The Benefits & Beauties of Pairing English with Another Discipline

Today we continue with more brief personal reflections written for Professor Curtis Gruenler’s Literary Theory course. Aine O’Connor and Taylor Lombard illuminate how their study of history and biology (respectively) has intersected with their literary learning.

Aine O’Connor, “Miracle of Miracles: Storytelling as Power”

I am often asked, especially now in my senior year, what I have learned from my two majors. The answer is more complicated than the questioner perceives. Lately, my response has been that history taught me storytelling and English taught me everything else.

Often, the questioner seems confused by this answer. I think they believe the two should be switched—that English taught me the meaning of a good story and history taught me about the “real world.” Of course, both majors offer a healthy mix of things to learn about. English, though, magnifies the glory of humanity’s wonder in ways I never could’ve imagined when I decided to pursue the field as a major.

Within Plato’s Republic, the character of Socrates tells his companions: “everything that fable-tellers or poets say is a narrative of past or present or future” (Plato 392d). This quote gets at a critical tenet of learning both English and history: nothing and nobody exists in a vacuum. Every single book included in any curriculum came from a contextual background. We, too, are made up of pieces of other people, pieces of our past that have (miracle of miracles) bound together to create us.

Humans and books have a lot in common. The best of both help us realize that we are not alone, and that we came from somewhere and are going somewhere else. The English classes I have enjoyed the most are the ones designed to include literature that stuns me in its relatability. Complex characters invite recognition and appreciation.

I carry many characters within me. Some have been tagging along in my life since I was very young. The first fictional character I felt close to was Roald Dahl’s Matilda, a quiet yet plucky child who read voraciously, loved school, and firmly believed in the power of self-advocacy to make a difference. As a quiet yet plucky child who read voraciously, loved school, and desperately wanted to use my voice to change something (not my parents—unlike Matilda, my parents are wonderful), seeing a character who felt so much like me was a bolt of lightning.

My adult self knows just how lucky I was to find a character who looked and felt like me at such a young age. Much of my research in English throughout my time at Hope has been working towards a world where all children find a character to whom they can relate, whether in race, socioeconomic status, sexual identity, ability, ethnic background, or any other identifier. For so many generations, a huge portion of humanity was left out of classic literature, or portrayed solely as a stereotype. Curricula can and should change to reflect the diversity of the human experience; I’ve been enormously grateful to have been on the receiving end of many these shifting curricula at Hope, from African American literature to Big Read books to disability YA novels.

Reading books across so many different genres is a gift. While many of my close friends struggle to stay motivated in majors that are essentially a means to an end, I get to do and read what I love every single day. That statement does not imply that my majors are easy. No, all it means is that my struggle to understand, to learn, and to grow is a beautiful conversation amongst different times, stories, cultures, and personalities. Books have taught me that I am miraculous, and, far more importantly, they have taught me that everyone else is miraculous, too. True joy is reading literature that motivates us to wonder, to marvel at the complex world around us that holds more beauty than darkness.

Taylor Lombard, “The Study of Life”

My study of English literature thus far has spanned genres, time periods, and cultures. Throughout higher education, my studies have included analysis of novels, memoirs, poems, journals, and short stories. Though primarily focused on British Literature and 20th Century American Literature, I have also explored the cultures and perspectives of nations around the world during courses focused on global literature. From these various readings, I learned more about myself, others, and the world around me.

The decision to study English was, for me, less of a decision than a consequence of my interests. My desire to understand people led me to appreciate any and all literature responding to the human condition. As a Biology major, I am familiar with studying the human person through a scientific lens. While science helps us explore the human anatomy, literature serves as a medium to explore the complexities of the human mind and soul.

In high school, I began to appreciate the role literature plays in the exploration of humanity: why people make certain decisions, how desires lead individuals to achieve great feats, why pain drives others to tragic ends, and when a greater purpose has the power to bring people together. I am drawn to English because its domain of influence is not singular, but rather transcends across all areas of life.

In studying English, I hope to improve my critical reasoning skills, explore the human psyche, and broaden my understanding of the world as a whole. Already, the skills I have developed in English courses—how to analyze texts, dissect layered meanings, and interpret nuances—have transferred outside the classroom to positively influence the ways I approach scientific literature, problem solving, and conversations. I hope to further develop cognitive thinking skills as I prepare to enter the medical field. As a health professional, the ability to think in a critical and multidimensional fashion will better serve patients in need.

My approach to studying literature was greatly influenced by my instructors. Claudia Taniguchi challenged me to question an author’s decisions and draw conclusions about humanity from the desires of characters. Dr. Rhoda Burton invited me to apply literary theory for a more in-depth analysis. I was encouraged to approach texts with different perspectives—focusing on content, gender, historical context, or the human psyche—to reach a richer understanding of both the purpose and meaning. While Taniguchi fostered the development my analytical skills, Burton provided me with the knowledge and vocabulary to more accurately describe the approach with which I was analyzing texts. As my studies continue, I look forward to further developing my skills and enhancing my vocabulary.

Literature has played a substantial role in my overall education, despite my dedication to the sciences. The tools developed in English courses, such as the ability to analyze texts, ponder deeper meanings, and grapple with ambiguity, have contributed to my success as a student. When the scientific world becomes too rigid and confined, English allows me to escape to a place where creativity and imagination are welcome, and the exploration of higher thinking is encouraged.

Words and Images. Images and Words.

Artists often take inspiration from each other’s work. Picasso’s painting Don Quixote, inspired by the literary character of the same name, may be more recognizable to viewers today than the story itself. The famous painting Ophelia by Sir John Everett Millais, depicting that character from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, almost seems to be part of the play.  Elida Tessler’s installation Dubling, using 4311 verbs stamped onto corks and placed in 4311 bottles, takes inspiration from James Joyce’s novel Ulysses yet confronts it in interesting ways. You may see for yourself on the Art World blog.

Sir John Everett Millais Ophelia (1851-2). Oil paint on canvas. ©Tate 2016.

Influence between words and images doesn’t just run one way. Poets have long been inspired by visual art. In fact, the relationship between poetry and visual art goes back to antiquity.

To the ancient Greeks, ekphrasis was the process of describing visual art through another art form, mostly poetry. The American Academy of Poetry claims that ekphrastic poetry now confronts, beholds, and interprets visual art more often than simply describing it. Like language itself, then, the dynamic act of ekphrasis is full of potential for experimentation.

Experiment is just what some of this semester’s creative writing students have done, exploring the edges and depth of ekphrastic poetry.

Early one morning, the Kruizenga Art Museum generously opened its doors before regular hours to host sixteen creative writers from English 253, Introductory Creative Writing, who went with the hope that art would beckon them to interpret, inhabit, confront, and speak to their subjects through ekphrastic poems. There was much beauty to behold from the permanent collection, as well as the two exhibits: “Capturing Light: The Art of Shin Sawano, a Tradition for the Future of Japan” and “Deities and Devotion in Mongolian Buddhist Art.”  

Before long, each student stood transfixed before a piece of work, pacing, scribbling, glancing at the work from another angle, seemingly transported in the exchange.

“Green Tara.” Hope College Collection; image courtesy of Kruizenga Art Museum

The poems that follow are a sampling of that day’s work, no two alike, even though you’ll see that two students selected the same painting to write from.   A few added a preface to their work, while others let the poems stand alone; all hope you’ll enjoy their creations. We’re also working on a podcast project called “Finding Our Common Humanity”—stay tuned for more on that.

And if you’d like to make some interesting creations of your own, know we’d be happy to see you in English 253 next semester!

From Gillian Skiba: “The painting Madame Cezanne by Grace Hartigan depicts the wife of artist Paul Cezanne amid splatters of paint to comment on the many women who are influential in the art world and do not receive credit. When I first saw it, I didn’t realize that there was a human figure under the splatters, and when I did see it, I thought that it was a man at first. Once I saw her, though, it felt like she was calling out to me. It felt like she wanted me to choose her painting and share her story, so I did. 

“She Speaks” by Gillian Skiba

She speaks to me
a faint little whisper
so quiet I almost miss it.

From deep in the background
barely visible
covered by those who don’t want us to see.

She speaks to me
calling me forward
to search where most would ignore.

Is it actually a woman I hear?
The figure is hard to make out
distorted and hidden in shadow.

They wouldn’t want me to see her if it is.
They’d have put her there on purpose.

They don’t like us.

But it is a woman
and unyieldingly she reaches out
pushing, pushing, pushing.

The
dots
part.

Distance gives clarity.
After too long ignored, she stands tall
behind nothing, second to none.

She speaks to me.
She has no mouth with which to speak
but she speaks to me.

“I
am
Here.”

*

From Noel Vanderbilt: “The artist is Hendrik Willem Mesdag. His main focus was painting scenes near his home in the Hague. This piece, an oil painting titled Return from Fishing, shows a man riding into the waves to gather ropes from a fishing boat that will be used to haul the craft ashore.”

“Return from Fishing” by Noel Vanderbilt

In the Hague,
Grey clouds tremble
Across a wild sky
Pregnant with unknown.

Gulls dive and screech,
Swooping
Among herds of fishing boats
Straggling home.

Tattered sails whip in the rising wind.
Smooth prows slice the waves.
Figures crouch among the nets,
Flashing their silvery catches.

One vessel
Looms nearer

Where I watch,
Wheeling my father’s horse
Along the sandy beach.

A voice calls out across the troubled waters
Slipping through the salty air:
“Ay, ropes man!”

His voice stirs deep inside.
Bitter waves of recognition swirl
In my soul.
The impossible.

The smooth leather of the reins is taut
Within my clenched fingers.
Krijgen chomps, strains at the bit,
Prances, muscles rippling beneath his glossy coat,
Eager to plunge.

I tremble, wanting the distance of this shore,
Wanting to turn and flee,
But in a wild leap

Krijgen surges forward, drawn by the call, hooves pounding against the beach
Carrying me into the waves with a splash.

Icy water numbs my legs
And the numbness creeps higher, lacing its fingers around my chest,
Squeezing.

I cling tighter, dark mane and rein jumbled in my groping fingers.
Ahead, out of the sea looms the sail,
Tarnished, brown, weatherbeaten like my father’s face.
To me the face that lived only as a memory.

Numbness rises inside,
The ache of fear and pain
Mounting, throbbing in my ears
And on my cheeks and in my skin.

Bone-chilling water whirls over Krijgen, over me.
The man shouts again: “Krijgen!”
His voice probing like fingers reaching into lockboxes of yesterdays gone.
Krijgen snorts, swimming harder, faster, frenzied with excitement.
The numbness swells and bursts with pain to wild passion

Mijn vader!

But he doesn’t even see me.

*

A Sonnet on Hendrik Willem Mesdag’s “Return from Fishing” by Grace Alex

The rustic ships come to the gloomy Hague
I ride to meet them on my brown small horse
Wide brimmed boats finishing their course
The catch is here, lifting the tired fog
Waves of green and grey come tumbling in
The clouds of purple beckon them to begin
Unload their catch upon the murky coast
The red and yellow sails billow a toast
To health and wealth and all things Scheveningen
Beautiful beach, such wide and dark ye lie
My princess in these ships do die
The gorgeous fruit of my demise
O help me wind to carry out my endeavor
Help these ships to port in winter
To hold until the wind doth tide
The sailors pull their sails beside
Let the sweet Hague fill the space
Of this here painting, a picture of my face

*

From Ty Overhiser: “The name of the sculpture is Lords of the Cemetery. The artist is unknown, but it is a Mongolian work. As soon as I saw the piece, I could see them dancing and moving; there was something behind the eyes.”

Untitled by Ty Overhiser

Skeletons dance in the night
Prance through your cultural routine.
Bones of the dead, clack together
Echoing through the empty dark.
Could they be lovers rising from the dead
Or is the figure in blue the brother of the one in red?
Their slack jaws fall in a smile
Celebratory over the matters of death.
Empty rib cages, seemingly gutted.
Lined with red remnants, the hollow shell.
Not broken nor beaten the skeletons dance
‘Tis no dream or a joke. The dancers are alive.
The rattling I hear cannot be in my head,
nor the clubs in their hands, or stalks of grains,
or the perched-out knees, that stay firm.
No, it’s the lords of the cemetery,
The dancing of the dead.

*

From Andrew Gibson: “This piece is the one with all of the bees in it and has to do with colony collapse disorder, a condition that is killing off bees. I wrote this poem with the intention of making the reader think about bees but without outright stating that it was about bees.”

Buzz
A Buzz buzzes buzzingly
Black brightly buzzes and blinks
Yellow, is yellow
Yellow and black, black and yellow
Buzz buzz buzz
Buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz Buzz
Buzz

*

“Landscape With Cattle” by Katy Smith (inspired by the painting “Landscape with Cattle” by Jules Dupre)

as the storm rolls in, I feel
jumping, leaping
catapulting in my Heart.
The clouds scream, a battle cry of
lifting, a profession of support.

before the storm arrives, I lament
my body — raped, burned
branded and claimed.
Simply a possession of the Farmer, 
a fearless man just looking to feed
his family.

once the storm comes, I will grab
Freedom, 50 white stars
for everyone — including me — and seize it as my own.

*

Want to see the images that inspired these poems? They’re hanging in the Kruizenga Art Museum (and entry is free…).

“Mt. Fuji at Lake Yamanaka, Japan” by Shin-ichiro Sawano. Loan courtesy of the artist; image courtesy of Kruizenga Art Museum.

Freshly Picked: Spring English Courses!

Not sure which English classes to take this coming spring? We’ve got you covered. Here are just some of the courses we will be offering for the coming semester:

ENGL 213.01 – Expository Writing – TR 3-3:50 PM – David James

In this workshop-oriented course, students will make all their own choices about both topics and nonfiction genres, depending on their needs and interests.  In the process, everyone will focus on clarity and style to suit intended audiences and purposes, not the prof’s idiosyncrasies. Optional revising with further feedback will then lead to a semester’s end portfolio for the final grade.

Also available as an on-campus May Term!

ENGL 231 – Literature of the Western World 1 – MWF 11-11:50 AM – Stephen Hemenway

Image courtesy of WarnerBros.

Aesop’s fables and Homer’s tales of war and adventure start you on an odyssey of ancient literature. Frowns and smiles accompany your dramatic responses to Greek tragedies and comedies. Ancient Roman and medieval Italian epics send you on a spiritual journey that also embraces excerpts from the Hindu Bhagavad Gita and the Chinese Tao Te Ching. Chaucer takes you on a pilgrimage with the Pardoner and the Wife of Bath, and Cervantes inaugurates a quest for an impossible dream with Don Quixote. Sappho, Lady Murasaki, Margery Kempe, Marguerite de Navarre, and Sor Juana de la Cruz go places where few females dare to tread. Michelangelo, Columbus, and Shakespeare lead you through the Renaissance and Reformation and prepare you for the modern world. As you investigate and explore these authors and works, you read and take tests or written test alternatives, write journals and short papers (or a longer research project), and engage in lively discussions about these masterpieces of Western literature in a global context.

ENGL 270.01 – British Lit II – MWF 2-2:50 PM – Stephen Hemenway

“Lady Lilith” by Dante Gabriel Rossetti via MetMuseum

This delightful, daunting course will acquaint you with major movements and must-read writers in Great Britain, Ireland, and the British Commonwealth during the Romantic, Victorian, Early Modern, and Postmodern Eras (roughly 1770-2020). The literary canon of vital male poets (Blake, Keats, Tennyson, T.S. Eliot, and Auden) will be augmented by wondrous women warriors (Austen, Shelley, Woolf, Mansfield, and Atwood), Irish giants (Shaw, Wilde, Joyce, Yeats, Heaney), and fresh Commonwealth voices (Rhys, Soyinka, Munro, Rushdie, and Zadie Smith). Approximately equal time will be devoted to poetry, fiction, and drama. Forging links between geographical centers, between genders, between genres, between races, and between critical approaches will be among the impossible dreams of the teacher.

Format: lecture, discussion, improvisation, collaborative learning.

Reading: moderate but meaningful.

Writing: 3 tests/test alternatives, 3 out-of-class papers or nonpapers, short journal-type reaction pieces, etc.

ENGL 248.02 – Monsters, From Beowulf to Beloved – TR 1:30 – 2:50 PM – Jesus Montaño

What if we read Beowulf, an early medieval text written in Old English, through the lens of Toni Morrison’s Beloved, a novel about a ghost and about slavery? What would we learn about ourselves? About others?

This course is about monsters. It is a course on literature, because tales and stories are where monsters find form, where they find life. In this, monsters are bound up in our imagination, in what we find abhorrent, frightening, horrifying. And. To a large extent, what we most fear is the Other. This, then, is our task: to look at monsters through “dark” lenses that allow us see the devaluation of humanity in the making of monsters: in other words, the making of Others.

Along with Beowulf and Beloved, we will read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Octavia Butler’s Fledgling, William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and Jorge Luis Borges’s “The House of Asterion,” a short story told from the perspective of the Minotaur.

ENGL 354.01 – Intermediate Fiction Writing – TR 1:30-2:50 PM – Susanna Childress

Image by Free-Photos via Pixabay

According to Flannery O’Connor, “A story is a way to say something that can’t be said any other way, and it takes every word in the story to say what the meaning is.” She also said, “I write to discover what I know.” And also: “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you odd.”

So this is your chance: discover what you know by saying something that can’t be said any other way, make every word integral in the saying, and also, of course, let your weird out! This is a course where we’ll experiment with a wide variety of styles and techniques in short fiction, using daily writing exercises to deeply develop your characters, push your plot lines, play with point of view, and make your dialogue do good and gritty work. We’ll read and we’ll write—a delicious lot of each! And we’ll engage in several sets of in-class critique, also known as “the workshop.”

Come discover what you know, and let the truth set you strange…

ENGL 356.02 – Creative Writing in the Community – TR 12-1:20 PM – Susanna Childress

Image via MLA.Org

How old were you when you wrote your first poem? Who first encouraged you as a storyteller? Has writing ever helped you in a season when everything else seemed doomed?

Okay—two more questions: What if you could introduce others to the power of writing? Or, put another way, how might your own love for writing connect with others to make a difference in this world?

Richard Hugo famously suggested that a creative writing class “may be one of the last places you can go where your life still matters.” In this course, we’ll explore the ways that creative writing classes within the community—and on its margins—might have powerful, beautiful, and long-lasting impact not just for participants but also for facilitators.

Whether you’re a future teacher or someone who cares about hearing from voices that are often silenced, this course is for you! (Seriously, you don’t need prior experience in creative writing to take this course; i.e. no pre-reqs.) We’ll explore what it means to enact a creative writing curriculum in and for the community, why we would seek to do so, and where you—yes, you!—are interested in engaging. You’ll have a chance to connect with a community partner, create your curriculum, and facilitate classes with real, live participants.

…which means you’ll gain some “real-world” experience and a legit line on your resumé! You’ll also get to do some writing of your own as we read poetry, creative nonfiction essays, and short stories in conjunction with the visiting writers series.

So come with your heart for justice, your love of writing, and the hope to help create places where your and others’ lives matter—in this class and well beyond.

ENGL 373.03 – J.R.R. Tolkien & Medieval Literature – MW 4-5:20 PM – Curtis Gruenler

Image by Erik Stein via Pixabay

J. R. R. Tolkien is not only the most influential author of fantasy literature but also one of the great scholars of medieval literature—and each of these interests fed the other. This course will weave together the development of Old and Middle English literature with Tolkien’s career as an author and the chronology of Middle Earth. We will read medieval works that Tolkien studied, both well known and lesser known: Beowulf and other Old English poems as well as Middle English stories such as Sir Orfeo, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Death of King Arthur, and some of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. And we will read Tolkien’s Silmarillion, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and several shorter works, both creative and scholarly. Seeing how medieval literature inspired Tolkien’s work will guide us in better understanding both. The many ways in which he responded to the works he loved—scholarly articles, poems imitating old forms, sequels, translations, reconstructions of fragmentary works, drama, and, of course, his own fantasy novels—will be models for our own responses.

All medieval works will be read in modern translations, often by Tolkien himself. There will be opportunities to explore medieval literature in languages other than English (such as Welsh and Old Norse), how all these works respond to the Bible, and other topics of individual interest. The course will be conducted as a discussion-based seminar. Students will write a portfolio of pieces that will include critical writing as well as other interpretive and creative genres.

ENGL 375.01 – History of the English Language – MWF 12-12:50 PM – Curtis Gruenler

How did English come to have—by far—the largest vocabulary of any language in the world? Where did the idea of standard English come from, and who says what it is? How does English vary around the world? What is its likely future?

This course follows the whole story of the English language, from its pre-history as a member of the Indo-European family of languages to the closest thing the world has known to a global language. Our focus will be on what used to be called philology, the linguistic tools for the study of English literature in its Old, Middle, and Modern forms. As we approach the present, we will use these tools to look at the many varieties of English around the world (and especially in the United States).

Throughout the course we will also consider the relationship between the language and the history of those who use it, from the Norman Conquest to the impacts of computers and globalization. At each phase, we will analyze the various linguistic aspects of the language—sound (including Prof. Cole’s favorite topic, the Great Vowel Shift), vocabulary, grammar, writing—with a particular eye toward how this kind of analysis is important to understanding literary works. You’ll learn enough Old English to be able to read a passage of Beowulf with reference aids, but more important, you’ll have an idea what’s behind a modern translation and the choices a translator makes. We’ll analyze the language of Chaucer and Shakespeare and discuss controversies such as those over standard English usage and African-American Vernacular English. You’ll learn how to analyze the origins and development of English words and understand their range of meaning at any point in time.

Three of the greatest English philologists of the 20th century happen to have been part of the literary fellowship called the Inklings: J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and Owen Barfield. As a sort of subplot, we will consider their ideas about philology, some of their philological research, and how, in Tolkien’s case, philology inspired his creation of Middle Earth and its languages.

For students of literature, the history of the English language gives you both fundamental philological tools and an overview of literary history. For writers, it provides further mastery of your medium. Recommended for those who plan to study literature or writing at the graduate level and those who plan to teach English at the secondary level or above.

ENGL 375.02 – “The I’s Have It” – TR 1:30-2:50 PM – Rhoda Burton

The goal of this class is to deepen our understanding of American literature by focusing on the role of the first-person narrator. We’ll read across two genres, memoir and fiction, in order to demonstrate that the first-person narrator has deeply impacted the trajectory of our literary canon. The class explores why so many of our canonical texts feature a first-person narrator—even when the narrator plays an ostensibly tiny background part, as in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. How do authors establish or undermine the credibility of their first-person narrators? And has that process changed since the advent of confessional poetry and the uptick of memoir? What’s up with all the first-person narrators who seem to play the role of creepy voyeur? Why do memoirs typically outsell novels? Together we’ll discuss the unique contribution of the first-person narrator to the trajectory of American literary cultures.

Don’t forget about Summer Courses!

Vienna Summer School – May 04-29 and June 01-26 – Stephen Hemenway

This summer’s two sessions (May, June) offer eight college credits (four each session) in numerous academic fields: “Austrian Art and Architecture,” “Modern Austrian History,” “Empires of the World and Mind,” “Vienna’s Musical Traditions,” “Literature and Self—Vienna and Beyond,” “Economic/Business Issues in Europe,” “Creative Writing—Nonfiction,” and a Senior Seminar (“Vienna: Values in Transit”). Field trips within Austria and excursions to neighboring countries add a significant dimension to the learning experience. The program, open to qualified applicants of any age who have completed at least one year of college before summer 2020, has a maximum of 54 students per session.

Vienna features everything from famous choirboys to fabled coffeehouses, from Sachertortes to the Spanish Riding School, from baroque churches to a modern United Nations complex. While in Vienna, art/architecture students explore museums and churches; students in history, literature, and “Empires” courses visit Habsburg residences and World War sites; music students attend operas and concerts; economics students meet with business experts; nonfiction students write memoirs about local people and places; senior seminar students question distinguished speakers daily. Several of these opportunities are available to all participants, and the cost of required field trips is included. Non-credit German-conversation classes meet a few afternoons each week. Beginners find these survival sessions beneficial, while those with German abilities gain more confidence.

More info and how to apply can be found here.

Helping Sick Kids Just Be Kids: Alumni Interview with Sarah Smith ’97

Sarah (Lepard) Smith (’97) is a former secondary English and Psychology education major at Hope. Currently she works at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids. We asked Sarah to share some of her walk with us.

Share your work path in your pre-Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital years.

After graduation, I was hired as a high school teacher and coach in Alpena. I had the opportunity to teach 10th grade English, Introduction to Psychology (using Dr. Myers’ textbook), and Creative Writing.

In 1998, I moved back to West Michigan and began teaching in the English Department at Hamilton High School. Over my thirteen years of teaching in this district, I had the pleasure of working with many students across a variety of English courses. Perhaps my favorite course was Novels, where we could dive deeper into the literature and read simply because it is, as Mr. Moreau says, “a lifelong, pleasurable activity.” I learned so much from the students and staff in both of these professional experiences, for which I am forever grateful.

In 2011, when the new children’s hospital opened, I felt prompted to reach out and see if they had a teaching position. So I made a call to a former Hope grad (and my Child Life intern supervisor from my psychology days in the summer of ’96) to see if they had a teacher. It seemed the perfect blend of my experiences, bringing my two majors and my interests together.

How long have you been at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital and what do you do there?

I began phase two of my career, at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital, in July of 2011, just six months after the building opened. This was truly a leap of faith, jumping into such a unique role. As a hospital teacher/school liaison, I have the privilege of working alongside children and families as they look to find a balance between their medical and academic needs. Our hospital school program aims to bridge the gap between hospital, school, and home. We work to educate a child’s school and peers about his/her diagnosis and treatment and how those may impact classroom performance and attendance. We provide educational opportunities during treatment, and help our kids maintain involvement in normal routines within an abnormal environment.

How did a liberal arts education at Hope College help to prepare you for what you now do in service to the children with whom you work?

It is clear to me now that I was being groomed for this work during my years at Hope College. As a psychology major, I spent the summer before my senior year interning in Child Life, helping normalize the hospital environment through distraction and medical play. This was my first exposure to working within a hospital setting. The internship taught me the importance of building rapport with children and offering encouragement through difficult times by using distraction and honing into their developmental level to meet them in that moment.

As a hospital teacher, I have to be ready to work with children who are practicing their letters and crafting research papers. We study AP Biology and learn about the scientific method. We practice counting to ten, and we solve problems using imaginary numbers – sometimes with only an elevator ride in between. Thank you, Hope College, for providing a liberal arts education. Having a little exposure to many curricular topics has served me well.

And can you speak to the impact of your English major specifically?

My dad instilled the importance of being a good writer and communicator, but my English professors truly contributed to my growth in these areas. Professor Portfleet challenged me to think critically and value the power of a story (and its teller), a trait I use daily in working within a hospital setting. Professor Mezeske reminded me of the importance of the writing process and the power of revision. This attention to detail helps as I draft documents for a student’s school personnel.  Professor Ellis encouraged me to be an out-of-the-box problem solver and to sprinkle life with moments of joy – something I strive to do on a daily basis for the patients I serve.

My true passion was within the realm of secondary education. I brought my hospital-acquired skill set with me as I began my student teaching the following school year under the guidance of my Teaching of English prof, the amazing Mr. Moreau. What a gift to have his support as an instructor of how to teach Shakespeare and Emerson and how to guide our students to grow as proficient readers and writers.

Do you have any highlights from your days at Hope that you’d like to share?

Mr. Moreau remains a mentor today in all facets of life. I have many fond memories from my days at Hope, but what I appreciate the most are the professors who provided unwavering support academically and extended support professionally, and those whom I can call upon as friends even today.

What do you like to read?

I enjoy a wide variety of writings; however, I tend to be most drawn to nonfiction books that offer glimpses into the human spirit – stories that embody resiliency, perseverance, and survival. Two favorites are Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Calahan and The Help by Kathryn Stockett. I like to learn tough lessons from the characters’ experiences so that I do not have to learn them the hard way.

Is there anything else we should know, Sarah?

I am learning a lot from my students. It is tough to be them. Yes, they are incredibly brave, courageous, and strong. But, what I think they want the most is to just be kids – not kids with a medical condition. For anyone who may know people in this type of situation, please continue to walk alongside these children and their families by asking them what is most helpful. Allow them to just be themselves, to be sad, or to need space. Invite them and include them, even if they don’t feel up to it. Help them stay connected when they can’t (or don’t feel like being connected). It’s not personal; their bodies are just sick. Sometimes steroids make them behave differently and that’s not your fault or theirs. Just keep being the good friends we know you are by letting them be them. For this and so much more, I thank you, Hope College.

The Kid with the Book in Her Hands

On the second day of English 480: Literary Theory, I ask students to bring a “mirror paper” reflecting on their study of English literature thus far in their lives. As they read their responses out loud to the class this year, I was struck by how well they articulated a variety of perspectives — with some common threads — on the value of an English major. Maybe you’ll see a little of yourself reflected here too.

Here are the first two.

Annie Cerovich, “My Story through Stories”

The study of English literature, I feel, began when I was very young, before most would even consider it a “study.” I loved books as a kid (I believe not having a TV helped with that), and would mentally place myself into whatever story was unfolding before my eyes. I remember reading and getting this feeling that I truly was in the story, and I could not get enough. As the clock ticked later and later into the night, my light would still be on as I went on adventures with Laura Ingalls and galloped with the Pevensie children in Narnia. This period of literary study laid down the foundation of my love for stories and human expression through this medium.

 As I went into high school, my teacher did a wonderful job of guiding us into many different literary realms: the “classics” such as Catcher in the Rye and Shakespeare, dystopias like Fahrenheit 451 and Brave New World, scientific novels like The Hot Zone, ethnic literature such as Their Eyes Were Watching God, and many more. We were assigned lengthy essays asking us to dive into leading questions on the existence of God or why scientific inquiry is important or what it meant to be of color in post-Civil War America. These probes into deep topics were just the beginning of my interest in pondering how stories illuminate and give concrete examples for us to learn from.

Moving on to the academic world of college, I was unsure of where to focus my studies. Psychology, sociology, art, dance, languages… my interests were copious and hard to encompass into one field. Yet suddenly I was an English major, and found that I was still somehow studying all of these areas of interest as I dove into analyzing Charlotte Perkins Gilmore’s The Yellow Wallpaper through a psychological lens, how dance could interpret Virgil’s The Aeneid, or the cultural significance in The Red Convertible by Louise Erdrich.

Looking back on all these now, I’ve learned that literature not only helps us grasp the experiences of others, but often helps illuminate our own experiences or questions. The Chronicles of Narnia helped illustrate my childhood faith. Catcher in the Rye not only illuminated mental health questions for Holden Caulfield, but also myself as we both navigated the changes and stresses of high school. Paradise Lost challenged my growing adult faith in college. These are just three of the many times literature has encouraged me to investigate what it means to be human and how I live out that investigation in my day-to-day life. 

Studying English, I have become passionate about not only these stories, but other untold stories that are waiting to be gracefully unfolded by someone who grasps the importance of conflict, antagonistic and protagonistic forces, the use of symbolism and metaphor… the list continues.

I have noticed that I tend to approach my study of literature through an analytical lens: always searching for the meaning of this symbol or why the author used that metaphor. I also find myself becoming very intrigued with character development throughout the work—how the antagonist/protagonist evolved to the place they are today, what motivated them to make certain decisions, or how they interacted with conflicts and challenges. My mind thinks in a very metaphorical way as I find myself, even in daily conversation, describing events with metaphors to help illustrate the path of my story.

In this way, I approach all literature with an eye for what could be interpreted as meaningful, and I believe that this approach arises from my desire to ultimately understand the motivation behind human actions. 

Hannah Jones, “Learning to Read, Reading to Learn”

I chose to study English because of my longtime love of reading. Once I learned to read, I brought a book with me everywhere I went. Reading, I believe, has shaped who I am today. Reading other points of view has helped me understand nuance and empathy, showed me the importance of being able to respectfully disagree, and opened my eyes to the experiences of people both similar and different to me. Reading, as cliché as it sounds, has transported me to places, times, and circumstances that I would never be able to experience outside of a good book. One of the things I appreciate most about literature is its unique ability to communicate those places, times, and circumstances in a way that makes us all feel as though they have been our lived experiences.

When I got older and started to understand the power of words and how to use them, I fell in love with another aspect of English: writing. I was fortunate enough to have phenomenal teachers in high school who showed me the more mechanical sides of writing (grammar, paragraph structure, how to write a good thesis) and who helped me find my own unique voice. English classes in high school pushed me the hardest and were always my favorite to attend.

These past years at Hope have encouraged me even more in the study of literature. Taking classes in the Women’s and Gender Studies department among others has opened my eyes to fascinating interdisciplinary connections. I’ve also had my literary muscles stretched in new ways by classes like Intro to Creative Writing. 

Overall, it is my love for reading and writing that has driven me to study English. I am a firm believer in studying what you are naturally drawn towards, regardless of all the people who say things along the lines of, “But what are you going to do with an English degree?” Ultimately, I hope to continue discovering interdisciplinary connections, particularly with courses in Women’s Studies, which is my other major. I hope to keep exploring the many ways in which reading and communicating in writing are crucial to other parts of life and the human experience in general.

The English curriculum in high school certainly was less diverse, but my professors at Hope have been intentional about choosing more diverse readings. I tend to be hyper-aware of classes that include few or no female authors, which happened in high school at least once. I have noticed a push lately for classes and anthologies to include more women and writers of color, which I’m grateful for. I’ve become increasingly aware of the need for representation in literature and beyond.

In my Children’s Literature class, we are learning about the importance of literature being truthful. This doesn’t mean that stories about magic or time-travel aren’t good literature because they aren’t entirely factual; rather, even the most fantastical stories can, and should, tell basic human truths. Part of Plato’s argument in The Republic connects to this need for truthful literature. Plato, speaking through Socrates, reminds readers of “the prime need to make sure that what they first hear is devised as well as possible for the implanting of virtue” (4). This is part of what makes literature such a powerful tool. When children (and adults) are exposed to diverse, truthful literature, they can be shaped into better, more empathetic people from a young age.

Photographer pictured in a mirror

“What can I learn?”: An Interview with Heather Sellers

This Tuesday, 10/1, the Hope campus will experience a double homecoming. Today we catch up with memoirist, essayist, mentor, award-winner, and former Hope professor Heather Sellers. Come see her, along with former Hope student Mira Bartók, at the upcoming Jack Ridl Visiting Writers Series event, plus two additional events! (Details below.)

Professor Sellers, you’re well-remembered at Hope, of course, for the time you spent as a creative writing professor here from 1995 to 2013, before your move to the University of South Florida. Can you tell us a little more about your life these days?

I miss Hope College and Holland every single day.  I’m so thrilled to have this opportunity to come back for a visit.

I teach poetry, nonfiction, and flash/micro in the MFA program at the University of South Florida. Working with graduate students is labor-intensive, in a good way. We offer a three-year program, so our student writers have time to complete a book manuscript while gaining extensive teaching experience in their own creative writing classrooms.  I teach a course in pedagogy for creative writers, and I’m proud that several of my grad students from that course have been nominated for university-wide teaching awards. 

I teach mostly poetry in our undergraduate creative writing program. In the summer I teach creativity courses at Kripalu, a retreat center in the Berkshires, and I lead a poetry circle in St. Petersburg, where I live. Palm trees, wild parrots, frangipani. 

You’ve had essays win national recognition — can you describe your writing process a little bit? 

I try to write every day—one has to stay on speaking terms with one’s instrument. I use a timer and I don’t work in a room that has WiFi. I’m fairly good at laying out the next day’s work goals the night before. I work in the early morning so I’m free the rest of the day to attempt to meet the world where it needs meeting. If I miss a day, it takes three days to get back to where I was, so it’s not really discipline, it’s desperation that keeps me tethered to the desk.

I work closely with my writing partners; I have a partner in each genre. Jane, nonfiction; John, poetry; and Dylan and Claire, fiction. Our pages are due at set times—once a week, or once a month, say. And then we meet via phone to go over the material. These relationships are crucial and wonderful. 

I also have had terrific editors and I continue to improve as a writer thanks to their careful and patient work. Taking writing classes and other kinds of workshops also feeds my process. The Pushcart Prize essay was written from a prompt my writing partner Jane and I were using. I’m going to read this essay at Hope. It went through many drafts, all my work does, but it came together fairly painlessly over the course of about a month. The Best American Essays essay took some years—a long cycle of steady work, then a long setting aside. I approach each essay with a single-pointed question: what can I learn? 

What projects do have coming up that you’re most excited about?

I’m writing to you from my tiny sublet in New York, where I’m working on scripts for podcasts and videos to augment my textbook, The Practice of Creative Writing.  At USF I’ve been teaching online courses and it’s exciting to bring the textbook into that format in ways that are meaningful and, I hope, useful to student writers and their instructors. I’m excited about my textbook—it’s got all of my 30 years of teaching packed into it.

I’m also completing a new manuscript of poems set in the very beautiful and vulnerable landscape where I live, coastal Florida.  

Of your many published writings, which one comes to your mind now as particularly meaningful, and why?

I have found writing about prosopagnosia (“face blindness”) and the process of finding the gifts in an extraordinarily difficult childhood meaningful.

What advice would you give to current English majors or students considering an English major?

What they already know. Reading closely, listening carefully, and writing clearly are skills that prepare one for many, many kinds of rewarding work and life situations.

That’s great advice. And finally, what’s your favorite book or piece of writing you’ve read recently? We love recommendations.

Small Fry by Lisa Brennan-Jobs, a stunningly beautiful and clear memoir of growing up with difficult parents. And a novel given to me by Hope grad Allyson Hoffman, who was my assistant at USF (and we are still working together): The Mothers by Brit Bennett.

HEATHER SELLERS and MIRA BARTÓK will be here on October 1st for a 3:30PM Q&A in Fried-Hemenway Auditorium and a 7:00PM reading in the Jack Miller Recital Hall. All are welcome!

And there are two special events on Tuesday, October 15:

  • “Bodies, Abilities, Identities: A Conversation with Heather Sellers and WGS” will begin in the Maas Auditorium at 11:15 am (meal included).
  • “Creative Writing MFA & Publishing Information Session” will be held in the Fried-Hemenway Auditorium from 4:30-5:30 pm. 

A Fantastical World of Words and Pictures: Mira Bartók Interview

Professional author photo of Mira Bartók, a brown-haired, white-skinned woman wearing a scarf.

Today we have the pleasure of interviewing former Hope student Mira Bartók, now a professional writer and illustrator. Author of the inventive novel The Wonderling and the award-winning memoir The Memory Palace, she will be visiting Hope on Tuesday, October 1 as part of the Jack Ridl Visiting Writers Series!

Mira Bartók, many of us have read your work, and the campus is bubbling with anticipation for your upcoming reading. Can you tell us more about what you do now, and how you got there?

When I was at Hope, I was both an English and Art major, and as circuitous as my path has been, those two things have remained constant.

Right now, I’m working on a book called The Wonderling: Singing Tree, which is the second book in my middle grade series published by Candlewick Press. I’ve been writing and illustrating for a living (along with a little free-lance editing) for about 20 years now.

Before I began writing for a living, I was a gallery artist in Chicago, and supplemented my starving artist lifestyle by working as a freelance museum educator in several Chicago museums. The first books I published, a middle grade series about ancient and living cultures, grew out of my experience giving tours at Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History.

Since that time, I’ve written and published in multiple genres, everything from nature writing to poetry to speculative fiction, memoir, and middle grade fantasy. It’s a rough life making up stories and drawing pictures, but someone has to do it. 🙂

How did your Hope English education shape you?

The biggest influence Hope had on me was the time I spent in the English Department. I loved every class I took, especially poetry classes with Jack Ridl. Jack’s classes, and my literature classes with other professors, were rigorous and profound, and shaped me into the reader and the writer I am today.

Book cover of The Wonderling by Mira Bartok, with an image of a one-eared fox above the title.

Favorite book read recently or in college?

The best book I have recently read (and I’d add that it is one of the best books I’ve ever read in my entire life!) is called Little by Edward Carey. It’s an illustrated fictional biography of famed waxwork artist Madame Tussaud. It is a masterpiece. Lyrical, hilarious, poignant, and full of wit.

The other book I love and keep by my bedside is by a friend of mine, Shaun Tan. It’s called The Arrival, and is a wordless graphic novel about immigration, told in a fantastical way.

What project do you have coming up that you’re the most excited about?

Since I’m still working on the second book in my Wonderling series, I’m pretty obsessed with that right now, but I’m also excited about being involved in the film once we start production. I’ve been involved from the start during the development process, but once we start shooting, I’ll get to be on the set and in the animation studio (the movie will be live action with some animation, like the Harry Potter films). Right now, we’re waiting for the director to finish his other projects. Hopefully we’ll start shooting the film in a year or the year after that.

What do you now wish you had learned or done in college?

I wish I hadn’t been allowed to skip my art foundation classes at Hope. I was told I was advanced enough to skip life drawing and other beginning drawing classes, but I really wasn’t. When I transferred to art school, it was too late to take those classes. I never really learned the basics and am making up for lost time now. 

My advice to any young artist or writer or musician is this: learn the foundation of your discipline, whether it’s musical scales and theory, or figure drawing, etc. A day will come when your ideas far surpass your technical abilities to execute them. Other than that: work hard, be supportive to other artists, and always be humble and kind. That’s it!

Come meet Mira Bartók in person on October 1st! Both events are free and open to all:

  • 3:30PM Q&A in Fried-Hemenway Auditorium
  • 7:00PM reading in the Jack Miller Recital Hall

10 Crisp, Well-Seasoned Quotations about Fall

A new season’s upon us here in the Northern United States — fall! And a new season’s upon us here at Hope College — the presidency of Matthew Scogin, inaugurated today. In celebration, here are a few of our favorite literary quotations on changing seasons and new beginnings.

As a special encore below, we’ve also included tidbits from poems that Hope professors created for last night’s “Transformed by Hope: A Celebration of the Arts”!

Edna St. Vincent Millay, from “God’s World“:

O world, I cannot hold thee close enough!
   Thy winds, thy wide grey skies!
   Thy mists, that roll and rise!
Thy woods, this autumn day, that ache and sag
And all but cry with colour!  

[…]

Lord, I do fear
Thou’st made the world too beautiful this year

John Keats, from “Ode to Autumn“:

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core

Rainer Maria Rilke, from “Autumn Day” (“Herbsttag,” translated from German):

It is time, Lord. Summer was grand. 
Now lay your shadow on the day, 
and bathe your fields in the wind. 
Let the late harvest linger.

J.K. Rowling, from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:

Autumn seemed to arrive suddenly that year. The morning of the first September was crisp and golden as an apple.

We know it’s not October yet, but we just had to include these two…

L.M. Montgomery, from Anne of Green Gables:

I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers. It would be terrible if we just skipped from September to November, wouldn’t it? Look at these maple branches. Don’t they give you a thrill—several thrills?

Rainbow Rowell, from Attachments:

October, at last!
Callooh! Callay!
I was born in February, but I come alive in October.
October, baptize me with leaves! Swaddle me in corduroy and nurse me with split pea soup.
October, tuck tiny candy bars in my pockets and carve my smile into a thousand pumpkins.
O autumn! O teakettle! O grace!
Merry October!

Willa Cather, from My Antonia:

I took a long walk north of the town, out into the pastures where the land was so rough that it had never been ploughed up, and the long red grass of early times still grew shaggy over the draws and hillocks. Out there I felt at home again. Overhead the sky was that indescribable blue of autumn; bright and shadowless, hard as enamel. To the south I could see the dun-shaded river bluffs that used to look so big to me, and all about stretched drying cornfields, of the pale-gold colour, I remembered so well. Russian thistles were blowing across the uplands and piling against the wire fences like barricades. Along the cattle-paths the plumes of goldenrod were already fading into sun-warmed velvet, grey with gold threads in it. I had escaped from the curious depression that hangs over little towns, and my mind was full of pleasant things.

Gerard Manley Hopkins, from “Spring and Fall“:

 Margaret, are you grieving
   Over Goldengrove unleaving?
   Leaves, like the things of man, you
   With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
   Ah! as the heart grows older
   It will come to such sights colder
   By and by, nor spare a sigh
   Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie

Hope Professor Emeritus Jack Ridl, from “After Hearing the Professor Say, ‘She’s Just An Average Student”‘:

So, for all I know, I am
an average coffee drinker spending
 
an average early morning watching
an average squirrel searching for
average acorns in our average yard,
readying for yet another average winter.

Hope Professor Susanna Childress, from “Autumn Garden”:

A frost
will speak its truth, as over the night it rides some small
wind, crusting the tips of each thing in shadow. It does not
ruin, not yet.

Rebel Butterflies, One-Eared Foxes, & the Return of a Hope Prof: Jack Ridl Visiting Writers Series Fall 2019 Preview

The glow of summer is fading and fall is preparing to blanket the campus, which means that once again we’ve arrived at a new semester… and new season of the Jack Ridl Visiting Writers Series (JRVWS)! 

We’ve got a great mix of books and authors this fall, from middle grade fantasy to historical fiction. You won’t want to miss them, so make sure you’ve got their books on hand (which you can get at both the library and the Hope bookstore).

October 1st: Mira Bartók and Heather Sellers

Though she debuted with her (New York Times-bestselling!) memoir The Memory Palace, former Hope student Mira Bartók is most recently known for her middle grade fantasy, The Wonderling. The novel follows Arthur, a fox-like groundling (animal-human hybrid) with only one ear who has spent his entire life as an orphan. With the help of his new best friend, Trinket, they escape from Miss Carbunkle’s Home for Wayward and Misbegotten Creatures, and Arthur journeys across the land to figure out both his past and his destiny.

Despite its categorization as middle grade (ages 10-13), The Wonderling can be enjoyed by readers of any age. It is a beautiful and whimsical tale layered with depth that explores the themes of finding your voice, found families, being brave, and fighting for what you believe in. Scattered throughout the pages are sketches of Arthur and his friends, drawn by Mira Bartók herself!

And if that wasn’t cool enough for you, The Wonderling not only landed a two-book deal BEFORE Bartók finished the first book, but the movie rights were also sold and Stephen Daldry is set to direct the film. So if you haven’t already read this book, do yourself a favor, and heed the call of The Wonderling.

And if you’ve taken “Intro to Creative Writing” at Hope, you’re already familiar with Heather Sellers’ writing. Not only did she write the textbook we use in that class, she also taught creative writing at Hope College for many years. 

Now Sellers is returning to campus to share with us from her Pushcart Prize-winning essay.  In addition to her essays, she’s written work that spans a diverse range of genres and includes a children’s book, several chapbooks, three volumes of poetry, a collection of linked short stories, and a memoir. 

Revealing rich insight through layers of precisely-described images, Sellers writes in a way that’s both deep and accessible. Her difficult family situation as a child and the neurological condition known as face-blindness that she discovered she had as an adult both prepared her to be comfortable with the uncertainty inherent in the creative writing process. As we — your JRVWS interns, Claire and Keri — dug into Sellers’ writing this summer, we’ve gotten so excited to find out what writing wisdom she will share with us when she visits Hope!

November 12th: Julia Alvarez

Author Julia Alvarez (photo courtesy of Bill Eichner)

In partnership with the NEA Big Read Lakeshore, JRVWS is hosting Julia Alvarez on November 12th. She will speak on this year’s Big Read, In the Time of the Butterflies, which just celebrated its 25th anniversary! Julia Alvarez has written numerous works of adult fiction, children’s books, essays, and poetry, including the novels How the García Girls Lost Their Accents and the Pura Belpré winner Before We Were Free.

In her novel In the Time of the Butterflies, Alvarez draws on her personal experience growing up in the era of Trujillo’s dictatorship in the Dominican Republic to tell the story of the Mirabal sisters and their resistance against the regime. She tells their story in chapters that alternate among the distinct voices of each of the four sisters, starting in their childhoods in the 1940s and leading up to three of the sisters’ deaths in 1960. 

While the book exposes the oppressive brutality of Trujillo’s government, it dives deeper than the politics and history of its setting to explore the complex inner lives and relationships of the Mirabals and their friends. As Alvarez herself puts it in the final note of In the Time of the Butterflies: “A novel is not, after all, a historical document, but a way to travel through the human heart.”

~~~~

We hope you’ll join us to hear these talented writers answer questions about their craft and read from their work! 

MIRA BARTÓK and HEATHER SELLERS will be here on October 1st for a 3:30PM Q&A in Fried-Hemenway Auditorium and a 7:00PM reading in the Jack Miller Recital Hall. 

JULIA ALVAREZ will be coming on November 12th and will be holding an 11:00AM Q&A and a 7:00PM reading, both of which will take place in the Jack Miller Main Auditorium. (There will be many other events associated with the Big Read Lakeshore, too.)

We know that just like us, you can’t wait for these authors to arrive, so make sure to follow the JRVWS Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts for more information on these incredible writers! And watch this blog for upcoming interviews with Bartók and Sellers…

“My Summer Vacation”: English Writes Back

Welcome back, people of Hope, and welcome class of 2023! It has been a summer of big changes in the English Department. We’ve said a fond goodbye to retiring professors Beth Trembley and Dianne Portfleet, we’ve regretfully seen Prof. Kendra Parker and office manager Raquel Niles go off to new jobs with our good wishes, and we’ve said “see you in a while” to faculty on leave and on sabbatical. We’ve also been joined by four additions to the faculty ranks: Susanne Davis, Lisa McGunigal, Emily Tucker, and Michael Brooks. Please say hello if you see them!

Here are a few little updates on our hard work and play this summer as we waited for the students of Hope to come back again.

Rhoda Burton drove up to Canada to take care of a Mennonite auntie who had a hip replacement. One evening Rhoda got Aunt Helena, aged 94, talking. She said dreamily that when the four littlest were sleeping head to toe like sardines in a shared bed, their dad had awakened them. “Come girls! I have a surprise!” In the barnyard he had spread a blanket. And there they all saw for the first time the aurora borealis.  

This dad had once cut a single strawberry into seventeen pieces so they could each have a taste. Which was better, the aurora borealis, or the strawberry?  “A dad who wakes you up at 2:00 a.m. to give you a memory—that’s forever.”

Marla Lunderberg had some big adventures. “Pop culture might let you recognize the temple in this photo as a setting from Tomb Raider. My own response to the immensity of Ta Prohm Temple in Angkor, Cambodia, and to the even greater power of the trees growing through the walls, is to be humbled at the small part I play in the passage of time on this earth. This past May, I visited Japan and South Korea with three colleagues as we sought to increase Hope’s global connections; afterwards, my husband joined me to explore some of the wonders of Vietnam and Cambodia.”

Stephen Hemenway ventured forth to direct and teach 82 students for May and June terms in the Hope College Vienna Summer School–his 44th year in this role. Cultural highlights included the world premiere of Peter Pan ballet in Vienna, the Laterna Magica production of The Little Prince in Prague, and a stunning performance of opera Tales of Hoffmann in Bratislava. Climbing the Austrian Alps, dinner-boat rides in three countries, and a musical performance by 16 Hope students were most memorable. Visits to Mauthausen concentration camp, the European Union office, the Gymnasium Kundmangasse, the Habsburg tombs, and Mozart’s house made classes come alive. 

“Doc” jousts with Lian Robinson in the Alps (video by Mia Van Erp)
Dr. Verduin with York Minster behind her

Kathleen Verduin writes in: “What a summer. Spent ten days at Dartmouth, Harvard, and the Massachusetts Historical Society doing more research on the American interest in Dante, and finished my essay on Dante and James Russell Lowell. And then a two-week jaunt to England!”

Susanne Davis, one of our visiting professors, shared: “This summer I wrote half of the second draft of my novel in progress, Stray Dog Watch Over Us, taught an online graduate creative writing class for Southern New Hampshire University, and started a Youtube channel: “How to Create a Writer’s Life.” Also, this summer, the Connecticut Press Club gave first place to my essay ‘The Power of Education’ originally published in The Fredericksburg Review.”

Pablo Peschiera is here with an important pupdate: “The best parts of summer were spent with either my mother (who—with my beloved stepfather, John—moved last year to live near me), my daughter Violet, or my dog, Stanley. Violet stayed with me all summer and worked in an ice cream truck (I got no free ice cream out the deal) before she left for Amsterdam to study sociology. Here is a short video Violet and I filmed of Stanley being cute.”

We received a joint update from Jesus Montaño and Regan Postma-Montaño:

The bests from a strangely epicurean summer.

Best food was Thai by Day (Day is the name of the owner; they also are open at night). Best sweets belong to the cookies from Midnight Cookie Co. that we had for Regan’s birthday party. As their name suggests, they open late and stay up late.

Favorite beer: Even More Jesus by Evil Twin Brewing; Tropic Haze by Silver City, a close second. Favorite scene: outside of Port Angeles, WA, overlooking the Strait of Juan de Fuca—Victoria, BC in the background. We saw a whale on the ferry trip back. 

The best sandwich of the summer season was the one Jesus had after his emotional paper at the Children’s Literature Association conference. Several people cried in the audience; he did not blame them: children separated from their parents is heinous, whether the ones happening now or the ones that happened once upon a time.

Bill Moreau writes: “This past May I taught a Senior Seminar class on Hope’s campus.  It ended on Friday, May 31.  At 8:30 AM on Saturday, June 1, I left campus with Professor Tony Donk of the Education Department to teach a June Term in Liverpool, England.  On one of our weekends, we ventured to Edinburgh, Scotland.  This is our group photo atop Arthur’s Seat, a (thankfully inactive) volcano just outside of the city.  It was breezy and our location allowed a beautiful view of both Edinburgh and our group of fantastic students (two of whom are English Secondary Education majors).”

Another traveler was Curtis Gruenler: “I attended the annual meeting of the Colloquium on Violence and in Innsbruck, Austria, where I presented with Prof. Dennis Feaster from the Social Work program on ‘Positive and Negative Mimesis in Communities of Care for Children with Intellectual Disabilities.’ The conference included a trip to Stams, site of a thirteenth-century Cistercian monastery. I also got to attend the first soccer game ever played in the University of Notre Dame’s stadium, a friendly between Liverpool and Dortmund, with my son Sam, who is starting his sophomore year there.”

William Pannapacker shared: “I taught ‘Banned Books’ in May, June, and July, continued directing the Mellon Grand Challenges Initiative (now exploring a two-year extension), and developed a new proposal on community-based partnerships. ‘Whitman at 200’ appeared in the North American Review, and my Twitter satire project now has nearly 74,000 followers (‘I do not have a lawn, but get off it nonetheless’). I took my three daughters to a 20-year reunion in Philadelphia and spent as much time with my family as possible. Also, I joined Grace Episcopal Church, became more active at CrossFit, and kept the top off the Jeep all summer. 

Gregory Rappleye “spent the early summer finishing up my (5th) full-length poetry manuscript, Ventrilo, which is in circulation among the presses. A number of the individual poems have already done well on the contest circuit, so I am hopeful. Toward the end of July, I delivered a poetry reading in St. Paul, Minnesota, and then spent some extended writing time at Macalester College, where I worked on the continuing re-write of Ugarte, my (1st) novel. Before flying back to Michigan, I put the first three revised chapters into envelopes and email attachments and sent them off.”

For Mike Owens, this was the “Summer of T-Shirts.” “Between early June and mid-August, our family of four collected eighteen, none of which we purchased in a conventional retail transaction (and none of which were stolen). In the spirit of ‘Been there; done that; got the t-shirt,’ we have an assortment of travel, race, summer camp, college recruiting, and non-profit foundation tops, each of which has its own story.”

  • Sunset on Willoughby Gap, Vermont

And Natalie Dykstra, still away on an NEH Fellowship, sent this update: “I’ve had some adventures this summer, including a return trip to Paris with a faculty/student research team at the American Library – read that story here.  The highlight has to be the long weekend my husband and I stayed on Roque Island, off the coast of Maine, owned by the descendants of the woman I’m writing a book about – Isabella Stewart Gardner.  The island is a working farm with sheep, hayfields, and milk cows, and a wildlife and forestry research site.  To wake up to this view with its sea breezes in the mornings was a little slice of biography-writing heaven.”

Roque Island, owned by the Gardner family