Undergraduate Wins Stark Award
English senior Joshua Capodarco has won the College of Liberal Arts Stark Award, which was created based on a generous donation from Dr. Matthew "Matt" Stark, a former professor at the University of Minnesota and former executive director of the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union. The award recognizes a CLA student who has demonstrated "distinguished service, writing, teaching, involvement, or public leadership in one of more of the following areas: civil liberties, civil rights, public education and social justice." The honor is presented annually at the December CLA Commencement Ceremony and carries with it a financial award of $1000. Capodarco has an extensive background in service learning, taught English in Senegal (he wrote about it here), and is currently serving as undergraduate TA for the English course Literature of Public Life. Congratulations Josh!
Professor 
Professor 
The staff of the Museum of Russian Art in Minneapolis now counts three English alums on its nine-person staff, including President and Director Judi Dutcher (BA 1984). Curator of Russian Art and Artifacts Maria Zavialova received her PhD in English and Comparative Studies in Discourse and Society in 2008, and Misha Dashevsky (BA 1999) serves as assistant to the President. The stunning exhibit 
Poet Alex Lemon (MFA 2004) is featured in the January issue of Esquire magazine. He is one of seven men whose job it is, write the editors, to "make sense of the world and make us laugh, think, and question our way to a little bit of wisdom . . . and a sharp sense of winter style." Lemon's "from Halleluja Blackout" (title poem of his latest Milkweed collection) was chosen by Charles Wright for the Best American Poetry 2008 anthology. A memoir from Scribner is forthcoming.
Department of English faculty have produced a bounty of books this fall. Professor 
The cover story of the November 
English Professor Emeritus Peter Firchow died October 18, 2008. A member of the Department for 40 years, Professor Firchow focused on British literature in his teaching and extensive writing. In the last year he published two books, 
Adjunct Assistant Professor Debra Blake published her first book 
Every year English professor and Creative Writing Program core faculty member 
Department of English professor and Creative Writing Program chair 
The Department of English's continuing website feature 5 Questions + spotlights New Yorker Amy Shearn (MFA 2005), who publishes her debut novel How Far Is the Ocean From Here? in August 2008 with Shaye Areheart/Random House. 
A new volume of LUNA: a journal of poetry and translation has just been released. Edited by professor 
Help celebrate the 2008 issue of the 
Brown University professor Nancy Armstrong presents "Gender Must Be Defended" as the 
The Esther Freier Endowment 
English faculty 
Carol Bly, St. Paul essayist, fiction writer, teacher, and inspiration to many, died December 21 of cancer at age 77. Bly served as a Department of English Minnesota Writer of Distinction in 1998-1999: She taught Topics in Advanced Creative Writing: The Literary Essay, did a public reading at the Weisman Museum, and served as a thesis advisor. Among Bly's many celebrated 
Two of the Department of English's literary magazines have revamped their websites. 
Last summer, Michael Tisserand (B.A. ’92) published 
Brooks Doherty (BA Honors magna cum laude 2005) is co-founder and managing editor of the new Twin Cities-based on-line arts journal 
Melinda Braun (BA 2006) has published 
English graduate students have organized a 
Professor 
Edelstein-Keller visiting professor 
Julie Gard (MFA 2000) has published her first book with 
Professor 
Eric Dregni (MFA '07) will be 
Medievalist George Shuffleton visits the Department of English this fall semester from Carlton College, where he is assistant professor of English. Shuffleton will teach ENGL 8110-001 Popular Literature of Late Medieval England. He has a particular interest in Chaucer, Langland, and Gower, and his current research focuses on the relationship between miscellany manuscripts and Middle English poetry. 
On Sunday June 3, the Washington (D.C.) Times 
The Department of English is proud to host poet, scholar and teacher Steven Winduo in 2007-08. Winduo lectures in literature and language at the University of Papua New Guinea. He has published two poetry collections: Lomo'ha I am, in Spirit's Voice I Call (1991) and Hembemba: Rivers of the Forest (2000). Windou is the founding editor of Savanna Flames: A Papua New Guinea Journal of Literature, Language, and Culture. For fall, he will teach the undergraduate classes Analysis of the English Language and Literacy and American Cultural Diversity.
Professor Matar, hired under the Presidential Initiative on Arts and Humanities, will call the Department of English home starting next fall. Matar's research and writing focus on 16th- and 17th-century interactions between Europe, especially England, and the world of Islam. He will be teaching the English graduate level course Britain & Islamic Mediterranean: 1588-1713, which will trace the intellectual and historical contacts between early modern England and the Muslim Mediterranean through drama, travel literature, captivity accounts and theological polemic. Among his numerous publications are Britain and Barbary: 1589-1689 (University Press of Florida, 2005) and Turks, Moors, and Englishmen in the Age of Discovery (Columbia University Press, 1999). Matar received his PhD at the University of Cambridge. He was Professor of English at the Florida Institute of Technology.