Rowan Writing Arts Department - Week of October 21st

Rowan Writing Arts Events Update
Week of October 21, 2019

Coming Soon: Order Your Personalized Rowan Writing Arts Apparel
Just in time for holiday gifts, even if it is a gift for yourself, we soon will have access to a web-based ordering site where Writing Arts faculty can buy shirts, jackets, and sweaters emblazoned with a Rowan Writing Arts logo and – if you’d like – your name. The site will be administered by Ace Screen Printing and Embroidery, located at 24 West High Street. Colleagues Marie Flocco and Kristine Lafferty are putting the finishing touches on the website, helping to design and seek approval for a Writing Arts department logo, and selecting a limited number of items to be featured. Please contact Marie or Kristine for more information or to offer suggestions

Glassworks Fall 2019 Issue Debuts This Thursday Evening at the Art Gallery 
Local poets Laura Fiorentino and Alison Lubar will be part of the festivities this coming Thursday, October 24 as Glassworks launches its 19th issue, the Fall 2019 edition of the peer-reviewed literary journal. Fiorentino and Lubar will read their poems that appear in this latest issue along with other selections from their portfolios. In addition, students from this semester’s “Editing the Literary Journal” graduate class and members of the Glassworks staff also will be reading. The event begins at 6:30 p.m. in the Rowan Art Gallery, across Mick Drive from Victoria Hall at 301 West High Street. Contact Editor-in-Chief Katie Budris for details. Published in the fall and spring, Glassworks is sponsored by our Master of Arts in Writing program.

Have Your Students Sign Up Now for Our Winter Retreat
Dinner with a publisher, faculty readings, and craft workshops are just a few of the highlights of our premier Writing Arts Winter Retreat scheduled for this January. We’re less than three months away from the weekend of January 10, 11, and 12, 2020 and our faculty-student get-away at the historic Pendle Hill resort, about an hour from Glassboro in Wallingford, Delaware County, Pa. The retreat, for which students will receive one academic credit, kicks off on Friday the 10th with a welcome dinner and a reading from several Writing Arts faculty members from some of their in-progress work. Saturday the 11th starts early with students choosing between a two-hour fiction or creative nonfiction workshop followed by lunch and another two-hour slot for either a poetry or children’s literature workshop. After several hours of on-own writing time and more workshops, dinner will feature remarks from an as-yet-to-be-announced publisher, followed by a student reading of works that were crafted over the weekend. Sunday morning the 12th is breakfast and farewells. For more details, please contact colleague Jade Jones or Writing Arts department chair Drew Kopp.

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Help a Local Family Have A Happy – and Filling – Thanksgiving Day
In addition to our ongoing support of Rowan’s student food bank, The S.H.O.P., the Writing Arts Department is once again sponsoring a local family for Thanksgiving and providing all the fixings for a full holiday dinner. This is the time of year for family, friends, and festivities, but not everyone has the resources to feast on turkey, stuffing, potatoes, and pumpkin pie as do most of us. Working through the university’s Office of Volunteerism, Community Engagement & Commuter Services, we have chosen to supply all the non-perishable food items and supermarket gift cards to feed a large family (defined as six to seven people). The shopping list for a family of this size contains 38 items, so if everyone can donate one can, box, or bag, we should – considering the size of our department – easily meet that quota. We also will gladly accept monetary donations for a supermarket gift card that will be used for perishables. Click here to view the SignUp Genius created by colleague Stephanie Heiser to keep track of what we’ve received and what’s left to be purchased. For more details, please contact either Stephanie or me. Thank you very much for your help!

More Accolades for Our Writing Arts Faculty Family
Following up on the recent publication of his fiction article “The New Priest” in the literary journal On the Seawall, colleague Grayson Morley has received word another of his works – “The Henchmen” – is being recognized as one of several Distinguished Stories among the Best American Short Stories of 2019. Please feel free to contact Grayson for more information. This is another example of the many talented professionals we have in our department who are passing along their knowledge and experience to students in our Writing Arts community and to all first-year writing students campus-wide. Keep up the great work, Grayson, and congratulations!

For Your Calendar:
Today – Monday, October 21 – is a busy day on and around the main Glassboro campus of Rowan University:

• At 10 a.m., colleague Celeste DelRusso and the Rowan Writing Center tutors will receive an Access & Inclusion Award from the university’s Academic Success & Disability Resources Center in Room 221 of the Chamberlain Student Center.
• At 3:30 p.m., the fall semester College Assembled will be held at Bozorth Hall’s King Auditorium. All full-time faculty of the College of Communication and Creative Arts are strongly encouraged to attend; adjunct instructors and TEP students are welcome to join the assembly as well.
• At 5:30 p.m., at Bonesaw Brewing on Route 322 between the main and west campuses, President Ali Houshmand will debut his Nastylicious Raspberry craft beer to kick off expanded fundraising efforts for student scholarships. The beer contains the same habanero peppers found in the salsa at the heart of the scholarship program. Houshmand will make a toast at 6 p.m.
• Finally, filling out the crowded agenda for today, Landmark Americana, just off campus at the other end of 322, is running an all-day fundraising event for the Heritage Glass Museum: A portion of each bill will be donated to the museum, which is located in the old train station just across Whitney Street from Bunce Hall. Contact colleague Taylor Henry for more information.

That’s it for today, but – not to worry -- there’s a full slate of events in the coming days, weeks, and months:

• Tomorrow, Tuesday, October 22, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy will speak at 7 p.m. in the Eynon Ballroom of the Chamberlain Student Center. Sponsored by the Rowan Institute for Public Policy & Citizenship, the event is intended to focus on such issues as the state’s minimum wage and paid family and medical leave programs, but faculty members are encouraged to wear their blue AFT T-shirts to bring our stalled contract negotiations with the state to his attention.
• Wash those shirts and plan to wear them again at 2 p.m. on Friday, October 25 at the fall semester University Assembled. There might be just a few faculty members who will want to question Dr. Houshmand about those same stalled negotiations. Please note that University Assembled has been moved to Pfleeger Concert Hall in Wilson Hall, but still will start at 2 p.m.
• Just a heads-up: Later that evening – Friday, October 25 – High Street will be closed from Main Street to Academy Street starting at 4 p.m. so the Glassboro Fire Department can hold its annual “Trunk or Treat” Halloween extravaganza.
• Next Monday, October 28, is the final day for Regular Withdrawal. Up until 5 p.m. next Monday, students can withdraw from classes with just your signature. After that date – and until November 25 – students will need your signature along with one from either our department chair or our coordinator of first-year writing programs.
• After speaking with several faculty members who expressed an interest in attending, we’ve selected Wednesday, November 13 as our next Quizzo Night at PJ Whelihan’s on Haddon Avenue in Westmont, Camden County. Contact me for more details.
• Also, finally, we’ve settled on a date, time, and location for our Writing Arts Holiday Gathering: Tuesday, December 10 starting at 5 p.m. at Chickie’s and Pete’s on Rowan Boulevard. Stay tuned for more details.

Do you have a new publication, a reading, or any other event of interest coming up? Please let me know so I can let all our colleagues know in the weekly Rowan Writing Arts Events Update newsletter. Stop by my Victoria 521 office or email me at [email protected] to give me the 4-1-1.

Access Events Update online by clicking here.

​Stephen A. Royek M.A.
Lecturer, Writing Arts / Rowan University
Chair, Faculty Senate Awards Committee
Lecturer Representative, Faculty Center Advisory Board
     Victoria Hall, Room 521 / Phone: 856-906-4755 / Email: [email protected] 

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