Middle Georgia State Department of English

This Wednesday, March 24 at 3 pm, The Writing Center, the MGA Library, and Student Success Center (SSC) are excited to host a virtual panel designed to assist students in navigating MLA, APA, and paraphrasing. Writing Center consultants Raven Pittman and Abigail Sapp will be sharing MLA citation basics and answering questions.

Grammarpalooza Spring 2021 is announced! This year’s writing refresher features exercises on Fragments ... comma splices run-ons, and academic language. For extra fun, all exercises are based on our theme of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Daily drawings featured with prizes on and off theme (DVD movie, Monty Python blanket, $25 Amazon gift card). Dates: Tuesday, March 30, and Wednesday, March 31 Times: Open from 12:30-2:30 (students should expect to take 30 minutes to play game) Place: Patio in front of Writing Center in Macon

This weekend, junior English major Sierra Stark Stevens won Best Humanities Paper at the Georgia Collegiate Honors Council Conference for her essay "Shakespeare's Socioeconomics of Sack." Congratulations to Sierra! Coincidentally, she is also this week's Finding Greatness profile: https://www.mga.edu///finding-greatness-sierra-stevens.php

The MGA LEAP Committee is offering a Poetry Read-In on Wednesday, March 17 for students' cultural enrichment. Poet Shara McCallum will be reading a selection of her poetry collection, including the latest No Ruined Stone. This fascinating collection "recasts the life and legacy of celebrated Scottish poet Robert Burns." The event will begin at 3:30 pm and the reading will be followed by a Q&A. DATE: Wednesday, March 17... Time: 3:30-5:00 pm Place: Teams-- https://teams.microsoft.com//19%3ameeting_MzU3MTZjNDAtN/0

A great event on the Cochran campus!

Another great class from Dr. Brennan!

A great summer class for English majors!

Today (8/9) is National Book Lovers Day! To celebrate, we’re featuring throughout the day a few #MGA faculty and staff describing their favorite books. #Nationa...lBookLoversDay Andy Davidson, English lecturer: "I’ve read a lot of books in my life, but I didn’t actually have a favorite until 2015, which is the year I first read 'The Night of the Hunter' by Davis Grubb. It’s one of the greatest forgotten novels ever penned by an American. Mention Robert Mitchum or 'the little story of Love and Hate' and most everyone remembers the 1955 movie adaptation, which is a masterpiece in its own right. But hardly anyone remembers the lyrical, haunting prose of Grubb’s book. "My wife gave me a first edition for Christmas, and I loved it so much I borrowed a passage from it as the epigraph to my own novel, 'In the Valley of the Sun.' It’s the story of two children, John and Pearl, who flee upriver from a monstrous preacher hellbent on murdering them. It’s a powerhouse of great writing and feels as fresh and vibrant as if it were written only yesterday. Part crime thriller, part horror story, part fairy taleand told with an incomparable literary voiceit just ticks every box for me. I never sit down to write a word myself that I don’t first think of this book."

Our own Dr. Monica Miller has been profiled as part of the Spotlight on Southernist Scholars Series from the Society for the Study of Southern Literature. Check it out! http://southernlit.org//eso-spotlight-on-southernist-scho/

An upper-level summer creative writing class!

Are you wondering how to make your skills work in today’s marketplace? Middle Georgia State University’s Graduate School invites you to learn more about its Master of Arts in Technical and Professional Writing. MGA’s Masters of Arts in Technical and Professional Writing will enhance your undergraduate credentials and prepare you for advancement in many career fields. This interdisciplinary, fully online degree is designed to complement and extend undergraduate training by dev...eloping skills in writing, editing, communication, and web development. To learn more, email Dr. Benita Muth ([email protected]) to register for an upcoming web-based meeting about this graduate program on Wednesday, May 27 at 5:30 pm. If you can’t attend but want to learn more, Dr. Muth will provide the information you need about the program.

Congratulations to poet Jericho Brown, who read at MGA last semester and has now won the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry!

Interesting in writing poetry? Fiction? #MGA's Continuing Education department is hosting ONLINE workshops this summer with Dr. Kevin Cantwell, poet, and Andy D...avidson, novelist. Cantwell is author of the poetry volume "Something Black in the Green Part of Your Eye." Davidson is author of the acclaimed horror novel "The Boatman's Daughter: A Novel." Registration and price info: https://www.mga.edu/news/2020//poetry-fiction-workshops.php

So today is William Shakespeare’s 456th birthday. If you think that has no relevance to our lives today, what #MGA Shakespeare scholar Dr. Benita Muth has to sa...y might surprise you. "In our current situation, we again find fellowship with Shakespeare, who also experienced pandemics and quarantines. Throughout his career, theaters were often closed to reduce the spread of plague. The plague struck London in 1593, the year before Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet, and that play shows a quarantine preventing Friar Laurence’s letter from reaching Romeo." So happy birthday to the Bard! Here’s a bit more from Dr. Muth: https://www.mga.edu//2020/04/MGA-prof-talks-shakespeare.php #AmazingFacultyMGA #KeepLearning #InThisTogether

The English Studies Organization has been named MGA Outstanding Registered Student Organization for the second year in a row! Congratulations to the ESO student members and to the advisors, Drs. Trayers and Muth!!

MGA English graduate Kristin Hanlin (BA 2014, MAT 2019) has been named Teacher of the Year at Warner Robins High School. Congratulations, Kristin!!