Grad Students, Newsletter Articles, Publications, Resources

MUsings 2019 Graduate Publication

MUsings began at Millersville to showcase the research and creative work of graduate students here at the university. We have been publishing work online since 2016, and publishing in print for well over a decade.

All the English graduate assistants of Millersville work on the journal in the fall and spring semesters. Professor Joyce Anderson of English is the faculty adviser of the journal, and this year the English department’s head graduate assistant Maria Rovito is the lead editor. MUsings also collaborates and works with other faculty and staff in graphic design, university marketing, graduate studies, the McNairy Library, Made in Millersville, English, and social work.

If you are interested in getting your graduate work published, submit to the journal. A publication will impress future employers, and if you are interested in going into higher education, a publication helps establish your credibility as a scholar. The journal is both in print and online. If you are accepted into the journal you have the option to present at Made in Millersville in the spring of 2019.

All graduate students at Millersville can submit to the journal, no matter their degree program or discipline. We accept any work that is academic, creative, or artistic. Some examples include academic articles, fiction, poetry, artistic works, and personal essays.

The deadline for the spring 2019 issue is November 1, 2018. Right now we are finishing the spring 2018 issue, and we will start accepting work for the spring 2019 issue in November.

Here is where you can submit your piece and find more information.

Submission Criteria:

  • Maximum two prose submissions (scholarly or creative) or up to five poems or visual works or art
  • Less than 10,000 words in length

Please contact either Professor Joyce Anderson or Maria Rovito with any questions.

Thanks to Maria Rovito for her collaboration.

 

Environmental Advocacy, Newsletter Articles, Special Activities

Environmental Writing Susquehanna Kayak Trip

On October 3rd, Dr. Mando’s Environmental Writing class went on a kayak trip as part of their Susquehanna Stories Project through Shank’s Mare Outfitters. For many, the Susquehanna River is just that expanse they cross on their way along the Pennsylvania Turnpike or a troublemaker for the Chesapeake Bay, but for students from ENGL 466: Environmental Advocacy Writing, the river is a source of inspiration. These students have been tasked with telling stories of the river, focusing on the people, plants, animals, and places that make the Susquehanna a valuable connection to our area. What better way to start that process than by getting into the river itself?

The class floated the river to gain a sense of place that will drive the writing they do on behalf of this magnificent, threatened, and often overlooked American waterway. Their goal is to capture in writing both the aesthetic and cultural value of the Susquehanna along with the threats that face it. Many organizations from the Susquehanna’s headwaters to its mouth in the Chesapeake Bay are excited to hear what flows from our student advocates. River Stewards, a Susquehanna-focused organization, funded the excursion in its entirety. This surely demonstrates the value of the work our students do!

The trip was attended by Liz Amoriello, Abbie Breckbill, Domenic DeSimone, Jessie Garrison, Skyler Gibbon, Shelby Hall, Anthony Miller, Jonathan Rivera, Kyle Steffish, and Kelly Umenhofer.

The students set off on a calm evening in early October, taking double kayaks from south of Wrightsville down to Fishing Creek and back in the section of the Susquehanna known as Lake Clarke. Because it is between two dams, this part of the river is much more like a lake than what normally comes to mind when we think of rivers. This lake-like stretch has caused the students to think of how differently they may have to communicate environmental issues to citizens located along the banks of Lake Clarke among lighthouses, seagulls and jetskis than they would in the river’s northern reaches of grass islands, exposed rocks and riffles.

These kinds of rhetorical issues regarding context and audience really come to life when you’re out there in the middle of the river. You can’t help but imagine the native Susquehannock settlements of the distant past and their dugout sycamore canoes juxtaposed with the brightly colored kayaks we floated. You look to the top of Turkey Hill where a landfill, a processing plant and windmills now have the high ground and then your eyes focus on the mottled white of a swooping osprey. You come ashore and the ground feels different; it’s not just your soggy shoes, it’s the sense of being part of the sweeping flows of time and place that we as individuals can passively float or choose to paddle against.

On October 24th at 4:30pm, there will be a reading of the student’s Susquehanna Stories at Saxby’s as a part of Sustainability Month.

–Photos and Article from Dr. Mando

 

Literary Events, Newsletter Articles, Special Activities

Literary Festival – Panel Discussion: “The Writing Life”

Millersville University is hosting a Literary Festival in the McNairy Library Room 100 on November 2nd from 9am to 5pm with a keynote speaker at 7pm. Guest writers will hold sessions on writing fiction, poetry, memoir, creative essays, and journalism throughout the day. Check out the full event schedule here. 

From 12:05am to 1:55, the literary fest will shift into room 112 for a panel discussion composed of recent Millersville alums about “The Writing Life.” Here is some more information about the panel members:

Phil Benoit, a retired MU professor, has narrated 23 audio-books, which are listed for sale on Audible. A former college faculty member and administrator, he is the co-author of several college textbooks on communications and broadcasting.

Mitchell Sommers is the fiction editor of Philadelphia Stories, a quarterly literary magazine. He is an attorney practicing in Lancaster and Ephrata.

Barb Strasko, who appeared earlier in the day for the poetry panel, is the author of two collections of poetry and was appointed the first Poet Laureate of Lancaster County by the Lancaster Literary Guild. She is a counselor, reading specialist, and literacy coach. and is currently the Poet in the Schools for Poetry Paths in the city of Lancaster.

Alex Brubaker is the Manager of the Midtown Scholar Bookstore and Director of the Harrisburg Book Festival. Previously, he was the Exhibit Coordinator of the Twin Cities Book Festival and the Editorial Assistant at Rain Taxi Magazine in Minneapolis.

During this section Dr. Corkery and his theatrical troupe will make an appearance.

Be sure to check out this panel and more on November 2nd!

 

Uncategorized

Mark Dellandre: On Writing

Mark Dellandre is a senior Meteorology major here at MU. He recently published a novel titled “The Entropy of Knowledge” with his co-author Britton Learnard. Read about Mark’s writing process and his rules of writing in the following essay.

My debut novel, “The Entropy of Knowledge,” went up for sale last week. It’s a unique blend of science fiction and humor, with an emphasis on humor. It tells the timeless tale of “boy meets girl, boy’s village gets invaded by aliens, boy leaves girl and sets off for the stars in a stolen spaceship, boy meets giant-eyeball girl.” Y’know, that same old story.

Interestingly enough, this book started out as a bet between me and my co-author, Britton Learnard. We were hanging out together one night—drinks may have been involved—and kept telling jokes to one another. One of us—I forget who—suggested that we write all of our jokes down, and try to form them into a novel. So, then the bet was made, and we worked hard to bring that novel to the public.

The first rule of writing that I followed is one that seems self-explanatory, but it might be the hardest rule of all to follow: write the book YOU would want to read. That may sound very simple—almost too simple—but anybody who’s ever put pen to paper knows how difficult it really is. Everybody’s tastes are different, and it can be hard to trust your own storytelling power. That’s okay. Keep working at it; eventually, everything will fall into place.

Mark Dellandre (Photo Credit Sara Housseal)

The next advice isn’t any easier, but it needs to be understood. Know what you want to get out of writing. If it’s a personal hobby, and you never have any plans to do more than collect your thoughts, that’s fine. If you want to try and become a career author, that’s fine too. If you DO want to have a career in the writing field, then you should treat it as such. Writing a novel is hard. It’s work. You have to put in the effort. Usually, I try for 500 words a day, 5 days a week. Other people might shoot for 1000 words a day, or even 100. That’s okay. The point is to get yourself into a rhythm of writing almost every day, whether you want to or not. Being an author is a commitment, it’s a full-time job, but that doesn’t mean you can’t love what you’re doing.

Finally, the hardest thing to accept is the simple fact that your first draft won’t be expert quality. Nobody’s first draft is perfect. That’s okay! Write it down anyway. Trust in your future self to clean everything up in subsequent drafts. And most importantly, don’t stop to edit anything until you’re done a full draft. That made seem hard—and at times impossible—but I can’t tell you how many stories never see the light of day because the author wants to make the first draft as perfect as possible. Don’t fall for that trap. There will be time to fix mistakes later. For now, work on finishing that first draft.

Oh, and Go Marauders!

Read a free sample of my book here, at http://divertirpublishing.com/books/eok.html

-Mark Dellandre

Literary Events, Special Activities, Student Activities

Literary Festival – Poetry

Millersville University is hosting a Literary Festival in the McNairy Library Room 100 on November 2nd from 9am to 5pm with a keynote speaker at 7pm. Guest writers will hold sessions on writing fiction, poetry, memoir, creative essays, and journalism throughout the day. Check out the full event schedule here. 

Sessions 2 and 3 of Millersville’s Literary Festival will focus on poetry. Session 2, which starts at 10am, will feature Le Hinton and Jenny Hill. Session 3, which begins at 11am, will feature Barb Strasko and Michele Santamaria. Here is some extra information about the guest poets for these sections:

Le Hinton is the author of six poetry collections and his work has been widely published and nominated for various awards such as the 2016 Pushcart Prize, the 2016 Best of the Net, and inclusion in Best American Poetry 2014. His current collection, Sing Silence (formerly A Chorus for Cotton), was a finalist for “The Best Prize for People of Color” from Big Lucks and an honorable mention for the Dogfish Head Poetry Prize.

Jenny Hill is the author of six books of poetry, two of prose, and is a teaching artist in the Arts-in-Education program with the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. She has been teaching creative writing for the past 18 years and her work has been anthologized in high school textbooks and appeared in numerous literary journals.

Barb Strasko is the author of two collections of poetry: Graffiti in Braille and On the Edge of Delicate Day. She was appointed the first Poet Laureate of Lancaster County by the Lancaster Literary Guild. Her poem “Bricks and Mortar” is engraved in granite in Lancaster’s main square.

Michele Santamaria works as a Learning Design Librarian at MU. She was a reader for the South Carolina Review and inaugural poetry editor for the journal Cherry Tree. Her poems have most recently appeared in Bayou, Bellingham Review, and Portland Review. In her current manuscript, Michele is writing about Technicolor movies, family history, beauty, and race.

Special Activities, Student Activities

Class Trip to Columbia, PA – Open Seats!

If you travel just over 8 miles away from Millersville, you will get to the town of Columbia, Pennsylvania, which the nineteenth-century historian Robert Clemens Smedley labeled as the birthplace of the Underground Railroad.  In his published account of the Underground Railroad’s presence in Pennsylvania, Smedley describes Columbia as a key station on the Underground Railroad because of its proximity to the Pennsylvania-Maryland border, just across the Susquehanna River.

On Friday, October 19, 2018 two sections of Dr. Jakubiak’s class ENGL 333 African American Literature will travel to Columbia to learn more about this part of local history. They will participate in the guided tour of Underground Railroad, led by Christopher Vera, the President of Columbia Historic Preservation Society. Students will first visit Underground Railroad Exhibit at Miller Manse, where they will see many railroad artifacts and photographs. Then, they will walk to Smith & Whipper Lumber Mill, Thaddeus Stevens, first black settlement, Bank & Bridge Co. building, William Wright’s homestead, and Wrights Mansion, all sites with historical ties to Underground Railroad. The tour will end with questions.

Students will travel to Columbia with Shultz Transportation in two groups at the following times:

  1. Group 1: Departing from SMC at 9:30am, returning to Millersville at noon.
  2. Group 2: Departing from SMC at 12:30pm, returning to Millersville at 3pm.

There are a few seats open on both tours. If you would like to join this trip, please e-mail Dr. Jakubiak at katarzyna.jakubiak@millersville.edu.

Literary Events, Newsletter Articles, Special Activities, Student Activities

Literary Festival – Flash Fiction Contest

Millersville University is hosting a Literary Festival in the McNairy Library Room 100 on November 2nd from 9am to 5pm with a keynote speaker at 7pm. Guest writers will hold sessions on writing fiction, poetry, memoir, creative essays, and journalism throughout the day. Check out the full event schedule here. 

The Millersville University Literary Festival is sponsoring a Flash Fiction contest!

Submission Criteria:

  • Millersville students only
  • 1,000 word limit
  • Submit here (click on the “Submit Here” link) by October 15th at 11:59pm

The night before the festival (November 1st), the student fiction prize will be awarded at an open mic event in Saxby’s from 7-9pm. The winner will win a $100 prize and a spot in the George Street Press literary magazine.

Please submit your stories and come out to the open mic on November 1st!

Literary Events, Newsletter Articles, Special Activities, Student Activities

Literary Festival – Fiction and Flash Fiction Presentation

Millersville University is hosting a Literary Festival in the McNairy Library Room 100 on November 2nd from 9am to 5pm with a keynote speaker at 7pm. Guest writers will hold sessions on writing fiction, poetry, memoir, creative essays, and journalism throughout the day. Check out the full event schedule here. 

Session 1 of the Literary Festival will focus on Fiction and Flash Fiction.  Presenters Curtis Smith and Don Helin will discuss writing fiction from 9-9:50am. Here is some more information about the presenters:

Curtis Smith has been featured in over seventy literary journals and is the author of five books of fiction. His work has been cited by The Best American Short Stories, The Best American Mystery Stories, The Best American Spiritual Writing and the recently released WW Norton anthology New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction. His most recent book is Lovepain, a novel from Braddock Avenue Books.

 

 

 

Don Helin is the author of five thrillers that draw from his military experience serving in a number of stateside posts as well as overseas in Vietnam and Germany. His novel, Secret Assault, was selected as the best Suspense/Thriller at the 2015 Indie Book Awards. Don is a member of International Thriller Writers, Military Writers Society of America, Penwriters, a state-wide writers group in PA.

 

 

 

 

Special Activities

Taking TIFF in 2018

Millersville students traveled to the Toronto International Film Festival September 6-12 to explore the world of cinema at the Western Hemisphere’s most important film Festival.  Festival attendees enjoyed 12-15 films during their stay, including

  • Michael Moore’s new documentary Fahrenheit11/9
  • Teen Spirit (with a discussion by the director and cast)
  • The Homecoming, a new projThe Homecoming TIFF 2018ect by producer/actor Julia Roberts (with discussion by Roberts and cast after the film, pictured below right)
  • Neil Jordan’s Greta (with discussion by the director and cast)
  • George Tillman’sThe Hate U Give (with discussion by director and cast)
  • 3 Faces(by Iranian director Jafar Panafi)
  • The Image Book (a video essay directed by Jean-Luc Godard)
  • Cruz and Bardem in Farhadi’s Everybody Knows
  • Alfonso Cuaron’s semi-autobiographical film ROMA (with a discussion by Cuaron)
  • Emma Tammi’s horror-western The Wind (with a discussion by director and cast after the screening)
  • The Public (with a discussion by first-time director Emilio Estevez and cast, including Alec Baldwin and Christian Bale)
The TIFF 2018 Crew on King Street

As Industry Conference participants, the group also attended industry events, including a conversation with eclectic producer/mogul Nina Yang Bongiovi, who presented advice on working in the industry.

Students also were able to experience screenings in the last operating double theatre in the world, the Elgin/Winter Garden.  Students enjoyed the eclectic array of films from non-narrative cinema (Jean-Luc Godard’s The Image Book) to documentaries (Fahrenheit 11/9) to genre films (Greta) to foreign cinema (3 Faces) as well as the gracious hospitality of Toronto and its tasty food.  They even got to experience midnight screenings with the students on Ryerson University campus.

–Jill Craven

Newsletter Articles

Dr. Timothy Shea – Update From Kenya

Dr. Timothy Shea, Associate Professor of English at Millersville, has been teaching secondary humanities at an international school in Kenya for a two-year leave of absence. Here is an update on his experiences. 

I gotta admit. I was a bit nervous accompanying a bunch of teenagers whom I barely knew to rough it in the middle of Kenya where they would need to survive without technology and where they would need to share a handful of pit toilets, two bucket showers, and basic village cuisine. I anticipated a week of whining, apathy, and drama but, boy, was I wrong!

From the very beginning, these kids showed me what’s right about today’s teens. They pitched in to set up tents, help with meals, take turns with toilet use, and all with smiles and good attitudes. I know they were impressed with the sacrifice our host, Pastor Nicholas, and his family made for us to be there. He gave up his home, prepared our meals, and facilitated our service to his community. I was most impressed with the ways they interacted with the local community, from the vivacious church members to the kids with HIV. They played, laughed, told stories, and helped their new friends have a happier life.

Each year Rosslyn Academy takes all of its middle and high school students to sites all over Kenya for a 3 – 5 day camping expedition where they engage in community service while learning more about themselves, and the local culture. It is tiring and stretches their comfort levels but they learn so much in the process!
This year I accompanied sixteen 10th graders to the central highlands of Kenya, nestled between two mountains–Mt. Meru and Mt. Kenya–and surrounded by tea farms and waterfalls where we camped out with a local pastor and his family and learned what it means to serve others.

We painted several buildings of an orphanage for kids with HIV. In between painting, we played with these kids and were amazed with their sense of contentment and happiness. In between our working, we hiked through tea farms to a waterfall and caves,we listened to a local village legend tell stories about the Mau Mau uprising, and we hiked up a dormant volcano. In the evenings we played games, debriefed around the campfire, and reflected on our learning in our journals.

On our final day, we joined all the other high school groups to debrief on the ways this experience changed them. I was blown away by the difference roughing it and serving others with a group of teens for a few days would make.  I have gone on lots of field and service trips with teenagers and was ready to deal with the drama, cliques, and whining that often goes with these fun experiences. Amazingly, I didn’t experience ANY of that! In fact, it was quite the opposite. Some of my group members were even new to Rosslyn this year but yet, in no time, they were quite close and were constantly looking out for each other in beautiful ways. By the end of the week, they were letting each other know how much they appreciated each other and how they wanted to make sure they didn’t lose all that they had gained on this trip. As their teacher, I was thrilled and awed by their growth and how such an intense experience could make such a big impact on them. I look forward to seeing how this experience continues to transform us all this year and how it affects the ways they continue to interact with those who surround them every day. THIS is what makes teaching rewarding and fun!

–Dr. Shea

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