The English Department works with joy and vigor to create a vibrant and creative intellectual environment on campus through exciting programming, orientations to guide our students into graduate schools and careers, and rip-roaring social events.
Please check this page regularly to keep up with department happenings, which are almost always open to the broader community and public.
Poetry ... and Pancakes!
As part of Alumni Weekend
9:30 a.m.-noon Sept. 17, 2022
Come to the gazebo for the 5th annual gathering of poets and pancake enthusiasts! Seven of our finest student poets will read from their works in the open air: Diana Bahena, Clay Cofre, Jaritza Delgado, Timothy Garrison, Sylwia Jurkowski, Lara Levitan and Hana Urban.
Creative Writing Coordinator Olivia Cronk will host the event, and English Department Chair and chef Tim Scherman will serve warm pancakes with fresh toppings. As we always say, come for the poetry, and stay for the pancakes!
"My Brother Langston"
3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022
Black Ensemble Theater
The English Department is sponsoring seven (7) student tickets to "My Brother Langston," a new play at the renowned Black Ensemble Theater, about the life and poetry of iconic American poet Langston Hughes. As part of NEIU Day/Alumni Weekend, the entire NEIU community is invited to explore this work.
Ticket are $45. Purchase your own alumni/faculty/staff/student ticket or sponsor a student ticket.
Phone: (773) 442-5823
Email: Tim Libretti, t-libretti@neiu.edu
ALUMNI TALKBACK ZOOM SERIES
Continuing in Fall 2022, we will host a monthly Zoom series featuring successful NEIU alumni who majored in English, to show undergrads how to market their skills and attributes as an English major in a wide variety of fields. Each session features four alumni who present their unique paths to their current positions, and then answer questions from students and colleagues who want to know more!
Featured alumni will be announced here, as well as the monthly dates of each session in September, October and November.
The 82: Student reading and writers reading - Fall 2022
3-5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 10
Room B 152
The 82: Student Edition features a whole new crop of Creative Writing student artists invited to read from their works. The roster of participating students will follow soon, so watch this space; The 82 always arrives!
Timothy Libretti serving as editor of online magazine engendered
In October 2020, Tim Libretti (Acting Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and one-time Chair of English) began serving as an editor for the online magazine Engendered, a publication featuring writing that explores the world through the lens of gender, with emphases on trauma, equality and accountability, power, and systems and transformation "through a gendered power lens." Tim's mission, as he has chosen to accept it, is to build a community through its pages, and he wants YOU to contribute your writing!
Students, alumni and colleagues: if you are interested in publishing your writing in Engendered on the topic of your choice, reach out to Tim Libretti at t-libretti@neiu.edu.
Check out their submission guidelines.
Ryan Poll JOins POPmatters as staff writer
In Spring 2020, Professor Ryan Poll became a staff writer at PopMatters, an online, "international magazine of cultural criticism and analysis, which has been independently owned and operated since its inception. Our scope is broadly cast on all things pop culture and we are the largest site that bridges academic and popular writing in the world." Almost immediately, Ryan created the Reading Pandemics series now featured on the site, to which he continues to contribute.
Ryan also established a one-credit English course for Fall 2020 to examine historical pandemics in literature (Love in the Time of COVID, anyone?), inclusive of several more English faculty, whose lectures were then published online.
PopMatters continues to seek writers, including students, alumni and colleagues. Check out their submission page.
