Rowan Writing Arts Events Update Week of February 25, 2019

Creative Nonfiction Hiring Presentations Begin Today
 
Students and faculty are invited to take part in any or all of the public events that are part of the selection process to choose a new creative nonfiction professor for our department. The final four candidates for this tenure-track position will be on campus today (Randon Noble); next Monday, March 4 (Daisy Hernández); next Wednesday, March 6 (Robin McCrary); and the following Monday, March 11 (Heather Lanier). The schedule for each day will be identical: A teaching presentation with Q&A: 9:15-10:00 a.m., 260 Victoria, Room 200; a students-only Q&A meeting: 10:00-10:30 a.m., 260 Victoria, Room 504; and a creative reading with Q&A: 3:30-4:45 p.m., 260 Victoria, Room 200. Please take this opportunity to meet these four talented individuals and give them an enthusiastic Prof welcome to our campus. Feel free to contact Ron Block for more details.
 
Details for Sanchez Campus Visit Coming Together
 
Just a few finishing touches remain to finalize the late March visit to Rowan by filmmaker James Chase Sanchez, co-producer of the celebrated documentary “Man on Fire.” The events – sponsored by the College of Communication and Creative Arts and one or more other campus organizations – will start with a screening and discussion of the film on the evening of Thursday, March 28 from 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. in Bozorth Hall’s King Auditorium, and will wrap up the following morning, Friday, March 29, with a workshop on “Critical Race Pedagogies” from 8:45 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. in Room 104 of Business Hall. “Man on Fire” has been featured in nearly a dozen international film festivals and tells the story of elderly white minister Charles Moore and his self-immolation to protest the extreme racism in his – and Sanchez’ – hometown of Grand Saline, Texas. (Click here to watch the “Man on Fire” trailer.) Sanchez is an assistant professor of writing at Vermont’s Middlebury College; he received his Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Composition from Texas Christian University and both his M.A. in English and B.A. in English from the University of Texas at Tyler.
 
Nine Speakers, One Full Day of Experiential Storytelling
 
There’s a bounty of professional development riches on campus the last week of March as the Experiential Storytelling Conference 2019 takes over the Rowan Art Gallery from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Friday, March 29. Nine speakers from academia, the arts, the media, and the financial world will share their stories of conquering challenges, bridging boundaries, and conceiving groundbreaking concepts and ideas. Sponsored by the College of Communication and Creative Arts – the storytellers of Rowan University – the conference features such varied presenters as Jane Golden, Executive Director of the City of Philadelphia’s Mural Arts Program; Ellen Lupton, Curator of Contemporary Design at New York City’s Cooper Hewitt/Smithsonian Design Museum; and, representing Rowan, our President Ali Houshmand, Dean Ken Lacovara, and alumni/philanthropists Ric and Jean Edelman. Click here to learn more about and to RSVP for this one-of-a-kind event.
 
Learn Resume Writing from Three Knowledgeable Pros
 
Three of our Writing Arts faculty colleagues – Grace Fillenwarth, Amy Reed, and Jen Tole – will hold a resume writing workshop for students on Wednesday, March 6, from 6:30 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. in Room 200 of The Vic. We all know the importance to our students of a professional-looking, information-packed, attention-grabbing resume; it can mean the difference between making it through that initial vetting filter and getting to that final set of interviews. Grace, Amy, and Jen will be sharing their experience in business, professional, and technical writing – and in resume crafting – with students looking for that career-building edge. Please have your students contact Grace for more details on this valuable seminar.
 
Spring Is Coming; So Is the Spring ’19 Glassworks Issue
 
Local authors and writing instructors Jeffrey Markovitz and Joe Costal will be reading at the launch event for the Spring 2019/Issue 18 of Glassworks on Thursday, March 7 at 6:30 p.m. in the Rowan Art Gallery. Costal, who teaches at Stockton University in Galloway Township and at Oakcrest High School in Hamilton Township (both in Atlantic County) will be reading from his fiction piece “Puncher, America and Fake-Ass Jordans” that appears in the new issue. Markovitz, Assistant Professor of English at the Community College of Philadelphia and director of CCP’s Creative Writing Certificate Program, will read from one of his current works; his fiction piece “Threads” was published inGlassworks Issue 10 in Fall 2015. The launch event also will feature readings from the new issue by the spring semester interns of Glassworks, the literary journal published by our Master of Arts in Writing program. Beverages and light snacks will be available. Contact Managing Editor Anthony Palma for more details.
 
Needed: Feedback on Some Upcoming Social Events
 
As we round the quarter-pole of the spring semester, plans are being formulated for several Rowan Writing Arts activities, and Events Update is looking for some feedback to help ensure we are working on what you want. Current thoughts include a March Quizzo Night at P.J. Whelihan’s in Westmont (remember, we were in a three-way tie for first after regulation at our initial Quizzo last summer; we finished second after a bonus question); an April escape room night on Rowan Boulevard; and a May end-of-the-school-year celebration at The Landmark, or Chickie’s and Pete’s, or . . . any suggestions? As it’s just 79 days to CCCA graduation, our thoughts for the summer are another Rowan Writing Arts Night at the Phillies and, possibly, a Writing Arts (or CCCA-wide) golf outing. Please send me your thoughts on any of these ideas or some other suggestions. Thank you!
 
Finally, . . .
 
Please join Events Update in sending congratulations and best wishes to our new Writing Arts Department chair Drew Kopp. With his experience as our Coordinator of Undergraduate Programs, his work with the Writing Arts interns, and his numerous other academic service and professional development projects, we know Drew will provide our majors and all of Rowan’s writing students with varied growth opportunities and myriad career choices. This is, of course, a transition from one excellent chair to another as we want to add our thank you to our current chair Jenn Courtney. Your guidance and leadership, Jenn, during this period of growth for Writing Arts – tenure-track and Lecturer hires, the TEP program, and all the new minors, CUGS, and COGS – have perfectly positioned us to continue our role as one of Rowan’s leading academic departments.
 
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 royek@rowan.edu to give me the 4-1-1.
 
 
Stephen A. Royek
Lecturer, Writing Arts
Rowan University
Chair, Faculty Senate Awards Committee
     Victoria Hall, Room 521
     Phone: 856-906-4755
     Email: royek@rowan.edu