Congratulations, Professor Oliver Buckton!
English Department Chair, 2020–present
contact Professor Buckton: obuckton@fau.edu
WELCOME FROM THE CHAIR
The 2019-20 academic year is upon us! 2018-19 was a busy one for the department, its faculty and students. As I do each year, I would like to congratulate our graduates and award winners from 2018-19.
This past year, we welcomed the renowned poet Danez Smith as our Lawrence A. Sanders Writer in Residence. We also hosted a reading by FAU professor Andrew Furman and three FAU MFA alumnae—Stephanie Anderson, Brittany Ackerman, and Mary Sheffield-Gentry, all of whom published new books in 18-19! This was a particularly exciting validation of our MFA program and the students who emerge from it.
In addition, Off the Page presented Native poet Sy Hoahwah as the Mary Blossom Lee poet, multigenre writer John Keene, and agent/editor Renee Zuckerbrot. These authors read from a wide variety of works and experiences, enthralling both students and community members who attended. Another successful year was also completed in our Honors programs, both in Creative Writing and in reading and literary criticism. Once again, all Honors students were able to present their work in a public forum, receiving feedback and applause.
For 2019-20, we are thrilled to welcome one new Assistant Professor, Anthony Stagliano, a specialist in digital writing and rhetoric, and who comes to us from his position at New Mexico State University. We are also happy to welcome back Don Adams, who spent a year on Fulbright in India…and another year on sabbatical in Vietnam. He brings his research and experiences back to the classroom at FAU, and we are delighted to have him back. This year, Prof. Jason Schwartz undertakes a full-year sabbatical to work on his next novel, while Profs. Andrew Furman, Wendy Hinshaw, and Emily Stockard will also each spend one semester sabbaticals devoted to their research and/or writing. In addition, Profs. Clarissa Chenovick and Stacy Lettman have won competitive full-year research fellowships from the Folger Library in Washington DC and the Florida Education Foundation respectively. Congratulations to them all for winning these competitive awards!
To help carry the teaching load in Creative Writing, we have brought in Visiting Writer Dantiel W. Moniz, a recent MFA from University of Wisconsin, Madison with a forthcoming book of short stories, Milk Blood Heat, from Grove Atlantic. Ms. Moniz will also read as part of our 19-20 Off the Page series. In addition, we have a new Visiting Instructor, Sari Carter, a recent Ph. D. in Victorian Literature from Vanderbilt University. We are excited to welcome them, and you can find out more about them in our departmental newsletter.
We also look forward to the remainder of this year’s “Off the Page” Creative Writing series, which will include a reading by FAU professor A. Papatya Bucak, who has just published her first collection of short stories, The Trojan War Museum and Other Stories, novelist Kristen Arnett (Mostly Dead Things), poet Rick Barot (as this year’s Mary Blossom Lee poet), and the First Annual Lawrence A. Sanders Publishing symposium, which will include Kristen Arnett, editor Tony Perez, and literary agent Serene Hakim. The Swamp Ape Review marches into its fourth year as our national literary magazine, while Coastlines continues to publish FAU’s best undergraduate prose, poetry, photos, and more. Additional events will be posted on our departmental website. Please pay close attention to the site as we head into an exciting new year!
Eric Berlatsky
Professor and Department Chair
