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NewsNotes accepts submissions year-round and will post updated information as soon as possible after our submission deadlines: usually in September, December, and March/April.

If you have ideas for ways to enlarge our Table of Contents, send suggestions to:

Dr. Katharine Rodier
Associate Professor of English & Director of Graduate Studies
Marshall University
1 John Marshall Drive
Huntington WV 25755-2646
rodier@marshall.edu

Detailed submission information is available on our Calls for Submissions link. Monica García Brooks, our Technical Editor, has outlined subscription information for future issues. If you would prefer to receive NewsNotes in print copy or in another format, please let us know.

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Publication Announcements

Conversations with Chaim Potok - From: Daniel Walden [mailto:dxw8@psu.edu]

In 2001, I published Conversations with Chaim Potok (University Press of Mississippi, 2001). It's a collection of interviews with Chaim Potok that cover his entire career. Reviews are available. Recently, I received copies of Potok's last novel, _Old Men at Midnight_, in paperback (New York: Ballantine's, 2002). It's a special printing for the Ballantine's Book Club, in which is bound at the back the last interview with Potok, which I did a few months ago. Potok died July 24.

Dan Walden also reminds us, "I published "The World of Chaim Potok" in 1980, and "Conversations with Chaim Potok" last year. . . . Because of my work on Potok, I was asked to wrote obits for _The Jewish Week_ (NYC) and _The Independent_ (London). I was extensively interviewed as well on NPR July 24 by Susan Stamberg. I was also on Boston NPR with Keith Shields; I was interviewed by Carlin Romano for the Philadelphia Inquirer obit, and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, and a few others. And I will be one of the three speakers at the Potok Memorial Symposium on Dec. 8, in Philadelphia." In addition, he notes that he was "one of the original supporters of MELUS, in the very early days with Katharine Newman. I was co-President in the second year of the organization's history. And I was awarded the Distinguished Melus AWARD a few years back."

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POINTS OF ENTRY: Cross-Currents in Storytelling - http://www.pointsofentry.org/

This is a new journal in multicultural storytelling which should be of interest to Melus members. Joy Harjo is on the Editorial Board and MariJo Moore has written an article about Native storytelling for the first issue.

If you would like additional information, please contact me. Professor Roberta Rosenberg, Associate Editor (Melus member)

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Call for Papers

Call for Papers on Black Travel Writers - From: Ugardo@aol.com [mailto:Ugardo@aol.com]

Howard University is sponsoring a day-long conference on BLACK TRAVEL WRITING to be held on Saturday, 5 April 2003, in Washington, D.C. We solicit scholarly contributions on black travel writing and on individual black travel narratives (e.g., by Mary Prince, Zora Neale Hurston, Camara Laye, V.S. Naipaul, Henry Louis Gates, Ferdinand Dennis, C.L.R. James, George Lamming, Pico Iyer, E.A. Markham, Mariétou Mbaye, Buchi Emecheta, Véronique Tadjo, Mariama Bâ) as well as papers on ways of employing the classics of black travel writing in writing courses, on successful writing projects connected to study abroad programs, and on connections between travel writing and the disciplines. Also, especially welcome are suggestions for a forthcoming comprehensive bibliography on travel narratives written by individuals from Africa or of African descent. For a fuller account of the conference please go to www.africamigration.com and click on ANNOUNCEMENTS at the top of that web-page. Please send abstracts (or proposals) by 15 October 2002 to Victoria Arana at ugardo@aol.com. Queries, also, should be addressed to Victoria Arana.

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Call for Proposals - From: mc301@mail.gatech.edu [mailto:mc301@mail.gatech.edu]

Lorraine Lopez (Vanderbilt University) and Margaret Crumpton (Georgia Institute of Technology) invite paper proposals for a book-length collection of critical essays on poetry and prose written by Judith Ortiz Cofer. We especially encourage proposals for essays that engage the following topics in Cofer's work:

Biculturalism, Bilingualism, Family, Female Bildungsroman, Feminism, Folklore, Genre, Home-Place, Humor, Identity Issues, Negation, Storytelling, Symbol, Theme

All Proposals (250 words) should be submitted in duplicate. Please mail proposals post-marked by December 7, 2002 to: Dr. Lorraine Lopez, Department of English, 1654 Section B, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235.

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Call for Submissions/MELUS Special Issue

_MELUS_, the quarterly journal of the Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States, invites essays for a special issue honoring Katharine Newman. Two $500 cash prizes will be awarded for the best articles published. Professor Newman, who passed away in 2001, is widely acknowledged as the moving spirit behind the founding of MELUS in 1972. This special number seeks to preserve and expand Professor Newman's legacy by attempting a retrospective evaluation of the role played by MELUS during the past three decades in the on-going re-definition of American literature, by taking stock of developments in ethnic and cultural studies since the 1960s, and also by gathering a few tributes to and/or reminiscences of Katharine Newman in a special section.

Especially welcome will be essays on multi-ethnic American literature addressing the development of ethnic literature as a discipline (issues of recognition and inclusion); the pedagogy of ethnic literature; the theorizing of ethnic literature; the relationship between ethnic literary studies and Cultural Studies/Postcolonial Studies/Gender Studies/Whiteness Studies; MELUS or ethnic literary studies in global and transnational contexts, including the role of MESEA (formerly MELUS-Europe), CAAR (Consortium for AFRICAN AMERICAN RESEARCH), and MELUS-India; the role of anthologies (such as Heath's) and Critical Editions (such as Norton's) in transforming the American Literature curriculum in the U.S., Europe, Asia, etc.; Ethnic Studies and American Studies. Publication is scheduled for late 2003. Proposals and submissions (4,000 words or less) may be directed in duplicate to either of the following by 7 December 2002 (with revised and finished versions by 31 January 2003): Professor C. Lok Chua, English Dept., M.S. 98, Calif. State Univ., Fresno, CA 93740, U.S.A., fax 559-278-7143 <chengc@csufresno.edu>; or Professor Amritjit Singh, English Dept., Rhode Island College, Providence RI 02908, U.S.A., fax 401-334-4778 <amrit378@earthlink.net>.

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News & Activities

From:  Irina Chirica [mailto:chirina@mail.dntis.ro]
Subject: Thanks to all who donated books!

If you would like to donate copies of any of the titles listed below to the American literature program at the University of Iasi, Romania, please contact Irina Chirica at <chirina@mail.dntis.ro>.

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Dear Professor Rodier,

 

We have received the book donation that you have sent to our English department. The books have reached us in perfect condition. We thank you very much for your generous help! It will be instrumental in the development of our American Literature project!

 

"Enrich the lives of others.

Lo, your heart has become

Infinitely rich".

 

"There is no way

To achieve goodness

Without offering it first".

 

"To be a good citizen of the world

Means I am not only for myself;

I am also for the rest of the world".

...............................

 

For your curiosity, this is the inventory of ethnic books we have received so far:

 

AFRICAN AMERICANS

Zora Neale Hurston

Their Eyes Were Watching God -  18

"Mules and Men"  -  1

Dust Tracks on a Road   -  1

Alice Walker

The Color Purple  -   15

Meridian"  - 2

"The Temple of My Familiar  -  3

You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down   -  1

Maya Angelou

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings  - 5

All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes  -  1

The Heart of a Woman   - 1

Phenomenal Woman   - 1

Toni Morrison

Beloved - 20

The Bluest Eye   - 22

Song of Solomon  -  14

Sula "   -   5

"Tar Baby  -  6

Jazz  - 1

Gloria Naylor

The Women of Brewster Place   -  5

Mama Day   -  3

Linden Hills   1

Ralph Ellison

Invisible Man   - 6

Shadow and Act  -  3

Cultural Contexts for Ellison's Invisible Man  -  2

Richard Wright

Native Son   -  16

Black Boy  -  9

Uncle Tom's Children  -  4

The Outsider   -   3

Alex Haley

The Autobiography of Malcolm X   -  8

James Baldwin

Go Tell It on the Mountain   - 3

Notes of a Native Son   - 2

The Fire Next Time   -  3

Blues for Mr Charlie   - 1

Nobody Knows My Name   -   1

Jean Toomer

Cane  - 8

Langston Hughes

Poems    -  4

 

NATIVE AMERICAN LITERATURE

Scott Momaday

The Way to Rainy Mountain   -  14

"House Made of Dawn"   -  7

Leslie Marmon Silko

Ceremony   - 10

"Storyteller"   - 4

Gardens in the Dunes  -  1

Louise Erdrich

Love Medicine  - 1

 

CHINESE AMERICANS

Maxine Hong Kingston

The Woman Warrior   -  4

Tripmaster Monkey   1

Amy Tan

The Joy Luck Club   -  4

 

JEWISH AMERICANS

Bernard Malamud 

The Assistant  -  2

The Fixer   -  8

The Natural   -  4

A New Life   -  2

Vladimir Nabokov

Lolita  -  2

Nabokov's Life and Work

Saul Bellow

Seize the Day   -  6

The Dean's December   -  2

Humboldt's Gift   -  1

 

I am sending to you a picture of myself and some pictures of the main building of our university, where our English Department is located.

 

Once more, we thank you for your generous help and wish you all the best!

 

Sincerely yours,

Irina Chirica

 

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Job Announcements

From: fgardaphe@notes.cc.sunysb.edu

Job Listing, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Associate Professor or Professor with tenure to serve as Chair. All fields invited to apply. Preference for colonial or modern Spanish American and/or Caribbean literature. Must have a strong publication record, evidence of quality teaching, and administrative experience. Additional opportunities to collaborate with the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Global Studies, and the Center for International Education. Send letter of application, CV, three letters of recommendation, and writing sample postmarked no later than November 15, 2002 to Professor Joseph A. Rodriguez, Interim Chair, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Curtin Hall, P.O. Box 413, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee WI 53201. UWM is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer.