NEWS FROM THE 2001 SPRING HONORS LUNCHEON

AUM STUDENTS WIN PRIZES ONCE AGAIN IN SOUTHERN LITERARY FESTIVAL

AUM's strong track record of consistently winning top prizes in the annual competition sponsored by the Southern Literary Festival has been extended again this year. The Filbuster, AUM's annual literary magazine, won first prize in this year's awards, much to the delight of AUM English major Donna Y. Smith, who edited the most recent issue of the journal. In addition, in the Informal Essay category, AUM student Jennifer Richardson won the second-place prize for her essay "Natural-Born Killers," while Tanya Brummett received the third-place award in the same category for her essay "My Worn Path." Entrants from colleges throughout the South competed in this year's contest. The awards were presented in April at the conference, which was held this year at Delta State University in Cleveland, MS. Warmest congratulations to Donna, Jennifer, and Tanya!

Students whose work was published in the prize-winning issue of The Filbuster included Eric Atkins, Tanya Brumett, Amy Camp, Amanda Townsend Darby, Teri Hedgpeth, Deborah Hill, Jared Hogan, Freddy Kendrick, Lee Kitchen, Michelle Maxwell, Candace Myers, Margo Paraska, Edward Pate, Eleanor Planer, Peggy Russell, Sheila Shaffer, Patrick Steele, Elizabeth Stewart, Aretha D. Wiley, and Dana Wright. Faculty advisor for The Filbuster is Dr. Susie Paul. Submissions to the Southern Literary Festival are coordinated each year by Mrs. Nancy Anderson. Publication of this year’s Filibuster was supported by a generous grant provided by Dr. Oliver Billingslea.


THREE ENGLISH MAJORS AMONG AUM STUDENTS SELECTED FOR Who's Who

The 2001 edition of Who's Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges will include the names of 15 AUM students who have been selected as national outstanding campus leaders.

AUM students to be included in this year's volume are Frances Crowell, Jessica E. Crownover, Kristie L. FitzGerald, Lori Brooke Golden, Kenneth W. Griffin, Greg J. Heinrich, Patsy D. Karnes, Wendy C. Mann, Daphne McCurdy, Kristi L. Owen, Igor Pashchuk, Heather M. Porter, Griffin Powell, Michelle Schutt and Jason Ward.


AUM ALUM HEATHER EDWARDS EARNS FULL-TIME JOB AFTER PARTICIPATING IN INTERNSHIP PROGRAM

Heather Edwards, chosen as the 2000 English Major of the Year by the AUM English Department, now has another achievement to her credit: she has accepted a full-time position with Community Communications, a local publishing firm where she had interned while still a student. Heather is now hard at work contributing to the research and writing of a book profiling the Montgomery community. Heather is just the latest in a long string of students who have received full-time job offers from companies with which they interned. At Community Communications, she works with such outstanding AUM alums as Wendi Lewis and Kurt Niland. Krewe Maynard and Eleanor Planer, two current AUM English majors, most recently polished their practical skills while interning with the company, where they received superb ratings from their supervisors. For further information about the AUM Internship program, please contact Professor Eric Sterling at sterling@strudel.aum.edu or at 334-244-3760.


TWO RECENT AUM STUDENTS ACCEPTED INTO GRADUATE SCHOOL

Two English departmental majors recently learned that they have been accepted for graduate study. Margo Paraska, who graduated last year and who has been working this year at the AUM Learning Center, will be heading off in the fall to study creative writing at Colorado State University. Meanwhile, Eric Atkins, who will be graduating this spring, will begin graduate study this fall at Middle Tennessee State University, where he has been awarded a research assistanceship. Congratulations, Margo and Eric!


“POETICA” POETRY READING LATEST EVENTS OF AUM ENGLISH CLUB

Student creative writers at AUM came together on Tuesday, March 14 and then again on Thursday, May 19 for "POETICA," a pair of readings sponsored by the AUM English Club. The club is an informal group of English majors and other students interested in literature and the literary arts, according to Dr. Jeff Melton, its sponsor. President of the club this year, and a major force in organizing the readings, is graduating senior Eric Atkins.

The original poems (and some short fiction) read at the events were quite varied in subject and tone and produced reactions ranging from enthusiastic laughter to stunned silence. Several professors who attended the reading remarked afterward that they were astonished by the skill demonstrated by many of the poems, and other members of the audience seemed to agree.
The students who read their poetry included Eleanor Planer, Jennifer Jacobs, Eric Andrews, Jared Hogan, Donna Smith, Deborah Hill, Jedidiah Steele, Sheila Schaffer, Wendy Mann, Neil Probst, Rian Rider, Heather Porter, and Eric Atkins. Several of the students thanked Dr. Susie Paul for the guidance and inspiration she had given them in her creative writing class. Dr. Paul, in fact, was one of several faculty members who read their own poetry at the second “Poetica” event. Other faculty readers included Dr. Alan Gribben and Dr. Eric Sterling.


WORK BY AUM STUDENTS APPEARS IN NEW SCHOLARLY BOOKS

Work by four AUM English majors was published this year as part of a new scholarly book entitled Ben Jonson’s Major Plays: Summaries of Modern Monographs. The volume, published by Locust Hill Press of West Cornwall, Connecticut, includes work by Kimberly Barron, Deborah Hill, Ann M. O’Clair, and Carolyn Young. The book was issued in the fall of 2000, and the first royalty payment, which arrived in April 2001, will help fund tuition for an English major’s studies during the coming summer semester.

Meanwhile, another Locust Hill volume currently in press will feature the work of Edward Pate, Dianne Russell, Jonathan Wright, and Carolyn Young. Entitled Kate Chopin’s Short Fiction: A Critical Companion, the book should be in print by mid-summer.

Other present or former AUM students whose work will appear in the book include Debbie Altman, Jennifer Adger, Jeff Alexander, Ashley Ashworth, Melissa Baker, Kimberly Barron, Benjamin Beard, Janis Blaesing, Curtis Bowden, Nataliya Bowden, Lee Bridges, Spencer Brothers, Jennifer Brown, Sonja Brown, Tanya Brummett, Roger Burdette, Shameka Carroll, Ree Ann Clark, Andrea Cook, Melissa Crane, Timothy D. Crowley, Shannon Dean, Foster Dixon, Paul Duke, Kathleen Durrer, Heather Edwards, John Elder, Matt Gilmore, Jacques Grant, Shelley Green, Kenneth Griffin, Drayton Hamilton, Barbara Hartin, Phyllis Hedrick, Charlotte Henderson, Sonjanika Henderson, Deborah Hill, Michael Hitch, Laketa Huddleston, Steven Jones, Connie James, John Kelley, Angelisa LaVan, Barrett Lee, Monica Felicia Lee, Katie Magaw, Kathy Mayfield, Christy Myers, Kevin Nutt, Kurt R. Niland, Pat Norman, Ann O'Clair, Mike Odom, Margo Paraska, Edward Pate, Lane Powell, Neil Probst, Stephanie Reed, Terri Richburg, Denean Rivera, Marie Robinson, Melissa Roth, Lorelei Jackson Sanders, Jay Sansom, Debbie Seale, Julie D. Sellers, Claire Skowronski, Durand Smitherman, Angela Soulé, Patrick Steele, Frances Stewart, Mark Stewart, Randy C. Stone, Teresa Stone, Tammy Taite, Ondra Thomas Krouse, Eric Thomason, Peter Walden, Gwendolyn Warde, Kristi Widner, and Claudia Wilsch.


WRITINGS BY AUM STUDENTS FEATURED IN NEW BOOK

The work of nearly 120 AUM students has been published in a new book of literary interpretation titled Close Readings: Analyses of Short Fiction from Multiple Perspectives by Students of Auburn University Montgomery, one of a number of forthcoming projects featuring the written scholarly work of numerous AUM students. The book, recently issued by NewSouth Books of Montgomery, collects a wide range of student commentary on short stories by such noted authors as Kate Chopin, Brian Friel and Frank O'Connor. Many of the commentaries already had been published in other books or soon will be. Close Readings brings them together in one volume.

Each student contributor to the book will receive one free paperback copy of the volume, which is currently being used as a text in the Department of English and Philosophy's course in literary criticism. More than 100 hardcover copies of the book will be given to local public schools, junior colleges and college libraries.

Publication of the book was supported by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which recently funded a two-year seminar on critical pluralism on the AUM campus. Much of the student work contained in the book is a direct outgrowth of the Mellon seminars.

Students whose work is featured in Close Readings are Jennifer Adger, Jeff Alexander, Amanda Allen, Debbie Altman, Patricia Angley, Ashley Ashworth, Melissa Baker, Kimberly Barron, Benjamin Beard, Janis Blaesing, Krissy Blankenship, Kathleen Bohen, Shon Boling, Curtis Bowden, Nataliya Bowden, Lara Bridger, Lee Bridges, Spencer Brothers, Jennifer Brown, Sonja Brown, Tanya Brummett, Roger Burdette, Shameka Carroll, Melanie Clark, Ree Ann Clark, Randall Cobb, Andrea Cook, Melissa Crane, Timothy D. Crowley, Mike Cunliffe, Todd Davis, Shannon Dean, Foster Dickson, Paul Duke, Kathleen B. Durrer, Heather Edwards, John Elder, Jeremy Fore, Timothy Francisco, Matt Gilmore, Ashley Gordon, Jacques Grant, Shelly Green, William Greene, Kenneth W. Griffin, Alan Griffith, Kyla Gunter, Drayton Hamilton, Barbara Hartin, Phyllis Hedrick, Charlotte Henderson, Sonjanika Henderson, Amanda Higgins, Deborah Hill, Michael Hitch, Kerrie Hopper, Laketa Huddleston, Connie James, Jamey Johnson, Scott Johnson, Willie Mae Johnson, Steven Jones, Connie James, John Kelley, Angelisa LaVan, Barbara Larson, Barrett Lee, Monica Felicia Lee, Anje Lister, Marty Mace, Katie Magaw, Mia Manning, Kathy Mayfield, John McGaughey, Mary Mechler, Regina Moates, Christy Myers, Kevin Nutt, Kurt R. Niland, Pat Norman, Ann O'Clair, Mike Odom, Margo Paraska, Edward Pate, Karen Worley Pirnie, Eleanor Planer, Lane Powell, Michael Probst, Neil Probst, Will Quincy, Stephanie Reed, Terri Richburg, Denean Rivera, Melissa Roth, Marie Robinson, Dianne Russell, Peggy Russell, Lorelei Jackson Sanders, Jay Sansom, Debbie Seale, Julie D. Sellers, Tawanda Shaw, Brian Shefrin, Claire Skowronski, Durand Smitherman, Charles Solomon, Angela Soule, Patrick Steele, Frances Stewart, Mark Stewart, Randy C. Stone, Teresa Stone, Tammy Taite, Ondra Thomas-Krouse, Eric Thomason, Barbrietta Turner, Peter Walden, Gwendolyn Warde, Kristi Widner, Geni Williams, Claudia Wilsch, Jonathan Wright and Carolyn Young.


WORK BY AUM STUDENTS CITED IN NEW SCHOLARLY COLLECTION

Scholarly publications prepared during the past several years by students from AUM are prominently featured in an important new work from Cambridge University Press: The Cambridge Companion to Ben Jonson. The new volume, likely to be a standard item in most libraries' collections of Jonson scholarship, cites published essays prepared by John Burdett, Clint Darby, Katie Magaw, Neil Probst, and Jonathan Wright.

Burdett, a former student of the School of Education, now teaches in a local public school. Darby recently graduate with an undergradute degree in art. Magaw, once an undergraduate English major at AUM, is now enrolled in the university's Master of Liberal Arts program. Probst, once an undergraduate English major, is now completing a master's degree in AUM's School of Education. Wright, a product of the MLA program at AUM, is now finishing his doctorate in English at the University of Alabama while working at Faulkner University.

The Jonson volume is part of Cambridge's series of published companions to great authors. The works of the AUM students are cited not only in an essay included in the volume but also in the master bibliography at the conclusion of the book.


WORK BY AUM STUDENT FEATURED IN BROCHURE SENT TO 15,000 SCHOLARS

An article by Deborah Hill, an undergraduate English major at AUM, is prominently featured in an advertisement to be included in a brochure that will soon be mailed to more than 15,000 scholars or libraries focusing on Renaissance literature.

Hill's article, recently published in volume 7 of the Ben Jonson Journal, is highlighted in an ad for the journal that will appear in a circular forthcoming soon from the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, one of the leading centers for scholarship dealing with European culture before 1700.


AUM STUDENTS ATTEND LITERARY READING, INTERACT WITH AUTHORS

Students from the AUM course in Literary Criticism were able to meet outside their normal classroom on Monday, March 12, when they gathered at the NewSouth Bookstore (at the corner of Washington and Court streets in downtown Montgomery) to hear readings by short story writer Tom Franklin and his wife, the poet Beth Ann Fennelly.

Students had earlier read and discussed in great detail a story by Franklin, whose recent collection of stories -- entitled Poachers -- has been issued by a major publisher and has been widely acclaimed by critics. Franklin read the same story aloud on Monday evening and answered various questions about it and about his fiction in general. The story, a brief tale called "Alaska," had provoked extremely warm and enthusiastic responses during class discussion.
Many students particularly enjoyed the poems read by Fennelly, whose work has been printed in such notable journals as TriQuarterly, Kenyon Review, and Shenandoah. Another highlight of the evening was the performance of a short, humorous tale composed (and read) jointly by Franklin and Fennelly.

NewSouth Books, which is both a bookstore and a publishing company, has been a good friend to the AUM English Department. A number of departmental majors have been interns there, and two of the store's leading lights -- Ben Beard and Kevin Nutt -- are graduates of the AUM English program. Also in attendance at Monday's event was Bart Barton, who has taught creative writing at AUM, and whose own collection of short fiction is due to be published very soon.


AUM RECEIVES SECOND DONATION FROM AUTHOR'S WIDOW

The annual Frank O'Connor short story and essay contests, adminstered by AUM and now in their third year, are likely to continue many years longer thanks to a generous new donation of $5000 by Mrs. Harriet O'Donovan Sheehy, widow of the famous Irish writer.

Sheehy originally established the contests with a donation of more than $11,000 to AUM; the latest donation ensures that the competitions will exist for nearly a decade, at least.
Each year the contests award $1000 to the person who submits the best story and $1000 to the persons who submit the two best essays. The latest winner of the short story prize is Melvin Sterne of Seattle, Washington. His story entitled "Bread" was selected from among numerous entries submitted from all over the U.S. and indeed the world. The number of submissions to this year's contest was nearly double the number submitted last year.


AUM ALUM CAMERON READER WINS PROMOTION AND NEW JOB IN BEAUTIFUL TOURIST AREA

Cameron Reader, who graduated with a B.A. in English from AUM in the 1980s, reports that he is "now the Executive Director of the Alabama Mountain Lakes Tourist Association. AMLA is responsible for tourism promotion in the 16 northernmost counties of Alabama. Our office is in historic Mooresville, Al. (where the Disney movie Tom and Huck was filmed!). Our website is www.northalabama.org." Cameron had previously worked for the Alabama Department of Tourism. Congratulations, Cameron! We are proud of your achievements!