The Society for Technical Communication honored local resident and UCF graduate Dan Voss at its annual conference.
David James Poissant, an English department faculty member, has signed a two-book contract with Simon & Schuster. The first book, a collection of short stories, will be published in spring 2014. The second, a novel, will be published in 2015. Both books were acquired by Senior Editor Millicent Bennett, whose S&S authors include Will Allison, Philip Lopate, Anuradha Roy, and Brando Skyhorse.
Cecilia Rodríguez Milanés is an inspiring teacher and leader. She is also a writer whose work connects her with the diverse experiences of Latinas throughout the country as well as of those of all English teachers of writing. As an Associate Professor of English at the University of Central Florida, she has been involved in the CCCC for over 20 years and masterfully served as co-chair of the Latino Caucus from 1995 till 2007, editing the caucus newsletter Capirotada during this time. Her work is included in several anthologies, most recently the Norton Anthology of Latino Literature, and she was the 2009 Theodore Morrison Fiction Fellow at the Breadloaf Writers’ Conference. Her important collection of short stories, Marielitos, Balseros, and Other Exiles (2009), was followed by her Everyday Chica, winner of the 2010 Longleaf Press Poetry Prize.
Patrick Murphy, Ph.D. gave two conference presentations and six lectures in China, October 13-20. Topics explored in these presentations and lectures included environmental justice, ecofeminism, ecocriticism, and their place in the literature of today.
UCF English faculty member Cecilia Rodríguez Milanés, Ph.D. coordinated with Miami Dade College Kendall campus faculty member Elena Perez-Mirabal during Banned Books Week to celebrate Hispanic Heritage and raise awareness about the banned books in Tucson, Arizona--including mostly works by Latino/a authors. MDC Kendall campus hosted a 12 hour read-a-thon, “Librotraficantes: A Response to the Tucson Unified School District Banned Book Plan,” that was streamed live on October 4, 2012.
Tony Grajeda, UCF associate professor of English, has published a new anthology together with Timothy Taylor and Mark Katz entitled Music, Sound, and Technology in America: A Documentary History of Early Phonograph, Cinema, and Radio (Duke University Press).
Obi Nwakanma, Ph.D. was among a group of writers invited to read at the annual International Literature Festival in Berlin, September 9-15. Nwakanma read with the poet Charles Bernstein at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele and gave a talk on “Contradictions and Misinterpretations: Reflections on the Present Situation in Nigeria”. He also participated in a conversation with the Canadian writer Madeleine Thien at the Heinrich Boll Foundation House as part of the literature event.
Award-winning author and UCF English professor Susan Hubbard will speak at the Orlando Public Library on Saturday, September 8 about writing and her Ethical Vampire novels. A Q&A session, book sale, and signing will follow the program.