English News

Summer Open Mic Presented by Helicon WestJo on May 23, June 27, July 25, & August 22 in the Logan Library community room A at 7 pm. Helicon West is a lively performance venue for the written word.

Preston Waddoups was named this year’s CHaSS valedictorian. Preston double-majored in English (Literature Emphasis) and Philosophy. During his time as an English major, Preston gave nine conference presentations over several years.

English Teaching emphasis Dakota Mecham won the Individual Research prize (first place) at the Student Research Symposium in Vernal, Utah, for her presentation titled, “Tabula Rasa and Frankenstein’s Monster.”

We are thrilled to announce that the following students will be attending graduate programs in the Fall. We wish all of our students the very best as they continue on their educational journeys.

The spring semester Farm in Literature and Culture class (English 3630), taught by Rosa Thornley, studied agricultural themes in literature. Katie Chambers, junior studying Equine Science with a minor in English, chose a project to connect both agricultur...

On Thursday, April 18, the Citizen Scholar Conference (CSC) took place in the Merrill-Cazier Library. The CSC invites English 2010 students to share their innovative and creative ideas, presenting with a specific audience in mind.

Senior Lecturer Shanan Ballam was recently interviewed by both The Herald Journal and KSL, discussing her experiences recovering from a stroke and returning to language and writing. Her forthcoming book, first poems after the stroke, delves into these.

Recently, the English Department held our annual awards ceremony, which celebrated the department’s exceptional faculty, staff, and students, as well as the legacy of Helen B. Cannon.

15 undergraduate English students from Logan, Vernal, and Ephraim campuses presented at the 100th Sigma Tau Delta International English Honors Society Convention and won awards in three categories.

On Thursday April 25th at 7 pm in Logan Library Community Room A, there will be a reading, presented by Helicon West, by the USU Creative Writing and Art Contest Winners

Fifteen English Department undergraduates from USU Logan, Price, and Ephraim campuses presented at the 100th Sigma Tau Delta International English Honors Society Convention in St. Louis, Missouri, April 3-6.

On Friday, April 5, 2024, the USU Board of Trustees approved promotions for 15 faculty in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. The newly promoted faculty represent six departments in the college.

The Conference on College Composition and Communication is the leading organization in writing studies. It convened April 3-6, 2024 in Spokane, Washington, celebrating its 75th anniversary with a theme of “Writing Abundance.”

The following concurrent enrollment instructors are also USU English Department alumni who were asked about their time in the department and its impact on their careers. They exemplify the reciprocal, collaborative nature of our concurrent enrollment prog...

The recipient of the 2024 English Faculty Mentoring Award is Associate Professor Jessica Rivera-Mueller. Our English Faculty Mentoring Award was established by a generous donor who experienced the kind encouragement of faculty at a pivotal moment in her u...

English major Ariel Longoria and Assistant Professor Adena Rivera-Dundas received a research grant last summer through the Utah Academy of Arts and Letters (UASAL), allowing Ariel to work as a research assistant for Adena and present her work at the annua...

On April 10, 2024, come and celebrate this year’s English faculty, staff, and outstanding student awardees in the Caine room: Family Life Room 212 from 3- 4:30 pm! Refreshments will be provided!

On Wednesday, April 3 at 11:30 am in the Merrill-Cazier Library room 101 Patrick Milian will be reading from his book Unquiet Country. Patrick Milian is the author of The Unquiet Country (Entre Ríos Books) and the chapbook Pornographies (Greying Ghost).

Noah Todachiny, a student in Professor Jeannie Thomas’ Introduction to Folklore class, recently created “Ghost Hunters of Old Main,” a short film celebrated by his classmates for its creative and engaging content.

During spring 2023, students enrolled in Honors 1320 with Professor Joyce Kinkead conducted a research study that has just been published in Young Scholars in Writing, a nationally recognized journal for undergraduates.

USU alum Tiffany Ross, who graduated in 2019 with a Bachelor of Arts in English with a Teaching Emphasis, recently received the Middle School Teacher of the Year award from the Utah Council of Teachers of English (UCTE) at their annual conference.

The 2024 CHaSS African American Read-In, co-coordinated by Assistant Professor Adena Rivera-Dundas and Lecturer Cree Taylor, was a huge success thanks to the great participation from students, faculty, and staff across the college.

Open to all USU undergraduate students from all departments and disciplines, the contest awards top writers of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction, as well as visual artists in drawing, painting, and photography.

Kristen Wheaton co-facilitated a hybrid Watson Workshop called Aca(DIY)mia: Making Zines, Remaking Worlds, and she presented on the use of stasis theory for framing difficult conversations and controversies in the first-year writing classroom.

On Friday, February 16th, two Technical Communication and Rhetoric students, Karli Kallas and Maren Archibald, presented their research at the Utah Conference of Undergraduate Research.

Back in December, Afsane Rezaei took her students from the Foodways class (ENGL 3710: Topics in Folklore) to the culinary lab on campus for a class contest to make Swedish pancakes.

Tacey Atsitty is a Swenson Visiting Writer putting on a craft class on Thursday March 21st at 10:30am in the USU Library room 101 and a Reading on Thursday March 21st at 12:00pm in the USU Library room 101.

Hannah Stevens, PhD candidate and English Department graduate instructor, has recently published her article, “Publicly Available, Transparent, and Explicit: An Analysis of Academic Publishing Policy and Procedure Documents,” in Communication Design Quart...

USU Folklore Professor Jeannie Thomas was recently featured on KUTV for her work on the “Swiftie” phenomenon as a part of a larger project for the Digital Folklore Project and also was recently interviewed on Utah Public Radio for Valentine's Day

As part of the Smithsonian traveling exhibit, Crossroads: Change in Rural America, currently showing at USU Eastern, author and USU English Department alum Karin Anderson read from her work-in-progress: Things I Didn’t Do.

Daniel Wray ’14 is paying it forward by establishing a scholarship in the Department of English, aiming to help make the humanities and social sciences more accessible for future Aggies.

Creative Writing major Greg Dille has been awarded a CHaSS summer mentorship grant to examine how fiction responds to controversial land use policies associated with natural resource removal.

The USU College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHaSS) have announced their 2024 award winners.

From February 12th to 16th, English Department undergraduate Basil Payne exhibited their artistic and poetic work titled “Creating Sensory Poetry: An Accessible Exhibit and Workshop” in USU’s Project Gallery.

Freshman Ella Stott has been awarded a summer undergraduate research fellowship. Ella is currently focused on creative writing and will spend her summer working with Professor Jennifer Sinor.

Jennifer Sinor Reading on Thursday February 29 at 1:30pm in the Merrill-Cazier Library room 101

Helicon West Presents Chadd Vanzanten and Tim Keller: A Valentine's Day Themed Reading and Open Mic on February 8th at 7pm

The Smithsonian traveling exhibit “Crossroads: Change in Rural America” opened on Saturday January 20th at the Price campus Student Center and runs through March 2nd.

Submit poetry, short fiction, creative nonfiction, and art to the Creative Writing Contest by February 5, 2024 at 4:00 p.m.

Assistant Professor Chen Chen recently published an article in Technical Communication: “Reporting Online Aggression: A Transnational Comparative Interface Analysis of Sina Weibo and Twitter.”

Join us on campus for a reading by Charles Waugh on Wednesday, January 31 at 12:30 p.m. in the Merrill-Cazier Library room 101.

USU folklore alum Millie Tullis has been awarded the Don Yoder Prize for her dissertation titled "Comfort, Counsel, Money, and Livestock: Mormon Women's Divination Communities."

Hannah Stevens, PhD candidate in TCR, was recently honored as a winner of the Special Interest Group on Design of Communication (SIGDOC) Career Advancement Research Grant for 2023.

Celebrate the opening of the Smithsonian Institution exhibition Crossroads: Change in Rural America. The grand opening is January 20, 2024 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Utah State University’s Digital Folklore Project has announced that two forms of digital folklore tied for Digital Lore of the Year 2023: “Barbie” memes and OceanGate memes.

Dr. Patricia Turner Lecture on Jan 25th from 1:30-2:30pm in LIB 101

Helicon West presents a reading from Charles Waugh and open mic night on Tuesday, January 11th at 7pm.

Thirteen English students presented at the USU Fall Student Research Symposium on December 7, 2023.

Join us on Thursday, December 17th @ 7:00pm as Helicon West celebrates 18 years!

Assistant Professor C.R. Grimmer is a poet, public scholar, and teacher, They have several published articles, poems, sound pieces, and books -- including a forthcoming work.

Emeritus Professor Joyce Kinkead has recently published two articles, both on undergraduate research.

On November 17th the English Department hosted the Composition Program Mini Conference, with first-year graduate instructors presenting.

English Department faculty and graduate students have been actively presenting their work and sharing expertise at conferences.

Senior Lecturer Shanan Ballam has recently published several poems and an interview, which meditate upon or dovetail with her experiences following a ischemic stroke in January 2022.

Michaelann Nelson, associate professor of English, and Janelle Bates, graduate student in the Masters TCR program, presented their research at IWCA Conference.

Join Helicon West for Poetry in Technicolor on Thursday, November 16, at 7pm!

USU alumna Stacie Denetsosie has published a new book The Missing Morningstar and Other Stories with Torrey House Press.

In honor of the National First-generation College Celebration day on November 8th, English Department faculty have shared some of their personal experiences working with and being first-generation college students.

On Sept. 21, Utah State University’s Department of English held its annual Brewer Festival of Writing. The 2023 event featured readings from visiting writer Bojan Louis and English alum Stacie Denetsosie.

USU English Department graduate students presented at a special session of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association (RMMLA) on October 16, 2023 in Golden, Colorado.

USU English Department undergraduate Preston Waddoups was selected as a Summer 2023 Peak Fellow, part of a cohort of undergraduates performing research with faculty mentors.

English Department Senior Lecturer Shanan Ballam and Lecturer Ashley Wells have both won Utah Original Writing Competition Awards.

Associate Professor Lisa Gabbert and Lecturer Cree Taylor were both recognized as Master Teachers at this year’s Empowering Teaching Excellence (ETE) Conference at the Logan campus.

USU student Clarissa Casper has published a nature writing piece about shorebirds and the shifting environment around Utah’s Great Salt Lake in the September/October issue of Salt Lake Magazine.

Join Us October 26th for the Utah Humanities Book Festival with Kimberly Johnson!

The English Department’s new course on LGBTQ+ literature, to be offered in Spring 2024 and taught by Lecturer Robb Kunz.

The Western Literature Association convened at Fort Hall, Idaho, home of Shoshone-Bannock tribes, October 11-14, 2023 with a theme of “Home on the Rez: Sovereignty & Sustainability.”

Join us for a short craft talk, writing prompts, and optional sharing led by Ashleigh Sabin. Thursday, October 26 @ 7pm, Thatcher-Young Mansion.

Drew Holley, a second-year graduate student in folklore studies at USU, served a summer internship during 2023 with the American Folklife Center at the United States Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

In Spring 2024, the USU English Department will offer English 2130, taught by Lecturer Russ Winn, which will focus on analyzing science fiction.

Thursday, October 12th at 7:00 pm in Cachearts Thatcher-Young Mansion

On August 23rd, the English department hosted the sixth annual Compositionist Conference.

The English Department named Stefani McClanahan the English Teaching Student of the Year for 2022-23.

September was a busy month for the English Club and Sigma Tau Delta. Sigma Tau held their induction of new members and installation of officers on September 20.

The USU English Department has named Mya Bethers the Creative Writing Student of the Year for 2022-23. 

In 2006, John Engler and Susan Andersen (both current principal lecturers in the USU English Department) collaborated on an idea for a writing contest for English 2010 students.

Join Us Wednesday, October 4th at 1:30 pm in Merrill-Cazier Library - Room 101! Light refreshments will be served.

Technical Communication and Rhetoric PhD candidate Hannah Stevens was recently selected as a 2023 Association of Teachers of Technical Writing (ATTW) Research award recipient.

Associate Professor Jason Olsen has recently published his new book, Intersecting Genre: A Skills Based Approach to Creative Writing, through Bloomsbury Publishing.

The USU English Department has named Riley Manley the General English Student of the Year for 2022-23.

The USU English Department has named Mersedez Clifford the Technical Communication and Rhetoric Student of the Year for 2022-23.

September 24 is National Punctuation Day. Created in 2004 by Jeff Rubin, this holiday encourages worldwide literacy and is celebrated in schools with activities and contests.

Please join us in welcoming the English Departments newest faculty members: Zackary Gregory, C.R. Grimmer, Mary Taylor Mann, and Kristen Wheaton. We are thrilled to have them!

USU’s Department of English is partnering with the William G. Pomeroy Foundation to celebrate Utah’s local folklore through the Legends & Lore Marker Grant Program, which helps communities promote cultural tourism through roadside markers.

Assistant Professor of Technical Communication and Rhetoric Chen Chen has been selected to participate in the Utah Presidential Leadership Fellows program for 2023-2024. Previously, Associate Professor Michaelann Nelson was part of the 2022-2023 cohort.

Join us at The Brewer Festival of Writing!

The USU English Department has named Ericka Stone the 2022-23 Literature Student of the Year.

Habits of Mind: Designing Courses for Student Success has just been published as part of the USU Empowering Teaching Excellence Open Access Book Series.

Following graduation in May 2023, English alum Kyler Tolman traveled East for an intensive educational internship in publishing sponsored by New York University to bolster his interest in becoming an editor, a production editor, or a subsidiary rights spe...

Join The Bull Pen Writing Club!

Assistant Professor Amber Caron has published her story collection Call Up the Waters (Milkweed Editions 2023). In Call Up the Waters, the natural world is an escape hatch, a refuge, a site of work, and an occasional antagonist.

The USU English Department named Abbie Chesley the American Studies Student of the Year for 2022-23. The faculty committee notes: “Abbie Chesley is an American Studies major with a focus in Arts and Media.

Each April during Research Week, the Student Research Symposium (SRS) provides space and resources for more than 300 graduate and undergraduate presenters to share their research with peers, faculty evaluators, and the campus community!

Students in a course on the History of Writing taught by Distinguished Professor Joyce Kinkead investigated traditional, college-aged students and their preferred writing implements

On April 19, 2023, the English Department hosted its annual teaching conference designed for the English concurrent enrollment teachers and the USU faculty members who support reciprocal mentorship through the department's Teaching Partnership program.

The recipient of the 2023 English Faculty Mentoring Award is Professor Christine Cooper-Rompato!

The English Department is proud to highlight faculty and graduate students who present at conferences this spring!

Assistant Professor Travis Franks recently published "Uncanny Encounters and Haunting Colonial Histories in Australia's Reconciliation-Era Narratives" in Settler Colonial Studies.

Utah State University's Department of English invites you to the Swenson Park opening celebration.

USU’s English Department was well-represented at the annual Sigma Tau Delta Convention in Denver, Colorado, from March 29-April 1 with 12 undergraduate participants from four different campuses.

Senior Lecturer Shanan Ballam has published her poem, “the return,” in The Quarter(ly) Journal.

At this year’s Robins Award Ceremony, English Department student Basil Payne, a junior majoring in English with a Creative Writing emphasis, was honored with the 2022-23 Legacy of Utah State Award.

Senior Lecturer Shanan Ballam has recently published her poem “the dream” with Wordgathering: A Journal of Disability Poetry and Literature.

The English Department is thrilled to announce a new Major and Minor in Technical Communication and Rhetoric (TCR) beginning Fall 2023!

Come hear about fall classes and eat pizza at the English Department Literature social!

On March 31, 2023, three undergraduate students presented at the National Undergraduate Literature Conference held annually at Weber State University.

English Department Senior Lecturer Lezlie Christensen-Branum has been honored with the TEAL Dissertation of the Year Award for Myside Bias Shifting in the Written Arguments of First-Year Composition Students.

Celebrate this year's creative writing accomplishments, socialize, and learn more about upcoming classes and opportunities at the Creative Writing Social!

Join the English Department to celebrate the beginning of Michael Sowder's retirement.

On March 13th and 14th, the English Department welcomed Aimee Nezhukumatathil as this year’s Swenson Visiting Writer.

The English Department is thrilled to be hosting the annual Departmental Award Ceremony, honoring exceptional faculty, staff, and students, Wednesday, April 5th at 3:00 p.m. in the Caine Room in the Family Life Building.

The event will be held on Thursday, March 23rd at 7:00 pm at the CacheARTS Thatcher-Young Mansion.

Associate Professor of English Michaelann Nelson was selected to participate in the Carnegie Mellon-funded Utah Presidential Leadership Fellowship.

USU’s English Department would like to spotlight English (creative writing) alumna Alyssa Quinn.

USU’s Creative Writing Contest has named the winners in its 30th annual competition, recognizing the best creative work by USU students.

USU’s English Department would like to spotlight creative writing student Kyler Tolman.

Join USU English for the Swenson visiting writer, Aimee Nezhukumatathil.

Associate Professor Avery Edenfield, along with Emmalee Fishburn (Office of Equity) and Felicia Gallegos (SAAVI), recently published an article that won a gold medal in the 2022-2023 NASPA Excellence Awards.

Five English majors presented at the 17th annual Utah Conference on Undergraduate Research (UCUR) hosted in Salt Lake City, on February 17.

Multiple department faculty attended The Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCCs) on February 15-18, 2023 in Chicago, IL.

In December of 2022, Assistant Professor Chen Chen and Director of Composition Beth Buyserie, as well as PhD student Hannah Stevens, were published in a special issue of The Journal of Multimodal Rhetorics on carework and writing during COVID.

On February 3, 2023, seven English teaching students participated in the annual Utah Council of Teachers of English Conference, held in Sandy, Utah.

USU Folklore graduate student Millie Tullis recently published her essay “Polygamy and Revelation in Magical Mormonism: Four Peepstone Bride Narratives” in the collection DNA Mormon: Perspectives on the Legacy of Historian D. Michael Quinn

USU English Department Assistant Professor Amber Caron was featured in the Autumn 2022 issue of Story, a tri-annual print publication devoted to the world of short fiction.

Supplemental Instruction (SI) provides an important foundation for successful learning environments with peer academic support. Madison Harris is in her second semester as an SI Leader working with Department Lecturer Ashley Wells as her faculty mentor.

Members of the USU English Department faculty have found unique opportunities to include podcasting as a part of their course curriculum.

Professor Rebecca Walton is the recipient of two 2023 CCCCs awards in the categories of Best Article on Philosophy or Theory of Technical Scientific Communication with co-author Cana Uluak Itchuaqiyaq and Best Original Collection of Essays in Technical or...

Join the English Club for Story Time, Wednesday, January 25th starting at 4:30pm in Ray B West room 114 on USU's main campus.

English Department Lecturer Matt Whitaker has been appointed Associate Director of the Writing Center.

The English Department hosts a variety of opportunities for CHaSS students to connect with each other and faculty advisors. Student-led clubs are a fun opportunity to get involved, grow, and build community here at USU.

USU’s annual Fall Student Research Symposium, which was held on Thursday, December 8, 2022, featured several students from the English Department.

USU Folklore had a strong presence at the annual Folklore Society of Utah Conference, which took place at Westminster College the weekend of November 18-19, 2022

Professor Michael Sowder, who is a lifelong yoga and meditation teacher, has had several poems accepted for publication by Muse India, an Indian literary magazine.

Professor Jeannie Banks Thomas has edited and published Creole Soul: Zydeco Lives.

Associate Professor Lisa Gabbert’s 6710 Folklore and Landscape class visited the site of the Bear River Massacre on Wednesday, October 19.

Senior Lecturer Russ Beck has recently published his essay, “On Fly Boxes, Perfect Streams & Dying Fathers,” in Fly Culture: A Fly Fishing Quarterly.

Join the Departments of World Languages and English for poetry readings in Spanish by USU students and special guests from Artes de México en Utah.

Joyce Kinkead, whose recent book A Writing Studies Primer (Broadview, 2022) begins with the first writing systems in Sumer in 3200 BCE, was featured on The Conversation as well as on Chicago NPR Nerdette podcast talking about the long history of writer’s ...

In honor of the National First-generation College Celebration day on November 8th, English Department faculty have shared some of their personal experiences working with and being first-generation college students.

English Department’s Senior Lecturer Shanan Ballam received an honorable mention in the Utah Original Writing Competition for her collection of poems titled First Poems After the Stroke.

Six faculty members—current and emeritus—presented at the Western Literature Association in Santa Fe, New Mexico, October 20-23, 2022

The English Department named Racquel Bera the Literature Student of the Year

English Department Lecturer Michael Dubon has published his essay, “Savor” in The Plentitudes. In this heartfelt piece, Michael delves into nostalgia, memory, and family.

Madison Asbill Gray graduated from USU in 2018 with a Bachelor's in English (Creative Writing emphasis). Since then, she's put her English degree to good use as Content Lead for a small marketing firm in Salt Lake City.

The English Department celebrates Jessica Garfield Swasey as the English Teaching Emphasis Student of the Year for 2021-2022.

The English Department would like to recognize Celina Sevilla Johnson as the Technical Communication and Rhetoric Student of the Year.

Poe After Dark, an evening of spooky stores, scary treats, with a costume contest and games will take place October 26th, 2022 at 7:30pm on USU's campus in Ray B West 114.

Zackary Gregory conducted a research project on the rhetoric of bikepacking journals, which resulted in a publication in Bikepacking magazine, where Zackary detailed the adventurous experience of a bikepacking trip through Pueblo and Southern Paiute Land ...

Assistant Professor Amber Caron has recently published her short story, “Call Up the Waters,” in Bennington Review. In this haunting, beautiful story, a devastating drought leads a mother of two deep into the Colorado Rockies in search of water.

Assistant Professor Travis Franks recently published an article in ariel: A Review of International English Literature

Associate Professor Avery Edenfield and Jamal-Jared Alexander, a graduate of USU’s Technical Communication and Rhetoric PhD program, have recently won the Association for the Rhetoric of Science, Technology, and Medicine (ARSTM) Article of the Year Award ...

USU English Department graduate students Rachel Bryson, Sam Clem, Kailey Collins, Margaret Hsiao, and Wesley Mathis, along with Assistant Professor Chen Chen and CHaSS Associate Dean Rebecca Walton, presented at the SIGDOC conference in Boston, Massachuse...

The July 2022 issue of NCTE’s College English features an article written by 14 undergraduates, who were enrolled in a research methods course, English 3470, taught by Dr. Joyce Kinkead in Fall 2020.

Assistant Professor Jessica Rivera-Mueller published her article, “Inquiry Journal Facilitation: A Writing Assignment for Practicing Exploratory Speech” in volume 6, issue 2 of Prompt: A Journal of Academic Writing Assignments.

The English Department is happy to celebrate Bonnie Swenson as their 2022 General English Student of the Year!

During the summer of 2022 some English department faculty presented research at academic conferences.

Assistant Professors Beth Buyserie and Jessica Rivera-Mueller were both recognized as Master Teachers at this year’s Empowering Teaching Excellence (ETE) Conference on August 17 at USU’s Logan campus. The

The English Department’s American Studies program gladly named Caitlyn Rogers for their 2021-2022 Student of the Year Award. The committee chose Caitlyn because she “exemplified the interdisciplinary spirit of the American Studies program.

Amy Piotrowski, Associate Professor of English education in the School of Teacher Education and Leadership with a secondary appointment in the English Department at USU’s Uintah Basin campus, recently co-wrote a chapter.

The English Department’s Creative Writing committee has named Keegan Waller their 2022 Student of the Year!

USU English Department Assistant Professor Afsane Rezaei recently published an article in the Journal of Middle East Women's Studies.

Please join us in welcoming the English Department’s newest faculty members: Michael DuBon, Travis Franks, and Chen Chen. We are so pleased to have them joining the department.

The first of two Ken Brewer Festival of Writing events will take place on Monday, September 26 at 7 p.m. at USU’s Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, featuring poetry readings, a live jazz ensemble, and an open mic. The main event will be a reading by wri...

USU English Department Lecturer Mary Ellen Greenwood recently received the 2022 Richard A. Meade Award for Research in English Education. This award is sponsored by English Language Arts Teacher Educators (ELATE) of the National Council of Teachers of Eng...

On September 24, 2022, from 5:00-6:00 p.m., USU Associate Professor Jason Olsen will present at FanX, a Salt Lake City comic convention, where he will discuss Captain America’s overall growth as a character, drawing from his book, Mark Gruenwald and the

The Writers’ Cache is a dedicated critique group based in the Logan, Utah area. They provide a nurturing environment for friendship, education, and encouragement to writers of all genres and skill levels.

On Friday, September 23rd, Associate Dean and Professor of Technical Communication and Rhetoric Rebecca Walton will present for USU Library’s Peer Review Week, “a community-led yearly global virtual event celebrating the essential role that peer review pl...

Shanan Ballam will be reading at The Lavender House in Bear River City on September 9 at 6 p.m. The reading will also feature poet Danielle Dubrasky and songwriter Jake Rogers.

On Friday, September 16, the CHaSS Alumni Lunch Series will feature USU alumni and published authors Alyssa Quinn (BA English ’16) and Stacie Denetsosie (MA English ’19, BS English ’16).

USU English Department Lecturer Ashley Wells will read at Helicon West on August 25, 2022 at 7 p.m. at the Cache ARTS Thatcher-Young Mansion in Logan.

Students Bonnie Swenson and Millie Tullis have won grants for their research projects from the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies.

Congratulations to USU English Department graduate student Rachel Welton Bryson, who was recently awarded an Association of Teachers of Technical Writing (ATTW) Graduate Research Award.

In Lecturer Ashley Wells’ Advanced Creative Nonfiction Writing course, students created podcasts, dioramas, paintings, collages, and zines to accompany their Spring 2022 final portfolios.

A newly-established scholarship to honor outstanding Writing Fellows has been awarded to Samantha Wallace and Grace Hallock.

Dr. Amy Piotrowski is co-author on two recent publications.

The Student Research Symposium, an annual showcase of student research during USU’s Research Week, culminates with awards. In 2022, students from the English Department took three of the top four awards for Arts and Humanities.

Senior Lecturer in the English department has successfully defended her PhD dissertation.

English Undergraduate Researcher of the Year Ericka Stone delivered the presentation to the Cache Valley Historical Society.

Professor Jennifer Sinor has been chosen as the inaugural recipient of the English Faculty Mentoring Award.

A professor and graduate students were recently awarded summer funding from the Open Educational Resource (OER) Program team at USU Libraries.

The English Department hosted a professional development conference for Utah’s English 1010 and English 2200 concurrent enrollment teachers and USU faculty who support teacher-learning in our program.

Sink Hollow, USU’s international undergraduate literary journal, has published its special Creative Writing Contest issue.

Six USU undergraduate English majors traveled to Atlanta, Georgia, where they presented their work alongside other English majors from around the country at the Sigma Tau Delta 2022 International Convention.

The English Department had excellent representation at the 2022 Student Research Symposium.

English Department Technical Communication and Rhetoric graduate students Sam Clem, Ryan Cheek, Hannah Stevens, and Jamal-Jared Alexander, along with Associate Dean of CHaSS Rebecca Walton, were published in the IEEE special issue on Enacting Social Justi...

Although writing systems began to appear 5000 years ago, their history is not well known. A new exhibition called "A History of Writing and Its Material Culture" is open at the Library Writing Center (LIB 162).

Associate Professor Jason Olsen published his postmodern poem “If Anyone Was Offended...” in Issue #73 of Rattle.

USU English Teaching emphasis undergraduate Jessica Garfield Swasey was recently honored with the CHaSS Undergraduate Teaching Fellow of the Year award.

USU alumna Hailey Cragun-Barney (MA 2017) is now a grant-writer for Safe Harbor Crisis Center.

USU recently announced six fellows who will be joining the Transformative Intersectional Collective (TRIC), a partnership with the University of Utah’s School for Cultural and Social Transformation, three of whom come from USU’s English Department: Adena ...

North American Review literary magazine has recently named their winners, runners-up, and finalists for the 2022 James Hearst Poetry Competition, judged by Natalie Diaz. USU’s Senior Lecturer and Logan City Poet Laureate Shanan Ballam was chosen as a fina...

Writing is omnipresent in our lives, yet, according to USU’s Joyce Kinkead, Distinguished Professor of English, we too rarely stop and consider its history, tools, technologies, and mythologies.

The Swenson Writers Series will take place on Wednesday, March 23, 2022, at 1:30 p.m.

USU’s Creative Writing Contest has named the winners in its 29th annual competition, recognizing the best creative work by USU students.

Congratulations go to the English Department recipients of College of Humanities & Social Sciences awards!

USU alumna Andrea Bresee co-authored an article in a special issue of Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture, an innovative journal that offers a vibrant discourse around teaching in English studies.

This edition of Helicon West will take place on Thursday, March 10, 2022, at 7:00 p.m.

USU’s English Department was well represented at the 16th annual Utah Conference on Undergraduate Research (UCUR) hosted in St. George, Utah, on February 25.

Associate Professor Jason Olsen has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize for his poem “Hummingbird.”

USU’s new digital exhibit, showcases findings from Dr. Afsane Rezaei's and Dr. Ehsan Estiri's ethnographic research with the Iranian-American communities of Southern California.

The 2022 issue of The Utah English Journal was unveiled at the February 11 Utah Conference for Teachers of English (UCTE), an annual convening of statewide K-16 English teachers, which was held in Salt Lake City. This latest issue features two USU English...

USU Technical Communication and Rhetoric alumna Dr. Cana Uluak Itchuaqiyaq and Associate Professor and Associate Dean Rebecca Walton have published an article in Rhetoric Review.

USU graduate student Jamal-Jared Alexander’s English 4410: Document Design & Graphics course has partnered with the Inclusion Center to develop a set of print documents.

The English Department is thrilled to announce that work will begin soon at the site of award-winning poet May Swenson’s childhood home.

Associate Professor Jason Olsen recently published his book Mark Gruenwald and the Star Spangled Symbolism of Captain America, 1985-1995.

Bonnie Swenson, a USU English major from Emery County, presented at the 2022 edition of Research on Capitol Hill on February 8, 2022.

In Fall 2021, Professor Jeannie Thomas and her English 2720 students compiled a book titled American Folklore: Class Cookbook & Foodways.

Senior Lecturer and Logan City Poet Laureate Shanan Ballam opened the first Logan City Council Meeting of 2022 with her poem "Poem for the New Year, 2022."

Professor Christine Cooper-Rompato’s book "Spiritual Calculations: Number and Numeracy in Late Medieval English Sermons" was recently published by Penn State University Press. This work explores how medieval Christian sermonists used numbers, arithmetic, ...

Lecturer Kim Hales has completed three successful years as Editor-in-Chief of USU’s Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence (JETE).

Entry Deadline for the USU Creative Writing and Art Contest is 4:00 p.m., Monday, February 7, 2022

Entry Deadline for the creative writing contest is 4:00 p.m., Monday, February 7, 2022

On November 12 and 13, 2021, the Folklore Society of Utah held its annual meeting at the Eccles Conference Center on USU’s Logan campus. The USU Folklore program made a great showing, as students, faculty, and alums all presented.

On Thursday, December 9, 2021,USU’s annual Fall Student Research Symposium, which was inaugurated in 2013, featured several students from the English Department.

USU Professor of English and Folklore Jeannie Thomas' article on verifying information in news articles published in Skeptical Inquirer.

The 12th edition of Utah State University's undergraduate literary magazine, Sink Hollow, has been published online.

The Utah State University Department of English welcomes new fiction faculty Amber Caron.

English Professor, Associate Dean, and Director of the USU Latinx Cultural Center Chris González has participated in several speaking events this past month.

Applications are now open for USU's Fall Student Research Symposium. Students can apply individually or as a group.

On October 21st, Melody Graulich won the Western Literature Association’s Creative Writing Award for her story, “The Magpie.”

The Writing Fellows program consists of high-achieving students nominated to the program by their professors because of their excellent writing skills.

In honor of the National First-generation College Celebration day on November 8th, English Department faculty have shared some of their personal experiences working with and being first-generation college students.

Several recent and current USU English Department graduate students took home awards at this year’s Utah Original Writing Competition.

USU’s Center for Intersectional Gender Studies and Research awarded English Department faculty and a graduate student for their commitment to intersectional research and practice.

Associate Professor Avery Edenfield and Technical Communication & Rhetoric PhD students Ryan Cheek and Sam Clem have recently published in the proceedings of SIGDOC '21.

USU Technical Communication and Rhetoric PhD alumna Cana Uluak Itchuaqiyaq, Assistant Professor Avery Edenfield, and Professor Emeritus Keith Grant-Davie have published an article in the Journal of Business and Technical Communications.

Associate Professor Josi Russell was the featured speaker at Helicon West’s August event at the Thatcher-Young Mansion in Logan.

USU’s English Department held the inaugural Ken Brewer Celebration of Writing on September 16th at the USU amphitheater. Brewer was a former USU professor from 1968 to 2000.

Associate Professor Ben Gunsberg’s “What a Baby,” which premiered at the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art in 2019, is featured with Atticus Review.

Lecturer Mary Ellen Greenwood, along with co-authors, including Assistant Professor Amy Piotrowski from the College of Education, has published an article in English Education.

Associate Professor Ben Gunsberg’s compelling sonnet, “John Henrys,” was recently published in Jelly Bucket.

Assistant Professor Avery Edenfield and graduate student Jamal-Jared Alexander have recently published an article titled “Health and Wellness as Resistance: Tactical Folk Medicine” in Technical Communication Quarterly.

USU alumna Lydia Velazquez had two zines selected by the Salt Lake City Library’s Alt Press Fest to be included in their grab bags in October.

Students Anne Schill and Jay Paine, along with Associate Professor Ben Gunsberg, read their creative work at the UtahHumanities BookFestival in late August.

Kinkead's article, “The Empirical Strikes Back: A RAD Research Methods Class for Undergraduate English Students” appeared in the College English Association journal.

Resilient Pedagogy: Practical Teaching Strategies to Overcome Distance, Disruption, and Distraction, gathers practical advice and theoretical wisdom on addressing the challenges that came with COVID-19.

Brian McCuskey, associate professor and associate department head of English at Utah State, recently published a book titled How Sherlock Pulled the Trick.

Many people experience a disconnect between caring about social justice and knowing how to implement it in their own workplace. Rebecca Walton recently co-edited a book which she hopes will help people bridge that gap.

Jamal-Jared Alexander, a third-year Presidential Doctoral Research Fellow in the Technical Communication and Rhetoric Ph.D. program, has been named as the student recipient of the 27th annual Utah State University Diversity Award.

The national convention for Sigma Tau Delta, the International English Honor Society, was held online this year, on March 25th to 27th.

USU English professor Shane Graham has helped commemorate the centennial of this landmark publication by editing two special issues of the Langston Hughes Review around the theme of “‘The Negro Speaks of Rivers’ at 100.”

USU English Professor Edits Two Issues of Langston Hughes Review. I’ve known rivers: I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.

Professor Jeannie Banks Thomas is featured on Episode 144 of “Squaring the Strange,” speaking on “The Slap Test for Conspiracy Theories” (SLAP).

Dr. Lynne McNeill’s essay “Classifying #BlackLivesMatter: Genre and Form in Digital Folklore” has recently appeared in Folklore and Social Media, a new collection of essays edited by Trevor Blank and Andrew Peck.

Avery and Jared’s article “Queering Tactical Technical Communication: DIY HRT,” won for the Best Article on Philosophy or Theory of Technical or Scientific Communication category.

Britt Allen, adjunct instructor for the English Department and USU alumna, is publishing her first poetry chapbook with Finishing Line Press this summer.

Cana Uluak Itchuaqiyaq and Dr. Breeanne Matheson have recently published their article “Decolonizing Decoloniality: Considering the (Mis)use of Decolonial Frameworks in TPC Scholarship” in Communication Design Quarterly.

Senior Lecturer Shanan Ballam’s poem “Spring Hollow, Thanksgiving Day 2020” and interview were recently featured on the Line Rider Press website.

For the second year in a row, a member of the USU English Department has been honored with the University Faculty Service Award.

Jason Olsen, associate professor of English on the Price campus, had a poem published in The Inflectionist Review.

Jon D. Lee has just published an article in The Atlantic, “The Utter Familiarity of Even the Strangest Vaccine Conspiracy Theories.”

Cameron Haney, who played cornerback for the Aggies Football Team, and Dr. Joyce Kinkead co-authored an article in Perspectives on Undergraduate Research and Mentoring (PURM).

Shane Graham publishes *Cultural Entanglements* with the University of Virginia Press.

Dr. Christine Cooper-Rompato's essay on medieval "visions" has been published in an essay collection.

Samantha Stringham and Dr. Joyce Kinkead have been awarded a Faculty-Student Summer Mentorship Grant, one of twelve grants funded for 2021.

Congratulations to Dr. Avery Edenfield, who has been awarded a Career Achievement Research Grant by the Association for Computer Machinery's Special Interest Group on Design of Communication (ACM SIGDOC).

Astrology, Almanacs, and the Early Modern English Calendar serves as a practical guide to early modern English calendars and the culture surrounding them.

Three USU faculty members presented at the Utah Council of Teachers of English this November.

The 2020 English Department Researcher of the Year is Dr. Shane Graham, a specialist in postcolonial literatures of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries who has been at USU since 2005.

The meme “How It Started/How It’s Going/How It Ended” has been named the #DigitalTrendoftheYear by student and faculty researchers at USU’s Digital Folklore Project.

Kristine Miller, Professor of English and Executive Director of the Honors Program, has recently edited a collection of essays as part of the National Collegiate Honors Council Monograph Series in October.

Ryan Cheek, a Ph.D. Candidate in Technical Communication and Rhetoric, has recently published an article in Communication Design Quarterly.

Gene Washington is testament to the philosophy that if you work with your mind, there’s no real retirement.

The USU Folklore Program had a strong presence at last weekend’s Folklore Society of Utah (FSU) virtual meeting.

Dr. Jessica Rivera-Mueller, an Assistant Professor in the Department of English, has recently published an essay in USU’s Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence.

Jamal-Jared Alexander recently presented the results of a summer research internship on Zoom.

Merrill-Cazier Library announces the grand opening of “Telling Our Story: 130 Years of Aggie Women.”

This spotlight takes a look at Dr. Cecelia Harrison Foxley, a dedicated Commissioner of the Utah System of Higher Education and early advocate for civil rights.

Andrew Romriell received the Honorable Mention award for Creative Nonfiction in this year's Utah Original Writing Competition.

Ashley Wells has just published The Cowgirl and the Racehorse with Lantern Publishing a scholarly memoir about cowgirl stories, gender, and the whitewashing of the West.

Congratulations to Assistant Professors Afsane Rezaei and Avery Edenfield, who were named inaugural Research Fellows at the Center for Intersectional Gender Studies and Research for 2020-2021.

Associate Professor of English Lynne S. McNeill has co-edited a new book, This is the Plate: Utah Food Traditions (2020), published this month by the University of Utah Press.

Granite Ledges,” a short story by Melody Graulich, Emeritus Professor of English and American Studies, will be published in the Fall 2020 issue of Ploughshares.

Christopher Gonzalez’s co-authored book won the 2020 International Latino Book Award for Best Non-Fiction, Multi-Author.

Alan Blackstock has recently published a new book with Roman & Littlefield.

Amber Caron has just published a short story in the Fall 2020 issue of The Threepenny Review, one of the country’s most prestigious and competitive literary journals.

Dr. Avery Edenfield has just published an essay in the Journal of Business and Technical Communication as part of a special issue on COVID-19 rhetorics.

Jennifer Sinor, a Professor of English at USU, reads a selection from her new book, Sky Songs.

Emeritus Professor Melody Graulich published a short story in the Spring 2020 issue of Front Range Review.

This summer, Professor Charles Waugh accepted a position as assistant editor for fiction at ISLE, the official publication of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment and the top US journal in the field of ecocriticism.

Join us in welcoming our newest Department of English faculty members at the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Christine Cooper-Rompato’s essay has been published in this summer’s issue of the Chaucer Review.

Professor Ben Gunsberg’s poem, “Dark Impactor,” was recently published in Reed Magazine, California’s oldest literary journal.

Professor Jeannie Thomas discusses the Salem Witch Trials and the haunted nunnery in Logan, Utah.

Christopher González is an Associate Professor of English and the Founding Director of the Latinx Cultural Center at Utah State University in Logan, Utah. He also maintains a blog, covering topics such as current issues and book reviews.

Chris Gonzalez interrupts his regularly scheduled podcast, “Hospitable Imaginations,” with a necessary reflection on the killings of members of our Black community.

Christine Cooper-Rompato’s essay, “Utah in the Green Book: Segregation and the Hospitality Industry in the Beehive State,” was published in the most recent issue of the *Utah Historical Quarterly*.

Joyce Kinkead, Distinguished Professor of English, was invited to contribute the Afterword to *The Naylor Report on Undergraduate Research in Writing Studies*.

Arizona State University presents Pandemic Dialogues, a new virtual series in the school’s Civic Discourse Project providing perspective on the current civic crisis.

Professor Jennifer Sinor published an essay titled "Breathing to Write" in the Association of Writers & Writing Programs.

The English Department is proud to honor the following award winners for the 2019-2020 academic year.

Lynne McNeill and Sonia Manuel-Dupont were both named in the annual list compiled by the staff of the student newspaper The Utah Statesman of the “50 Most Influential Aggies.”

Professor Sonia Manuel-Dupont, who holds appointments in two departments, English and Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education, won the Faculty University Service Award at the Robins Ceremony.

USU’s undergraduate literary journal, Sink Hollow, has just published the 2020 Contest Issue.

Dr. Marion Bishop, an emergency room physician and English/CHaSS alum, has written a poignant and thoughtful commentary that brings COVID-19 home and right into our front rooms.

On February 24th 2020, Dr. Jeannie Thomas stepped down as the Department Head in English after eleven years of distinguished service.

Shanan Ballam, a senior lecturer in the USU Dept of English, will be named Logan City Poet Laureate Aug. 20, 20919, for a five-year term.

Poet Gunsberg, assistant professor of English, reads from new collection of poems, "Welcome, Dangerous Life."

Utah State University's Digital Folklore Project has named the most influential and wide-spread memes of 2018, including the hashtag #WhyIDidntReport and the Tide Pod Challenges.

Kolbie Blume, English 2014, answered hundreds of letters with calls for compassion and attention from Americans to Pres. Obama

Contest winners will read their poems at ground- breaking ceremony Sept. 18

A walk in her shoes: May Swenson Poetry Path maps Swenson sites in Logan and beyond

Generations of students in Ray B. West come to terms with boxelder bugs, maybe even grow to love them and the building

English professor Joyce Kinkead earns USU’s top award for her scholarship and advocacy of student inquiry

CHaSS's own Joyce Kinkead earns USU’s highest research honor, the 2018 Wynne Thorne Career Research Award.

English professor has role in nurturing American novelist’s continuing legacy

The topic: Dude ranches. The place: The picturesque slopes of the Tetons. The takeaway: A bat’s bite is so tiny it can’t be felt by a sleeping person.

CHaSS folklorists and fans look forward each December to the year’s most feted event: The announcement of the Digital Trend of the Year.

A 1999 Utah State University graduate in English has been named the 2018 Utah Teacher of the Year.

Let Poetry Matter: Star Coulbrooke named Logan City Poet Laureate. Story featured in spring 2016 issue of Liberalis.