Professor Brenda Miller was a featured poet in Passengers Journal for her poem “Sacrum,” published with an interview about her process. Her essay “Elijah” was featured in the re-launch of Short Reads, and her essay, “A Flock of Hummingbirds is a Glittering” was published both online and in print by The Poetry Review (UK). She has work forthcoming in The Sun and Fourth Genre. This year, she has been a guest speaker for Syracuse University, Grub Street, and the online educational series, Craft Talks.
Professor Stefania Heim had a triptych of articles featured in a special issue of The Journal of Modern Literature dedicated to “The Matter of Poetry.” These include an essay on Michael Leong’s notion of documental poetry, “I for I and I for I,” an essay on the poet and essayist Susan Howe, and Howe it Is, an essay about the writing of her article on Howe.
Professor Jane Wong’s third book (a memoir), Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City, was published by Tin House in May 2023, with early review accolades from Publisher’s Weekly, Kirkus Review, Ms. Magazine, and appears on lists such as Chicago Review of Book’s “12 Must Read Books of May 2023.” In 2023, Wong published poems in numerous anthologies including Where Else: An International Hong Kong Poetry Anthology (Verve), Wanting: Women Writing About Desire (Catapult), Writing the Self-Elegy (Southern Illinois University Press), Cascadia: A Field Guide through Art, Ecology, and Poetry (Mountaineers Books), andWhat Things Cost: An Anthology for the People (University Press of Kentucky), as well as poems in Sierra, The National Resources Defense Council, Grist, and Prairie Schooner. An interdisciplinary artist, her performance video work will be featured at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, CA as part of “Into View: Bernice Bing” and her ceramic art will be part of the exhibition “Have You Eaten Yet?” at Kasama in Seattle, WA.
Professor Carol Guess has three books forthcoming in 2023-2024. Sleep Tight Satellite is a short story collection forthcoming from Tupelo Press; Infodemic is a poetry collection forthcoming from Black Lawrence Press; and Book of Non is a collaborative poetry collection co-written with Rochelle Hurt, forthcoming from Broadstone Books.
Professor Christopher Wise published three books this year: The Life of Al Hajj Umar: A Pulaar Qasida, by Muhammadu Aliu Tyam, Edited and Translated into English by Christopher Wise; The Writings of Al Hajj Sekou Tall / Les écrits d’El Hajj Sékou Tall, Edited and Translated by Christopher Wise and Alassane Abdoulaye Dia; and In Search of Yambo Ouologuem (Sahel Nomad Books). All three books are focused on the Umarian Tijaniyya Sufi Brotherhood, which Al Hajj Umar Tall brought to West Africa around the time of the American Civil War. The Tijaniyya make up the largest Sufi brotherhood in Northwest Africa and are based in Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire and elsewhere. With the end of covid, Wise also brought 15 students again to Senegal in Winter 2023. Among other sites, they visited the birthplace of Al Hajj Umar in Northern Senegal on the border of Mauritania. More information on Chistopher’s writing and translations can be found here.
Professor Emeritus John Purdy founded a nonprofit dedicated to literature and the environment, Write Place.Write Place has a new and permanent home at Western Oregon University, where it will be associated with a new magazine, Traverse, focused on art/literature and the environment. More information on Professor Purdy and his writing, interviews and documentaries can be found here.