The English Majors’ Weblog
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From: “David J Bell” <david.j.bell@wku.edu>

Subject: New Creative Writing Course for Spring 2010

For the first time, the English Department is offering an advanced writing workshop devoted entirely to the study of fiction writing. ENG 475/475G which meets on Tuesday nights from 5-7:45 is open to graduate students as well as undergraduates who have taken ENG 303. Please see the attached flyer for more details or contact Dr. David Bell. Register now. It’s exciting and life-changing.

• A Writing Revolution § SEEDMAGAZINE.COM

  • "Nearly everyone reads. Soon, nearly everyone will publish. Before 1455, books were handwritten, and it took a scribe a year to produce a Bible. Today, it takes only a minute to send a tweet or update a blog. Rates of authorship are increasing by historic orders of magnitude. Nearly universal authorship, like universal literacy before it, stands to reshape society by hastening the flow of information and making individuals more influential."

• BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | The words in the mental cupboard

  tags: words, vocabulary

  • US company Global Language Monitor (GLM) believes that the one millionth word will be added to the English language in mid-June.

    
    

    NEW WORDS/PHRASES Airline pulp - airline food Cutties - formal Indian term for ladies’ underwear Noob - neophyte in computer gaming Truthiness - having the ring of truth though false Source: Global Language Monitor

    While there is agreement that a word becomes a word when it is used by one person and understood by another, grammarians and lexicographers stand divided when deciding which to include when calculating a total.

    Obamamania, bankster and bloggerati are just some of the "brand new words" GLM has been tracking.

Are you passionate, curious and self-motivated?  Interested in
traveling and living abroad? Not sure what path you want to take after
graduation? A Fulbright Program may be right for you!

Established in 1946, the Fulbright Program aims to increase mutual
understanding between the peoples of the United States and other
countries through the exchange of persons, knowledge and skills.

Fulbright offers opportunities for US students to travel overseas: to
study, do research on a self-designed project, or teach English. Grants
are available to over 130 countries. Creative/performing arts projects
are welcome.

Applicants must be US citizens in good health and hold a BA/BS by the
time the grant period begins (for this cycle, that would be Fall 2010).
Language requirements vary by country.

WKU students have been successful in receiving Fulbrights in the past
few years, including English/German major Brooke Shafar, who is
currently teaching in Germany.

To learn how you can apply, attend the Fulbright Information Session:

Wed., April 15, 2009
DUC 308
3:00-4:30

For more information, contact WKU’s Fulbright Application Coordinator,
Jeanne Sokolowski, at jeanne.sokolowski@wku.edu

• Google’s interest in Twitter is all about the consciousness search - Computerworld Blogs

  tags: no_tag

  • If I am looking for information about a hot technology topic, Twitter is the best place to find up-to-the-second information. Technorati and Google Blog search are just a little too slow.

    This is why Google wants Twitter. Twitter has enticed people to share news, events, and nothing short of their consciousness with the rest of the world. At the same time it is able to harvest that information into a valuable product to consumers. Google can’t make this. They must buy it (either wholesale or as a service).

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Indexed » Blog Archive » Genes or grades. Or grades of genes. Debate away.

  tags: no_tag

  • 

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

From Jeanne Sokolowski,

I’m currently serving as the WKU Fulbright Application
Coordinator, and have scheduled an information session for interested
students on Wed., April 15, in DUC 308 from 3:00-4:30.

Jeanne promises more later so this is just a tease. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xovLpim_1s&NR=1

Billy Collins: mouse catastrophe, chaos theory in practice.

• Open Culture

• An FYI for art and poetry lovers: “Each month, TATE ETC. publishes new poetry by leading poets such as John Burnside, Moniza Alvi, Adam Thorpe, Alice Oswald and David Harsent who respond to works from the Tate Collection. (Subscribe to the Poem of the Month RSS feed.) This March Roger McGough presents his poem, Cadeau, based on Man Ray’s work of the same name.” Find the art and poem here.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

From Dale,

Dear All…

Those of you who remember a recent’ish graduate, Ms. Lindsay Sainlor, will be thrilled to hear that she has been awarded a fellowship to study creative nonfiction in the MFA Program at Emerson College (in Boston) and will be working on the renowned national literary
journal, Ploughshares. In her own inimitable words, “Indiana, Columbia College, and Hollins fell through, but thankfully Emerson decided to take a chance on a little girl from Kentucky.”

–kudos , Lindsay!