:00 a.m.
Tuesday, February 19, through Friday, February 22, they will hold writing workshops in CSU rooms 202/203
On Thursday, February 21, they will lead a talk on craft at 3:00 p.m. in CSU Ostrander Auditorium, followed by a reading at 7:30 p.m. in CSU Room 253.
Arricka Brouwer will speak to the student chapter of the Society of Technical Communication at Minnesota State University, Mankato at 8:30 p.m. central standard time on Tuesday, February 12. We will meet in Adobe Connect. Please click here for the link to the meeting https://umconnect.umn.edu/r46732132/
Arricka has 15 years of industry experience as a technical writer. She has worked at Lowe's Corporate Headquarters and Pfizer Pharmaceuticals. She graduated from Iowa State University with a degree in English and Political Science.
Arricka's topics will be (1) contract vs. permanent employment and (2) skill sets that are important to cultivate when entering the technical writing market.
All sessions are open to graduate and undergraduate students.
Interviewing for Teaching Positions/Preparing Teaching Demonstrations
Wednesday, February 6th
12:00-1:00, 223B Armstrong Hall
Join Professors Heather Camp and Jennifer Veltsos for a session that offers tips on interviewing for teaching positions and on preparing for the "teaching demonstration" that occurs during the campus interview phase of the job search.
This session will also be streamed online to accomodate our online graduate students at https://umconnect.umn.edu/msu-english/
Applying to and Presenting at Academic Conferences
Tuesday, February 26th
10:00-11:00, 321 Armstrong Hall
Join Professors Matthew Sewell and Candace Black for a session that will provide information on where to find academic conference opportunities, how to write an abstract submission, and tips for presenting at conferences. The session will focus on both creative writing and literature conferences.
Careers in ESL (K-12 and Community Colleges)
Wedneday, March 6th
12:00-1:00, 223A Armstrong Hall
Join Professors Nancy Drescher and Stephen Stoynoff for a session that will provide tips on how to use your undergraduate or graduate degree in English to teach abroad and will provide resources for locating overseas positions. The session will also cover ESL teaching opportunities in K-12 schools and two-year colleges in the U.S.
The Good Thunder Reading Series welcomes fiction writer Tayari Jones on Thursday, January 31.
Tayari Jones was born and raised in Georgia and much of her writing centers on the urban South. Her first novel, Leaving Atlanta, a coming-of-age story set against the city’s infamous African American child murders of 1979-81, won the Hurston/Wright Award for debut fiction. Her second novel, The Untelling, about a family struggling to overcome the aftermath of a fatal car accident, received the Lillian C. Smith Book Award from the Southern Regional Council and the University of Georgia Libraries. Jones’s third novel, Silver Sparrow, has been included in O Magazines’s Favorite Things for 2011, Library Journal’s and Atlanta Magazine’s Top Ten Best Books of 2011, and the best books of the year at slate.com and salon.com. Her story of a man’s deception, a family’s complicity, and the two teenage girls caught in the middle has drawn wide praise. Anita Shreve in the Washington Post praised what she considers “one of literature’s most intriguing extended families.”
She will be interviewed on "Authors in Transit" on public-radio station KMSU-FM 89.7 airing Thursday at 1:00 p.m. and Friday at 11:00 a.m.
She will lead a talk on craft at 3:00 p.m. in CSU Ostrander Auditorium, followed by a reading at 7:30 p.m. in CSU Room 253.
The fall 2012 issue of [PDF] Techniques (354 KiB) is now available. The issue was edited and designed by students in Dr. Tesdell's Technical Documentation, Policies, and Procedures (ENG 4/577) class.
An editorial committee solicited proposals from all students in the technical communication courses, chose the proposals they thought were most relevant for their audience, communicated with the authors of the proposals, edited the articles, and designed and assembled the publication.
April 25th Good Thunder Reading Series
Geoff Herbach, fiction, and Diana Joseph, fiction/creative nonfiction
3:00 Talk on Craft, Ostrander
7:30 Reading, CSU 253
April 26th Making Connections Conference: Languages, Perspectives, & Identities
8:30am-4:45pm, CSU 202/203
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