Recently in FYI Category

Public Service ALERT:

The following search on my campus -- for a published mystery author qualified to teach creative writing -- has been RELAUNCHED, and will continue until filled -- is closed and the search committee is deliberating over candidates has hired urban fantasy author Dr. Nicole Peeler for the position.

Here is the job description for posterity....

Assistant Professor of English
SETON HILL UNIVERSITY
Application Due: Feb 3rd, 2010
Type: Full Time
Tenure-track, starting June 2010.

Seton Hill University seeks published genre novelist (priority for popular mystery/crime/suspense writer; will also consider fantasy or romance author) for tenure-track position in our low-residency MFA program in Writing Popular Fiction, starting June 2010. Commitment to genre fiction essential. Composition, online and graduate teaching experience highly desirable. MFA required (Ph.D. preferred). 4/4 teaching responsibilities; half of course load will serve undergraduate English and Composition instruction.

Seton Hill University is a Catholic, liberal arts University, serving undergraduate, adult and graduate students. Seton Hill is located 35 miles east of Pittsburgh. Visit setonhill.edu for more information.

Immediately send a letter, C.V., official transcripts, statement of teaching philosophy, sample publications, and three letters of reference to Michael Arnzen, Ph.D., Seton Hill University, Greensburg, PA 15601. Deadline: February 3rd, 2010. The review process will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled. Seton Hill University is committed to a faculty, staff and student body that reflect the diversity of our global population. AA/EOE.

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Feel free to e-mail me with questions.

As a creativity challenge, I recently signed up for THE FICTION PROJECT, sponsored by The Art House Co-op. Registrants (before Feb) will be mailed a Moleskine sketchbook in which to tell and show a story using words and art, based on a surprise random theme. Most participants scan and share their work-in-progress, with commenting available much like a weblog. The deadline is in April, when sketchbooks are returned to be put on permanent display in the Brooklyn Art Library.

The length of the experience nicely fits into a college semester-length calendar for the coming Spring, so I thought I would recommend it to others who are considering a creative class project for their art or writing courses. The "rules" are flexible enough to allow collaborative creations for the class as a whole, or to allow individual entries. The site offers an educational discount for groups over 10.

Visit my profile and feel free to friend me if you sign up. I don't know what I'll be doing for this project, or if I'll even succeed, but I know it will be very weird.

My colleague down the hall, Dennis Jerz has been awarded the John Lovas Memorial Academic Award from the journal, Kairos, for his Literacy Weblog. Visit his site, browse around and drop him a note of congratulations.

He joins a list of other interesting academic weblogs in honor of late blogger John Lovas worth following:

2008: Alex Reid: "Digital Digs"

2007: Elizabeth Losh: "VirtualPolitik"

2006: Clancy Ratliff: "CultureCat: Rhetoric and Feminism"

2005: Collin Brooke: "Collin vs. Blog"

2004: Jenny Edbauer: "Stupid Undergrounds: I Found It on the Street"

The latest issue of DISSECTIONS: The Journal of Contemporary Horror just went live online. The theme this time around is "Teaching Horror" which emerged as part of a series of panels at the International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts in March 2008. It includes a few spectacular articles from a panel I was on with Doug Ford and Frances Auld. My article from that panel ("The Unlearning: Horror and Transformative Theory") went on to be published at a journal called Transformative Works & Cultures), but I wrote a new essay for Dissections in its place: "Horror and the Responsibilities of the Liberal Educator" . Here's a sample:

....Luckily, the teacher fully knows what the students want to ignore: that horror is inherently an educational genre. The very notion of a ‘cautionary’ tale is predicated on the notion of teaching someone a lesson. And while not all horror stories and films are cautionary in nature, they are always stimuli that aim at generating a dark emotional reaction which - when all the screaming stops - one inevitably attempts to manage with enlightened intellectual reasoning: whether it's in the mode of investigation (‘what's really lurking in the shadows?’) or metaphysical inquiry (‘do alternatives to God exist?’) or logic judgement (‘why did her baby have to die?’). Our rational minds are still at work when we contend with the most irrational of fictions. Indeed, even when a horror narrative - such as the work of Lovecraft - attempts to obliterate logical reasoning and symbolic systems altogether, it needs to construct them first.

What all this means is that, despite the naysayers, horror provides an excellent context for learning. It raises the serious questions that allow critical inquiry to transpire.

Go visit Dissections to read on, or to see other essays on issues related to integrating the horror genre into the classroom by Ford, Auld, Brock-Servais, Schnopp-Wyatt, Wisker, and more!

[NOTICE: The deadline for applications has ended and we have begun vetting a parcel of strong contenders. Should a viable candidate not be chosen, I will repost.]

*** A Public Service Announcement! ***

FACULTY WANTED TO TEACH WRITING OF POPULAR FICTION

Assistant Professor of English
Location: Greensburg, PA
Category: Faculty - Liberal Arts - English and Literature
Posted: 11/10/2008
Application Due: Open Until Filled
Type: Full Time

Seton Hill University seeks published novelist of popular fiction (preferably mystery/suspense), to teach and to mentor novel-length theses in the graduate low-residency Writing Popular Fiction program (half-load), and to teach undergraduate courses in creative writing and first-year composition.

Candidates should hold a Ph.D. in English, MFA considered. Background in journalism, publishing, and/or editing a plus. Teaching experience/potential at undergraduate level desirable.

Send a letter of application, curriculum vitae, official transcripts, a statement of philosophy of teaching, a writing sample, a teaching portfolio, and three letters of reference. The review process will begin February 15, 2009 and will continue until the position is filled.

Seton Hill University is a Catholic, liberal arts University, educating traditional and non-traditional undergraduate and graduate students. Classes are offered in a variety of formats - day, evening, and weekends. Seton Hill has a student-centered campus culture based on Catholic values, acceptance, community and service. The campus is located 35 miles east of Pittsburgh.

Postal Address: Dr. John Spurlock, Chair
Humanities Division
Seton Hill University
Seton Hill Drive
PO Box 507F
Greensburg, PA 15601
Email Address: spurlock@setonhill.edu
http://fiction.setonhill.edu
http://www.setonhill.edu

***
[NOTICE: The deadline for applications has ended and we have begun vetting a parcel of strong contenders. Should a viable candidate not be chosen, I will repost.]

Dennis Jerz's Literacy Weblog today points to the new Humanities Resource Center and "a major study that aims to establish benchmarks for assessing the humanities" from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. This looks like a terrific resource for guaging the Humanities and a good assessment tool to delve into at a later date. I have agreed to chair our Humanities Division at our university starting in the Fall, so I definitely appreciate this lead.

"Buried in Paper" by writer couple Melanie and Steve Rasnic Tem was recently posted at Storytellers Unplugged. It uncannily reflects my own recent resolution to declutter a lot of the paperwork that's piling sky high in my home office. I've been meticulously cataloguing and reorganizing my home bookshelves for months, and still haven't gotten it perfect, with stacks of books here and there still on the floors in offbeat categories that don't "fit" on shelves with others in a tidy way (I keep vacuuming around these stacks, secretly hoping the vacuum will suck them up and solve my problem).

I often go through bouts of decluttering in the early summer, right after classes end. It gives me a feeling, quite literally, of a 'clean break.' But whenever I've invested a little time during the (ever so short) winter break to do this, I've had a more enjoyable spring. Wish me luck.

A few related reading to pass along and note for later reading, should I fail to meet my resolution:

• Advice for clearing literary clutter from metafilter
• Pittfalls of Creativity Clutter from the great organization site, unclutterer.com
• Lifehacker: portal to tips and downloads for getting things done
• Zen Habits' Massive GTD (getting things done) Resource List
• Conquering Clutter an article on compulsive hoarding from David Dudley, AARP
• Sharon Crosby's Mind Over Clutter articles

The National Education Association is celebrating the election of Barack Obama. The American Federation of Teachers is celebrating the election of Barack Obama. My students and many of my colleagues are celebrating the election of Barack Obama.

I cheer along with the crowd. But the confetti is thinning out in the air, and realism is settling back in. Already the pundits on tv news are asking Obama to "show me the money" when it comes to the economy. I hope we will remember how and why education matters even when the accounts run low.

Education Week has an article surveying Obama's challenges on the education front, once he gets in office.

"The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term,” said Mr. Obama at a rally in Chicago’s Grant Park.

But Mr. Obama said in the past month that he considers education an important ingredient for addressing the country’s long-term economic problems. In the Oct. 8 presidential debate, he rated education as a priority on a par with expanding access to health care, reforming entitlement programs, and developing new forms of energy.

Indeed: Education is a health issue, it is an energy issue, it is even a war issue. It is not simply a childhood issue. It seems patently obvious to me that we need to combat ignorance worldwide if we genuinely seek civility, peace, unity and understanding.

Obama's education agenda is pretty clear cut and reasonable. The challenges he faces will mostly be financial, but the pay off will be attitudinal. There will simply be less anti-intellectualism in government than there seems to be now (in my view) and more support for both early development and college learning -- fundamental ways of repaving a foundation for the future. And virtually any reform to No Child Left Behind his administration proposes will likely be applauded by teachers everywhere.

Education.com gives a clear overview of Obama's plans for reforming education at present, but to get a deeper sense of Obama's thinking about education in America, read his July 5, 2007 speech to the NEA, where he discusses something he terms the 'these kids' syndrome and outlines why we need to reform No Child Left Behind. It not only encapsulates his promises (which he may or may not be able to fulfill) but also his accurate perception of the problem in schools.

Nevertheless, as Education Sector points out, Obama wasn't necessarily elected on an public mandate to change the education system and the current economic crisis will still drive his attention. Even so, Education Sector recommends the top 8 Education Ideas for the Next President.

As for the thoughts of college professors on the future, Scott McLemee's latest IHE article, "Turning a Page" surveys teachers by asking them what book they would recommend to the future US president and why. (In comparison, here's W's official reading list...and the unofficial, as well).

Halloween is fast approaching, so horror literature is in the air. If you're teaching it, you might want to look for the "Writer's Talk" series on WCBE (Ohio's NPR station), which will be airing interviews with horror writers Michael Arnzen, Gary Braunbeck, Lucy Snyder, and Lawrence Connolly each Wednesday in October.

The topic is "The Business & Life of Writing Horror" and all of us had a blast together answering questions about this crazy genre of dread and terror, from how to write it, to what it means for today's culture. The Arnzen session airs tonight on WCBE (10/8/08) at 8pm, and I think it turned out really well.

If you miss it, don't worry:  you should be able to hear the podcast online, provided by Doug Dangler and the Ohio Center for the Study and Teaching of Writing. In fact, you can stream a copy of it on your computer right now here:

The full interview will all four horror writers will soon be available on OSU's CSTW website -- which you can also subscribe to on iTunes .

A profile on my writing and teaching career, called "Horror Writer Does his Best Work Having Fun" was just published in the newsletter of the Textbook & Academic Authors Association. Their web site is for members only but they've kindly shared a .pdf file of the feature story that the public can read.

Here's a short excerpt:

Arnzen also credits his success with taking creative risks. “This is another way of saying I don’t mind embarrassing myself,” he said. “Genres rely on conventions and expectations, so many writers err on the side of repeating what’s been done before.” Arnzen said he’s “always thrown caution to the wind and tried to be as weird and experimental as I can. I try not to censor myself too much.” Horror itself can be taken too seriously at times. Arnzen balances this seriousness with humor. “I don’t hold back the humor. To me, a lot of the appeal of horror is its absurdity,” he said. “I find much of what I’ve read or seen in horror quite laughable.”

Anyone who writes instructional books will find the TAA organization a useful hub of information. Their introductory membership rates are reasonable. Check them out.