Creative Writing Professor Dr. Eric Schlich wins 2025 Stonewall Honor Book Award from the American Library Association
Dr. Eric Schlich's novel Eli Harpo's Adventure to the Afterlife has been awarded the American Library Association's 2025 Stonewall Honor book award! Click here to read more about this award, and click here for more information on Eli Harpo's Adventure to the Afterlife.
Applied Linguistics Professors Awarded $2.6 Million Grant for Professional Development of English Learners
Drs. Rebecca Adams and Emily Thrush, English Department, have been awarded a grant under the U.S. Department of Education's National Professional Development program. The project will receive $2.6 million over the next five years, beginning with $503,580 in the 2024-2025 academic year. These funds will be used to increase the number of licensed ESL teachers in local school systems. Huge congratulations to Drs. Adams and Thrush for this amazing achievement and for their outstanding work for our Applied Linguistics and TESOL students! You can read more about the project, Ensuring Success for English Learners, here.
Spring 2025
Celebrating Women's History Month: A Conversation with Comic Creator Liana Kangas - March 18th
The Helen Hardin Honors College, Women's and Gender Studies Department, and University Libraries presents a conversation with comic creator Liana Kangas in celebration of Women's
History Month on March 18th at 5pm in the McWherter Library second floor commons.
This discussion about comics publishing and freelancing as an artist will be moderated
by English Professor Tammy Jones. For more information, visit https://shorturl.at/AZCav
The Pinch Presents... Eric Barnes - March 18th & 19th
Eric Barnes is the author of four novels, The City Where We Once Lived (Arcade Publishing), Above the Ether (Arcade Publishing), Shimmer (Unbridled Books), and Something Pretty, Something Beautiful (Outpost19). He has also published more than 40 stories in journals including Prairie Schooner, North American Review, The Literary Review and the Best American Series. He's also the CEO and publisher of The Daily Memphian and the host of Behind the Headlines on WKNO TV. He'll talk with our students about his fiction and nonfiction and about literary careers in a changing landscape.
Eric Barnes will present a fiction reading on March 18th at 5:30pm in the UC River room, and will hold a craft interview on March 19th at 11am in Patterson Hall 456.
Honors Colloquium - March 24th & April 14th
The English Honors Colloquium is a series that began last year and invites faculty, staff, graduate students, undergraduate majors and minors, and anyone interested in English Studies to gather in fellowship to hear about and discuss the cutting-edge work being done by our faculty. On March 24th, Dr. Sage Graham will discuss “Infant Mortality, Health Literacy, and Breastfeeding Among African American Mothers in Memphis,” and on April 14th, Dr. Jeffrey Scraba will discuss “Oneself as a Cowboy: Nat Love’s Autobiography”. Talks will begin at 4:00pm in Patterson Hall 456.
University of Memphis English Graduate Organization Conference - April 25th & 26th
The English Department at the University of Memphis English Graduate Organization
(UMEGO) will host a graduate student conference, Learning from Fear, on April 25th & 26th, 2025 in Memphis, Tennessee. This conference aims to appeal to a variety of disciplines
and interests, including rhetoric, communication, film and media studies, creative
writing, linguistics, African American literature, museum studies, philosophy, graphic
design, pop culture studies, psychology, educational studies, and web development.
Proposal submission is now closed; acceptances will be sent out on March 7th, and
conference dates are April 25-26, 2025. More information regarding this conference can be found here. Keynote and Roundtable information is forthcoming.