The Words: May 2023
English End-of Year Celebration Prizes and Awards
The English department held its annual End-of-Year Celebration on May 1, 2023. At this event, the English department celebrates the year with dinner and a program during which our seniors were honored and the recipients of our prizes and awards were announced. Click hear to read the list of award winners!
Fall Literary Publishing Class Launches Anthology!
Chloë Moore ’24
On Wednesday, April 19th, during the usual Coffee House spot, the Fall 2022 Literary Publishing class celebrated the launch of MoonSprout: A Literary Garden, the anthology that they wrote, edited, and published over the course of the semester. Featuring fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction written by students in the class, MoonSprout represents the very edge of undergrad publishing. Learn more about Moonsprout and the literary publishing course here!
Ink Blood Sister Scribe: Emma Törzs Releases Debut Novel This Month
Sydney Ellison ‘24
Professor Emma Törz is a visiting professor here at Macalester College, currently teaching ENGL 150 (Introduction to Creative Writing) and ENGL 294 (Crafts of Writing: Fantasy Fiction). Outside of her instruction at Macalester she also remains a writer and translator based in Minneapolis. With a publishing history that includes work in Ploughshares, Uncanny Magazine, Strange Horizons, and American Short Fiction, Professor Törz is getting ready to release her debut novel, Ink Blood Sister Scribe. Read more about the novel here!
Benjamin Voigt’s New Chapbook: Postpastoral
Patrick Coy-Bjork ’24
Last fall, Macalester English Alum and current Academic Information Associate Benjamin Voigt won a writing contest in which he was named the inaugural chapbook fellow of poetry.onl. His winning chapbook, Postpastoral, has now been officially published! To celebrate, Voigt hosted a launch party in the Weyerhaeuser chapel in which he read excerpts from his work. Find out more about Postpastoral here!
Midwest Poetry Mashup
Anna Šverclová ’23
Macalester’s traveling slam poetry team (formerly known as the CUPSI team) is heading off to the Midwest Poetry Mashup on Friday and Saturday, April 28th and 29th. During this competition, the team will compete against four other teams from around the Twin Cities, including some notable adult poets such as Zach Goldberg and Farah Habad. This year, Mac’s team includes senior Anna Šverclová, junior Kendall Kieras, and sophomores Adrien Wright and Veronica Kruschel. Learn more about Mashup and Mac’s slam team here!
Professor Sabbatical Check-In: Penelope Geng
Sydney Ellison ‘24
Penelope Geng is an associate professor of Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama, British Literature c.1500-1700, Law and Literature, Religion and Literature; The Reformation, Affect and Emotions, Disability Studies, and Race and Property Law. In 2021, Prof. Geng published her first book Communal Justice in Shakespeare’s England: Drama, Law, and Emotion, and is currently on sabbatical working on her next project provisionally titled “Disabled by Law.” I caught up with Professor Geng to hear all about her day-in-and-out activities of her sabbatical this year…
Dalton’s Year in Review: A Big Fat Greek Fulbright
Dalton Greene ‘22
Dear Words readers,
Γεια σας (hello) from Athens! Since graduating from Macalester last year, I’ve been here in Greece, working as a teaching assistant in a local high school with the support of a Fulbright grant. As I write this, our academic year is winding down, much as yours is stateside, and so it feels an appropriate time to reflect on this experience and share a sort of year in review…
Honors Project Presentations
Lydia Schmelzer ’23
On Friday, April 21st family, friends and professors packed the Harmon room to celebrate the English Seniors who Honors Projects this year. There was record high attendance to support and hear from presenters, Anna Sverclova, Hugh Gabriel, Lenny Prater, Colleen Apostle, and Ella Deutchman – all of whom undertook ambitious, year long creative writing projects with the support of individual faculty advisors. Read more about their projects here!
English Capstone Presentations
Patrick Coy-Bjork ’24
This semester, ten English majors undertook the capstone project across both the disciplines of Literature and Creative Writing. There was a wide range of forms and topics explored in the various projects. This included poetry, fantasy, photography, and much more! On April 25th and 26th, the ten students each shared a presentation in which they described the work they completed throughout the semester. Read more about the capstones here!
Macalester English Department Boasts Prestigious Graduate Acceptances
Sydney Ellison ‘24
Sixty percent of Macalester graduates pursue an advanced degree within 6 years of graduating, and ninety percent of graduates say that Macalester prepared them well for postgraduate baccalaureate education (After Macalester Page- Graduate School). Our own English department is no exception either, with a plethora of recent graduates having been accepted into a variety of graduate programs across the country, and the world. Learn about some of those graduates here!
Anna’s Parting Words
Anna Šverclová ’23
Hello English Department, and goodbye.
Wow, it’s been a weird few years. I was a first year for like five minutes and suddenly, I’m a senior. Leaving doesn’t feel real yet, but everyone’s asking for my farewell thoughts. So, here goes nothing…
Lydia’s Parting Words
Lydia Schmelzer ’23
Being an English major has taught me how to give language to complex ideas and concepts, both in the classroom and outside of it. Things I’ve learned in my classes, whether it be about conducting an interview for a profile writing piece, or feminist theory, have been endlessly applicable during my time at Macalester outside of English as well…
