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Novelist Marjan Kamali continues the Fall 2020 Visiting Writers Series with an appearance at Fall for the book on Thursday, October 8, at 7 p.m.

The Fall Visiting Writers Series continues with a reading and conversation with poet Joan Kane.

Watershed Lit: Center for Literary Engagement and Publishing Practice brings under one umbrella the robust and diverse initiatives that have sprouted from the Creative Writing Program since its launch in 1980. The center, which provides an efficient and effective way to articulate the community that these initiatives help cultivate, includes Fall for the Book, Stillhouse Press, the Cheuse Center for International Writers, Poetry Daily, and the Northern Virginia Writing Project, as well as literary journals phoebe and So to Speak. Each entity maintains its own focused mission, governance structure, and budget, but will benefit individually and collectively through more strategic collaboration. Watershed Lit will also foster research by faculty and professional development of students, serving as a catalyst of transformational experiences.

Robin Hemley, author of Borderline Citizen: Dispatches from the Outskirts of Nationhood, kicks off the Fall 2020 Visiting Writers Series on Thursday, September 17.

Sofia Puente-Lay, MFA '20, won the fiction category of Ploughshares' Emerging Writer's Contest.

Four Mason MFA alumni will participate in a virtual group reading on Thursday, September 10, as part of this year's Fall for the Book Festival.

Rajpreet Heir, MFA '16, is starting this fall 2020 in as a tenure-track assistant professor in Creative Nonfiction at Ithaca College.

The New American Voices Award recognizes recently published works that illuminate the complexity of human experience as told by immigrants. This year's finalists are Ishmael Beah’s “Little Family,” Vanessa Hua’s “Deceit and Other Possibilities” and Lysley Tenorio’s “The Son of Good Fortune.”

Spring 2020 sent Mason students and professors into the world of online teaching, many for the first time, with steep learning curves on an accelerated schedule. Four English Department professors explained how they succeeded—against the odds.

About the Mason Student Agencies project, a summer impact project that investigated the possibilities of student-run writing consulting business at Mason.

Danielle Badra, MFA '17, has won the 2021 Etel Adnan Poetry Prize for her collection, Like We Still Speak.

The three finalists for the 2020 Institute for Immigration Research New American Voices Award are novelists Ishmael Beah, author of Little Family; Vanessa Hua, author of Deceit and Other Possibilities; and Lysley Tenorio, author of The Son of Good Fortune.

The Visiting Writers Series goes online in Fall 2020 with two writers each in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

Jessica Anthony's Enter the Aardvark and Kelli Jo Ford's Crooked Hallelujah earn accolades in the nation's leading newspaper.

Poetry Professor Eric Pankey and MFA alum Madeleine Wattenburg earn award recognition with new works forthcoming.

Timothy Denevi, faculty member in the Department of English, has contributed two essays to major publications this week. CNN has published his opinion piece on RFK, and LitHub includes his essay on events in Lafayette Square in Washington, DC.

Edward Maibach, University Professor for Communication and director of Mason's Center for Climate Change Communication, and Cynthia Fuchs, English professor and director of the Visiting Filmmakers Series, have been recognized with Presidential Awards for Faculty Excellence.

An overview of Professional Development in a World on Pause, a PWR-sponsored event held on May 12, 2020.

The College of Humanities and Social Sciences celebrates its graduates in the Class of 2020 with a message from Dean Ann Ardis, a musical tribute from the Green Machine, and more.

The Visiting Writers Series welcomes six authors—two each in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

The college congratulates seven faculty members who have received Teaching Excellence Awards, Adjunct Teaching Excellence Awards, Teaching Excellence Teachers of Distinction, and Online Teaching Excellence Teachers of Distinction recognition from Mason's Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning.

Two students in Dr. Heidi Lawrence’s Spring 2020 Advanced Proposal Writing class have been published on the Association for Proposal Management Professionals’ (APMP) National Capital Area’s (NCA’s) official quarterly publication. MA-PWR student Melissa Howell penned the article, “Securing your NEXT Win” and English undergraduate Madison Hoffman’s article, “Three Surprising Things I’ve Learned as a Student of Proposal Writing,” outlines the experiences of a proposal writing student learning the profession.

The Professional Development Forum was created and hosted by the Professional Writing and Rhetoric program staff, Dr. Heidi Lawrence, Dr. Doug Eyman, Dr. Rachel Graham-Lussos, and Dr. Lourdes Fernandez of the English Department at George Mason University. It was a night full of food, games, and professional growth.

The English Department’s Proposal Writing and Development course (ENGH 489/509) had a unique and valuable experience to hear from professionals in the proposal writing field at a roundtable discussion on November 20, 2019.

The Spring 2020 Visiting Filmmakers Series Online can reach more people in a virtual setting than it ever could with a campus event.

The National Endowment for the Humanities, in a round of funding announced April 7, awarded two prestigious Summer Stipend grants to CHSS faculty members Maria Dakake and Benjamin Gatling.

Jessica Hurley's spring 2020 section of ENGH 308: Theory and Inquiry, considers the meaning of humanity in a world characterized by pervasive toxic elements.

George Mason University is committed to protecting the health of its community. Its resources include up-to-date plans and procedures, identification of student health services clinics, and attention to its study-abroad programs.

UPDATE: This conference has been cancelled. This year’s New Leaves Writers' Conference welcomes visiting writers in three genres, hosts a workshop and a panel for aspiring and emerging writers, and celebrates new works by students, alumni, and faculty in the Mason writing community.

If someone tells you they are autistic, it means they are under sensory assault while working unbelievably hard to appear normal to you.

TO BE RESCHEDULED ONLINE. A cinematic meditation on humanity’s massive reengineering of the planet, Anthropocene: The Human Epoch witnesses in an experiential and non-didactic sense a critical moment in geological history — bringing a provocative and unforgettable experience of our species’ breadth and impact.

MFA students Michael Hock and Rose Fitzpatrick and alums Leslie Goetsch and Holly Mason taught creative writing workshops at Camelot Elementary School in Annandale, VA.

Sam Ashworth, MFA ’18, wrote the cover story for the Washington Post Magazine, March 1, 2020: "The Beautiful Art of Hassling Politicians While Wearing Animal Costumes."

GradReports ranks Mason fourth among the "best 25 colleges that offer a Bachelor's Degree in Writing, based on median salary one year after graduation."

John Copenhaver talks about his debut novel, Dodging and Burning, and the many literary organizations he has been involved with, including crime mystery reviews for Lambda Literary.

Stephanie Liberatore's "Like New Professor, Like Mom" appears in Inside Higher Ed.

Short story writer Danielle Evans and nonfiction writer Christina Thompson are the first of six writers visiting Mason this semester.

Lisa Ampleman's new collection explores the tradition of courtly love, from medieval times to the modern day.

The English Department's Spring 2020 Newsletter highlights Poetry Daily, honors the retirement of Susan Richards Shreve, previews courses and events ahead, and shares news from faculty, alumni, and students.

In celebration of its 25th year, the Cultural Studies PhD Program at George Mason University will be presenting a symposium examining the cultural, political, and economic impact of Amazon.

Two writers in each genre—fiction, nonfiction, and poetry—will visit George Mason throughout the spring semester.

Nov 12 at 4:30pm: When a nation-wide uprising breaks out in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, a young woman in Gaza joins a clandestine network of women in a movement that forces the world to recognize the Palestinian right to self-determination for the first time.

A professor of medieval literature offers some time-honored study tips from the world of medieval education.

On November 16, 2019, Marstellar Middle School in Bristow, Virginia, hosted the first of what is hoped-to-become an annual writing conference for teens interested in becoming better writers. The Write Turns conference is the brainchild of current George Mason University MFA student Heather Osial, an English teacher at Marstellar.

Penny Lane's entertaining, incisive documentary tracks the media-savvy members of the Satanic Temple as they organize a series of public actions advocating for religious freedom and challenging corrupt authority. With intelligence and a wicked sense of humor, they speak truth to power in truly profound ways.

Samaine Lockwood, director of undergraduate studies and associate professor in the Department of English, will be spending a portion of summer 2020 honing her leadership skills while taking part in the HERS Institute at Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.

"It’s important to see the migrants as individuals. Everyone sees them as a menace or a statistic. Nobody even sees them."

Andre Perry, author of the new essay collection Some of Us Are Very Hungry Now, closes the Fall Visiting Writers Series on Thursday, November 21.

“Stories kind of help me make sense of the world,” Jabs said. “As I delved into fiction, I had a better understanding of my own service and those around me who are serving and who have served.”

The English Department’s Folklore Program is collaborating with Mason’s Arts Management Program and with the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (SCFCH) to offer two interrelated, team-taught courses focused on folklore and and festivals, open to both undergraduate and graduate students this spring and summer.

Poet & Translator Rosa Alcalá continues the Fall Visiting Writers Series in early November

The Institute for Immigration Research's Second Annual New American Voices Award was presented to Melissa Rivero, author of The Affairs of the Falcóns.

MFA alum Rion Amilcar Scott's story "Shape-up at Delilah's" appears in the October 7, 2019 issue.

To mark the 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s birth, Mason Korea co-hosted an international symposium. College faculty members Lester Kurtz, Robert Matz, and Hyunyoung Cho took part.

Screening and discussion of the film Patti Cake$ with producer Michael Gottwald and FAVS professor Lisa Thrasher.

Dr. Lisa Gilman, Professor in Folklore Studies, English, Public Humanities, has published a new book with John Fenn, Handbook for Folklore and Ethnomusicology Fieldwork (Indiana University Press, 2019).

October 10th, Center for Arts, George Mason University, 7-8:30 pm. The Second Annual New American Voices Award will be presented by IIR and Fall for the Book. Celebrate immigrant authors!

We invite you to a film and lecture series on Italy and migration which the Italian Program has organized this semester. In addition to MCL, the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, the Global Affairs Program, the Film and Media Studies Program and the Visiting Filmmakers Series are co-sponsors.

R.O. Kwon, Bella Pollen, and Cole Swensen appear October 10 & 11 on Mason's Fairfax Campus.

Mason Creative Writing Alumnus Rion Amlicar Scott returns to Mason as a visiting writer.

The Fall 2019 issue of English Matters previews the new Laboratory for Scholarly and Civic Communication, Fall for the Book, and our upcoming Visiting Writers Series; welcomes new faculty; and celebrates the achievements of our faculty, alumni, and students in many directions.

The violently suppressed workers' demonstration of 1819, and the poem it inspired Percy Shelley to write, continue to have meaning for social movements today. Professor Eric Eisner reflects on teaching the subject in his Romanticism courses.

The Creative Writing Program welcomes short story master Rion Amilcar Scott, MFA ’08, as the first visiting writer of its fall series, with a public reading on Thursday, September 19, at 7:30 p.m. in the Fenwick Library Reading Room on Mason’s Fairfax Campus.

In April, a small group of MFA students shared a half-hour Q&A session alone with Margaret Atwood at Mason’s Arlington campus.

Listen to the C19 episode "On Intake & Insanity: Women's Narratives of Institutionalization," offered up by our alum Liana Glew (Class of 2015), now a 4th year PhD student at Penn State.

Congratulations to Art Taylor, associate professor and assistant director of the Creative Writing Program, on winning the Edgar Allan Poe Award for his short story “English 398: Fiction Workshop."

GMU TOWN Hall Discussion antisemitism, islamophobia,  and discrimination in the name of religion Thursday, April 25, 2pm, Merten 1204 

Registration begins March 25. Check out FAMS courses for Summer 2019. Online: Film and Video Forms, Introduction to Film, History of World Cinema, Business of Film, Global Horror Film. Classroom courses: Japanese Cinema, Gender, Race & Class in Media, Conflict, Terrorism, Human Rights.

A discussion among scholars, professionals, and students on the ethics of leftist ideologies with an emphasis on how they work, common myths about them, their focus on economics, and their impact on communities. With Boots Riley, Richard Wolff, and Andrew Kliman.

The extraordinary writing career and sometimes troubled life of Larry Levis came to an abrupt halt when he died unexpectedly at age 49. A Late Style of Fire is a revealing chronicle of dedicated creative achievement as well as a sometimes cautionary tale. The film asks, “What is required of those who make a serious commitment to a life in art?”

The film captured a truth about DACA recipients that brought eye-opening realizations to the students of Mason, whether it related to strength and dedication or the imperfections of the higher education system.

Congratulations to Say Her Name, Sandra Bland's family, Kate Davis and David Heilbroner. Winner of 2019 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Documentary-Television -- just four days after their visit to Mason.

With visiting writers in three genres, a celebration for a long-time faculty member’s retirement, an afternoon workshop and panel discussion, and a documentary film screening, this year’s New Leaves Conference focuses on all aspects of writing: the craft, the business, and the life of the writer.

Mason’s Creative Writing Program will be hosting two events at this year’s AWP Conference in Portland Oregon: a reception on Thursday, March 28, honoring Robert Bausch, an alumni and professor, and a breakfast get-together on Friday, March 29, for alumni, faculty, and students.

Screening and Q&A March 18 7:30pm. The short documentary Mother, Daughter, Sister exposes the Burmese military’s practice of using rape as a weapon of war and gives voice to Kachin and Rohingya women activists calling for justice for these crimes.

Award-winning poet Ilya Kaminsky, celebrating his new book Deaf Republic, visits George Mason University on Thursday, March 21, at part of the Creative Writing Program’s Spring 2019 Visiting Writer Series, hosted for the first time this semester by George Mason University Libraries.

Poetry Daily recently announced the formation of a 16-poet editorial board to help steer the content and features of the 21-year-old online journal. 

Novelist and short story writer Rebecca Makkai, author most recently of The Great Believers, visits George Mason University on Thursday, February 28, at part of the Creative Writing Program’s Spring 2019 Visiting Writer Series, hosted for the first time this semester by George Mason University Libraries.

Thurs Feb 28, 7:30pm, Johnson Center Cinema The documentary follows the personal lives of three DACA students in Georgia, a state that has banned them from attending their top state universities and disqualifies them from receiving in-state tuition at any other public college. It shows us what it means to grow up both American and undocumented in the United States.

With Valentine's Day approaching, an Austen scholar reflects on the popularity of Austen-themed romantic gift items, and the clear-eyed realism of Austen's romance plots.

Mason Creative Writing is proud to announce Worlds in Words, our spring 2019 series of translation talks, sponsored by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, in collaboration with the Alan Cheuse International Writers Center.

Journalist, essayist, memoirist, and more—nonfiction writer Lyz Lenz kicks off the Creative Writing Program’s Spring 2019 Visiting Writer Series on Thursday, February 21, hosted for the first time this year by George Mason University Libraries.

Time Magazine recently published an excerpt from Tim Denevi's newest book, 'Freak Kingdom.' The excerpt discusses Richard Nixon’s 1969 Inauguration and the protests that accompanied it

Professor Art Taylor's story, "English 398: Fiction Workshop,” originally published in the July/August 2018 issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, has been named as a finalist for the Edgar Award for Best Short Story, the highest honor in the mystery fiction world

When creative writing student and experienced traveler Rachel Purdy decided to write about her family roots in the Balkans, she knew there was no better way to get to know the area than to be there herself.

The New Yorker calls it "Diorama-like, this book displays what has been, in American culture, displayed, and thereby displaced. It is at once a natural history of American racism and colonialism, utterly devastating in its cumulative impact, and a gorgeous mash-up of genres and forms: bold, light, and ruthlessly smart."

FAMS courses offered in Spring 2019 include Global Horror Film, TV and Twitter, Introduction to Spanish-Language Cinema, Race/Gender/Class/Sports, Film & Video Forms, and Cyberpunk.

Friday, November 30 4:30pm Art and Design Building 1007 Free and open to the public: George Mason's Delta Kappa Alpha invites you to A Critic's Point of View, a conversation with Ann Hornaday, movie critic for The Washington Post and Cynthia Fuchs, Film Critic and Director of Film and Media Studies at George Mason University.

"The City of Good Death is an expansive novel about the proprietor of a death hostel, Pramesh, in India’s sacred city of Benares, where Hindus come to die a holy death, and the sweeping journey of discovery he embarks upon after finding his cousin and childhood best friend drowned in the Ganges. Priyanka Champaneri beautifully explores the sacred and the afterlife in this cinematic and emotionally gripping work about living and dying with dignity."

Poetry Daily, the popular daily online anthology that has been promoting poetry since 1997 at www.poems.com, has begun the process of moving to George Mason University where it will be published in partnership with the Department of English’s Creative Writing Program and George Mason University Libraries. Founders Don Selby and Diane Boller, who are retiring at the end of the year after steering, editing, and growing the web-based journal for more than twenty-one years, will remain on the board of directors of Daily Poetry Association, the nonprofit organization that publishes Poetry Daily. Editors, students, and staff at Mason take on daily production as of January 1, 2019.

Poetry Daily, the popular daily online anthology, partners with Mason's creative writing program to publish its online poetry journal.

Robert Bausch, a three-time Mason alum and award-winning novelist who became well known and highly respected as a writer and teacher, influencing hundreds of young writers, and also as a friend and colleague to writers at Mason and throughout the region, died October 9 of multiple myeloma at a hospital in Fredericksburg, VA. He was 73.

Students from Mason's Folklore Studies Program collected legends, myths and stories from those who tend to be overlooked by academia.

On Thursday, October 11, 2018, Hernán Díaz, author of the novel In the Distance, was awarded the inaugural Institute for Immigration Research New American Voices Award. Fall for the Book created this post-publication book prize to recognize recently published works that illuminate the complexity of human experience as told by immigrants, whose work is historically underrepresented in writing and publishing.

"We were somewhat fortunate in that we could tell that story, we could connect a bunch of these dots that typically just don't get connected,” said Kim Reed, who worked with investigative journalists and followed leaked information. Dark Money at GMU Oct 30 4:30pm JCC

Kimberly Reed is bring her film, Dark Money, to GMU on Oct 30. She "believes that young people, college students especially, should engage in politics to prevent the corruption that is exposed in “Dark Money.”"

Novelist and short story writer Liam Callanan and poet Cynthia Marie Hoffman—both of them alumni of Mason’s MFA program in creative writing—will round out the Fall 2018 Visiting Writer series with a joint reading on Thursday, November 8. Their reading begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Fenwick Library Reading Room, second floor of Fenwick Library, on Mason’s Fairfax Campus. The reading is free and open to the public, and books by each author will be for sale during the event.

Tues, Oct 30 at 4:30pm Johnson Center Cinema: Kim Reed's documentary examines one of the greatest present threats to American democracy: the influence of untraceable corporate money on our elections and elected officials. See it before Election Day.

Throughout it all, El Said is conscientious of the role he has as a filmmaker to create something groundbreaking and the responsibility he carries to make sure he serves his films and not vice versa.

Art Taylor, MFA ’06, has been named the English Department’s 2018 Distinguished Alumnus. An Associate Professor of English here at Mason, he has taught creative writing, literature, and composition and now serves as Assistant Director of the Creative Writing program

Listen to Mason’s Alok Yadav comment on the recent scandals that led the Swedish Academy to postpone the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Tues 10/10 Johnson Center Cinema 7:30pm: Tamer El Said will present and discuss his film about Khalid (Khalid Abdalla), a 35-year-old filmmaker in Cairo, 2009, struggling to make a film that captures the soul of his city while facing loss in his own life. Free and open to the public.

This fall’s Students as Scholars faculty learning community (FLC) will focus on online writing instruction (OWI). The purpose of this learning community is to train faculty to teach online and hybrid sections of ENGH 302 that meet the best practices established by the CCCC Position Statement.

Cheston Knapp kicks of the Fall 2018 Visiting Writers series on Thursday, September 27, with a reading at 7:30 p.m. in the Johnson Center, Meeting Room G, on Mason’s Fairfax Campus. The reading is free and open to the public, and books will be for sale after the reading.

J. Michael Martinez, MFA ’06, has been long-listed for the 2018 National Book Award for his third collection, Museum of the Americas, already a winner in the National Poetry Series.

"To communicate “together” in American Sign Language (A.S.L.), you press your knuckles together and hold your hands close to your chest before circling them counterclockwise and bringing them to rest below your heart. Like many signs in A.S.L., it seems to convey several meanings at once: linkage, firmness, circularity."

Masterclass with Dan Mirvish, cofounder of Slamdance Friday, September 14, 12noon, Art and Design Building 1007

"Afterward, as a dense blue string of thunderstorms rolled in from the south, drenching everything, I found myself thinking about a quote by the late David Foster Wallace: 'How do you promote democracy when you know that a majority of people will, if given the chance, vote for an end to democratic voting?'"

Dr. Sylvia Schreiner (Assistant Professor of Linguistics), in collaboration with her colleague Dr. Lane Schwartz at UIUC, has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant for the study of St. Lawrence Island / Central Siberian Yupik.

Alexandra Ruiz, BFA ’18 and an incoming MFA student in nonfiction, has been named the recipient of this year’s Robert Raymond Scholarship, established by adjunct professor Rosalind Gann to honor her father and encourage diversity in the graduate creative writing program.

Tom LeGro, BA English ’98, MFA Creative Writing ’01, is a senior producer for video at The Washington Post, part of a team that won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for investigative journalism. Photo credit: The Washington Post.

"What I remember most of all is washing Leo Tolstoy’s ears. The year is 1989, the mornings of revolution, the year when my birth country begins to fall apart. "

Professor Burek was chosen as one of only two Fenwick Fellowship recipients for her proposal, 'Mending a Broken Chain: Continuous History and Literary Form in England and Wales, 1125-1450.'

George Mason alumnus Dennis Nolasco won an Exemplary Early Career Teacher award from the Apple Federal Credit Union Education Foundation.

Students from Mason's Field School, in collaboration with the West Virginia Folklife Program, traveled throughout West Virginia, recording oral history interviews with coal miners, musicians, and artists.

"Jessica Kallista, founder, curator and art instigator of Olly Olly art gallery, craved to create a space that would not only highlight the energy in Fairfax, but also mold a sanctuary for artists to crawl out of isolation and 'create an experiment together.'"

In this translation of Tzara’s 1939 collection, in cosmic imagery beside communist imagery, we see Tzara’s peripatetic mind haunted by the death and destruction he’d witnessed in Madrid and elsewhere in Spain during the Spanish Civil War.

Fall for the Book will turn 20 years old in style with a star-studded lineup of headliners including novelists Tayari Jones, Elizabeth Kostova, and Elizabeth Strout; YA author Angie Thomas; and Congressman John Lewis. Other major writers will include Paul Hawken, Tom McAllister, Leslie Pietrzyk, Khaled Beydoun, and Katharine Weber.

At its degree celebrations, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences sends off its doctors, masters, and bachelors with an enthusiastic salute.

MFA Fiction Alum Lina Patton's "Carolina Hall Girls" excerpt is the story of the week on Narrative. Lina was also a finalist for their "30 below" contest.

Poet, novelist and memoirist Jon Pineda, author of the new novel Let's No One Get Hurt, will read from and discuss his work as part of the Creative Writing Program’s Visiting Writer Series. The event—free and open to the public—begins at 7 p.m. on Monday, April 23, in Merten Hall, Room 1203, on Mason’s Fairfax campus.

Dr. Lisa Gilman will join our faculty in fall 2018.

Eric Anderson will give the Robert W. Hamblin Lecture, “Undead Souths: The Gothic and Beyond in Southern Literature and Culture," at Southeast Missouri State University on April 12th.

From the history of the Lorton Correctional Complex comes the story of “In Lorton’s Darkroom”, which changed the lives of the inmates living there. GMU Visiting Filmmakers Series conducted a short documentary screening of “In Lorton’s Darkroom” in the Johnson Center Cinema about the life-changing event.

Award-winning poet Matthew Zapruder comes to Mason Thursday, April 12, to share selections from his own poetry and discuss his new book 'Why Poetry'. The event takes place at 4:30 p.m. in Merten Hall, Room 1202.

Weds April 4 7:30pm Johnson Center Cinema: The documentary traces the story of inmates in DC's infamous Lorton Correctional Facility who transform their prison experience while participating in a photography program.

Our courses for Summer 2018 include Gender, Race & Class in Media, Intro Film (DL), Film and Video Forms (DL), Media Criticism (DL), History of World Cinema (DL), Global Horror Film, Business of Film, and The Films of Akira Kurosawa.

Published by Literary Hub, "At the March for Our Lives, Registering the Next Generation of Voters" examines Creative Writing Professor Courtney Brkic's experience volunteering in DC during the historic march.

This year’s New Leaves week, April 2-6, brings reading by visiting writers in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry in addition to special events and talks on making your way in the world as a writer. Watch creativewriting.gmu.edu soon for full details on individual events.

Thurs March 29, 2018 2-3:30pm 2001 Fenwick Library, Main Reading Room

Gregg Wilhelm, who will become the new director of Mason’s Creative Writing Program in May, will be joining us at AWP on Thursday night, March 8, for our reception and reading—5-7 p.m. at Bernini or Ybor, 1702 East 7th Avenue in Tampa, co-hosted by Stillhouse Press.

Curriculum impact grants, designed to encourage innovative programs with interdisciplinary, cross-unit curriculum, offer students new ways to consider some of the most critical issues facing our society. College faculty are involved with eleven of the newly funded programs.

Saturday, May 5, 2018: A full day of programming celebrating the growth of the program over the last decade and honoring alumni from the FAVS BA, FAMS minor and MAIS concentration in Film and Video. FAVS @ 10 features industry, alumni, and faculty panels on the state of media making today.

Bullets into Bells, a book of poems and prose calling for an end to gun violence in America, will be the focus of a reading on the Mason campus at 7:30pm on Thursday, April 5, in the Main Reading Room of Fenwick Library during the spring series New Leaves week.

Faculty member Timothy Denevi is finishing work on a book reassessing the well-known activist and writer Hunter S. Thompson, looking beyond the cartoonish figure he often is portrayed as being.

Jeannie Vanasco continues the Spring 2018 Visiting Writers series with a reading on Thursday, February 15, at 7:30 p.m. in George’s, 3rd floor of the Johnson Center, on Mason’s Fairfax Campus. The reading is free and open to the public, and books will be for sale after the reading

Courtney Brkic's story 'The Translator' was recently published in the anthology, Crossing Borders: Stories and Essays about Translation.

Scheduled on February 27, a week before the Oscars, this panel and audience discussion will center on the causes and effects of a lack of racial diversity in film. Hosted by Roosevelt @ Mason.

Okey Ndibe kicks of the Spring 2018 Visiting Writers series with a reading this Thursday, February 8, at 7:30 p.m. in Merten Hall, Room 1203, on Mason’s Fairfax Campus. The reading is free and open to the public, and books will be for sale after the reading. 

The College of Humanities and Social Sciences is saddened to announce the passing of our colleague, Dr. Yoonmee Chang. Yoonmee joined the faculty Mason in 2005, serving as an associate professor. She was the author of Writing in the Ghetto: Class, Authorship, and the Asian American Ethnic Enclave.

Art Taylor’s story, “A Necessary Ingredient” from Coast to Coast: Private Eyes from Sea to Shining Sea' has been named as a finalist for this year’s Agatha Award for Best Short Story.

Puente-Lay is the first designated recipient of the newly established Robert Raymond Scholarship.

Three friends began a movement in the 1980s that changed global health forever. Bending the Arc tells their story.

This spring, Mason's Creative Writing Program welcomes visiting writers in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry throughout the semester and hosts the annual New Leaves Conference, April 2-6.

Susan Tichy’s “To Speak of One Is to Speak of the Other” won the First Annual Tupelo Broadside Prize.

Lina was a finalist for an excerpt from her novel "Carolina Hall Girls."

December 7-9: All events are free and open to the public. Screenings are in the Johnson Center Cinema.

The Well Library houses the research, scholarship and creative works of Mason's faculty, staff, and alumni that are contained within the books they have published. On December 5, the work of Robert Matz and Jason Smith joins the collection.

In an hour-long interview, Samaine Lockwood discusses her new book 'Archives of Desire: The Queer Historical Work of New England Regionalism' on New Books Network on the American Studies Channel.

On Thursday, November 16, the Creative Writing Program welcomes novelist and short story writer Hannah Tinti to campus for a reading and discussion of her work. A meet-and-greet reception for Tinti takes place 7 p.m. in George’s in the Johnson Center, 3rd Floor, on Mason’s Fairfax Campus. Her presentation follows at 7:30 p.m. Both events are open to the public.

The New American Voices Award highlights the recently published works of literary fiction or creative non-fiction from immigrant writers. It will be awarded for the first time at next year's Fall for the Book festival.

Johnson Center Cinema 4:30pm Nov 14: Join GMU Student Power and FAMS for Fail State, a documentary that investigates the rise of predatory for-profit colleges and why our higher education system, once the envy of the world, is leaving millions of Americans in financial ruin.

On Thursday, November 9, the Creative Writing Program welcomes two visiting writers for readings and discussions of their recent work. Avant-garde poet Myung Mi Kim and graphic memoirist Kristen Radtke will make a joint appearance at 7:30 p.m. in Johnson Center Meeting Room G. The authors will also be part of a meet-and-greet reception at 7 p.m. in the same space.

Johnson Center Cinema Thurs 11/2 4:30pm: An account of the Ferguson uprising as told by the people who lived it. The film looks at how the killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown inspired a community to fight back and sparked a global movement.

Panel discussion on Wednesday, November 1, 5:30pm Research Hall, 163. This panel brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars to discuss the aftermath of media and the Arab Uprisings.

A wide range of courses are available in Spring 2018: Cyberpunk, Sports TV, Cinemas of Resistance, Curating & Programming for the Moving Image, Latin American Film, Japanese Cinema, Soviet Film in the Times of Eisenstein and Tarkovsky, Global Horror Film, and more.

In Eric Pankey’s latest book of poems, Augury, revelation is found in nature's smallest details. Coming out from Milkweed Editions this fall, Augury is Pankey’s twelfth collection.

On Wednesday, October 11, as part of the Fall for the Book literary festival, Mason’s MFA faculty writers presented the inaugural event of Life on the Line, a series of talks and readings that promises to become an important component of literary and intellectual life at Mason.

This fall, two Call-and-Response exhibitions feature collaborative work between Mason writers and visual artists. These exhibitions seek to raise awareness of "invisible crimes" such as human trafficking and crimes against marginalized communities.

His collection, Museum of the Americas, was chosen by Cornelius Eady for Penguin Books.

The PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize honors a first novel or collection of short stories.

The $25K prize recognizes the finest literary work of Roman Catholic intelligence and imagination. Callanan is an associate professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Laura Ellen Scott, author and professor of creative writing at George Mason University, just released the much-anticipated second installment in her New Royal Mysteries series, "Crybaby Lane."

Jennifer Ashley, a faculty member in the Global Affairs Program, and Alok Yadav, a faculty member in the Department of English, have been named 2017-18 Fenwick Fellows by Mason's university libraries.

Art Taylor’s story "Parallel Play," won the 2017 Macavity award for Best Mystery Short Story at the opening ceremonies of Bouchercon.

Scott talks about his new short story collection, "Insurrections"

Mason composition faculty continue setting the standard for innovation in pedagogy, and this year’s Innovation in Teaching and Learning conference, hosted by the Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning at George Mason University, gave many faculty within the program the opportunity to showcase what they know and what they do.

Fall for the Book’s 19th annual festival at George Mason -- and locations around Northern Virginia -- runs from October 11-14, and welcomes a robust list of poets, historians, novelists, memoirists, children’s authors, YA writers, and more.

10/19 7:30pm Johnson Center Cinema. Road Through War is a road trip along both sides of the frontline in Ukraine. Screening followed by Q&A with filmmaker Louie Palu

10/24 4:30pm: A work that combines documentary, autobiography, and ethical inquiry, Cameraperson is both a moving glimpse into one filmmaker’s personal journey and a thoughtful examination of what it means to train a camera on the world.

10/26 3pm: "Popular culture shapes us in ways we are often unaware of," says Kara Herold. "Images in the media have great power to influence who we think we are, who we wish we were, and who we want to become."

Fall for the Book is working to re-create the Well Library and house it in the Mason Club. A kick-off reception is planned for Monday, Sept. 25, from 5:30 to 7:30 in the Mason Club. For the occasion, the club is open to all, with free snacks and a cash bar.

Thursday 9/14 7:30pm Harris Theater

Art Taylor, faculty member in the Department of English, answers questions about his work, his influences, and his breakfast beverage preferences in a profile on the popular website.

During a research trip to Newfoundland this summer, Folklore Studies faculty member Dr. Joy Fraser was featured on the Living Heritage podcast, hosted by provincial folklorist Dale Jarvis.

Mason Professor Sally Keith's poetry collection "River House" has earned her a spot as a finalist in the Library of Virginia's 20th Annual Literary Awards

9/11 6pm: Almost Sunrise follows two Iraq veterans, tormented by depression for years after they returned home, as they embark on an extraordinary journey, a 2,700 mile walk across the country from Wisconsin to California, in order to reflect on their haunting experiences of war and to save themselves.

Dubbed an “electro-folk drama” by theatre-maker Patrick Eakin Young, director of the company Erratica, "Remnants" is a work that resists categorization – a potent tapestry of song, electronic music, dance and recorded interviews. "Remnants" runs until July 1st in London.

As Mason's first 50-year faculty member, professor Don Gallehr has had a front row seat to the university's evolution from a local northern Virginia school to the international institution of learning that it currently is and there are few better equipped to appreciate the transformation.

In April, Dean Deborah Boehm-Davis was privileged to remark on the career of a man who is one of a kind: English professor Don Gallehr is Mason’s first faculty member to celebrate 50 years at the university, noting the profound influence that the “academic Cal Ripken” has had on his students, and the generosity and positivity for which he is known by his colleagues.

For Pride Week, a screening and discussion of Moonlight. April 13, 4:30pm Johnson Center Cinema. The film presents a mental odyssey about the youth, adolescence, and adulthood of Chiron, who is growing up gay and black in Miami.

On April 19, Mason’s Visiting Filmmaker Series held a screening of the documentary “Visitor’s Day.” A Q&A with director Nicole Opper followed the screening, facilitated by the Director of the Global Affairs, Lisa Bregila.

Gail Bohan, BA English ’70, MPA ’82, became part of the George Mason community at a time when our institution was finding its roots as a new university. The campus climate was one of continuous discussion around these and other political issues, and coupled with the campus’ proximity to Washington, D.C., offered Bohan a sincere connection to being part of this important dialogue.

The mood in EagleBank Arena was lively on May 18 and 19, as the College of Humanities and Social Sciences held its degree celebration ceremonies. Congratulations again to all of our graduates! We are pleased to welcome you to an impressive community of alumni, made only stronger by the class of 2017.

The founding director of The Alan Cheuse International Writers Center has been following the Gallaudet University football team, the world's only college football team for the deaf and hard-of-hearing, for the past three years. The culmination of this effort is featured in The Atlantic this month.

The College of Humanities and Social Sciences is pleased to announce the May 2017 degree celebrations will be led by two outstanding alumni: chief historian for the White House Historical Association, Edward Lengel, and Lt. Col. Suzanne Devlin, a former acting chief of police for the Fairfax County Police Department and the current supervisor of safety and security for Loudoun County Public Schools.

"Remnants" is performed by ERRATICA, a London-based arts company. "Remnants" is an electro-folk opera, re-arranging traditional Balkan vocal music and combining it with bass-heavy electronics. It opens on June 12th in London.

The Alan Cheuse International Writers Center at George Mason University will present an evening with acclaimed American novelist Richard Ford. One of the preeminent writers working in the United States, Ford will be in conversation with Maureen Corrigan of NPR's "Fresh Air" about his new memoir Between Them.

Mary Baldwin is the 2017 winner of the Outstanding Graduate Student in Linguistics award. The following is a short Q&A about her time here at Mason.

The Cheuse Center and The Spanish Cultural Center will present Spanish writer Andrés Barba at Upshur Street Books in the Petworth neighborhood of Washington, D.C. There Andrés will talk about his latest novel "Such Small Hands."

English professor Don Gallehr marks a Mason first this month: celebrating 50 years as a faculty member here. Gallehr will be recognized for his longtime commitment to teaching Mason students as part of this year’s University Day Service Awards, April 5-6.

Readings, panels, and presentations highlight the 2017 New Leaves Festival, to be held Monday, April 3 - Friday, April 7, and hosted by the Creative Writing program at George Mason University. Except as noted, all events are open to the public and take place at locations on Mason’s Fairfax, VA, campus.

The Cheuse Center, in partnership with the Center for the Art of Translation in San Francisco, will be holding a Day of Translation to discuss the art and issues of literary translation.

The PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize honors a first novel or collection of short stories.

This observational documentary follows 16-year-old Juan Carlos as he makes his way from an innovative group home in Puebla to Mexico City, where he hopes to reunite with his father and reconcile with a difficult past.

Film screening and discussion: Rescued from the streets of San Pedro Sula, Honduras, orphaned girls find their voices in poetry, as they heal traumas of their past and look toward an uncertain future.

MFA students, Sam Ashworth and Liesel Hamilton, will each receive $5,000 to conduct research abroad for their current creative projects in fiction and nonfiction.

Recent graduate Ashley Weiler discusses "“The Art of Networking,” an event hosted by the English Department Outreach Committee, aimed to demystify networking, teach necessary skills, and offer resources to build your personal network. The event took place on September 12th, 2016.

MFA Professor Tim Denevi attended the CPAC conference last weekend and shares his observations.

Poet Suzanne Buffam, the Creative Writing Program’s third visiting writer this spring, will share her work, including selections from her latest collection, A Pillow Book (2016), on Thursday, March 2, at 7:30 p.m. in Research Hall, Room 163, on Mason’s Fairfax Campus. The event is open to the public.

The danger is palpable as filmmaker Nanfu Wang follows activist Ye Haiyan to Hainan Province to protest the case of six elementary school girls who were sexually abused by their principal. Marked as enemies of the state, the activists -- and Wang -- face interrogation, harassment, and imprisonment.

Lowry will talk about her new book "Who Killed These Girls? Cold Case: the Yogurt Shop Murders," on Thursday, February 16th.

Ava DuVernay's Oscar-nominated documentary, 13th, traces the history of the 13th amendment to the US Constitution, from the horrors of mass criminalization to the sprawling American prison industry.

Weaver's collection acts a prolonged meditation on death and the ever-present role it has on living.

The short story, "Parallel Play," was originally published in the anthology Chesapeake Crimes: Storm Warning.

Mason fiction alumn Rion Amilcar Scott's collection, "Insurrections," is a finalist for the 2017 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction.

Publication date January 31, 2017. After a ruptured pituitary tumor leaves Mike Scalise with the hormone disorder acromegaly at age 24, he must navigate a new, alien world of illness maintenance. His mother, who has a chronic heart condition and a flair for drama, serves as a complicated model. A moving, funny exploration of how we define ourselves by the stories we choose to tell.

Helon Habila’s new book recounts the horror and revives the call to take notice.

Sheila McMullin's poetry collection, "daughterrariums", was selected from nearly 1,000 manuscripts and will be published in Spring 2017. McMullin is a graduate of Mason's MFA program, a poet, and an intersectional feminist. She is Managing Editor at VIDA: Women in Literary Arts.

MFA faculty member Courtney Angela Brkic's memoir, "The Stone Fields," will be produced by a London-based performing arts company in 2017.

AWP comes to D.C. for its 50th anniversary and its annual conference, and Mason is there as a major sponsor. Alums, faculty and students appear on conference panels and at off-site events, and the creative writing program and some of its community partners have three spaces in the Bookfair. Here’s where you’ll find us and when.

Winn's collection "Alma Almanac" will be published in 2017.

FAVS Professor Hans Charles is one of the cinematographers on Ava DuVernay's “13th." See the film and participate in Hans Charles' post-screening Q&A Feb13 4:30pm JCC.

Matthew Davis, the founding director of the Alan Cheuse International Writers Center, took part in the university's "Sideline Coaching Program” on Wednesday, January 25.

Peter Ho Davies, author most recently of the novel The Fortunes, visits George Mason University on Thursday, February 2, for an afternoon workshop with MFA students and a public reading at 7:30 p.m. in Merten Hall, Room 1203, on Mason’s Fairfax Campus.

Two MFA alums, both writers and editors, discuss their fascination with the short form's possibilities.

Internship available for aspiring film reviewer at PopMatters. This is a chance to gain experience in writing reviews of film, television, and internet programming for a respected daily cultural studies magazine.

Thursday 12/8, 12:30-1:30 pm: Discussion with Alexis Okedowo at The New America; Saturday, 1/7, 6:00-7:00 pm: Discussion with Emmanuel Ogebe at Politics and Prose

In a Q&A with the filmmakers following the screening, brothers Lance and Brandon Kramer shared with students the process of making their first feature film, “City of Trees.” They also discussed their most recent project, “The Messy Truth,” which focuses on starting healthy conversations in the aftermath of a hyper-political election season.

The Alan Cheuse International Writers Center will encourage Mason's graduate creative writing students to study abroad, offer a home for established writers with residencies at Mason, and provide a hub for diverse conversations about art, literature and international issues, said Matthew Davis, the center’s founding director.

Mason’s creative writing program offers an array of events featuring visitors that come to the campus to read from their work and conduct workshops or master classes for students.

Ashatha Press releases Cobb's third full-length collection of poems this month.

Hosted by the local literary journal Barrelhouse, the conference brings together writers, editors, and publishers from across the region—in conversation and connecting with one another.

The 2016 Outstanding Achievement Awards recognized thirty-five faculty and staff who had been “Elected for Success” by their colleagues.

The Juliet appeared in March and The Mean Bone In Her Body will be out in December—the latter the start of a new series, the New Royal Mysteries, set in a fictional college/prison town in Ohio.

Welcome to Mason Matthew Davis, who has been named director of the new Alan Cheuse International Writers Center—building on his twin interests in creative writing and international relations.

Art Taylor's new story, “The Great Detective Reflects,” appears in the November 2016 issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.

Free screening and Q&A with filmmakers Lance and Brandon Kramer on Wednesday November 9 at 4:30pm, in the Johnson Center Cinema.

Is the South a natural setting for supernatural tales of agitated spirits? English professor Eric Gary Anderson teams up with Georgia State University's Gina Caison to discuss the spookiness of the region.

“I have seen too many dark-skinned bodies fallen in the street over the last few years. And I’ve seen brown-skinned women in hijab stopped in the airport,” said Wendi Manuel-Scott, director of African and African American Studies.

In the view of Roger Lathbury, faculty member in the Department of English who has been teaching Bob Dylan's lyrics for forty years, the Nobel Prize awarded to Dylan bespeaks a larger recognition of what it means to understand “art.”

Episode two of Mason Out Loud is available for listen! Mason Out Loud features creative writing and scholarship from GMU's English department faculty, students and alumni.

The first episode of Mason Out Loud, our new creative and scholarly podcast, is available! Click below to hear for English department Associate Professor Art Taylor read from and discuss his Agatha Award winning novel in stories.

Film producer Christine Vachon comes to GMU September 28 at 7:30pm at the Johnson Center Cinema.

Fall for the Book brings writers, readers, and scholars together like no other event in the region. In its eighteenth year, Fall for the Book is a weeklong literary festival with events taking place on Mason's Fairfax campus and at other venues across the region between September 25 and September 30.

In December 2005, Daniel McGowan was arrested by Federal agents in a nationwide sweep of radical environmentalists involved with the Earth Liberation Front, a group the FBI called America's "number one domestic terrorism threat." This film follows what happened next.

Imagine an ocean without fish. Imagine your meals without seafood. Imagine the global consequences. This is the future if we do not stop, think and act, brought on by overfishing.

Brian Hsu received his Ph.D in Linguistics at the University of Southern California in the summer of 2016. His research focuses on the sources of word order variation and on the interfaces of syntax and phonology. His dissertation work in theoretical syntax investigates the pronunciation of head movement chains, second position effects, and cross-linguistic variation in the realization of functional projections. His research has also examined the relationship between the domains of phonological processes and morpho-syntactic structures. Before teaching linguistics at George Mason, he was a French language instructor during his graduate studies.

The Center celebrates the art of creative writing as a means of international dialogue, education and understanding.

Yellowstone was the first national park, established in 1872. It was an era of westward expansion and Native American removal. Nearly every national park and monument was once inhabited by indigenous people. What is the full and honest history of our national parks? How can we address the wrongs of the past and protect wild places for the future?

The Mason MFA program is pleased to announce that Tania James will join the fiction faculty as a full-time professor starting this fall.

Since 2007, the Film and Media Studies program has offered the Mason community a wealth of perspectives outside the confines of Fairfax, Virginia. Its Visiting Filmmakers Series has brought a wide diversity of films to campus, exploring themes and images that are challenging, real, and timely.

In this issue of the Mason SPIRIT, the college's senior associate Dean, Robert Matz, takes a look at some misconceptions about getting a liberal arts degree and how the degree meets up with what employers are looking for in a challenging job market.

Courses include Bollywood and Beyond, Film and Video Forms, Global Horror Film, History of World Cinema, International Mysteries, Intro Documentary, Intro Film, Japanese Cinema, Music Video Experimentation, and War and International Film.

Laura Ellen Scott will be on a blog tour this week to promote her latest novel "The Juliet".

Johnson holds a bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s degree in English—an educational background one might conclude is a direct and expected link to a library career. But as the Folger is no ordinary library, Johnson’s path to it was no conventional journey.

In an opinion piece on the Inside Higher Ed website, the college's senior associate dean, Robert Matz, offers data on the post-graduate employment of English majors to refute the familiar image of the food service counter as their inevitable landing place.

North Carolina Bookwatch has posted on YouTube a short chat between host D.G. Martin and Art Taylor about the Murder Under the Oaks Anthology.

Professer Charlie Jones, our colleague, teacher, and friend, died suddenly on 5 April 2016. The Program in Linguistics and George Mason University is establishing a memorial fund for a Linguistic Graduate student Scholarship. Please contribute in memory of Charlie. See more for details:

Dr. Steven Weinberger and Jill Nelson were awarded a tier 2 Provost’s Multidisciplinary Research Grant for their project: Machine Learning for Crowdsourced Phonetic Transcription/Identification of Accented Speech.

Internship available for aspiring film reviewer at PopMatters. This is a chance to gain experience in writing reviews of film, television, and internet programming for a respected daily cultural studies magazine.

"daughterrariums" will be published in Spring 2017.

On the Road with Del and Louise, A Novel in Stories by Art Taylor has been nominated for a Macavity Award for Best First Mystery Novel.

Having finished my spring semester teaching at George Mason University, I was excited about diving into some books that I wanted to read — solely for myself!

Scott W. Berg’s books include “38 Nooses: Lincoln, Little Crow, and the Beginning of the Frontier’s End.” He teaches nonfiction writing and literature at George Mason University.

In a poem, it is possible to talk to someone who is dead, and maybe even to reach some kind of tentative, hard-won reconciliation or understanding. This poem is the final entry of Sally Keith’s collection about the loss of her mother.

Since 2014, the Jack Wood Award for Town Gown Relations has honored individuals, groups, businesses and nonprofits that demonstrate leadership in fostering mutually beneficial relationships between the university and the community.

Filmmaker Khalik Allah delves into one street corner in Harlem, New York — 125th and Lexington Ave — and documents the enchanting and intimate voice of a number of homeless and marginalized people living there.

Art Taylor has won a 2015 Agatha Award for Best First Novel for "On the Road with Del and Louise: A Novel in Stories."

Find new ways to see your world with FAMS Summer courses. Titles include Conflict, Terrorism, Human Rights; Film and Video Forms; Film and Video Screenwriting; Intro to Film; Samurai On Screen; Women in Media.

The eighth annual Undergraduate Research Symposium showcased the work of 91 students from across the college, 12 students in oral presentations and 79 poster presentations.

On April 5 and 6, photographer and filmmaker Khalik Allah visited George Mason University to present his film, Field Niggas. Two weeks later, his work was featured in Beyonce's Lemonade.

Sally Keith, poet and faculty member in the Departments of English and Creative Writing, has received a prestigious John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship. The author of four collections of poetry, Keith teaches graduate and undergraduate students.

Come see films from around the world, including Iran, India, Italy, and Spain. Our program offers entertainment, free food, and discussion during and beyond the festival.

The Linguistics Program congratulates Prof. Doug Wulf on his award.

Congratulations to Doug on being awarded one of the "Teachers of Distinction " at George Mason. This recognizes his commitment to teaching and mentoring our linguistics students. He will be recognized and celebrated at the 2016 Celebration of Teaching Excellence on Monday, April 11, from 3:30pm-5:00pm in the main lobby of the Center for the Arts

The Pulitzer Prize and MacArthur Fellowship winning poet will read her own and others' work and speak about the importance of poetry and the humanities in today's world at The Vernon and Margarette Gras Lecture in the Humanities. It takes place on Thursday, April 21st, at 7:30 in the Center For The Arts, Grand Tier III.

George Mason University screened the documentary “Kandahar Journals,” an unconventional documentary that accomplishes just that by capturing a photojournalist’s first-hand experience of the war in Afghanistan.

“Field Niggas” makes a powerful claim for the dignity and visibility of its subjects, even as it travels to precincts far outside their purview. What could have been an example of “ethnographic” documentary at its most patronizing instead becomes an opportunity for radical engagement.

In a speech by Malcolm X, the “field negroes” were the most downtrodden of slaves: those forced to work the fields and who had nothing to lose, as opposed to the “house negroes." Photographer Khalik Allah gives voice to today's “field slaves” by focusing his camera on the poorest residents of Harlem.

“I don’t know I would say there’s one particular message the film has,” Steger said. “I think when you make a film it should be something that people in the audience … reflect and connect to it in different levels … and all pull something different from it.”

The conference began Monday night with a reading from Porochista Khakpour, author of two novels, Sons And Other Flammable Objects, a New York Times “Editor’s Choice” book, and The Last Illusion, which was named by NPR as one of the “Best Books of 2014.” Readings and celebrations continue through Thursday.

Professor Bill Miller is the 2016 winner of the Jack Wood Award. The award, which recognizes leadership in strengthening university relationships with the community.

Two editors, Kristen Radtke and Ariel Lewiton from Sarabande Press, and D.C.-based literary agent Howard Yoon will visit the Mason campus next Wednesday and Thursday as part of the New Leaves week celebration.

Screenings are free and open to the public. Treats and great discussions following each film.

In the documentary, Stage Four: A Love Story, Mary Jo and George and their adult children face the difficult decisions following her diagnosis of stage IV breast cancer. The film reveals that a cancer diagnosis isn't a death sentence, but a chance to live life to the fullest.

Organized by Barrelhouse magazine and sponsored by the English Department, the conference will take place on April 23rd, 2016.

Come see classic films on the big screen. Wednesdays 4:30 in the Johnson Center Cinema. All films are free and open to the public. March 23: Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa 1950).

It was standing room only on Wednesday evening, March 2nd for a spirited reading by poet Philip Metres.

Professor Teresa Michals' book, Books for Children, Books for Adults: Age and the Novel from Defoe to James has been named the Children's Literature Association 2016 Honor Book.

Fate has blessed Adrien Brody with a face fine-tuned to suffering. And suffer he does, in Michael Petroni’s Backtrack.

Last Monday, photojournalist Louie Palu screened his film “Kandahar Journals” in the Johnson Center Cinema as part of the Visiting Filmmakers Series sponsored by GMU's Film and Media Studies. The film focuses on Palu’s experiences as an embedded photojournalist in the Kandahar province of Afghanistan from 2006 to 2010.

Philip Metres will be the next writer to speak as part of the Visiting Writers Series on Wednesday, March 2nd, in Research 1, Room 163 at 7:30 p.m.

Associate Professor Eric Gary Anderson has contributed the opening chapter to the Oxford Handbook of Literature of the U.S. South edited by Fred Hobson and Barbara Ladd. Anderson's chapter is titled, "Literary and Textual Histories of the Native South."

Those of us who have spent years in higher education know that new leaders are often looking for “the next big thing.” Indeed, regional accreditation requirements often demand that universities branch into new areas to enhance quality.

The Spring 2016 Visiting Writers' Program begins with a reading from Leslie Pietrzyk

Kandahar Journals explores a photojournalist's firsthand account of his psychological state while covering a war.

Professor Taylor's novel is nominated in the category of Best First Novel. Conveyed by Malice Domestic, the award is given to works honoring traditional mysteries as exemplified by the work of Agatha Christie. The winner will be announced at the Agatha Banquet on April 30th.

Pandamoon Publishing is pleased to announce that Laura Ellen Scott has signed a multi-book deal with Pandamoon Publishing for her exciting new series, the New Royal Mysteries. The first book is entitled The Mean Bone in Her Body and is scheduled for a Winter 2016 release.

GMU Professor Jennifer Atkinson will be speaking in celebration of the birthday of poet Elizabeth Bishop

Basma Humadi talks to Cynthia Fuchs, director of Film & Media Studies.

The new MFA Application deadline will be Tuesday, March 1st.

Supernotes are counterfeit $100 bills, primarily in circulation in Asia and produced so superbly that they thwart even the most advanced detection methods. But the new book “Supernotes” takes that description even further: “Authentic banknotes, but printed in a place that’s not the U.S. Mint. And therefore false? No. Different. But real.”

Steven Corbett and Michelle LaFrance, faculty members in the Department of English, offer advice in Inside Higher Ed on how to help students identify the sources of procrastination and defeat them.

Celine Sciamma’s groundbreaking film insists on the multiple layers and complications of girlhood, the frustrations and excitements, the steps forward and back. It also makes clear the beauty of the moments and movements that matter.

Internship available for aspiring film reviewer: it's a great experience for anyone looking for future employment as a writer and/or editor. Applications due 1/18.

This short story, written by GMU Alum Sean Murphy, has been nominated for Pushcart Prize. Since 1976, the Pushcart Prize has honored hundreds of presses and thousands of writers of short stories, poetry and essays.

Consequences form the center of Olvidados. José has become both prisoner and victim, torn between memories of violence and memories of his wife. His past self is now his warden, a source of torment he is unable to forget.

The Fall Showcase Day One features a presentation by Norman Steinberg, founder of the TV Writers' Studio at LIU Brooklyn, and films by documentary students, video production for film students, and fiction film students.

J. Samaine Lockwood guest blogs on the University of North Carolina Press. In the following post, she explores the history of Thanksgiving as shaped by nineteenth-century regional, social, sexual, and political imperatives.

The Fall Showcase Day Two features films by graduating seniors and graduate students from Film and Video Studies.

Dr. Keith Clark, Professor of English and African American Studies at George Mason University and a prominent Gaines scholar, will present the Third Annual Ernest J. Gaines Lecture.

Details expand Difret‘s reach. It’s not just one woman's story. Instead, it’s about cooperating across generations and classes to resist injustice against women. These many points of view indicate the complications of that resistance, delivering one moving story and raising awareness of the others it does not tell.

As Lyric R. Cabral shared her filmmaking process, it became clear that keeping such secrets was at once necessary and complicated. Working with an FBI informant without working with the FBI raised all kinds of questions.

The inaugural festival includes screenings and discussions. Sponsored by the Global Film Club, Film and Media Studies, Film and Video Studies, DKA, the Office of International Services and Programs, and University Libraries.

The article appears in the American Scholar.

The abandoned, empty trailer park in Sunset Edge is filled, briefly, by the interloping teens’ imaginations. And the film is a little like that, so laced through with gaps onto which we might project or own desires, and also ponder our part in the storytelling.

(T)Error is the first documentary to place filmmakers on the ground during an active FBI counterterrorism sting operation. It won International Documentary Association's Emerging Filmmakers Award and is nominated for the ABC News VideoSource Award, which recognizes compelling use of news footage in documentary filmmaking.

New courses this semester include Television Studies, The Middle East and North Africa Through Film: The City and the Subject, and Latin American Film and TV Studies.

Dr. Daulatzi ​-- or "Doc Hip Hop" -- is Associate Professor, Film and Media Studies and African American Studies School of Humanities at the University of California​ Irvine​.

In a release well-timed for Halloween, Eric Gary Anderson, faculty member, Department of English, has published a new book, Undead Souths: The Gothic and Beyond in Southern Literature and Culture (LSU Press, 2015). The book explores “undeadness” from the perspectives of the many sides of southern culture.

Blog post from Tara Laskowski about Urban Legends from the Washington Independent Review of Books

This article is from the International Poetry Studies Institute.

Archives of Desire now available from UNC Press

George Mason University Associate Professor and alumnus Art Taylor has recently released his novel, On the Road with Del & Louise: A Novel in Stories.

Linguistics PhD student Aseel Alammar was recently awarded the Best Abstract Award from the 2nd Interdisciplinary Conference in Linguistics at the University of Georgia. She presented her paper : Second Language Perception of Word Segmentation, in October 2015.

Happy Those Who Cry (Paraguay 2014) explores the dichotomy of agency and fate.

Entres Nos on 10/22, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night 10/27: great movies and free pizza.

Back on Board reveals Greg Louganis’ evolution from childhood diving prodigy to Olympic champion to pioneering openly gay athlete.

The George Mason University community is welcome to join the family of Professor Alan Cheuse in a memorial service, to be held on October 11, 2015, 2:30 p.m., at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue, 600 I Street NW, Washington, DC 20001.

Dr. Miller will share insights from her current research project on beliefs and attitudes regarding death among experienced and professional skydivers. She will also speak about her book Playing Dead: Mock Trauma and Folk Drama in Staged High School Drunk Driving Tragedies.

From September 27 to October 3, Fall for the Book will host its 17th Annual Festival with nearly 150 authors at George Mason University and other locations around Northern Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia.

Undead Souths: The Gothic and Beyond in Southern Literature and Culture was just published by Louisiana State University Press

Come see top films selected from the past two years of festivals at GMU's Film and Video Studies. Our screening will be followed by a discussion with filmmakers and reception in Harris Theater.

Physicist, author, educator, and activist Fritjof Capra will present the 2015 Vernon and Marguerite Gras Lecture on September 23, 2015. Dr. Capra is the founding director of the Center for Ecoliteracy in Berkeley, California, and has spent his career exploring the power of science to explain the systems of the universe.

Helon Habila, associate professor of creative writing at George Mason University and 2015 Windham-Campbell Prize winner for fiction shares two of his poems.

Each alumnus of George Mason University takes from the university a collection of experiences and memories that shapes who they will be in the future. Two alumni in particular walked forth from the very early days of George Mason with a foundation that has allowed them to continue to flourish.

The college is saddened to share news of the passing of George Mason University Professor Alan Cheuse, who died on Friday, July 31, as a result of injuries sustained in a car accident two weeks ago. Professor Cheuse was a writer, teacher, longtime literary commentator, and a friend and colleague. His creativity and insight will be missed by all of those who were fortunate to have known him.

Mason alumni Nicole Idar and Elizabeth Gutting have established the Alan Cheuse Literary Review, and ask the Mason community of writers, faculty and students alike, to submit written work to share their thoughts with Professor Cheuse as he recovers from a serious automobile accident.

George H. Wilson, BA English ’69, was on Mason’s first basketball, rugby, and baseball teams. Patriot fans can see him walk across the basketball court during Homecoming games.

FAMS courses offered in Fall 2015 include Introduction to Documentary, Film & Video Forms, Global Film: Walls and Borders, International Mysteries, and Uncovering the US Past Through Film.

A great chance to gain experience in writing reviews of popular, current film, television, and internet programming for a well respected, daily cultural studies magazine.

"Wedding Pulls" will be published by Hub City Press in Summer 2016.

Welcome to Me considers a broader, and unsettling, culture of narcissism, extending beyond the desire to be a TV celebrity.

A review of Helicopter Mom by PopMatters intern Judy Hur.

"If you want to champion the humanities, don’t focus so narrowly on Shakespeare."

The college boasted solid representation at this George Mason University's 2015 Celebration of Distinction event, with six alumni noted for their accomplishments and contributions to the university.

FAMS courses offered in Summer 2015 include Introduction to Film, Film & Video Forms, Global Horror Film, Media Criticism (DE), and Samurai On Screen.

Awards presented for Best of Fest, Best Drama, Best Comedy, Best Documentary, and Best Experimental, as well as for best achievements in technical categories and best pitches. The audience voted on three favorite films, one for each of the three screening blocks on Saturday.

The Mason Film Festival is a three-day program in the Johnson Center Cinema, representing Beginning Video, Intermediate directing work in fiction, and Senior Films. Senior films are the culmination and capstone for Film and Video Studies majors in the BA for students with Video Production and Screenwriting Concentrations. Our Senior Program entries are awarded prizes in Comedy, Drama, Documentary, Cinematography, Editing, Sound Design, Production Design, and Best of Fest.

Readings every night, events all day Friday.

The Hunting Ground is a startling exposé of sexual assault on US campuses, institutional cover-ups and the brutal social toll on victims and their families.

The talk, titled "The Future of English Studies in the Digital Age," will take place on Wednesday, April 15 in Johnson Center Room D from 3:00 to 4:15 with a catered reception to follow.

Caryn is one of four relationship-challenged 30-somethings in "Weird Loners", a self-described “unromantic” comedy series. All four live in the same building in Queens, an arrangement established in the series premiere.

The Annibel Jenkins Biography Prize is a biennial award given out by the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies.

Amanda Rose Wilder's feature film debut dives head first into the inaugural year of the Teddy McArdle Free School in New Jersey, where all classes are voluntary and rules are determined by vote: adults and children have an equal say.

Her new book is tentatively titled "Seasonal Festivity and Commercial Performance in Early Modern England."

George Mason University’s Film and Media Studies department hosted a screening of Chimpanzee Productions’ 2014 documentary “Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People.”

The Department of History & Art History, Interdisciplinary Studies, the Office of Military Services, and some off-campus veterans organizations are sponsoring a free screening of Rory Kennedy's 2014 Academy Award-nominated film, "Last Days in Vietnam" on Sunday, March 29th, at 6:30 PM in the JC Cinema.

Learn more about our programs in English from esteemed faculty, staff, and current students who will be joining you for the day’s event. Students will have the opportunity to sit in on classes while parents enjoy a Question & Answer session with the English Department chair, Debra Lattanzi Shutika.

Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photography and the Emergence of a People at GMU, Monday 16 March 4:30pm | Johnson Center Cinema. Screening and discussion with director Thomas Allen Harris and producer and GMU alumna Deborah Willis.

“I believe students learn more from a movie, rather than a lecture when it comes to exploring different cultures," says Professor Lisa Rabin of the Modern and Classical Languages Department. "There is a growing interest in multilingualism film.”

John Boorman’s new film eloquently captures this surreal experience of peacetime conscription. Queen and Country picks up the story of Bill Rohan, last seen in the closing scenes of 1987’s Hope and Glory cheering the Luftwaffe’s direct hit on his school.

The NYT profiles Professor Harms' English 302 'Room For Debate' assignment.

Students anywhere can now earn graduate level certification in teaching English to non-native learners, benefitting from the 30 years of experience represented by Mason's face-to-face TESL program (photo courtesy of Mason Creative Services).

Do you want to teach ESL to adults? If you are on a busy schedule, you can now earn a TESL Certificate at George Mason University completely online! Learn more about this fully-accredited graduate certificate program. Learn more here: http://masononline.gmu.edu/programs/teslgraduatecertificate/

With two donations from alums, the MFA program has created the new Wendi Kaufman fund to honor the late alumnus whose short story collection, "Helen on 86th Street and Other Stories," became last summer the first title published by Stillhouse Press.

“There are different types of characters that represent different intersections of race and people. [Dear White People] showcases a more complex picture that a lot of other movies haven’t been able to do,” said Christina Lee, student liaison for African and African American Studies.

"Inspired by Harper Lee, Other Literary Sequels," looks at other sequels set for publication in the summer of 2015.

After Thursday night's sold-out screening, we're showing Dear White People again: Friday Feb 6 3pm Johnson Center Cinema. Film and discussion are free and open to the public.

In an article from Inside Higher Ed (and reprinted on Slate.com), Debra Lattanzi Shutika, chair, Department of English, discusses reasons for the increasing rarity of English majors nationwide, and how English departments are changing to meet students' needs.

"When I think about duende, I think of the poet Larry Levis, because as an undergraduate it was from Levis that I first heard of duende."

Dear White People at GMU February 5, 2015 8pm, Johnson Center Cinema. The screening will be followed by a discussion with Gayle Wald (George Washington University) and Mark Hopson (George Mason University).

"Crow-Work" comes out on February 1st.

Robert Stone, who died on January 10, was a member of the all-but-vanished tribe of hard-living, two-fisted, wildly ambitious American novelists who grew up in Hemingway’s slipstream, writes Goodwin.

The latest "Hobbit" film, "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies," delighted movie watchers over the 2014 holiday season. English department faculty member Amelia Rutlege invites her students to delve deeper into Tolkien's work, frequently incorporating it into her classes.

Out in the Night, an award winning documentary produced by Mason’s Director of Film and Video Studies, was screened at Mason as part of the Visiting Filmmakers Series. It has been screened at several film festivals and won multiple awards, including Best Feature at the Queer People of Color Film Festival and the Jury Award for Excellence: Best Documentary at the Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.

"Paper Doll Fetus" was published by Persea

The showcase, which is from 3 to 9:30 p.m. in the Johnson Center Cinema on the Fairfax Campus, will feature 11 final film projects by senior producing course students, 13 films by documentary directing course students and five films by graduate students of the Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies program.

Major Crimes throws together hefty dollops of self-conscious solemnity, afternoon talk show homilies and confessions, and anodyne sympathies for the underdog. The result is difficult for any actors, including the seasoned crew on hand, to make convincing.

"Missed" was originally published in The Master's Review.

Evolution of a Criminal challenges people to ask questions about society and about how far people are willing to go for their families. Monroe was an average, smart kid with a bright future and everything going for him. Seeing his parents struggle living paycheck to paycheck made him feel like he needed to help out.

Taylor won Best Mystery Short Story for his story "The Care and Feeding of Houseplants," originally published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine for their March/April 2013 issue.

On 29 October 2014, GMU’s Film & Media Studies and Film & Video Studies programs hosted a screening of the documentary Out in the Night, followed by a discussion with filmmaker blair dorosh-walther, film producer and FAVS Director Giovanna Chesler, and film subject Renata Hill.

An honest journey of reflection and a personal search for redemption, Evolution of a Criminal is more than just a tale of a good kid gone wrong. It's a film filled with compassion for human frailty and the knowledge that a person is not forever defined by their mistakes.

A recent Mason alum has entered the field with a current job position as an assistant editor for Ventana Productions in Washington, D.C., after graduating with a BA in Film and Video Studies from Mason this spring. Ashley Blue decided to pursue this career path during her senior year of high school after seeing “Slumdog Millionaire” at the theater.

Ben Steger is a documentary filmmaker and a professor for the Film and Video Studies department and Film and Media Studies program here at Mason. His new documentary, “Stage Four: A Love Story,” premiered at the Washington West Film Festival on Oct. 25.

"Green Oil" is out now on Further Other Book Works

Buzzfeed mines the Lingusitics Program's Speech Accent Archive to create a guess-the-accent quiz!

The Phoenix Award is given to the author of a book for children published twenty years earlier that did not win a major award at the time of publication, but which, from the perspective of time, is deemed worthy of special recognition for its high literary quality.

GMU’s Cinematic Arts Fraternity, Delta Kappa Alpha, Film & Media Studies, and Film & Video Studies present a series of films about filmmaking. All screenings on Wednesdays at 4:30pm in Johnson Center Room A, each followed by a discussion with GMU faculty and Delta Kappa Alpha members.

Out in the Night is a new, award-winning documentary by blair dorosh-walther that examines the 2006 case of The New Jersey 4. Through the lives of four young women, Out in the Night reveals how their race, gender identity and sexuality became criminalized in the mainstream news media and criminal legal system.

How would you like to spend a course period talking about sports and getting credit for it? Even better, you will learn more than you thought you could about something you already love.

Mason film students are bringing together both film and non-film majors to learn about the production of movies.The Films about Filmmaking series gives students the chance to discuss their love of film with a community that shares their same passion.

In celebration of American Archives Month, the National Archives has partnered with the Academy of American Poets to present original poems inspired by the holdings of the National Archives. Here, Eric Pankey reads his poems about three Civil War photos by Mathew Brady.

Revise, revise!

Clark is the author of "The Radical Fiction of Ann Petry" and "Black Manhood in James Baldwin, Ernest J. Gaines and August Wilson."

Come discuss plans for this year's events and learn about joining the club at our first general body meeting on MONDAY, October 13th at 7pm in The Hub, next to the Corner Pocket. We can't wait to see you there!

"Noontime's Won" will be published by Octopus Books as the inaugural volume in its new Poetry in Translation Series.

"Traveling" will be put out by Hyacinth Girl Press and "Imaginary Kansas" from Dancing Girl Press.

"In A Master Builder," writes Lesley Smith, "Jonathan Demme marshals time (more than a decade of rehearsal and performance) and talent (Wallace Shawn, André Gregory, and Lisa Joyce).

For the 13th year in a row, Mason’s Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) Program has been recognized for its excellence by US News & World Report rankings for Writing in the Disciplines.

Freshman enrollment increased by 50 percent this fall. Two-thirds of those enrolled are freshmen, while one-third are transfer students. In past years, the number of transfer and freshman students has been about even, says FAVS Program Coordinator John Kowalski.

The Fall for the Book festival opens this week. It features some of the best-known and best-loved writers on the planet as well as the rising literary stars of tomorrow.

In A Five Star Life, Irene works as a “mystery guest,” a secret customer at five-star hotels in order to write reviews of the service.

Michals' essay discusses why English departments should not only teach, but embrace, young adult fiction.

The Northern Virginia Civil Rights Archive represents the result of a year long, community-wide endeavor to gather personal testimonials from Northern Virginia residents about the Civil Rights Movement, including their struggles and successes as well as their everyday experiences from the time period.

Fall for the Book, George Mason University's annual week-long festival of reading, has announced its schedule and participants for its sixteenth event. Nearly 150 writers and more than 20,000 attendees are expected to enjoy the festival's offerings held around Washington, Virginia, and Maryland.

Heba Saleh, BA '07 and MA '11, runs EatLuv, an organic food delivery company that brings locally grown ingredients for nutritious recipes directly to customers’ doorsteps.

Filmmaker Samantha Grant said that a primary motivation for making A Fragile Trust was to “restore faith in journalism” by revealing how Jayson Blair’s case developed from a particular set of circumstances. She emphasized the importance of journalistic institutions even as advancing technologies change the field.

Interested in joining the English Alumni Society? The English Department Outreach Committee needs your help! To create the best programs possible, alumni of any English department program are invited to complete a very brief outreach questionnaire. Your feedback will help us greatly!

The IAMMASON team welcomes students, staff, faculty and alumni to share their unique linguistic background and their views on diversity. Our researchers, LaBrea, Stephanie, and Aseel, are graduate students in the Linguistics Program.

Four faculty members from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences were recognized this year by the university's Center for Teaching and Faculty Excellence. We congratulate Eric Anderson, Alan More, Amy Best, and Jeremy Hodgson for their contributions to the excellent instruction of our students.

Professor Ar Taylor wins the Agatha Award for best short story for "The Care and Feeding of House Plants" which appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, March/April 2013.

Folklore graduate student Kim Stryker has participated in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival as an intern and employee. Now she's working to keep the iconic festival on the National Mall.

Despite our desire to invest in in Bette's story (she’s Catherine Deneuve, after all), she remains as undeveloped as the film around her. While the title On My Way implies the start of a journey that might be energetic and fresh, by the film’s end, Bettie doesn’t seem like she’s moved much at all.

A Fragile Trust tells the shocking story of Jayson Blair, the most infamous serial plagiarist of our time, and how he unleashed the massive scandal that rocked the New York Times and the entire world of journalism.

The "Creative Scholarship Award" is given for the best academic book published by a CLA member during the academic year. Some of the previous winners have included such distinguished scholars in the field of African American literary studies as Trudier Harris, Karla Holloway, and Thadeous Davis.

On Wednesday, 19 March 2014, the Film & Media Studies Visiting Filmmakers Series brought the award-winning Let the Fire Burn and director Jason Osder to the Johnson Center Cinema. The event brought together George Mason University faculty and students, as well as some community members who remembered the history recounted by the documentary.

English Professor Eric Anderson was selected for the 2014 Teaching Excellence Award, with special recognition in General Education.

The week-long series of events for writers is, like much at Mason, ever-growing.

"Impressively detailed and masterfully assembled, "Mr. Selfridge" again focuses on the classed relations among employees and employers, relations that can be both supportive and dysfunctional, and, increasingly, affected by external forces."

"Language Learners Privilege Structured Meaning Over Surface Frequency" takes a look at how English speakers transfer knowledge to new learned languages.

Winners from the English Department include MA students Paul Michiels and Ryan Sheehan, and BFA student Julia Douglas

A special March Readers' Review: Diane Rehm and her guests discuss why fiction matters. A recent study indicates that fewer than half of all Americans are reading novels today. It suggests that those who do read fiction are better able to understand the emotions of others. A conversation about the social and personal benefits of reading fiction.

GMU’s Cinematic Arts Fraternity, Delta Kappa Alpha, and Film & Media Studies are cosponsoring Monday Movies, two Classic Film Screenings and Discussions, on March 24 and March 31. Both events will be at 4:30pm in the Johnson Center Cinema.

The Society for the Study of Southern Literature Biennial Conference is meeting at Mason's Arlington Campus this week, and features "Other Souths": unconventional voices that expand the notion of southern studies. The conference's two keynote events are open to the public.

Photos from Denise Albanese's spring semester seminar, "A Folger Introduction to Research Methods and Agendas" for students in their first two years of graduate study.

The astonishingly gripping Let the Fire Burn is that rarest of cinematic objects: a found-footage film that unfurls with the tension of a great thriller.

Ruby Corado commended Laverne Cox for “having the courage to use her gift to tell it like it is,” then added, “The show is creating a conversation around trans issues. There’s more than is shown… but it’s a good start.”

She will present her paper "The Dream of the Rood and Medieval Cross Veneration," on March 22 at the 5th Annual MadRush Conference, which presents outstanding examples of undergraduate research in the humanities and social sciences.

The winners, selected by a panel of television executives, writers, producers, agents and managers, were judged for excellence in categories that included marketability and originality.

"Dismantling The Angel" is the winner of the New Measure Poetry Prize.

Professor Kaufmann's article in the Yale Review was featured in Poetry Daily. You can read the article in full following the link below.

The book explores imprisonment as a central trope of Irish nationalism, its influence on the visual language of Irish film, and the double critique it offers to both colonialism and nationalism.

The English Department offers the campus a text and community program for spring semester built around the DC-set novel The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears and concludes in April with a capstone visit by the writer of the selected text, Ethiopian-born novelist Dinew Mengestu.

On 7 November 2013, George Mason University’s Film & Media Studies Program hosted a screening of the documentary The New Black, followed by a Q&A with director Yoruba Richen. The event was the latest in FAMS' Visiting Filmmakers Series, which brings a new film and artist to campus each semester.

Presented on October 16th at the American Folklore Society meeting in Providence, Rhode Island, the award recognizes Yocom for founding the Folklore Studies Program at GMU.

Nanian is featured on the show to talk about the literature of war, revisiting some classic works that continue to resonate today and considering the emerging hallmarks of fiction about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Earlier this month Folklore Professor Debra Lattanzi Shutika and alum Kerry Kaleba were interviewed about the Field School for Cultural Documentation and the project at Arlington National Cemetery. You can here their interview podcast here.

For “The New Black,” the Visiting Filmmakers series features co-sponsorship from many Mason departments, including African and African American Studies, the Honors College, the LGBTQ Resources Program, Women and Gender Studies and others.

PayScale named Mason the best school for English and History majors, with alumni earning a median mid-career pay of over $80,000.

The New Black takes viewers into the pews and onto the streets as it tells the story of the historic fight to win marriage equality in Maryland and charts the evolution of this divisive issue within the black community.

English professor Alan Cheuse, a popular book reviewer on NPR's "All Things Considered," discussed the work and legacy of novelist Tom Clancy, who died October 2.

More than 300 students, writing center directors, and administrators from Virginia, Maryland, and DC public and private schools will visit Mason on October 11, 2013, for the Third Annual Secondary School Writing Center Conference.

George Mason University linguistics professor Steven Weinberger will be heard on the “With Good Reason” public radio interview show this week.

The screening of Where Soldiers Come From and dicussion following served as a fitting conclusion to honor not only those who lost their lives on 9/11, but also those who continue to give their lives in service of their country.

The language you use may save you money....

The Department of English and the Program in Linguistics welcomes Dr. Hui-wen Cheng as a visiting assistant professor.

Where Soldiers Come From paints an intimate portrait of three friends' four-year journey from Michigan's Upper Peninsula to Afghanistan and back again.

Eric Johnson, an alumnus of the MA in English program and member of the board of advisors for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, is the new Director of Digital Access for the Folger Shakespeare Library, heading the new Digital Media and Publications division.

ArtsBeat streamed Friday night’s conversation with the Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, whose latest film, I’m So Excited, opens June 28. The conversation was translated by GMU FAMS' Carla Marcantonio.

Foster not only revisits territory he’s covered over many years of teaching the great Russian novelist, but also heads in fresh directions, polishing ideas that he’s only begun exploring fully in recent years: differences in how Tolstoy has been regarded by readers in his own country and how he’s been experienced by others around the world.

The new book, called "The Radical Fiction of Ann Petry" is available now from Louisiana State University Press. Listen to or download a podcast of Clark discussing his new book.

The George Mason English Department is proud to announce that its new PhD in Writing and Rhetoric has been approved by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. The program begins in Fall 2013.

Kathleen's presentation, “Framing Frames: Reconstructing Lost Truth in Fun Home," focuses on the role of family photographs in Alison Bechdel’s 2006 graphic novel.

English Major Paul Laudiero won The Great Tumblr Book Search contest, a collaboration between Chronicle Books and Tumblr. The Tumblr is now being published in print by Chronicle Books.

The lecture is from the 2011-2012 Vision Series here at George Mason University.

On Wednesday, 10 April, students, faculty, and visitors to George Mason University attended a screening of the documentary Reportero and a discussion with award-winning filmmaker Bernardo Ruiz. Sponsored by the Film & Media Studies Visiting Filmmakers Series, the event showcased the dangers faced by journalists in Mexico, as they are targeted by drug cartels and corrupt government officials.

New Mason English Professor Peter Streckfus has been awarded the "Joseph Brodsky Rome Prize" to work on his new book of poetry, "Water and Plastic." Steckfus will spend the year in Rome at the American Academy in Rome.

On April 24 the Folklore Studies Program will commemorate the 35th anniversary with a celebration in honor of Professor Margaret Yocom, the program's founder.

Congratulations to Professor Samaine Lockwood for being chosen for the "First Book Institute" at Center for American Literary Studies, and Professor Joy Fraser chosen for the Folklore Studies in a Multicultural World book project in 2012.

Carla Marcantonio invited to speak at the NYU-Columbia conference on "Screen Melodrama: Global Perspectives," held from 28 February-3 March. Her paper was entited "Mapping Melodrama: Atemporality, Affect, and Global Cinema."

The David J. King Teaching Award is given annually to a faculty member at George Mason who has made significant, long-term contributions to the overall educational excellence of the university.

For English majors interested in connecting with alumni to discuss internships, jobs, and careers.

Cunning and ambitious, with a deep understanding of politics and war, the women of 'Game of Thrones' all know how to get what they want.

Rescheduled: The Film & Media Studies Visiting Filmmakers Series is bringing the film Reportero and director Bernardo Ruiz to George Mason University on 10 April 2013, 6pm: Meese Conference Room, Mason Hall (MH D023)

Mason English professors Don Gallehr and Terry Zawacki joined a discussion on the PBS NewsHour about how academics keep working after the usual retirement age.

Hear stories from Mason’s past as we gather to celebrate the new digital Northern Virginia Folklife Archive. Students and faculty will tell stories about their folklore fieldwork, and share tales and more that they have collected through the years.

Elyse Leeds Acanda, BA ’94, English, recently raised $22,000 for victims of sex trafficking in India, engaging potential donors by hosting yoga events.

The 5th Annual War on the Silver Screen Film Festival will be held on Feb. 26-28 at 7 PM in the JC Cinema. This year's theme is "Hollywood's Cold War."

Motionpoems, an organization that pairs poets with video artists to make truly unique presentations of image and verse, has taken on Eric Pankey's poem "Cogitatio Mortis."

English Majors and English Alumni Meet and Greet scheduled for February 20th from 3:00-5:00

Radner will read from "Johnson and Boswell: A Biography of Friendship" on February 2nd at 6:00 pm at Politics and Prose Bookstore in DC.

This Saturday, Jan 26, from 1:00-2:30 pm, Joy Fraser & Susan Tichy will present a program at A Festival of Scotland at the Hylton Performing Arts Center, on GMU's Prince William Campus. The campus is served by Mason Shuttle. Free student tickets are available here: http://hyltoncenter.org/tickets/student.php

Fraser discovers some 200 pages of new evidence and testimony regarding the murder mystery on a research visit last summer to the Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador. She also sheds light on the holiday traditions of mumming linked to the murder.

With Beneath the Blindfold, filmmakers Ines Sommer and Kathy Berger set out to counter the "blind spot" in our national conversation about torture by focusing on survivors’ personal stories, insights and struggles.

The PBS NewsHour weekly arts blog picks "Providence," recently published in Sally Keith's new book of poetry, for its poem of the week. To watch a video of Keith reading the poem, click on the link below.

"10 PRINT CHR$ (205.5 + RND (1)); : GOTO 10" explores the vast space one line of code can take.

Professor Samaine Lockwood's popular course on ghosts and horror. You stand at the threshold. Enter if you dare.

Stephen Groening, assistant professor of film and media studies, held an innovative session of his cellphone culture class where the discussion took place entirely on Twitter.

ENGH 319 Cell Phone Cultures is being taught this semester by its creator Stephen Groening, assistant professor of Film and Media Studies.

Starting in Fall 2013, the English Department will be offering a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, one of only 30 BFAs in Creative Writing nationwide.

Faculty member Jessica Matthews has won the first annual Distance Education Faculty Award. This award recognizes faculty and support employees whose efforts exemplify the interactivity, course design, technology and assessment qualifications of the Distance Education program.

Faculty member Debra Lattanzi Shutika has been recognized by the American Folklore Society and the University of Chicago with the Chicago Folklore Prize, given each year to the author of the best book-length work of folklore scholarship.

Alan Cheuse will be reading with Alyson Foster at the Hill Center in SE DC to lead off a new PEN/Faulkner reading series on Sunday, December 2nd at 7pm.

The Fall issue of Not Just Letters is out, available both in print and in electronic formats!

The Film & Media Studies Visiting Filmmakers Series is bringing the film The Waiting Room, director Peter Nicks, and Washington Post film critic Ann Hornaday to George Mason University's Johnson Center Cinema on November 7, 2012 at 6pm. The event is free and open to the public.

Biologists using tools developed for drawing evolutionary family trees say that they have solved a longstanding problem in archaeology: the origin of the Indo-European family of languages.

The Department of English and the Program in Linguistics welcome Dr. Jennifer Culbertson to the faculty in Linguistics. She begins her full-time position in the Fall 2012 semester.

Looking for an English course in Fall 2012? We've got them here. Some sample topics: Cell Phone Culture, Folklore and Folklife, English Renaissance Drama, The Beginnings of African American Literature, Romantic Poetry, Modern Drama, English Grammar, Writing Nonfiction Genres, Political Film, Twentieth-Century Avante Garde Poetry, Rhetoric and Public Spectacles, and more.

Miranda McMahon (BA, English), an English Instructor at Somerset County Vocational & Technical High School, was selected as the 2011-2012 New Jersey Teacher of the Year.

Congratulations to this year's award winners. View the complete list.

The Mason Center for Teaching & Faculty Excellence has announced its 2012 Teaching Excellence Awards. The college is extremely pleased and proud to note that a number of its faculty members are among the award winners.

Karin Tooze, who graduated from Mason with an MA in English—Teaching of Writing and Literature, and who is affiliated with Mason's Northern Virginia Writing Project as a Teacher-Consultant, is a winner of the annual Agnes Myer Outstanding Teacher Award.

Undergraduate English Majors: now is the time to submit an essay to be considered for the Dr. Barry Berkey Personal Essay Award. There is a prize of $400 associated with the award. In addition, the student winner will be recognized at the College Of Humanities and Social Sciences annual convocation, at the English Department's annual awards reception, and by an award plaque.

A fascinating New York Times article on "one of America's most ambitious lexicographical projects," the publication of the 60,000-entry, multi-volume dictionary on the country's regional dialects.

Held by the Northern Virginia Writing Project (NVWP) every March since 1987, the Language and Learning Conference has provided the opportunity for over 3,000 teachers to share their knowledge and enthusiasm about writing and the teaching of writing.

Professor Keith Clark of the Mason English Department will be giving one of this year's George Mason Vision Series Lectures, entitled "Before Toni Morrison and Alice Walker: The Forgotten Fiction of Ann Petry." The lecture is Monday, February 27, 2012 at 7 p.m.

Welcome back to Mason for the Spring 2012 semester! Be sure to check out the English Banner hanging in the Johnson Center and visit the careers page on the website.

Mason English Professor Tamara Harvey is the guest editor of the most recent issue of Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers (Vol. 28, No. 2 (2011)), a special issue, “Women and Early America.”

The Arlington County Board honored folklorist Debra Lattanzi Shutika and MAIS student Annie Hallman for their exceptional volunteer work assisting the Tell Arlington's Story initiative.

This class focuses on two of the most celebrated works of American Literature: Leaves of Grass and Moby Dick.

Encompassing an array of genres and forms, ENGH 351 examines black writing from mid-20th century to present.

ENGH 202 courses offer special topics and fulfill the general education requirement for a 200-level literature class. Take one alone, or build on the reading and writing skills learned in ENGH 201.

Professor Lockwood promises a spooky survey of the "specter-saturated landscape of American literature" in this lecture course, which includes fiction, slave narratives, murder confessions, poetry, and essays.

Ryan Call, author of the short story collection The Weather Stations (Caketrain, 2011) and MFA alum (2008) just received a 2011 Whiting Writers’ Award in fiction. The Whiting foundation recognized his writing as “new…unlike anything else being published.”

It's almost that time of year again when the English department invites any writers to join in a month-long marathon of churning out 50,000 words in the form of a novel. Join us in Robinson A 447 on Tuesday, October 25 from 7:30pm until 10:30pm for a kick-off party and writing workshop with author Colleen Kearney Rich. Check out the Facebook invitation to RSVP.

Mason linguistics professor Steven Weinberger sits at a computer in a small room reading a 69-word paragraph from the computer’s large monitor. It’s a short paragraph that he and his research assistants devised using virtually every English sound. Weinberger is a linguistics czar.

Laura Scott, MFA '93, serves the English department as the undergraduate advisor and guides our students to success at Mason by helping them find classes and concentrations to fit their interests and successfully complete their degrees. Additionally, she teaches undergraduate fiction workshops and helps lead extracurricular activities such as write-ins for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month in November). Now, with the publication of her first novel, "Death Wishing," we have a chance to return the favor and offer her our support.

Once again the Mason Writing Across the Curriculum Program, directed by English Professor Terry Zawacki, is among the top programs of its kind in the country, according to the latest US News and World Report Rankings.

Come see Amy Tan, Stephen King, Claudia Rankine, Mary Karr, as well as English faculty, students, and alums as they present their work at this year's Fall for the Book festival.

English faculty member Paul Rogers has played a major role in bringing an entrepreneurship-focused academic center, minor and introductory course to George Mason University.

Stephen J. Brown, who taught in the Mason English Department from its early years until 1994, died in Washington, D.C., on July 23, 2011. Brown was a scholar of the English Renaissance and the author of pioneering scholarship on gender and sexuality in Shakespeare, and on Shakespeare's role in American culture.

The big red cabinet across from the English department's main office is difficult to miss, but the real spectacle is the student work displayed inside. Be sure to stop by and see what our students are doing.

This year's festival features Amy Tan, Stephen King, and Claudia Rankine. Events take place at George Mason University's Fairfax, Virginia Campus and at locations throughout Northern Virginia, D.C. and Maryland. All events are free and open to the public.

English courses change from 'ENGL' to 'ENGH' in Fall 2011.

An innovative project sprouts outside Robinson A and brings together the beauty of words, flowers, and words about flowers.

Newly minted graduates were not the only ones celebrating on Friday, May 20. At 12:30 that day, alumni of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences gathered in Mason Hall for the college’s annual Alumni of the Year Celebration.

English Department Professor speaks about Nigeria, oil production, and his new book "Oil on Water" on American Public Media's radio program, Marketplace.

Night was coming on fast, so history professor T. Mills Kelly spoke quickly. His class needed to get some critical field work done in the fading midwinter light.

Two Rides: 20 and 70 miles. These rides are for students, alumni and faculty of the Mason English Department. Please come join us!

Tamara Harvey, the Director of Graduate Programs in the English department, celebrates the recent publication of "Confronting Global Gender Justice: Women’s lives, human rights" along with the book's co-editors Debra Bergoffen (Philosophy), Paula Ruth Gilbert (French and Women & Gender Studies), and Connie McNeely (School of Public Policy) on Thursday, April 21, 2011 in the Women and Gender Studies Center (Johnson Center, rm. 240K) from 4PM until 6PM.

The Provost and the Center for Teaching Excellence have announced the 2011 Teaching Excellence Award winners. Included in this year's winners is English Department Professor Terry Zawacki. Zawacki's win continues a long and proud tradition of strong representation of English Department faculty among the annual Teaching Excellence Award winners. All are invited and welcomed to the 2011 Celebration of Teaching Excellence. The ceremony will be held on Monday, April 11, from 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm in the Center for the Arts, Concert Hall Main Lobby.

Students hoping to present their research at the annual College of Humanities and Social Sciences Undergraduate Research Symposium have until Monday, March 28 to send in their applications.

George Mason University will host the fourth Writing Research Across Borders II conference from Feb. 17-20 in various locations on the Fairfax campus. Experts will cover writing development, technology, writing research throughout various disciplines, writing in different social settings and many other topics.

When he's not teaching or writing, Professor Roger Lathbury runs the Orchises Press. This February at its annual convention, the professional organization of creative writers, the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) paid tribute to Lathbury's press.

How many times does the word "magic" appear in "The Tempest"? Eric Johnson's website could tell you in milliseconds.

The latest edition of the English department's newsletter is here.

For many faculty members, the end of November signals the beginning of the descent into long hours and sleepless nights. For English professor Eric Anderson, November was a busy month from the start.

Hired a little more than a year ago as a receptionist and administrative assistant for graduate programs in the English Department, Cloud Spurlock works outside the box.

Six professional women will speak about their career experiences during the Women in Technology college-to-career panel discussion on Thursday, Nov. 11, from 3–5 p.m. in the Edwin Meese III Conference Room in Mason Hall.

Over the summer, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences welcomed many new faculty and staff members, while some current college employees added other responsibilities to their slate. The Global Affairs and Biodefense programs have new directors and the Department of Public and International Affairs has a new chair.

November is National Novel Writing Month. Please join Mason's loose affiliation of novelists as we tackle the challenge of writing 50,000 words in 30 days. NaNoWriMo is fun, nearly impossible, and definitely exciting.

Amy Lane didn't just write an essay for her Advanced Composition (ENGL 302) course. She got it published.

Want some advice on starting a graduate program as a part-time grad student? How about teaching with Twitter? Or a means of evaluating student blogs or the best note-taking software for your Android device? Professor Mark Sample dishes on these questions and more in his new role as a contributing editor to The Chronicle of Higher Education blog, ProfHacker.

Six Days. 150 Authors. Events at George Mason, and around Northern Virginia, DC, and Maryland. September 19-24, 2010. Featured authors range from novelists Jane Smiley and Rick Moody to graphic memoirist Alison Bechdel, to poet Charles Bernstein, to environmentalist Bill McKibben--and the list goes on and on. Participants from the Mason English Department faculty include Ben Doller, Roger Lathbury, and David Williams. A number of the Department's former MFA students are featured as well.

English faculty member Don Gallehr taught Tibetan monks how to write earlier this year. Thumbnail image courtesy of Don Gallehr.

Several college departments are offering classes focusing on film and media in which students will examine niche on-screen topics and engage in analysis with highly decorated film experts.

English faculty member reviews new novel on National Public Radio.

Former Mason MFA student Danielle Duelen has won the University of Arkansas Press’s 2011 Miller Williams Arkansas Poetry Prize. The press will publish Duelen's prize-winning poetry collection, Lovely Asunder, in Spring 2011. During her time at Mason, Duelen also served as the English Department's coordinator of graduate programs.

The English Department hosts its first annual writer's workshop specially offered to Mason English Department Alumni. Featured workshop leaders and readers are Laura Scott, Mel Nichols, Joe Hall and Kyle Semmel.

English Department Professor Yoonmee Chang will speak at the 2010 Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the topic of Asian Pacific Americans. The event, "Margin to Mainstream: APAs in DC Metro Universities,” will be held at 1:15 pm and 2:00pm on July 2nd. Come down to the festival and say hello.

English Department Professor Eve Wiederhold's article "Feminist Rhetoric and Representational Fatigue" has won the 2008 Elizabeth Flynn Award for the best feminist article published in the field of Rhetoric and Composition Studies. The article is published in JAC: Rhetoric, Writing, Culture, Politics 28.1 (2009).

English Department Professor Terry Zawacki was a featured speaker at the recent Writing Across the Curriculum Conference in Bloomington, Indiana.

The Speech Accent Archive of George Mason University has been named one of 30 outstanding web sites for reference information. This recognition comes from MARS: Emerging Technologies in Reference section of the Reference and User Services Association of the American Library Association. Congratulations to the faculty, students, and native speakers who have contributed to the site.

On May 5, 2010, George Mason University will remember Lorraine Brown, professor emeritus of English who passed away in February after 42 years of service to the university.

The comfortable and stylish English Department T-shirt, with its distinctive Beowulf with Blackberry logo, is now available in the English Department Office, for the low, low price of $6.00 a shirt. See Cloud Spurlock to buy a shirt, and wear you English Department colors!

English Master's degree student Malisah Small and English undergraduate student Nicole Wiesenhahn are 2010-2011 recipients of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences Dean's Challenge Award. The award acknowledges exceptional undergraduate and graduate students who have excelled while making academically challenging choices.

Professor Timothy Tangherlini will present and discuss his current project on folklore and geographic information systems. This innovative work brings together the fields and practices of folklore, cultural geography, ethnography, and the digital humanities. Professor Tangherlini was awarded a 2009 American Council of Learned Societies Digital Innovation Fellowship for this project. The presentation is scheduled for Monday, May 3, 7:20 - 10:00 pm in the Johnson Center, Third Floor, Room F.

Two member of the English Department faculty garnered 2010 University Teaching Excellence Awards. Congratulations to Twila Johnson, who won a Teaching Excellence Award, and to Mark Sample, who won the University Award for Excellence in Teaching with Technology.

In an effort to raise funds to support current students through fellowships, internships and awards, George Mason University English Department Chair Robert Matz is challenging himself with a ride of 224 miles that must be completed in 24 hours. The action starts April 16.

Professor Amal Amireh, the 2008-2009 Fenwick Fellow, will give the annual Fenwick Fellow Lecture on April 7, 2010 in the Johnson Center, Room A, at 2 - 4 pm. Her lecture is entitled "Between Nationalism and Globalization: Representations of Arab Masculinity in Arab Popular Culture."

The College of Humanities and Social Sciences is proud to announce the speakers for this year’s convocation ceremonies. Warren Brown, the founder and owner of successful bakery CakeLove and Love Café’, and poet and author Robert Pinsky are the speakers for this year’s convocation ceremonies.

Entertainment Weekly called it “a hauntingly beautiful historical spotlight.” The Washington Post praised how the “intricately expressive faces and trenchant dramatic pacing evoke the diabolic slave trade’s real horrors.” And now students across the university will have the opportunity to discover for themselves Kyle Baker’s graphic novel “Nat Turner,” an account of the 1831 slave rebellion that has been chosen for the 2010 Text and Community Program.

The university community mourns the passing of Professor Emeritus of English Lorraine A. Brown, who died on Feb. 27. Brown retired from Mason in February 2009 after 42 years of service. In 2007, she and Don Gallehr, English, were recognized as the first university employees to reach the 40-year milestone of service to the Commonwealth of Virginia.

The Northern Virginia Writing Project -- a staff development program for teachers that is housed at George Mason University -- will be hosting the "Bernadette Mulholland Glaze Language and Learning Conference"on March 13, 2010.

Mason MFA graduate Eleanor Graves -- a recipient of the Mary Rinehart Award in poetry -- is one of 16 writers and 16 visual artists from Washington, D.C., and beyond that have paired to create artworks that resonate with each other for a new exhibition, Call + Response. The show, which includes the work of a Guggenheim fellowship recipient and seven Hamiltonian Fellows, will run from January 23 until February 13, 2010.

Following Salinger's death on January 27, 2010, The Washington Post recounts Mason faculty member and publisher Roger Lathbury's brief relationship with the reclusive writer.

Mason professor Carla Marcantonio, whose dissertation studied acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar’s work, says his film Broken Embraces is "Very self-reflexive about the process of making movies. The main character is a stand-in for Almodóvar himself, and the film is partly a meditation on what it would be like for the director who depends on the visual to lose his eyesight.”

Eisner's Nineteenth-Century Poetry and Literary Celebrity analyzes the ways poets and their readers adjusted to the new modes of fame and fandom that appeared along with the rise of mass media, a mass audience for literature, and new techniques of marketing and journalism in the nineteenth century.

While many of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences' students will travel abroad this winter, 20 of them are headed to places likes Israel, Palestine, London, Switzerland, Greece, and Turkey thanks to awards from Mason's Center for Global Education.

In this Washington Post article, George Mason University professor Donald Gallehr chronicles how he jump-started The Northern Virginia Writing Project -- a 30-year project that annually selects 25 teachers from all levels and disciplines to attend a five-week summer writing institute.

Creative writing (MFA) graduate Melissa Tuckey, a poet, has appeared in several prominent publications and has a chapbook, “Rope as Witness.” She is the recipient of several awards and fellowships including the Ohio Arts Council and the D.C. Commission on Arts and Humanities, as well as a residency at Blue Mountain Center. She is also the co-founder of Split This Rock Poetry Festival where she freely exercises her political aspirations.

The English Department announces two new student prizes, both made possible by the generous gift of an anonymous alumni donor. Each award is named for and honors a former member of the George Mason English Department. The Robert Karlson prize provides $500 to the year's outstanding graduate student in the English Department's MA programs. The Aileen Walls prize provides $500 to an outstanding graduating English major.

Professor Alan Cheuse gives recommendations for holiday reading to NPR audience.

Ireland and the Caribbean: islands separated by an ocean but not by history. Michael Malouf’s recently published book, Transatlantic Solidarities: Irish Nationalism and Caribbean Poetics, documents shared Irish and Caribbean poetic and political traditions.

What shapes did feminism take before modern feminist movements? This is the question that American literature specialist Tamara Harvey explores in her newly published book Figuring Modesty in Feminist Discourse Across the Americas, 1633-1700.

What makes a Latvian speaker of English sound different from a Kiswahili speaker of English? And can we tell if a speaker is from New Zealand or from Australia? These are a few of the questions that the Speech Accent Archive can help to answer.

What images come to mind when you hear the phrase “Asian American ghetto”? Is there such a thing? Aren’t Asian Americans model minorities, either immune to poverty or through hard work and self-sufficiency expected to pull themselves quickly out of it?

Alumnus Matt Murphy, BA English '97, spends a good part of each year serving as a snow ranger and predicting avalanches at the Chugach National Forest in Alaska. He reaches thousands of users with his daily morning backcountry avalanche predictions as a lead forecaster for the Avalanche Information Center.

In addition to his work as a Professor of English at George Mason University, Professor Roger Lathbury runs his own publishing company.

In the Aug. 3 edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education, writer Peter Monaghan tells how George Mason University professor Mark Sample used his blog to blow the whistle on a previously undiscovered literary hoax.

They lined up in the parking lot of Patriot Center, smiles on their faces and arms wrapped around their friends in celebratory hugs. George Mason University's class of 2009, grouped into the College of Humanities and Social Sciences disciplines, marched into the Patriot Center on May 15, 2009 for undergraduate convocation. "This celebration recognizes your efforts and dedication in fulfilling your degree requirements," Dean Jack Censer told the group of students. "Your passion and pursuit of excellence brought you to this culminating moment, where you are surrounded by the family and friends who have guided and supported you along the way."

English Professor Teresa Michals has often told her students that real learning and real friendship go together. Through the development of the Mason Topics program, Michals was able to create an environment in which students and professors could build long-lasting relationships in the pursuit of their scholarly work.

Eric G. Anderson has been awarded a $15,000 fellowship by The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.