Rowan Writing Arts Events Update: Week of October 7, 2019

Rowan Writing Center Wins Access and Inclusion Award! 
Congratulations to Celeste DelRusso and her team at the Rowan Writing Center! It was announced yesterday they will be receiving an Access & Inclusion Award from the university’s Academic Success & Disability Resources Center later this month as part of Access and Inclusion Week 2019. The award is a fitting kickoff to a year of celebration at the Writing Center as it marks its 10th year of helping students campus-wide become stronger, more confident writers. Celeste and her tutors will be honored on Monday, October 21 at 10 a.m. in Room 221 of the Chamberlain Student Center.

Running from October 18-25, Access & Inclusion Week celebrates the accomplishments of individuals with disabilities in our university community. Formerly called “Disabilities Awareness Week,” the name was changed in 2015, according to Resources Center Director John Woodruff, to better reflect Rowan’s culture of embracing and celebrating differences. Nearly 10 percent of the university’s student body – roughly 2,000 individuals – have disabilities registered with the Resources Center. 
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Writing Arts ‘Meet and Greet’ Fills Victoria 200 With Students, Faculty, and Pizza 
Last week’s inaugural reception to bring together the Writing Arts student community and our department’s faculty was a hit, judging both by the number of people and by the volume of excited and happy voices that filled Victoria 200. About two dozen students, and an equal number of professors, mingled and ate pizza and shared discussions about the benefits offered by our courses, programs, and activities. During the reception, colleague Jade Jones and department chair Drew Kopp formally announced our first Writing Arts Winter Writing Retreat, scheduled for January 10-12, 2020 at the historic Pendle Hill resort in Wallingford, Pa. Please have your students contact Jade if they are interested in attending the Retreat. ​

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Local Poets to Help Launch Glassworks Fall Issue 
The Fall 2019 issue of the Glassworks literary journal debuts on Thursday, October 24 with a reception and reading at the Rowan Art Gallery at 6:30 p.m. Local authors Laura Fiorentino and Alison Lubar – who both have poems in the new issue – will be reading selections of their work along with members of the Glassworks staff and students in this semester’s “Editing the Literary Journal” graduate class. The Rowan Art Gallery is across Mick Drive from Victoria Hall at 301 West High Street. Contact Editor-in-Chief Katie Budris (budris [at] rowan [dot] edu) for details. Published in the fall and spring, Glassworks is sponsored by our Master of Arts in Writing program.
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‘Rowan Rules!’ at Mighty Writers, Collingswood Festivals
​Rowan Writing Arts ruled the roost at two regional writing events held on back-to-back Saturdays in late September/early October. First, colleagues Nicole Cesares, Tiffany DeRewal, and Jackie Partyka were among the seven faculty members and interns who supervised a “Magnetic Poetry” activity at the 2nd annual Mighty Writers “MightyFest” on September 28 in Logan Square in Philadelphia. A week later, on October 5, colleague Jason Luther proudly represented his “Zines!” booth, one of the two side-by-side tents staffed by 15 Writing Arts faculty and interns at the 17th annual Collingswood Book Festival. We collected several dozen email addresses that day for our raffle of a gift basket filled with Rowan swag (hat, T-shirt) and several faculty-written books.

For your Calendar: 

• Jeff Maxson will be back to campus Monday, October 14 for his second Dharma Talk of the semester. Our recently retired Writing Arts colleague will facilitate a meditation session from 12:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. in the Interfaith & Spiritual Exploration Center at Evergreen Hall.
• Undergraduate course registration for matriculated students for the Spring 2020 semester begins at 7 a.m. on Tuesday, October 15 for all seniors with 90 or more credits. Note that all graduate students – matriculated or not – also can begin registering on the 15th.
  
• Our next Writing Arts department meeting of the semester will be Wednesday, October 16 at 3:30 p.m. in Victoria 200. All full-time faculty are expected to attend and adjunct and TEP faculty are welcome to join us. Keep an eye on your Inbox for a meeting agenda and please, as always, bring a non-perishable food item for our “S.H.O.P.-ping cart.”
  
• The fall semester College Assembled was moved to Monday, October 21, but still will be held at 3:30 p.m. at Bozorth Hall’s King Auditorium.
  
• Later that week, University Assembled will be held on Friday, October 25 at 2:00 p.m., in the Tohill Auditorium of Bunce Hall.