UNC Student Organization for Undergraduate Literature

Hi everyone.

This is probably the most important announcement I've ever posted here:

My birthday is approaching. It's just a few days away: Tuesday, April 29th. That's right, it's just next week. I will be 23. Say it out loud. TWENTY THREE. Imagine yourself turning 23. It's not the exultant 21, or the confused 22, but the resigned 23: settling in for the climb. Approaching the hill of 30. Comrades... it's hard to grow old.

I post this announcement in order to let you all know that I won't be offended if you give me gifts.

Love,
Your Friend,
Sarah Bull

(This is in jest, really.)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0858479/

The gist: Smart People is a story about a pompous English professor, who in the years following his wife’s death, has become a scourge to his students and an emotionally absent father to his rebellious son James (Ashton Holmes) and his perfect preppy daughter Vanessa (Ellen Page). When he suffers a concussion in a freak accident, he meets and unexpectedly falls for an E.R. doctor (Sarah Jessica Parker), a brilliant former student who is still harboring a grudge over a bad grade he gave her years before.

(Yes, I copied that from Wikipedia.)

These readings promise to be wonderful, so please consider attending and supporting the UNC Creative Writing program's finest! - Sarah Bull
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Senior Honors Fiction Readings

Members of the Senior Honors in Fiction Writing class will give three public readings of their work in the Morehead Lounge, first floor, Graham Memorial, Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence, UNC-Chapel Hill. A brief reception will follow each reading.
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Tuesday, April 8th, 6:00 p.m.

Nate Dixon
Adam Edgerton
Tanner McSwain
Ali Tharrington
Parker Woltz
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Monday, April 14th , 6:00 p.m.
William Drew Donegan
David Hodges
Sydney Krell
Lori Sullivan

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Tuesday, April 22nd, 6:00 p.m.
William Boggess
Mika Chance
Kitty Lynn
Katherine Meehan

For further information, please contact Professor Bland Simpson at bsimpson [ at ] email [dot] unc [dot] edu.

Hey guys--I just got this email and it reminded me: poetry month approacheth! These daily poems in April really make me happy, so I am posting the email here in case any of you want to sign up (there's a link below). And as an aside--last year, through the Knopf poem a day, there was a competition--basically one had to follow a link to a page where an author introduced a poem (audio file) and read it aloud, and to enter the contest one simply sent the name of the poet and poem to the Knopf people (no guess work, the author introduces his or her self AND the poem)... the prize was an audio CD from Knopf, poems read by authors, neat to listen to an author reading his or her work. I won the CD, I think, because so few people entered! So give it a try if you sign up for this.

Sarah
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Dear Poetry Lover,

Ten years ago we began a Knopf tradition. To celebrate National Poetry Month, we sent a poem a day by e-mail for 30 days to anyone who asked to receive them. Now, with over 35,000 subscribers, we are proud to continue with a whole new series of daily poems. Each day during the month of April you will receive a poem from some of the best poets in the world including Mark Strand, Mary Jo Salter, Julia Hartwig, and Richard Kenney, as well as classics from Frank O'Hara, Rudyard Kipling, Kenneth Koch and more. This year, we'll also be featuring special podcasts, gorgeous printable broadsides, and signed books.

If you know of someone who might like to join the Poem-a-Day party, they may visit http://www.randomhouse.com/knopf/poetry/poemaday/ to sign up.

Best Wishes,

Jason Kincade, Knopf New Media
knopfpoetry@randomhouse.com

Hey guys, I know I've been shirking my responsibility to this club, but it has been a crazy couple of weeks. I shall step up now that the craziness has passed.
I tried to register for Intro to Poetry Writing, but it said something about not meeting classification reqs. Can anyone tell me what's up?

Hosted By:CAROLINA LETTERS- A Connected Learning Program Project
Date:Thursday, March 27, 2008
Time:6:30pm - 8:00pm
Location:Donovan Lounge, 2nd floor of Greenlaw Hall

This is a meeting to let everyone know what we've been working on the past year. We record lectures and post them on our website (see below). Come meet and eat with us and learn about this new resource.

www.johnstoncenter.unc.edu/clp/carolina_letters

Contact: whitkaejohnson@gmail.com

facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=9195659886

Dear English and Comparative Literature majors and minors:

The 2008 UNC Conference for English Language and Literature is
offering a unique opportunity for undergraduate students to share
their papers and research. Hosted by SOUL and the UNC Department of
English and Comparative Literature, this year it is titled
"Considerations of 19th and 20th Century British Literature."
Attached to this post is the call for papers.

The conference is accepting papers from undergraduates that touch
upon any aspect of British literature, from the Romantics to the
Victorians to modernism to contemporary literature. It is designed to
give you a chance to present your hard work and to gain firsthand
experience in how academic conferences are conducted. Papers written
for your classes at UNC are certainly welcome, as are honors theses
or personal research. For those of you who intend to apply to
graduate school, participating will not only be a boost to your
application and c.v., but will help to prepare you for later
conferences in your academic career. If you do not wish to present a
paper, but still wish to gain academic experience, consider
participating as a proposal reviewer or respondent.

The conference will be held in the afternoon on Saturday, April 5th.
And, yes, there will be refreshments!

Papers should be between 8-10 pages (or, if longer, pared down to a
15 minute presentation). Abstracts will be accepted until 11:59 pm
Monday, March 24th, and can be submitted to unc [dot] cell [at] gmail.com . Any questions about the conference can also be directed to this email address. - Professor Anderson, Anna Willis
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( Papers should be 8-10 pages long or capable of being presented in fifteen minutes. Submit your abstract and contact information to Anna Willis at unc [dot] cell [at] gmail.com by 11:59 pm on March 24th. Please note your A/V needs. Queries are welcome. )

As I think of our loss--our school's loss--

Well, what could I say? Words are hardly enough, and they really might be too much. Art--literature--might need to be quiet in the face of Disaster, might not be capable of anything. I don't know. What I think we can do together, at least, as a school, and as a smaller community within a school, is grieve.

How often, when these things happen, we say: "It's terrible, and so strange to think 'it could have been anyone. It could have been me.'" Let's look away from ourselves tonight. It wasn't anyone--it was one of the best.

Perfection Wasted

By John Updike

And another regrettable thing about death
is the ceasing of your own brand of magic,
which took a whole life to develop and market --
the quips, the witticisms, the slant
adjusted to a few, those loved ones nearest
the lip of the stage, their soft faces blanched
in the footlight glow, their laughter close to tears,
their tears confused with their diamond earrings,
their warm pooled breath in and out with your heartbeat,
their response and your performance twinned.
The jokes over the phone. The memories
packed in the rapid-access file. The whole act.
Who will do it again? That's it: no one;
imitators and descendants aren't the same.

For those of you who write your own stuff:

The Youth Angst Society has a monthly undergrad open-mic night hosted by the Bull's Head Bookshop. It's happening this week on Tuesday, March 5th at 5 p.m. in the back of the bookstore.

There's free coffee and cookies and you can either just come and listen to your fellow undergrads or bring your own poetry/prose/theses/music to share!

We'll be holding an events planning meeting today, Thursday, at 5:30 in the Donovan Lounge.