Literary Matters - Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and Writers

Literary MattersaTHE NEWSLETTER OF THE ASSOCIATION OF LITERARY SCHOLARS, CRITICS, AND WRITERSAut nuntiare aut delectareA Year in PresidentialPublications:Books by ALSCW Presidents -Past, Present, and FutureFrom The EditorWelcome to the fall issue of Literary Matters,in which we look forward to the upcoming annualconference in Princeton, New Jersey, and also look backon the ALSCW’s activities and accomplishments during2010. In her President’s Column (see page 2), SusanWolfson gives us her extensive report and reflections onthe year.I have always seen the ALSCW’s greatest strengthin the variety of its endeavors—scholarly, academic,creative, pedagogical, and so on—and therefore therange of its appeal. This is particularly highlighted by thefascinating array of publications produced by individualmembers of the Association in a given year. This fall,when Susan alerted me to the publication of her newbook, Romantic Interactions (Johns Hopkins, October2010), she and I realized that in fact several memberswho have or will soon hold the office of President withinthe Association have had important works published in2010. And so, in this “From the Editor” I offer you a yearin-reviewof ALSCW presidential publications.At the beginning of 2010, Morris Dickstein’sDancing in the Dark: A Cultural History of the GreatDepression (W.W. Norton & Company, September 2009)was still enjoying success and acclaim, having beenselected as one of The New York Times’ 100 NotableBooks of 2009. (See Literary Matters 2.3, Fall 2009,for our original announcement of this publication anda link to an interview with Dickstein that appeared inHumanities magazine.) Then in January, our ImmediatePast President Clare Cavanagh published Lyric Poetryand Modern Politics: Russia, Poland, and the West(Yale). Reviewing this work in the September 10, 2010edition of the Times Literary Supplement, Andrew Kahnwrites:(continued on page 3)VOLUME 3.4 YEAR-END 2010Inside This Issue2 The President’s Column:The Year Past, The Year Ahead4 News and Announcements:ALSCW/VSC LiT ForumLocal Meeting Baton RougeCampion Receives Poetry PrizeLocal Meeting Boston - NelsonLocal Meeting Boston - BasileForum 4 ReleasedRicks To Receive Distinguished Scholar AwardWarren Funds VSC FellowshipNew Publications by Members11 Meet The Interns12 Poem by Robert Gibb14 Neglected Authors Column: Byron Herbert Reeceby Rosanna Warren15 A Tribute to Brent Joseph Wellsby Adelaide Russo16 Portrait of a Donor: Francis O’Neillby Greg Delanty19 Secondary School Essay Contest Winnersessays by Grayson Clary and David Gore23 Welcome New Members!LITERARY MATTERS | VOLUME 3.4 | YEAR-END 2010 1

The President’s Column:The Year Past, The Year AheadBy Susan WolfsonWe’ve had an exciting, at times tumultuous, year aswe’ve worked hard to sustain our traditional devotions,initiate new ventures, and contend with the challenges ofmaterial necessity.The addition of “W” to our acronym, reflecting ourevolved identity as The Association of Literary Scholars,Critics, and Writers (and all hybrids and multiples), hasproduced new dimensions to our membership, ourpublications, and our alliances with other associations.Our next president, Greg Delanty, is just such anembodiment: an award-winning poet, a teacher, ascholarly anthologizer, and all round enthusiast foreverything literary. Our membership continues to evolve,too. While we have lost some members, we continue,almost weekly it seems, to attract new members who aredrawn to our publications, our local meetings, our annualconference, our collaboration with other associations onissues of common concern, and the special character ofour Association.Like many non-profit associations, we have beenchallenged by the economic downturn. Having lost thesupport of major foundation donors and some privatedonors, too, our annual operating budget is far reducedfrom what it was even two years ago. We no longerhave a professional executive director, a professionalprograms manager, or the capacity to sponsor ourconference in downtown hotels, with featured speakerswho, even at a discount, command honoraria andexpenses beyond our means. What we do have, firstand foremost, is an incredible resource of talent, energy,organization and imagination in Katherine Hala, ourpart-time office manager, and the able staff, mostlyvolunteer, of interns. Although this staff cannot whollyreplace our former professional staff, they have done aremarkable job of managing our business, our in-housepublications, and our commitment to the intellectual andcultural life of our interns. We are especially grateful toChristopher Ricks, Greg Delanty, and Rosanna Warrenfor brightening their difficult days. Even so, our relianceon a part-time and shifting contingent of workers is notthe best of arrangements: the office is overwhelmed andunderstaffed, and we need either to find more stableresources or to consider ways of maintaining the vitalityand value of our work within the limits of more austerefinancial times.(continued on page 13)LITERARY MATTERSEditorLeslie HarkemaDesign, Layout, andProduction ManagerKatherine HalaEditorial AssistantSamantha MadwayLiterary Matters is published and distributedquarterly by the Association of Literary Scholars,Critics, and Writers (ALSCW), 650 Beacon Street,Suite 510, Boston, MA 02215. Tel: 617-358-1990;fax: 617-358-1995; alsc@bu.edu;www.bu.edu/literary.Literary Matters is provided to all ALSCW members.Membership dues start at $37 for the first year ($32for students) and are charged on a graduated scalethereafter. Premium Memberships are also available.No part of this newsletter may be copied orreproduced without permission from ALSCW.The Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, andWriters (ALSCW) promotes excellence in literarycriticism and scholarship, and works to ensure thatliterature thrives in both scholarly and creative environments.We encourage the reading and writing ofliterature, criticism, and scholarship, as well as widerangingdiscussions among those committed to thereading and study of literary works.LITERARY MATTERS | VOLUME 3.4 | YEAR-END 2010 2

From The Editor (continued from page 1)Armed with a mastery of both Russian andPolish scholarship and a bracing style of argument,Cavanagh’s important and enthrallingbook illuminates the creative biographies andworks of writers who from about 1917 to thedissolution of the Soviet bloc experienced,documented, tested, challenged and sometimessurvived the confrontation with the State [...] 1As she follows Mayakovsky, Akhmatova, Szymborska,Milosz, and others through the 20 th century, its poeticdevelopments and political polarizations, Cavanaghpoints out, as Kahn puts it later in his review, “the valueof lyric poetry in sensitizing perception to detail andspecificity, and in sharpening our sense of individualagency and responsibility.” 2Fast on the heels of this acclaimed work of scholarshipare two works of literary translation by Cavanagh—one just published and another forthcoming. WisławaSzymborska’s Here, which Cavanagh co-translated withStanislaw Baranczak, is out from Harcourt this October;and her translation of Adam Zagajewski’s latest book ofpoems, Unseen Hand, will be released in the spring of2011 from Farrar Straus & Giroux. This last includes thepoem “Piano Lessons,” which Zagajewski and Cavanaghcontributed for the beautiful broadside that is the first inthe ALSCW’s new Broadside Series.Another past ALSCW president, Christopher Ricks,has been characteristically prolific this year. In Marchof 2010, Yale University Press published Ricks’ TrueFriendship, a study of Geoffrey Hill, Anthony Hecht,and Robert Lowell in relationship to T. S. Eliot and EzraPound. Taking its title from William Blake’s declaration“Opposition is true Friendship,” the book examines thecritical responses and poetical affinities among thesethree poets and their Modernist predecessors. Duringthis year Ricks has also published a new edition ofHenry James’ What Maisie Knew (Penguin Classic,August 2010) and the anthology Joining Music withReason: 34 Poets, British and American, Oxford 2004-2009 (Waywiser Press, October 2010). Compiled fromreadings that took place at Oxford during Ricks’ tenurethere as Professor of Poetry, Joining Music with Reasonincludes work from several poets affiliated with theALSCW as members, officers, or contributors to LiteraryImagination: Greg Delanty, David Ferry, Mark Halliday,Saskia Hamilton, George Kalogeris, Marcia Karp,Ted Richer, Don Share, John Talbot, Harry Thomas,Rosanna Warren, and Rachel Wetzsteon.In addition to appearing in Ricks’ anthology, GregDelanty, who will officially take the reins as President1 Andrew Kahn, “Causework.” Times Literary Supplement. 10September 2010.2 Kahn, p. 14.of the ALSCW at the annual conference, has a numberof publications to add to our list. In June of 2010,Delanty published the poetry collection The New CitizenArmy with The Combat Paper Press, which forms partof the Combat Paper Project. Through the CombatPaper Project, war veterans participate in papermakingworkshops to convert their used uniforms into works ofart. The New Citizen Army is hand bound, with coversmade from “combat paper.”Several poems that originally appeared in Delanty’sCollected Poems, 1986-2006 (Carcanet Press, 2007),were included in The Penguin Book of Irish Poetry(September 2010), edited by Patrick Crotty. In addition,Delanty is also currently preparing an anthology, TheWord Exchange: Anglo-Saxon Poems in Translation, dueout in December 2010 from W. W. Norton & Company.There is one more presidential publication tomention: that of our current (for a couple of days still)ALSCW President. Susan Wolfson, who during thislast year has worked with unsurpassable energy anddedication to lead, to sustain, and to promote ourAssociation, has just published Romantic Interactions:Social Being and the Turns of Literary Action (JohnsHopkins, October 2010). In this book, Wolfson turns toa variety of texts by women and men of the Romanticperiod to examine how their conceptions of authorshipwere formed through exchange between readersand writers. Moving from the political and culturalengagement of Charlotte Smith and Mary Wollstonecraftto the relationship of mutual interpretation betweenWilliam and Dorothy Wordsworth, and finally to Byron’scelebrity and its reception by several women poets, thebook qualifies the Romantic emphasis on individualityby revealing the complex artistic interactions underlyingthe idea of authorship.In presenting the Romantic conception of“interaction” in the introductory chapter of her book,Wolfson quotes a bemused Isaac Tayor, commentingin the 1830s on the reciprocity and exchange “whichat present is going on between readers and writers.” 3Jumping to the early 21 st century, I can’t help but think ofthe ALSCW as another site of this kind of “interaction”—if one that finds itself in a very different social realityfrom that of the British Romantics. I hope that, in thisbrief rundown of works published by ALSCW presidents,past and future, you find something that catches yourattention, creating and sustaining the Association’scommunity of readers and writers that thrive on literaryexchange. We look forward to extending and deepeningthese “interactions” at the conference in Princeton. Seeyou there! a3 Wolfson, Romantic Interactions, p. 3.- Leslie HarkemaLITERARY MATTERS | VOLUME 3.4 | YEAR-END 2010 3

News and AnnouncementsALSCW/VSC LiT ForumSeptember 17, 2010On Friday evening, September 17th, ALSCW, inconjunction with co-sponsor the Vermont Studio Center,held the first in a series of LiT (Literature in Translation)forums at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson,Vermont. Poet Adam Zagajewski was joined by translatorand former ALSCW President Clare Cavanagh for an hourlongpresentation of the art of translation as exemplifiedby their 15-year collaboration and friendship bringingAdam’s poems to life in English.An audience of more than ninety people—comingfrom throughout northern Vermont plus staff andresidents of the Vermont Studio Center—gathered in theVSC Lowe Lecture Hall (Johnson’s historic opera house)for this inaugural presentation. The forum began withAdam reading poems in both their original Polish andClare’s English, then moved on to a discussion of theircollaborative process, the back story of Adam’s poem “Tryto Praise the Mutilated World,” (which appeared in TheNew Yorker immediately following the 9/11 attacks), anda question and answer session. A recording of the forumwas made and added to the VSC readings audio archive.In addition to providing VSC and the wider communitywith an opportunity to hear Adam and Clare together,this ALSCW/VSC LiT forum series signals the addition ofinternational writers and translators to the VSC residencycommunity. Having established its Writing program overthe past 15 years and built the studios and leadershipnecessary to fulfill its promise, the Studio Center nowwelcomes writers from around the world and in so doingadds another inspiring component to its residencyprogram.The ALSCW/VSC LiT forum series continues in 2011with the appearance of Italian poet Patricia Cavalliand her American translator Geoffrey Brock. For moreinformation, contact VSC Writing Program Director GaryClark at gclark@vermontstudiocenter.org. a- Gary ClarkVSC Writing Program DirectorPhoto © Katherine A. Hala Photo © Melissa ArmstrongGary Clark, Greg Delanty, Adam Zagajewski, Clare CavanaghPhoto © Katherine A. HalaAdam Zagajewski, Clare Cavanagh, Katherine HalaPhoto © Melissa ArmstrongLITERARY MATTERS | VOLUME 3.4 | YEAR-END 2010 4

ecognition that the ends of the material things of natureare not our own may help us make more sense of thestories we tell ourselves about it - and to find way to livewith the metaphorical bean field whose seeds we sow inour environment daily.”LSU Faculty Senate President and distinguishedscholar of eighteenth century British Literature, KevinCope, presented an informal reflection on “Gentle Windsand Rushing Streams: The First Landscape Gardens.”He started by describing the historical context of theEustis, Culbert, Cope, Wells, Eliot Blunck, Phillipslandscape garden, - its difference from the practical,medicinal, or allegorical gardens of the medieval worldor the gardens that functioned as tokens of wealth andprestige during the Renaissance. The modern landscapegarden presented itself as an expressive entity - as theexposition of an aesthetic or philosophical idea thatuses terrain and flora as its text, alphabet, and lexicon.Whether in Europe or Britain, the modern landscapegarden represents a genial denaturalization of theoutdoors venue. It correlates and intermingles a varietyof conflicting ideas, whether that of naturalism versusgenetic recombination in selective breeding, or whetherthat of topiary and formalism in contrast to naturalismand expressionism. Modern gardens reject utility at thesame time that they draw on technology, such as waterpumps or cultivation machinery. They are interdisciplinaryand intercultural, combining a variety of engineering andbiological arts while tossing together relics from cultureseast and west, for decorative effect or ventilation. Themodern landscape garden gave rise to a host of collateralartistic genres: landscape painting or country-housearchitecture or agricultural engineering. During the longeighteenth century, the use of landscape as a vehicleof expression underlies the interest in an assortmentof natural phenomena which inspire the sublime, forexample, volcanoes, as well as in the emergence ofassorted living programs such as the plantation life.Once again, The Southern Review provided theliterary fireworks that should culminate an evening’sfestivity. Nolde Alexius and Judy Kahn presented theirnew anthology, Best of LSU Fiction. 1 Alexius and Kahnboth teach Introduction to Fiction in the LSU EnglishDepartment. Judy Kahn discovered that her studentsloved to read stories set in Louisiana and decided to usethe considerable body of works produced by such LSUwriters such as Robert Penn Warren, Peter Taylor, JeanStafford, James Wilcox, David Madden, James GordonBennett, Walker Percy, Valerie Martin, AllenWeir, Charles East, Tim Parrish, John Ed Bradley,Andrei Codrescu, Moira Crone, Vance Bourjaily,Laurie Lee Drummond, Michael Griffith, MattClark, Olympia Vernon, and James Wilcox in hercourses. As Kahn states in her preface, “Theyfelt, as Walker Percy would have put it, ‘certified’by seeing their own personal landscapes inpublished fiction.” 2 When Nolde Alexius arrivedat LSU, she too followed Judy’s practice. Thenewly published anthology was in part producedas a pedagogical exercise and tool. Noldeexplained how the generations of LSU authorsdialogue with each other, tracing a genealogicaltree, – none other than the Southern Reviewlogo, the Live Oak – reproduced in the volume.Judy Kahn introduced James Gordon Bennett,by quoting in length from the many letters thathis grateful students had written when he wasnominated for and won the LSU DistinguishedFaculty Teaching Award last spring. Author ofMy Father’s Geisha 3 and The Moon Stops Here, 4 JimBennett has directed over twenty MFA theses, most ofwhich have been published as books. A prolific writer andmaster of the short story, Bennett read his contributionto the anthology, “The Perfect Mousse Ducktail,” inspiredby an unusual episode he witnessed in his Baton Rougeneighborhood, Southdowns. I will neither explain the title,nor give away the story. Read it in Best of LSU Fiction.The evening started in solemnity and ended in laughterwith Jim Bennett’s story, followed by Moscato d’Asti,and two enormous sheet cakes, one decorated with theALSCW logo, and the other with that of LSU Comp Lit. Inaddition to announcing the ALSCW Broadside project, westarted a fund-raising campaign for our program. JamesGordon Bennett is our second contributor. The numberof ALSCW members in Baton Rouge has increased. Ourcollaboration continues. a- Adelaide Russo1 Nolde Alexius and Judy Kahn, eds. Best of LSU Fiction(Baton Rouge, Louisiana: The Southern Review, 2010).2 Ibid.,ix .3 James Gordon Bennett, My Father’s Geisha (New York:Delacorte, 1990)4 James Gordon Bennett, The Moon Stops Here (NewYork: Doubleday, 1994)LITERARY MATTERS | VOLUME 3.4 | YEAR-END 2010 6

Campion Receives Prize For The LionsSeptember 24, 2010Literary Imagination Editor Peter Campion has wonthe thirteenth annual Larry Levis Reading Prize givenby Virginia Commonwealth University for the best firstor second book of poetry published in that year. Thewinning book, The Lions, was published by the Universityof Chicago Press. On September 24th at the Grace StreetTheater in Richmond, Peterread from his work at the finalevent of the Conference thatcelebrates the award and thelegacy of the poet Larry Levis.Poets, editors, and criticsgathered for the conference.The other keynote readerswere Philip Levine andDavid St. John. Participantsincluded Claudia Emerson,Stanley Plumly, Ellen BryantVoigt, Michael Collier, andmany others. aLocal Meeting Boston: NelsonSeptember 29, 2010On September 29, a group of literati gathered in abook-lined room of Boston University’s Editorial Institute,found on the emblematic Bay State Road, to hear a papergiven by Cassandra Nelson of Harvard University.The presentation, “‘Corrigeé si on peut dire[‘Corrected, if you can call it that’],” highlighted instancesof textual variation in More Pricks Than Kicks, a lesserknownwork by Samuel Beckett, and sought to explain theprogression of how they came to be. Though the notion ofa diachronic study of textual variation across successiveeditions of a text may seem abstruse or unapproachableto even the more daring among us, as it turns out, it is atopic that inspired attention, awe and many a guffaw fromthe audience.Nelson was the editor involved in the 2010 reissue ofMore Pricks Than Kicks and shared the saga of how thiscollection of prose and its four preceding editions came tobe (which, with many details elided for reasons of space,can be summed up as: Beckett resisted more upon eachpressing, the publishers got pushier, and the proofingwent rogue). It was her task to pore through each edition:the original 1934 Chatto and Windus release, one of thelowest grossing books of the time, and the second, third,and fourth editions of just 100 copies each published in1968, 1970, and 1971, which were typed on typewritersand stapled rather than bound.Beckett had wanted to distance himself from the workand was more than hesitant to have it further propagated,but upon the vow from his publisher at Grove that it wouldbe produced only once and solely for use by scholars,he reluctantly agreed, and it is clear that his reluctancewas well warranted. These later editions were advertisedin Grove’s catalogue against the wishes of Beckett, andwere fraught with textual discrepancies, ranging fromminor issues of punctuation that can be attributed tonegligence, to the omission of particular words (seeminglymotivated by an overly liberal editor), to the outright“jazzing up” of certain words to reflect modern vernacularand contemporary standards of decorum.After the laborious task of compiling a chartcataloguing the discrepancies from text to text, Nelsonwas then ready to begin selecting which version to baseeditorial decisions on, no easy task given the extent of thevariation and the impossibility of being certain with whomthe responsibility for these changes lay. She mainly sidedwith the 1934 version because it was the one with whichBeckett had the most editorial input and many of thevariants seen in later editions—such as replacing B.T.M.(“bottom”) with “arse” and “——” (for an unspecifiedexpletive) with the much more decisive “fucking”—wereupdated to conform to modern standards of [in]decency,making them inauthentic to the style and period of theoriginal work.At the close of the presentation, it was evident justhow considerable the task of editing can be, particularlywhen it involves constructing an accurate representationof a work that has gone through so many stages ofproofing and publication. The audience engaged Nelsonwith questions and further observations, out of whichdebate was sparked regarding the underlining capabilitiesof manual typewriters, the possible referents of “his” inthe line “A horse was down and a man sat on his head,”and whether “asterisked” should be considered a verb oran adjective in the text, but more importantly, if it is asuitable substitute for “buggered.” When the discussiondied down and the wine bottles were discarded, it is nogreat leap to say that many in attendance were inspired topick up More Pricks than Kicks, and, at the very least, hada renewed appreciation for the conscientious editor. a- Samantha MadwayALSCW Intern; Boston UniversityHost A Local MeetingVisit our website for more information.LITERARY MATTERS | VOLUME 3.4 | YEAR-END 2010 7

Local Meeting Boston: BasileOctober 22, 2010The New England sect of the ALSCW gathered atBoston University’s Editorial Institute for its second localmeeting this fall on Wednesday, October 22 nd . Al Basile,accomplished musician and poet, set out to highlight thedisparities between the writing of poetry and the writing oflyrics. His presentation, “Words and Music, and the Musicof Words: the Writing of Song Lyrics and Formal Poetry”was a definite nod to the recent inclusion of “W” in theorganization’s name, and touched upon the nebulousnature of writing that makes it such a gratifying challengeto those who create it and those who experience it.Basile began by transporting back to his childhood,sharing an anecdote about the strange satisfaction ofreading the Burma-Shave billboards (which serve as atestament to the creative foundations advertising reliedon before the advent of pop-up ads and spam mail) ona drive down to Florida with his parents. The conceptwas poetic in a very literal sense: Burma-Shave put upbillboards at specific intervals, each of which had a fewwords or line of verse on it, that would ultimately forma short poem whose resolution was “Burma-Shave.”Though the laughter these jingles inspired was reasonenough to share them, Basile had another purpose inmind: in a certain sense, they encapsulate one of the keyconsiderations he posits as central to differentiating thelanguage of song from the language of verse.These billboards were measured out so that theywould be “timed” to allow passengers to read them beforereaching the next one given an assumed rate of travel,just as a songwriter must be sensitive to the music’sspeed in order to fit the language within the constraintsof the tempo and rhythm. A song is, as Basile put it,“time-bound.” While a poet must consider the way theline breaks and how the words aredistributed in order to establish anappropriate pace and complimentform, the poem is, ultimately, ona page. Though a poem may takeon some musical qualities whendeclaimed, the timing of somethingexternal to it does not mitigate itsreception.This is a crucial boundary todraw, not only conceptually, butalso with regard to the process ofwriting, yet it is not as self-consciousan endeavor as it might seem atfirst glance. Basile notes that whileboth forms require the writer to“obey” certain sonic or structuralprinciples, this does not mean theundertaking is mechanical andcalculated; he tends to intuitively know whether what heis writing is a poem or a song. Or, as he humbly put it: “Theones that want to be songs tell me what kind of song theywant to be.”Basile described what can only be seen as a veryintimate relationship existing between the writer andhis creation, and while composing poetry may indeedcall upon different things from the writer than doespenning song lyrics, either production will take on thesame role in this partnership: to be conduits for theexchange of emotions from the writer to his audience.The method by which the emotional experience is madeinto something shareable may differ, just as the feelingsthat inspired the act and those it is intended to conveywill also vary. Basile revealed that, for him personally,whatever the feeling is that one gets from his poems orsongs, typically its antithesis inspired the work. However,whatever metamorphosis occurs, the ultimate goal of thisreformation is to transpose something that is felt intosomething that is.These insights into Basile’s process and hisphilosophical conception of the creative processrepresent just some of what those in attendance werefortunate enough to glean from the experience. To putone’s thoughts on the line takes courage, but to putone’s emotions on the line may take even more than that.Basile imparted not only the more scholarly and technicalaspects of his methods, but also the achievements oftheir practice; he shared two songs and two poems withthe group, and the audience was heartily appreciative ofhis candor. When the presentation was over, a request foran encore of each song was made and granted, and withthat, the fall’s second Boston local meeting of the ALSCWcame to a close. a- Samantha MadwayALSCW Intern; Boston UniversityPhoto © Katherine A. HalaLITERARY MATTERS | VOLUME 3.4 | YEAR-END 2010 8

Forum 4 ReleasedOctober 2010The ALSCW’s newly released study strongly suggeststhat two factors—a fragmented English curriculum anda neglect of close reading—may explain why the readingskills of American high school students have shown littleor no improvement in several decades despite substantialincreases in funds for elementary and secondaryeducation by federal and state governments.The ALSCW report, entitled Literary Study in Grades9, 10, And 11: A National Survey, analyzes the responsesof more than four hundred representative public schoolteachers who were asked what works of literature theyassign in standard and honors courses, and whatapproaches they use for teaching students how tounderstand imaginative literature and literary non-fiction.Among the study’s major findings:(1) The content of the literature and readingcurriculum for students in standard or honorscourses is no longer traditional or uniform in anyconsistent way. The most frequently mentioned titlesare assigned in only a small percentage of courses,and the low frequencies for almost all the other titlesEnglish teachers assign point to an idiosyncraticliterature curriculum for most students.(2) The works teachers assign generally do notincrease in difficulty from grade 9 to grade 11.(3) Teachers do not favor close, analytical readingsof assigned works. They prefer such non-analyticalapproaches as a personal response or a focuson a work’s historical or biographical context (forinstance, class discussions of To Kill a Mockingbirdthat emphasize the Scottsboro Trials or Jim Crow lawsin the South, rather than the novel’s plot, characters,style, and moral meaning).“These findings suggest that the way reading andwriting are taught today by many high-school teachers maybe impeding college-readiness for many public high schoolstudents,” said Sandra Stotsky, Professor of EducationReform at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and thestudy’s principal author.“College courses not just in English but in manydisciplines routinely assign difficult texts and expectstudents to understand, analyze, and write coherentlyabout them. According to ACT, a major reason whycollege students end up in remedial courses or drop outof college is their inability to comprehend and analyzecomplex texts. An incoherent high-school curriculum thatrarely advances beyond 9th-grade-level texts and thatexpects little more than impressionistic responses tothem is a prescription for educational underperformanceor outright failure at the college level,” Prof. Stotsky said.Susan J. Wolfson, President of the ALSCW andProfessor of English at Princeton University, said: “Beyondcollege readiness, skill in literary analysis—especiallyclose attention to the artifacts and designs of language—is vital to an informed, capable citizenry. This importantstudy should, in my view, be required reading by highschoolEnglish teachers, high-school administrators, andboards of education throughout the nation.”The ALSCW recommends that:(1) high schools revise their English curriculum toincorporate a progressively more challenging coreof literary and non-literary texts with cultural andhistorical significance for our own country and othercountries;(2) English departments at colleges and universitiesemphasize the analytical study of literature, especiallyfor those students planning to become secondaryEnglish teachers;(3) the U.S. Department of Education and statelegislatures give priority to the funding of professionaldevelopment programs that emphasize teachingclose, careful reading.The complete, 36-page report (and its appendices)may be read on, and downloaded from, the ALSCW’swebsite, at www.bu.edu/literary/publications/Forum4.pdf . aRicks To Receive Award At MLAJanuary 8, 2011CHRISTOPHER RICKS TO RECEIVE DISTINGUISHEDSCHOLAR AWARD FROM THE KEATS-SHELLEYASSOCIATION OF AMERICA, PRESENTED BY ALSCWPRESIDENT SUSAN WOLFSON AT MLAYOU ARE INVITED TO THE AWARD DINNERThe Keats-Shelley Association of America’s annualawards dinner (at MLA) will be held this year on Saturday,8 January 2011. A cash bar opens at 5:30 PM and dinnerbegins at 7:00 PM, at the Standard Hotel Downtown LosAngeles, 550 S. Flower at Sixth Street. You do not need tobe a member of the MLA or a registrant at the conventionin order to attend this event.This year the Association will honor distinguishedscholars Christopher RIcks and Julie Carlson. Forreservations, send $60 to Steven Jones, Vice PresidentKSAA-Loyola University Chicago Department of English Crown Center 421 / 1032 W. Sheridan Road /Chicago, IL 60660. aLITERARY MATTERS | VOLUME 3.4 | YEAR-END 2010 9

Warren Funds VSC Fellowship2010-2011ALSCW founding member, past president, and currentcouncil member Rosanna Warren has donated $3,750 tothe Vermont Studio Center, an artist residency programthat hosts and supports writers and artists from aroundthe world by providing individual studio residences.Located in the northern Green Mountains, the VSC admits52 artists and writers each month to its highly selectiveresidency programs. Rosanna’s donation will fund theALSCW fellowship at the VSC in 2011, its second yearin existence. We are very grateful to Rosanna for thisgenerous gift, which will help to continue the exciting workof the VSC-ALSCW collaborations. a- Chris BlairALSCW Intern; Boston UniversityThe ALSCW/VSC Fellowship providesa one-month VSC residency for awriter who is a current member ofthe ALSCW. It is open to all of theAssociation’s creative writers andliterary translators.ALSCW-member applicants will beconsidered for the ALCSW Fellowshipand any other VSC award for whichthey are eligible. Applicants whodo not receive an award will also beconsidered for grants and financialassistance to lessen the cost of apotential stay at the VSC.The application deadline isFebruary 15, 2011.Please visit www.vermontstudiocenter.org/fellowships to download anapplication.New Publications by MembersJune - September 2010Robert ChambersParody: The Art that Plays with Art(Peter Lang, September 2010)David LehrerUnwelcome Light: A Novel(Daniel and Daniel, September 2010)Marcia Karp“Don Juan in Hell” (poem)(Times Literary Supplement; June 11, 2010)Carol MoldawSo Late, So Soon: New and Selected Poems(Etruscan Press, June 2010)Editor’s note: We welcome news of our members’ publications,and will note as many as possible in each issue of LiteraryMatters. In some issues, however, available space will dictatea limit of two notices per member. When such limitations arenecessary, we will print the first two entries in the order in whichthey were received. Additional entries will be printed—again, inthe order in which they were received—in subsequent issues ofLiterary Matters.LITERARY MATTERS | VOLUME 3.4 | YEAR-END 2010 10

Meet the ALSCW InternsBy Katherine Hala, ALSCW Office AdministratorALSCW’s Boston Office could not survive without the help ofinterns - undergraduate and graduate students interested in learninghow a literary non-profit functions who are willing to donate their timeand talents to help our non-profit function better.Samantha Rae Madway started as an intern in February 2010after responding to an ad posted by Rosanna Warren. Samanthaquickly proved to be responsible and innovative and is now theSupervising Intern. She works in the office two days a week andoversees the processing of all membership, gift, and conferenceforms. She is also building a relationship with Oxford University Pressso that she can answer any questions you might have about yourLiterary Imagination subscription.Samantha recruited Chris Blair last spring, and he’s beencheerfully assisting with a variety of projects. He recently organizedthe Literary Imagination archives to make room for another workspacein the office. Chris invited his friend Matt Connolly (see bio on nextpage) to join the ALSCW Intern Team, and Matt started volunteeringin September. He is a fast learner and is currently helping withmembership forms and copy-editing.Samantha Rae MadwayBoston University,University ProfessorsDual BA/MA Program,Class of 2011Her favorite poets are Neruda and Berryman.Seattle is the coolest place she’s ever been.She’s a big fan of eBay and the number three,But don’t try to get her to eat sushi.For a pet, she’d like a Great Dane or a shark,And she only uses blue pens to make her mark.poem-bio by Samantha Rae MadwayChris BlairBoston University,College of Artsand Sciences,Class of 2011If he could have any pet, it would be a Dragon.Its name would be Tunis. Can you even imagine?!His bike is the thing he needs to survive,But with bionic hearing, he’d surely thrive.He’d love to travel to the Middle East,And raw tomatoes are the food he likes least.August 2010: AnALSCW Staff NightOut (sponsored byChristopher Ricks)poem by Samantha Rae MadwaySamantha, Chris, and Matt will be at the ALSCW’s AnnualConference 2010 in Princeton (November 5-7). They will assist withregistration, distribute programs and nametags, process membershiprenewals and gifts, and attend as many seminars and panels aspossible. Their reports on the conference will be published in the nextissue of Literary Matters.We would like to express our sincere gratitude to everyone whocontributed to this year’s Intern Fund to subsidize transportation,lodging, and meals so that our three interns can attend the conference.Many thanks to Christopher Ricks and Greg Delanty, to, who check inwith the office staff on a regular basis and treat us to dinners andmovies and much-needed coffee.Kathie DeMeritt (see bio on next page) started volunteering thispast summer and is our Technology Expert. She is organizing ourcomputer files, transferring documents to our new iMac, and ensuringthat our records are backed up and can be shared securely. She alsoserves as Office Mechanic from time to time.We are delighted to welcome five new interns who responded toads we placed around Boston University in September. Cynthia Huangand Jing Xu are undergraduates in BU’s School of Management andwill be working in the ALSCW Office as Finance Interns. ZoraidaCabrera is an undergraduate in the College of Arts and Sciences. Shewill be our Events Coordinator and is currently organizing the ALSCW’sparticipation in Boston’s Antiquarian Book Fair (see ad on previouspage). Finally, English majors Brendan Ryan and Ned Hinman havebeen helping with conference preparation for the past two weeks.After the conference, they will begin training with Samantha and helpprocess all the membership renewals we hope to receive in the nexttwo months.LITERARY MATTERS | VOLUME 3.4 | YEAR-END 2010 11

Matt ConnollyKathie DeMerittBoston University,College of Artsand Sciences,Class of 2011His rabbit fur hunting hat is a must,Though he thinks the number four is a bust.He wants a timber wolf named Herman with a coat of black,And the best trip he ever took was to the Adirondacks.At the sight of cauliflower, he turns up his nose,But with a book by Willa Cather, he’s in a state of repose.poem by Samantha Rae MadwaySimmons College,Graduate School of Libraryand Information Science,Class of 2012One could call her a technophile, that much is clear,For her computer is something she holds quite dear.She doesn’t like meat or the number three,But she can’t wait to visit England, Scotland, Wales, and Italy.She dreams of having a Tabby named Mountain Dew.Her favorite writers are Scott Westerfeld and Johanna Lindseyto name just a few.poem by Samantha Rae MadwayColumn 287: Robert GibbIntroduction by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate,2004-2006:I love to sit outside and be very still until somelittle creature appears and begins to go aboutits business, and here is another poet, RobertGibb, of Pennsylvania, doing just the samething.For the Chipmunk in My YardI think he knows I’m alive, having come downThe three steps of the back porchAnd given me a good once over. All afternoonHe’s been moving back and forth,Gathering odd bits of walnut shells and twigs,While all about him the great fields tumbleTo the blades of the thresher. He’s luckyTo be where he is, wild with all that happens.He’s lucky he’s not one of the shadowsLiving in the blond heart of the wheat.This autumn when trees bolt, dark with the firesOf starlight, he’ll curl among their roots,Wanting nothing but the slow burn of matterOn which he fastens like a small, brown flame.American Life in Poetry is made possible by The PoetryFoundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetrymagazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at theUniversity of Nebraska, Lincoln. “The Blessing of the Old Woman,the Tulip, and the Dog” from “The Book of Seventy,” by AliciaSuskin Ostriker, © 2009. All rights are controlled by the Universityof Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, PA 15260. Used by permission of theUniversity of Pittsburgh Press. Introduction copyright ©2010 by ThePoetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served asUnited States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library ofCongress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.American Life in Poetry ©2006 The Poetry Foundation. Contact:alp@poetryfoundation.org.ALSCW Internship ProgramInterviews for 2011-2012 academic year internshipswill be held in May 2011.LITERARY LITERARY MATTERS MATTERS | VOLUME | VOLUME 3.4 | 3.4 YEAR-END | FALL 2010 12

The President’s Column (continued from page 2)We have had other adjustments. Needing to convertour quarterly newsletter Literary Matters to a moreeconomical on-line publication, we have been pleasedby the several new advantages that this transformationhas enabled: color photographs and graphics, enhancedcapacity for content, archiving at our website, availabilityto on-line searches, and easy portability for forwardingto friends, family, colleagues, and prospective members.Leslie Harkema, its editor, has brought skill, discipline,fun and intelligent purpose to this new formation. Thoughthis transformation was born of financial necessity, itsevolution might be now regarded as inspired prescience—-necessity is the mother of this invention, too. We’ve hada wealth of essays, reports, reviews, poetry and profilesacross the year, including our new essay-contest forsecondary school students, with our first prize essay soonto appear.This contest reflects our increasing concern withliterary study in secondary schools. Forum 4, whichyou should all have by now, is our contribution to thisdiscussion. Distributed to our membership, to the press,and to the councils for the humanities in all 50 states,this report reflects the expert research, synthesis,analysis, and forceful polemics by Sandra Stotskyabout the troubling degradation of literary study. TheAssociation is not just submitting a report of concernbut is using this publication to spark future colloquia. Wehave also conveyed letters on behalf of the Associationto a number of state boards of education, advocating forthe development, refinement, sophistication of literarystudy in the high schools—not only as important to liberaleducation and analytical skill, but as the resource fromwhich a thoughtful, inquisitive, capably informed, literatecitizenry emerges.Our annual conference, as you may have notedfrom our several previews, has also evolved. Becauseconferences in the foreseeable future must now beself-financing, we have turned our planning towardsaffordable venues in academia. Our facilities at PrincetonUniversity will cost less than 10% of what we used tohave to pay for a downtown hotel venue. Our hotel roomcostis about 60% of the cost at previous conferences.Our banquets have doubled in quantity (two this year),and the tickets cost 50-75% less than before. Thesereductions in price have been made possible by generousco-sponsorship from various departments and programsat Princeton University (mostly from the magic touch ofMichael Wood), from local but internationally renownedspeakers who are happy to appear without honoraria orexpense-reimbursement (Paul Muldoon, Joyce CarolOates, and C.K. Williams), from donations by our bookexhibitorsto the conference budget, and from membersto our fund for our staff and intern expenses. Our entireconference budget is about 15-20% of past budgets,but with no compromise on quality. So while this, too,is a transformation born of necessity, it has producedhappy developments with distinct advantages to ourmembership. The entire program is a marvel, in nosmall part from the imaginative work of David Mikics inassembling exciting panels and seminars.Another development, to which I have been pleasurablydevoted, is our alliances with other associations whoshare our values, our commitments, and our membership.Joining with the Comparative Literature Association andthe Modern Language Association of America, we havesuccessfully supported the continuation of the graduateprogram in Comparative Literature at Louisiana StateUniversity at Baton Rouge, and are supporting the protestagainst the termination of the Comparative Literatureprogram at the University of Toronto. A number of ourmembers who are members of the other associations(Adelaide Russo, Michael Wood, David Damrosch,Marshall Brown, Rosemary Feal) are already conversingabout forums at various association conferences in thecoming years about “the future of comparative literature”:MLA in Seattle or Boston, for instance, with perhaps apartnership at one of the ALSCW conferences.I’m very excited by these new alliances, and pleasedto have launched an experimental venture or two duringmy presidential year. One is a landmark issue on thesonnet for Literary Imagination, reflecting severalhappy alliances: you’ll find a wealth of sonnets, fromestablished, emerging, and new poets, as well as classyfleet of critical essays developed from the rich resourcesof sessions at the 2009 ALSCW conference (chaired byDavid Mikics) and at the MLA in 2009, which I chaired.Publishers of relevant critical studies and anthologieshave come on board, too, with paid advertisements. Thisissue is a rich intersection of our devotions and spheresof activity. Literary Imagination continues to be admired,with contributions by major figures in the world of criticismand writing, and fresh interest with every issue.Alliances have been my initiative across this pastyear: we allied with the Keats-Shelley Association ofAmerica for a showing of Jane Campion’s Bright Starfollowed by a panel discussion including Associationmembers; we allied with the Philoctetes Society for anevening colloquium on “the sonnet.” I have developedan alliance with MLA, at which three conversations thatwill begin in our Princeton conference (on close-reading,on Pride and Prejudice, and on common professionalconcerns) will continue two months later in Los Angelesat the MLA convention. All participants in this two-phaseconversation are members of both the ALSCW and theMLA, as are many of our new members.Local meetings have brought in new members andnew interests, too. Adelaide Russo organized a widecommunity of students, professors, local artists and(continued on page 16)LITERARY MATTERS | VOLUME 3.4 | YEAR-END 2010 13

Neglected Authors Column:Rosanna Warren on Byron Herbert ReeceByron Herbert Reece (1917-1958) is a casualty ofModernism. Timeless even in his own day, this poet andnovelist, born in a log cabin on a farm in the Appalachiansof North Georgia, is almost unknown outside his nativestate. Yet readers anywhere who appreciate FrederickGoddard Tuckerman, Edward Arlington Robinson, EdwardThomas, John Masefield, and Robert Frost, as well astraditional English and Scottish ballads, would findnourishment in Reece’s poems.It is tempting to think of Reece as an American JohnClare. He grew up in a rural poverty as dire as any NorthAmerica can show, and spent his boyhood and mostof his life laboring on the farm to support his parents,both of whom suffered from tuberculosis, a diseaseReece himself eventually contracted. Before enteringelementary school, he was already reading the Bible andThe Pilgrim’s Progress, the two books his family owned.He did manage to attend high school while working on thefarm, and by his late teens was publishing poems in localnewspapers. Encouraged by the high school principal, heattended a local college, Young Harris College, for twoyears, and he clearly put those years to fervent good use,reading widely and beginning to publish in literary journalsbeyond Georgia. The needs of the farm prevented himfrom finishing his formal education. When war broke out,the Army rejected him because of his thinness and theprevalence of TB in his family. From 1939 to 1945, heworked eighteen hours a day on the farm and wrote “atnight.” After that, desperate for money, he interspersed alittle high school teaching, and then college teaching, withhis farm work and writing. In 1954 he spent three months(of Hell, he said) in the state hospital for the tubercular.Two Guggenheim fellowships helped him eke out a living,but his last years were spent in a desperate battle tofinish his third novel, produce new poems, teach, keepthe farm going, and survive his disease. He shot himselfin the spring of 1958 in the faculty apartment of his AlmaMater, Young Harris College, where he had a teachingstint that year. His biographer Bettie Sellers writes that heleft his last stack of student papers, graded, in his deskdrawer. Mozart’s Piano Sonata in D was spinning on therecord player.Reece published four books of poems and twonovels. He was not, in his day, a “neglected author.”Thanks to Jesse Stuart, a farmer-poet from Kentucky whodiscovered a poem of Reece’s in Prairie Schooner, theNew York publisher E.P. Dutton took him on; his work waswidely reviewed, and on the appearance of his novel Bettera Dinner of Herbs and his second book of poems, BowDown in Jericho and Other Poems in 1950, Newsweekpublished a feature article on him. He received awardsfrom the Georgia Writers Association. But the books didn’tsell well enough to support him and his parents, and theawards paid little. His other books of poems are: Balladof the Bones and Other Poems (1945); A Song of Joy andOther Poems (1952); and The Season of Flesh (1955).His second novel, The Hawk and the Sun, also cameout in 1955. Two books have been written about him:Raymond A. Cook’s Mountain Singer: The Life and Legacyof Byron Herbert Reece (1985), and Bettie Sellers’ TheBitter Berry: the Life of Byron Herbert Reece (1992).Within the framework of his traditional metrics, usinga language drawn from the Bible, the Elizabethan poets,and Robinson and Housman (among others), as well asfrom the rich Appalachian oral traditions of song andstorytelling that were natural to him, Reece paces hisspare and sober surprises. He was much praised for hisballads. It is the shorter lyrics that strike my ear, and myheart. The first stanza of “I Am the Dust” is unremarkablyconventional. The second stanza—especially the last fourlines with that vibrating word “traffic”—breaks into private,eerie, and original space.I Am the DustI am the dust made animate,Earth’s singer given syllables,As Homer of an elder date.For sorrow, joy and love and hateAnd greetings and farewells.Too soon I too shall be as quietAs they who know not how the nightIs dark nor how the day is clear,But for a fleeting moment yetI traffic with the alphabetBefore I am anonymousAnd scattered everywhere.“I Go by Ways of Rust and Flame” is beautifullyeconomical even in its repetitiveness, giving a quietsense of a landscape known and lived (that “bent” sky,the roads that “thin at sunset to the air”), as well as thesolitude that seems to have been the essential conditionof this poet.I Go by Ways of Rust and FlameI go by ways of rust and flameBeneath the bent and lonely sky;Behind me on the ways I cameI see the hedges lying bare,But neither question nor reply.LITERARY MATTERS | VOLUME 3.4 | YEAR-END 2010 14

A solitary thing am IUpon the roads of rust and flameThat thin at sunset to the air.I call upon no word nor name,And neither question nor replyBut walk alone as all men mustUpon the roads of flame and rust.Reece was, by all accounts, a lonely and taciturnman, though he maintained literary friendships throughcorrespondence. But in the classroom, he lit up, fired bythe joy he took in the poems he taught. The poem “Inthe Corridor,” from his last collection, gives a poignantglimpse of the solitudes of teacher and student meeting—however fitfully—in the music of Herrick.In the CorridorClouds I remember, a day all dull and dun;The sun may have shone at the first for a little space,I do not remember. Clouds I remember, and oneFigure departing, one grave unsmiling face.The voice reading ceased at the sound of the bellAnd I closed the ponderous book on Herrick’s song,Caught still in the youthful music, caught in the spellOf its sound on a youthful tongue.The door of that classroom fronts an open hallAnd one may go by the way he came or not;But this was the eve of holiday for allAnd from my desk I followed the laughing lot.Just where the hallway opens upon the streetOne looked back for a moment, as if to findWhether my gaze sought his, and, should they meet,Whether my mindWas still for the ageless music of Herrick, orFor the aging day, or the book,Or the face at the end of the corridorAnd its fleeting backward look.Reprinted with permission from Cherokee Publishing Company. a- Rosanna Warren is grateful to Harry Howard, amember of ALSCW, for introducing her to Reece’s work.In Memoriam: Brent Joseph WellsBy Adelaide RussoBrent Joseph Wells became a member of the ALSCWin March 2010. Brent loved literature and philosophy:mystic poets from Rumi to Byron; thinkers from Plato toMalraux. The name of Brent’s agency, Levity Creative,described him exactly. He started his firm after a verysuccessful career in California and a stint workingfor Louisiana State University. The CEO of the LSUFoundation had recognized his talents as a graphicdesigner, photographer, writer, and source of ideas byhiring him as the Creative Director for the LSU AlumniAssociation.Brent’s beautiful wife Sondra once told me a storythat was emblematic of his incredible generosity. “CountryCorner” is a newsstand in Baton Rouge that sells friedchicken and crawfish. One chilly day Brent saw a homelessman loitering in front of the store. The man was shirtless.Brent took off his shirt and gave it to the stranger. Hiswife was astonished by this behavior, until her husbandreminded her that he had a closet full of shirts at homeand this man did not even have one, let alone a home.The first time I met Brent Joseph Wells, I felt as ifI had met someone whom I had known for years. Thatsense of kinship recognized was a source of enormousconsolation. My new friend had such a very special spirit.He generously offered his talents to the ComparativeLiterature Program at LSU, which was in peril, and tothe Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and Writers.Thanks to Brent, we have wonderful photos of the ALSCWMarch meeting in Baton Rouge. When I left Baton Rougeto spend the month of June in France, I was lookingforward to coming back to share a festive dinner with mynew friends. Unfortunately, I re-crossed the Atlantic witha heavy heart. A thoughtful friend, the painter Kelli ScottKelley, had sent me the terrible news that Brent had beenin a serious automobile accident. I could hardly thinkof anything else during that journey and tried to put mythoughts to paper. I recalled my first meeting with Brentafter a Baton Rouge Symphony Great Performers concertfeaturing the trumpeter Chris Botti. I started with thesewords: “The Perfect Stranger.” Had Conrad not alreadytaken the title “The Secret Sharer” I would have usedthose words too.We were waiting for wine in a crowded reception atthe bar of the Capitol House Hilton Hotel, made famousby Huey Long who kept a suite of rooms there. A tall wellbuiltman offered to get the indifferent server’s attentionand he did. He was looking for a telephone. His armswere encumbered by two bags filled with the season’sfirst strawberries - Ponchatoula strawberries. He told mehe had been walking all day, the strawberries bought onimpulse at the farmers’ market. His first gesture was toshare them. I still taste the sweetness of that fruit, itsflavor deepened by the walking, and see the startling blue(continued on page 17)LITERARY MATTERS | VOLUME 3.4 | YEAR-END 2010 15

Portrait of a Donor: Francis O’NeillBy Greg DelantyFrancis O’Neill was born Charleston, SouthCarolina. He was educated in Switzerland and England,mainly the latter, finishing his studies at ExeterCollege, Oxford. In his youth he also spent substantialperiods in France and Italy. Francis worked briefly asa journalist. He now lives in Virginia during part ofthe year where he runs a horse farm with his wife,Margaret. The rest of the year he spends in Italy. Hehas published three novels and is at work on a fourth,set, like the third, in Italy. The novels are publishedunder the name “Frank O’Neill” (Agents of Sympathy,1985; The Secret Country, 1987; and Roman Circus,1989).The above is basically the bio that Francis sentme when I asked him for one. Francis is a very privateman, and all I can add is that I like Francis in person,his company, very much. He also has been a patron ofthe arts, funding the Wolfer O’Neill Literary Foundation,which has assisted numerous writers, painters, singers,and other artists at times when such assistanceallowed them to be free from financial concerns.Francis is also a translator. The following is histranslation from the 16 th century Italian poet TorquatoTasso with the original included.For this translation and for the financial help hehas given the ALSCW we are most grateful. aTASSO76Vedro’da gli anni in mia vendetta ancorafar di queste bellezze alte rapine,vedro’starsi negletto e bianco il crineche la natura a l’arte increspa e dora;e su le rose, ond’ella il viso infiora,spargere il verno poi nevi e pruine:cosi’ il fasto, e l’orgoglio avra’pur finedi costei, ch’odia piu’chi piu’l’onora.Sol penitenza allor di sua bellezzale rimarra’, vedendo ogni alma scioltadi gli aspri nodi suoi ch’ordia per gioco;e, se pur tanto or mi disdegna e sprezza,poi bramera’, ne le mie rime accolta,rinnovellarsi qual fenice in fuoco.I’ll yet see the years in my revengemake of these beauties a consummate wreck,I’ll see all matted-up and white the headwhere art and nature join to curl the gold;on the roses that make a garden of her facecreep over winter and then snow and frost:so the sumptuousness and pride will endin her who most hates and honors her the best.Then for all her beauty will reproach alonebe hers, seeing all the clever soulscontrive a game out of her scaly warts;and if now despising me she looks asidethen may these rhymes she acquiesced in make her longto spread her wings again, a phoenix in their flame.- Translated by Francis O’NeillThe President’s Column (continued from page 13)booksellers for local meetings in Baton Rouge. Otherlocal meetings and colloquia, often in alliance with hostinstitutions, continue to thrive around the country—notonly in Baton Rouge, but in Houston and Manhattan,and especially in Boston, where every month seemsto bring a new exciting event, most recently a onedayconference on Twain and Tolstoy. In alliance withbookstores and other sellers of rare bibliographicitems, Rosanna Warren has developed our “BroadsideSeries”—limited editions of elegant artisanal printingsof literary works. Our series was launched was “PianoLesson” by Adam Zagajewski, with a translation byClare Cavanagh; in production are two more offerings:a poem by Jane Hirshfield and a passage from DavidFerry’s translation of The Aeneid. Our alliance with theVermont Studio Center, with a fellowship funded by thegenerosity of Rosanna Warren, continues to flourish,too—most recently with a Literature in TranslationForum featuring Zagajewski and Cavanagh, and with happyanticipation of the translation residency of Patrizia Cavalli andGeoff Brock in 2011.In the midst of all this activity, we are tending to business,revising our bylaws, restructuring our business expenses,developing our website, nurturing our Circle of Friends,and planning for the 2011 conference at Boston University,chaired by Christopher Ricks.It is clear that even as our financial and administrativeinfrastructure has shifted, we are managing our commitmentsand devotions, and planning new adventures to the fullextent of our time, talent, and resources. It’s been a busy,demanding, exciting, challenging, transformative year for theAssociation. I am honored to have served as your President,and shall, as I rotate into Immediate Past President, supportand cheer Greg Delanty as he assumes this office. a- Susan J. WolfsonPresident 2010, Immediate Past President 2011LITERARY MATTERS | VOLUME 3.4 | YEAR-END 2010 16

Brent Joseph Wells (continued from page 15)eyes, value the gesture and the sweetness of the seeker.He asked us if he could use a telephone - his unchargedby the long day’s walk.You may have heard a similar tale, but it wasn’t likethat at all. A stranger in a bar tells you his story - he hashad fight with “the love of his life,” “the woman he wantsto be the mother of his children” and all there is to do isto listen. He tells me about his life in bits and pieces andfor a very long time: A wise grandfather, a love of booksand of music, a way of being in the world that matchedthe intensity of his gaze, the rugged beauty. He shows mephotos, his camera expensive and complicated, images ofan exquisite woman, not just the harmony of the features,large eyes, a full mouth, but the way he is holding her,tentative, tender, as if she is about to soar and he isholding on to go along, holding on for dear life. He tells meof her children, three young boys, each one full of energyand fun. I offer advice. Wait. Call tomorrow. Don’t expressdoubt. I quote Lacan without telling him where I found theinsight. We feel about others in the same way they feelabout us. The woman in the photographs is as attachedas you are Brent Joseph Wells. I can see the strength ofthe bond even when you tell me that perhaps she is withyou because your cooking has won her over. How cansuch a striking intelligent man have doubts that he isloved, and if I were to offer a conjecture, passionately?What is so special about him? Man in his prime, obviouslysmitten. Don’t call tonight. Call tomorrow. Take her for awalk on the levee. The evening went on until very earlyin the morning. Brent took photos of us with Chris Botti,more conversation, promises to continue, promises kept.The next day from a distance I saw Brent and Sondrawalking among the crowd of barking participants andamused spectators during the Mardi Gras parade of theMystic Krewe of Mutts. They looked much as they do inthis photograph.by sharing the poem “Silence.” Brent wrote poems forhimself, out of necessity, not out of ambition, nor outof the desire to be recognized for his artistry. He wasa reader of Poe and his poems rhyme. They touchedme and they touched those who heard them at Brent’smemorial. I hope he doesn’t mind that Sondra wanted toshare them with the members of the ALSCW. Brent hadtaken great pleasure in reading Literary Imagination andLiterary Matters. He was exactly the kind of person ourorganization seeks to reach - someone for whom literatureplayed a crucial role. The day of that touching memorial,we decided that Brent would be a part of the ALSCW localmeeting scheduled for September in Windrush Gardens.That seemed especially fitting, because another ofBrent’s close friends, Christian, had read a poem whichdescribed Brent’s joy in walking through the modestalleys of Christian’s urban herb garden with the wonderof someone first discovering the parterres at Versailles.Brent took Sondra to Windrush the very first time theywent out together. On September 4, 2010, the day thatBrent Wells would have celebrated his thirty-fifth birthday,Sondra shared his notebooks with me. These poems arereproduced in Brent’s handwriting with his sketches.The words are wise. Sondra’s oldest son Alex describedBrent best, as someone interested in others, in learningfrom them, sharing with them, making them happy.“Brent had a heart for other people. He made my motherhappy, happier than she had been in a very long time.”My perfect stranger is a constant presence and a deeplymissed friend. aThe next months brought moments of change,promise, hope and love for them and for Sondra’s sons.He played music with Nicolas and Eliot, instructed, in thesame way he had been by his grandfather, cooked foodthat was always beautifully presented. Sondra’ youngestson Eliot told me: “Brent was awesome.” An accidentkept Brent from living the life he deserved. His generositycontinues; he lives on in those who benefited from himas an organ donor. Among Brent’s photographs there aremany images of flowers, but instead of sending them inmemory, his friends made gifts in his honor to the St.Vincent de Paul Homeless Shelter in Baton Rouge.In early July, Sondra held a memorial service forBrent at the Baton Rouge Gallery. The room was filledwith artists and friends of all ages and all professions.Bill Kelley’s group played haunting music. Brent’s wisegrandfather spoke, and Kelly Nezat, New Orleans healer,gave a touching eulogy. He started in Brent’s own wordsLITERARY MATTERS | VOLUME 3.4 | YEAR-END 2010 17

Poems by Brent Joseph WellsRead at Windrush GardenSpirits DriftingMermaid DazeTorrid WavesSpirits DriftingBound to BoneForces ShiftingFire and Stone…Who here knowsmy name?Lostin her ripplingreflections storeAs warm gentlecurrentslap at her hairPerhaps she vainin naïve ponderOf how her formcould be so fairTorrid waves ofthrilling passion- Washed upon desires shore -I combed the sandsin search of truth -a longing from the life beforeI damned the handsthat stole my youththe hands thatdragged me throughthe door.Farewell Big EasyMy thoughts were carefulcool & cleanI made the choiceto life sereneTo strive and FindEssential Being…SilenceSilence speaks her silentproseIn a tonguethe spirit knowsPatience childwith quiet mindWords will comeAll in time…I packed my thoughtsand left the sceneCarry softly to yourselfa buried smilea knowing glanceshould our pathscross once again…LITERARY MATTERS | VOLUME 3.4 | YEAR-END 2010 18

Winners of the First-AnnualSecondary School Essay Contest:Grayson Clary and David GoreEditor’s Note: Below we print the two essays selected by our judges as winners of our first-annual Secondary SchoolEssay Contest. The judges wish to honor the different strengths shown by these two writers: Grayson Clary, for thematurity, complexity and depth of his thesis, the wit and seamless integration of his allusions, and the elegance of hisprose; David Gore, for his skilled use of textual detail in support of a number of interesting and thoughtful points and forthe fluidity of his prose.Look for the announcement of next year’s contest in an upcoming issue of Literary Matters, as well as for a roundtablediscussion about teaching Huckleberry Finn. During the reviewing process, David Gore’s essay brought up theinteresting question of how to approach the novel, and particularly its use of the word “nigger,” in the contemporaryAmerican context, which, if post-Civil Rights, is most certainly not post-racial. In the next issue of the newsletter, we hopeto bring together responses by high school teachers and professors to this literary and pedagogical matter.Hell Is Other People:Authenticity, Angst, and Existentialism in Wuthering HeightsBy Grayson Clary, Rye Country Day School (Rye, NY)Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights is a novel aboutthe search for peace in a world without moral signposts.Catherine Earnshaw, Heathcliff, and those drawn intotheir wake flail about blindly in a void, seeking butnever finding reconciliation and satisfaction. If there isa God of Wuthering Heights, its denizens don’t feel hispresence. No greater authority exists to clarify, to pardon,or to punish; a mortal sin sits unresolved at the core ofthe story, Catherine’s betrayal of Heathcliff and of herfreedom, an existential maelstrom that gradually pullsthe rest of Wuthering Heights into its maw. Catherinesuffers because her actions conflict with her perceptionof her identity; Heathcliff suffers because he defineshimself in terms of Catherine, and only gradually realizesthe distinction between the abstract Cathy that he lovesand the concrete Cathy that exists. Their despair is anexemplar as powerful as Sartre’s No Exit of the difficultiesindividuals face in finding absolutes in an ambiguousworld. The moors of Wuthering Heights are littered withexistential quandaries; the tragedy of this work is drivenby the struggle of its characters to grapple with issues offreedom, of identity, and of meaning.A vital feature of the world of Wuthering Heights isits ambiguity; the characters lack absolute truths bywhich to organize and lead their lives. Brontë repeatedlyemphasizes Catherine and Heathcliff’s rejection ofreligion as guide; Catherine writes of an instance whereJoseph forced prayer books upon them, “I could not bearthe employment. I took my dingy volume ...and hurled itinto the dog kennel, vowing I hated a good book” (ch. 3,18). Heathcliff abuses his book similarly. This repudiationof religion as an organizing principle continues throughoutthe book. In a later scene, Heathcliff vows revenge againstHindley for his abuse and is scolded by Nelly:“’For shame, Heathcliff!” said I. ‘It is for God topunish wicked people; we should learn to forgive.’‘No, God won’t have the satisfaction thatI shall,’ he returned.” (ch. 7, 56)In the absence of this potential guidance then, whatdo Heathcliff and Catherine use to orient themselves inthe world? For a time at least, the answer is: each other.As Catherine relates to Nelly, “If all else perished, andLITERARY MATTERS | VOLUME 3.4 | YEAR-END 2010 19

he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all elseremained, and he were annihilated, the universe wouldturn to a mighty stranger: I should not seem a part of it”(ch. 9, 77). Heathcliff and Catherine define themselvesin terms of each other; they may not know what the restof the world holds, but they know with certainty that theylove each other. This is a manifestation of the existentialidea of the other, the observer from whose perspectivean individual finds definition. Heathcliff knows himself,knows what is right, only insomuch as Catherine perceiveshim. This is, for a brief moment, a rock anchoring them,but soon this too crumbles and the two are left where theybegan: uncertain, and unhappy. The setting of WutheringHeights does not afford its characters the luxury ofcertainty; the novel begins with and is based on a searchfor absolutes that will give sense and direction to the livesof its characters.The crisis that precipitates the abrupt breakdownof this tenuous tranquility is a crisis of identity andauthenticity; Catherine’s choice of Edgar over Heathcliffis a choice of the identity defined for her by others overthe identity she feels to be right, the identity she imaginesherself to have. She attempts to rationalize her decisionto Nelly; she enumerates the advantages of a marriageto Edgar, and declares that it would “degrade [her] tomarry Heathcliff” (ch. 9, 75). She has placed herself inchains, limited her own freedom in conforming to arbitraryexternal values. This is the sin of inauthenticity, whatSartre called mauvaise foi Catherine is doomed to sufferbecause she chooses as if she were not free to choose,and denies her own responsibility in creating her future.Heathcliff recognizes this, and refuses to forgive; hedeclares bitterly as she lies dying, “You deserved this. Youhave killed yourself” (ch. 15, 152). Catherine’s fall, thetragedy of her life and death, is the inevitable result ofher denial of her freedom and of herself. Heathcliff’s ownunhappiness stems in turn from the way he has definedhimself; he claims he is Catherine, as she is him, butAll Kinds of Signs:his understanding of her is flawed. When she crumblesthen, when the woman she is fails to correspond tothe woman he wants her to be, he falls as well, like Jilltumbling after Jack. These problems of identity arethe misshapen products of Catherine and Heathcliff sfailure to understand their freedom, and their ability tocreate themselves. Each acts as if there exists someideal Heathcliff and some ideal Catherine buried withinthe other; Catherine exclaims on observing Heathcliff’scruelty, “That is not my Heathcliff. I shall love mine yet... he’s in my soul” (ch. 15, 151). Heathcliff, meanwhile,derides Catherine as “cruel and false” (ch. 15, 152) andaccuses of her of self-deception. He demands, “Whydid you betray your own heart?” (ch. 15, 152). Yet anexistentialist would argue and Brontë seems to suggestthat there is no betrayal of identity, there is simply thechoice. If there is a betrayal, it is a betrayal of freedom, adenial of responsibility. Catherine and Heathcliff are whothey have chosen to be, not who they imagine themselvesto be. Catherine is her choice to marry Edgar; Heathcliffis his deliberate cruelty. The tragic events of WutheringHeights are driven by the inability of its characters torecognize their freedom, their responsibility, and theirhand in creating the reality that tortures them.Hell is Catherine, Hell is Heathcliff; as the events ofWuthering Heights unfold, the characters find themselvessubmerged deeper and deeper in a seemingly inescapablesea of suffering, a riptide of existential angst. Emily Brontëhas created in this novel a visceral and painfully engagingworld empty of absolutes, and a despairingly true depictionof how individuals struggle to find their way in such gloom.Heathcliff and Catherine attempt to find something toanchor themselves in this uncertain storm; they fail. Theydeny their freedom, they reject their responsibility, and asa result, they suffer. Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights isa testimony to the struggles of human beings to find theirway, and their happiness, in a world without signposts. aSuperstition in The Adventures of Huckleberry FinnBy David Gore, Newton North High School (Newton, MA)Like the mighty Mississippi, the theme of superstitionruns strongly through Mark Twain’s Adventures ofHuckleberry Finn. From the perspective of the wide-eyedyoung narrator, the reader is presented with a worldviewin which a kind of concrete, unquestioned magic holdssway. To look over your left shoulder at the new moon, topick up a snake’s shed skin, or to kill a spider is sure tobring bad luck, although what exactly that misfortune willentail is never explicitly defined. On the most basic level,characters’ fervent reliance on superstition is mined byTwain as a source of satirical humor. However, the authoralso uses the theme of superstition to address moreprofound topics, such as race, religion, and the naturalworld. Throughout the novel, Twain draws attention to andpokes fun at the superstitions both of white characters,such as Huck and Pap, and of black characters, suchLITERARY MATTERS | VOLUME 3.4 | YEAR-END 2010 20

as Jim and Nat. In so doing, he highlights superstitionas an important, if not altogether admirable, aspectof the human commonality that transcends race. InTwain’s hands, superstition becomes a tool in theoverarching argument against the myth of the superiorityof reasonable, intelligent whites over backwards andirrational blacks. For example, Huck’s description of Natas a “good natured, chuckle-headed ... nigger” with “hishair ... all tied up in little bunches with thread .... to keepwitches off” would appear to most modern readers as aracist caricature of an ignorant slave (178). However, atthe story’s start, Huck himself employs the very samesuperstitious precaution. After accidentally killing aspider, Huck says he “tied up a little lock of [his] hair witha thread to keep witches away” (3). Through such focuson both black and white superstitions, Twain underminesthe notion that an unsophisticated belief in magic is solelyor even primarily a black attribute.In fact, within Huck and Jim’s relationship, superstitionenables a shift in the standard racial paradigm. Oftenin the story—during the “King Sollermun” and “talkingFrench” debates, for example—Huck condescends toJim, affecting the stereotypical white traits of superiorintellect and education. His exasperated exclamation atthe end of these debates—that “it warn’t no use wastingwords—you can’t learn a nigger to argue”—is indicative ofthis patronizing attitude (60). Huck is seldom so blatantlycondescending, but he often attempts to take on the roleof teacher. For example, he launches into a didactic, iffactually inaccurate, lecture on the nature of royalty, duringwhich he treats Jim, a grown man who must be nearly twicehis age, like a young child, talking down to his friend withsuch remarks as: “All kings is mostly rapscallions .... Youread about them once—you’ll see” (116). Strikingly, therealm of the supernatural is one of the few areas in whichHuck respects the judgment and experience of Jim, who,in Huck’s own words, “knowed all kinds of signs” (34).At the very start of the book, Huck respectfully consultsJim and his clairvoyant hairball for advice, even offeringthe slave a perfectly good counterfeit quarter to ensurethat the ritual functions properly! After the encounterwith the House of Death, even though Huck is bursting todiscuss what he’s just witnessed, he “didn’t say no more... about the dead man,” accepting Jim’s warnings that“it would fetch bad luck ... and ... [the dead man] mightcome and ha’nt [them]” as “pretty reasonable” (39). Incontrast to his superior attitude at other times during thebook, Huck’s reverence towards Jim’s opinions in mattersof superstition stands out as a truly noteworthy step in hisdeveloping attitude towards race.In Huck’s worldview, religion is no more than justanother superstition, and in fact, it is one in which hedoes not place much stock. This allows Twain to subtlydisparage religion, one of the major subjects of the novel’srich satire. From the very first pages, it is clear that Huckhas little to no regard for religion, seeing it as unrealisticand irrelevant. Upon learning that Moses, whom he waspreviously “in a sweat to find out all about,” is dead,Huck dismissively reflects, “I didn’t care no more abouthim; because I don’t take no stock in dead people” (2).Similarly, he disregards the ideal of religious living thatMiss Watson is trying to foist upon him. As Miss Watsonrhapsodizes about how “she was going to live so as to goto the good place,” Huck acknowledges that he “couldn’tsee no advantage in going where she was going, so [he]made up [his] mind [he] wouldn’t try for it” (2). His outrightdisdain for worship is further exposed when he labels aday spent with the Grangerfords discussing “faith, andgood works, and free grace, and preforeordestination,and ... what all” as “one of the roughest Sundays [he] hadrun across yet” (83). In a humorous but telling illustrationof the parallel between religion and superstition in Huck’smind, his reaction to Miss Watson’s prayer is almostidentical to his reaction to Tom Sawyer’s genies: heabandons the idea of both when they do not produce thedesired results. When Huck’s attempts at prayer yield afish-line but no hooks, he gives up on faith after “threeor four times” (8). He “set down, one time, back in thewoods,” and decided of prayer: “there ain’t nothing init”(8). Likewise, after absorbing Tom’s fantastical tales ofgenies “as tall as a tree and as big around as a church,”Huck attempts to conjure a spirit for himself (11). In anepisode almost identical to the prayer scene, Huck “wentout in the woods,” but when “none of the genies come,”he declares that “all that stuff was only just one of TomSawyer’s lies”(11). Twain uses these correspondingvignettes and Huck’s frequent derision of faith tocharacterize religion as just as arbitrary and fanciful asany superstition.In a literary tradition that dates back to ancientmyths, the characters in The Adventures of Huck Finn usesuperstition in an attempt to comprehend a natural worldthat baffles them. From the first, nature is portrayed asmysterious, enigmatic, and even magical. In the novel’svery first passage concerned with nature, Huck describeshearing “an owl, away off, who-whooing about somebodythat was dead, and a whippowill and a dog crying aboutsomebody that was going to die; and the wind was tryingto whisper something to me” (3). The passage in whichHuck and Jim gaze up at the stars, transfixed—perhapsthe most visually arresting episode in the book—sharesthe same feeling of awe and disquiet: “We had the sky,up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay onour backs and look up at them, and discuss whether theywas made, or only just happened” (90). When characterscannot comprehend a phenomenon in this inscrutablenatural world, they invent a superstition to justify it. In thestargazing scene, for example, Huck and Jim “watch thestars that fell, too” and “Jim allowed they’d got spoiledand was hove out of the nest” (90). This instinct forsuperstitious rationalization is used to comic effect whenthe Phelpses’ hounds burrow into Jim’s cabin throughthe tunnel Huck and Tom have dug and Nat, terrified,blames the incomprehensible event on witches. Thisurge to account for natural occurrence is so strong that,LITERARY MATTERS | VOLUME 3.4 | YEAR-END 2010 21

when a rattlesnake bites Jim, Huck relies on superstitionto explain the bad fortune even though he knows thatit happened because he left the carcass of the snake’smate on Jim’s bed. As he puts it, “that all comes of mybeing such a fool as to not remember that wherever youleave a dead snake its mate always comes there and curlsaround it” (40). Yet only a paragraph later, he returns tomagical thinking, saying “I made up my mind I wouldn’tever take aholt of a snake-skin again with my hands, nowthat I see what had come of it” (40).Just as they use superstitions to make sense ofa natural world they find difficult to comprehend, thecharacters in Huck Finn turn to magic to justify inexplicableand unfortunate occurrences. The gruesome death ofHank Bunker, a St. Petersburg townsperson, is one suchevent that is explained away through superstition. Whilediscussing looking at the moon over your left shoulder,which Huck declares “one of the carelessest andfoolishest things a body can do,” he mentions that “OldHank Bunker done it once ... and in less than two years hegot drunk and fell off of the shot tower and spread himselfout so that he was just a kind of a layer ... but anyway, itall come of looking at the moon that way” (40). Similarly,Huck blames Pap’s undesirable return on his own spillingsalt at the breakfast table. After the accident, he says“the widow put in a good word for me, but that warn’tgoing to keep off the bad luck, I knowed that well enough”(12). And, lo and behold, within a paragraph, Huck hasdiscovered his father’s distinctive boot prints in the snow.This pattern of superstitious justification occurs mostprominently in the repeated references to the snakeskin.Throughout the story, Huck and Jim continually return tothe bad luck associated with handling a snake’s shedskin to explain their consistent misfortune, which is,more probably, an authorial device used to keep the plotfrom growing stagnant. For example, when the raft slipspast Cairo and the fork to the Ohio River, Jim bemoans,“I awluz ‘spected dat rattle-snake skin warn’t done widit’s work” (70). Within the next page, Huck and Jim blameboth the disappearance of their canoe and their collisionwith the steamship on the snake-skin. Such attribution ofmisfortune to forces beyond one’s control is a temptingand natural human tendency, and it stands to reason thatHuck and Jim, living, as they do, in a violent world beyondthe conventional social sphere, should especially cling tothese superstitious explanations.The rich and varied examples of superstition withinThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which come fromwhite and black, young and old, provide Twain withstrong satirical material and allow him to paint a moredetailed anthropological picture of life in the antebellumMississippi Valley. However, they also enable him toexplore deep, universal themes through a unique andoften comic lens that fits nicely with the folksy aesthetic ofthe novel. Racial commonality; race relations; irreverencein regards to religion; man’s attempts to comprehend thenatural world; and man’s desire to explain why bad thingshappen are all explored through the superstitious bent ofHuckleberry Finn’s world. Far from being a marginal motifadded in for flair, superstition is central to the thematicdevelopment of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. aWorks Cited:Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. NewYork, N.Y.: Bantam Dell, 2003.Renewal Letter from Incoming President Greg DelantyWe have over 600 members now. I’d love if we reached 800 members before the end of mypresidency, and 1000 by the end of my past President year. I am also asking you to bring in at leastone new member, if not two. I promise to give a gift membership myself to five new people and tobring in another five. So, by the end of January I’ll tell you how I did. I wonder could you give one giftmembership, which is only $37, and also bring in someone else, and tell them what good value theyare getting for just $37.a So please renew your own membership for 2011, at whatever category you feel able to do so.a And please endeavor to bring at least one new member into the Association--more if you can.a https://www.bu.edu/literary/membership/join-or-renew.shtmlFor now, my thanks and hopes, and happy new year.LITERARY MATTERS | VOLUME 3.4 | YEAR-END 2010 22

Welcome, New Members!The Conversation Continues to GrowBetween July 28 and October 28, 2010, the following people joined our Association:Ms. Renee Ashley - FairleighDickinson UniversityProfessor Bruce Bennett -Wells CollegeChris Blair - Boston UniversityZoraida Cabrera - BostonUniversityMr. Jordan L. Cerbone - NewCanaan, CTProfessor Kelly Cherry -University of WisconsinMadison, EmeritaMatthew Connolly - BostonUniversityProfessor Lawrence Danson -Princeton UniversityMs. Jenna Dee - BostonUniversityCaitlin Doyle - BostonUniversityGary Dyer - Cleveland StateUniversityProfessor Joseph Farrell -University of PennsylvaniaDana Gioia - Washington D.C.Jennifer Golden - GrandCanyon UniversityDr. Rochelle Goodman- University of SouthernCaliforniaMs. Gabriella Gruder-Poni -Convent of the Sacred HeartRegents Professor PatriciaHampl - University ofMinnesotaMr. James Harvey - SUNYStony BrookCynthia Hennard - Johnson, VTRobert Hollander - PrincetonUniversityMr. Major Jackson - Universityof VermontProfessor Garry Jennings -Delta State UniversityTracy Kidder - Williamsburg,MADr. Marianna Krejci-Papa -Eastern Nazarene CollegeMr. Dwight Lindley - Universityof DallasBrunilda Lugo de Fabritz -Howard UniversityDr. Gregory Machacek -Poughkeepsie, NYElizabeth Mazzola - The CityCollege of New YorkPh.D. (Candidate) MaryMcCleary - Editorial Institute atBoston UniversityProfessor Laura McCullough -Brookdale Community CollegeMatt Miller - Phillips ExeterAcademyMs. Mary Anne Myers -Fordham UniversityDr. Vanita Neelakanta - RiderUniversityNevenka Pobric - Hamilton, NJProfessor Joseph Pucci -Brown UniversityJames Rutherford - New York,NYFiona Sampson - England, UKDr. David Southward -University of Wisconsin-MilwaukeeMs. Mara Taylor - The ChapinSchoolMr. Steven Turner - Asheville,NCMs. Judith Valente - PBS-TVMs. Deborah Weisgall -Lincoln, MAMr. Tony Whedon - EastBerkshire, VTLisa Williams - Centre CollegeMs. Cynthia Zarin - YaleUniversityLITERARY MATTERS | VOLUME 3.4 | YEAR-END 2010 23