Profs. Mark Neely and Sean Lovelace are proud editors of Nice Things by James Franco, and yes, we mean the real-life movie star legend James Franco. Mark and Sean were recruited through a publishing connection and the rest, as they say, is history. This chapbook of Franco’s musings has been published through New Michigan Press.

Sean Lovelace also published two flash fictions, “University of W” and “University of B” in the spring issue of Sonora Review.

Elisabeth Buck has accepted a position as an Assistant Professor and Director of the Writing Center at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth.

Dr. Jennifer Grouling has been granted research leave for Fall 2016 to work on her project “Adapting VALUES: The Life of a Rubric.” She will be studying the ways that different universities have adapted the VALUES rubric for Written Communication by the Association of American Colleges and Universities for assessment across the curriculum.

Alicia Miller, currently pursuing an MA in TESOL, has been accepted to the PhD program in Curriculum and Instruction at Mercer University. Congratulations!

• Olivia Gehrich presented “Change vs. Progress: Analysis of the Gender Outlaw’s Function in Virginia Woolf’s Orlando”
• Jesse Sopher presented “‘The Manly Love of Comrades’: A Whitmanian Tradition, Edward Prime-Stevenson’s Imre, and the Effects of the Closet on Homosocial Behaviors, Relationships, and Desires”
• Danita Mason presented “Heteronormativity and Lesbian Invisibility in Patricia Highsmith’s The Price of Salt and the Film Carol“
• Jeremy Flick presented “Be a Good Girl: Power Dynamics in The Price of Salt, Carol, and Lolita“

Prof. Emily Scalzo had three senryu accepted by @7×20 in January, and they were published this month on Twitter. Check them out! In addition,

• her poem “Duplicity, or Why I Will Not Support Hillary for 2016” will be published in the Winter 2016 Blue Collar Review, available in March, and
• her poem “Stardust” was accepted by Mobius: The Journal of Social Change in late February, and is now available online.

The public memoir Where Mercy and Truth Meet: Homeless Women of Wheeler Speak, edited by Prof. Lyn Jones, was chosen as the class reader for a required freshman course at Butler titled: Families and Urban Poverty in U.S. History. The anthology was created by the Indiana Writers Center and Wheeler Mission Ministries Center for Women and Children, and was published last September. It centers on the stories of homeless women seeking assistance at Wheeler Mission. Lyn presented her talk “Using Public Memoir as a Way to Make Change for the Homeless” to the class at Butler.

In addition, Lyn published a chapter entitled “I Want to Write for Regular People” in the book Permission: The International Interdisciplinary Impact of Laurel Richardson’s Work. 

Dr. Susanna Benko published “More than social media: Using Twitter with preservice teachers as a means of reflection and engagement in communities of practice” in Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, an interactive online journal. The article was co-authored with Dr. Megan Guise, Casey Earl, and Witny Gill.

The Ball State Speech team was crowned Indiana Forensic Association 2016 State Champions for the fifth year in a row, and the Quality Award for the third year in the row. Four English students on the team carried home other awards and prizes:

• Lauren Seitz, senior, won the scholarly essay contest with her entry: “‘Funny’ Feminism: An Ideological Criticism of Sarcastic Twitter Account @MeninistTweet.” She was also named Extemporaneous, After Dinner Speaking and Impromptu Speaking Champion.
• Madison Gillespie, junior, was named Poetry & Prose Interpretation Champion.
• Sarah Martin, freshman, was named Duo Interpretation Champion and Novice Prose Champion.

Congratulations on the awards!