When Dr.

Hutchinson frst
asked me to speak and asked me
to discuss the impact that having
been an English major has had on
my life, I have to admit the frst
thing that came to mind was the
fact that I am in the middle of
packing to move, and moving my
library of nearly 2,000 books has
been a somewhat hellish experi-
ence that makes me wish I had
chosen a lighter choice for my
lifes work.
But in all seriousness, the im-
pact of having been an English
major on my life is immeasurable.
Unlike other majors, wherein you
train for a very specifc job func-
tion, studying literature, at least
for me, was an intensive study
in myself, a study of my culture.
Ultimately it was, and continues
to be (because I hate to scare you,
but the drive to read and to quest
and to understand that most likely
brought you to this major never
diminishes) a study in what it
means to be human.
In considering what to say
today, I deliberately chose not to
pepper the talk with a bunch of
quotes and allusions. I think it is
better to let those writers speak
for themselves. And though I love
literary quotes, I am only going to
bother you with two today, and
I promise to keep it to that. Te
frst comes from a writer who not
many people are familiar with,
but this quote has been a bit of
a guiding light for me over the
years, and, in many ways, en-
capsulates for me the real impact
that being an English major has
had on my life. Te quote is from
Robert McAfee Brown and it is,
Storytelling is the most powerful
way to put ideas in to the world
today. Several years ago, my wife
and I ran a small literary magazine
called Portrait, and this quote was
in every issue and was our guiding
editorial principle.
Storytelling is the most power-
ful way to put ideas into the world
today.
To me, that is power. It is
through our stories that we
change our world that we give
birth to new ways of thinking,
new ways of doing. I didnt always
understand that. After I gradu-
ated from Utica College, I took a
rather circuitous route to my cur-
rent position. In fact, if you had
told me 20 years ago that I would
be an academic dean, I think that
I, and probably several of my
professors here today, would have
gotten quite a good laugh. I was
not a bad student, but I certainly
On April 24, 2014, the English majors gathered to share in the celebration of their accomplish-
ments. Te address by keynote speaker Lewis Kahler (1996), Dean, Center for Arts & Humani-
ties, Mohawk Valley Community College, is reprinted below.
A Winding Path
Lewis Kahler (96)
Interim Co-Editors
Dr. Mary Anne Hutchinson
Professor of English
Prof. Dorothy Obernesser 97
Assistant Professor of English
Contributors
Lewis Kahler
Gary Leising
Lisa Orr
Daniel Cruz
Stephanie Selvick
Suzanne Richardson
Te Spectator is published
bi-annually by the English
Department at Utica College

Send correspondence regarding
Te Spectator to:
Dorothy Obernesser
doberne@utica.edu
THE SPECTATOR
Utica College
English Department Alumni Newsletter
Fall 2014
Continued on page 2
2
was not a disciplined one. I didnt
know what I wanted. I knew that
I wanted to write, and I knew that
I loved to read, so the decision to
study literature seemed a natural
one. I had a vague notion that I
might want to be a college professor,
but my understanding of what that
meant was limited at best. So, upon
graduation, I did what I thought was
best. I picked up more hours tend-
ing bar at the place where I worked
to put myself through college, I
took up residence on the couch of
a friend, and I set forth to write the
Great American novel. Well, I dont
want to spoil the end of the story,
but I failed miserably at that endeav-
or. I was a decent bartender, and I
was a pretty good poet and managed
to publish various poems, but the
Great American novelist I was not.
So, I had to come to terms with that,
and I eventually found my way to a
graduate school program so I could
revisit that college professor idea.
Again, I did well in graduate
school; of course, I left without com-
pleting my thesis, something that I
took several years to return to, and
I came home, went back to work at
the same bar and picked up a day job
at the local bookstore. Eventually,
after some, well, lets say encourage-
ment from my parents you know,
the daily, relentless, uncompromising
we are going to kill you if you dont
do this kind of encouragement I
did return to school and completed
my thesis.
It was also around that time that
I got a phone call that changed my
life in some regards. It was a call
from Dr. Hutchinson, who had
heard that I was back in town and
that I had completed grad school,
and she ofered me an adjunct posi-
tion teaching composition. I was
both excited and terrifed. I had no
substantial teaching experience, but I
was excited to try. My frst day in the
classroom was less than an outstand-
ing performance, but over time I
learned, and I found that that burn-
ing desire to read and to quest and to
understand was satiated by my time
in the classroom. For the frst time I
really understood what Dr. McAfee
Brown was saying. As I discussed all
of the books that I loved, the ideas
that I had encountered, as I put to
work everything that I had learned as
an English major, I watched my stu-
dents blossom, I saw them struggle
with ideas and emerge victorious,
and I, too, blossomed. I got better
in the classroom, I told stories, we
shared stories, we explored stories
together, and we did, in some small
way, change the world with those
ideas. My frst students have gone on
to become architects and engineers
and doctors and professors them-
selves, and several of them still stay
in touch with me today. Tis is not
my accomplishment, it is theirs, I
am just thankful that I am able to
celebrate these successes with them.
Eventually, for me, the oppor-
tunity to take the position as dean
presented itself, and I was successful
in that venture because, and I truly
believe this to be true, I had been an
English major. My job now, and my
academic feld of study has shifted a
bit, but in the end it is still all about
storytelling. It is about molding the
world, or in my particular case, an
institution, through the power of
storytelling. I use that magic every
day. And make no mistake, good
storytelling is magic, and each of
you, in your own way is a budding
magician.
I think what I am trying to say
here is that the journey that you are
on might not always make perfect
sense, even to you. And it might
not always take a straight path, you
might not end up where you set out
to go, but if you take with you the
fact that having been an English
major, you always have that magic
in your back pocket, that magic lets
you tap into the worlds collective
stories, and if you remember that it
is through storytelling that you can
change your world, the reality is, you
can make anything happen.
Oh, by the way, I had told you
that I would have two quotes in this
talk. Te second one comes from
one of my favorite novelists, Kurt
Vonnegut Jr., when he said, and I
think, just as he claimed, that it is
very important to say this often,
whenever appropriate, and to do so
out loud, If this isnt nice, I dont
know what is. Doing this will help
you to cultivate a sense of gratitude
that will always guide you well, so,
on that note, let me leave you with
this thought about returning to my
alma mater and having had the op-
portunity to spend this time with
you today. If this isnt nice, I dont
know what is.
Tank you.
Lewis Kahler Continued from page 1
3
Second Annual Eugene Paul Nassar Poetry
Prize Awarded to Juliana Gray
Professor Gary Leising
Tis year, Juliana Gray, associate
professor of English at Alfred Uni-
versity, was named winner of the
second annual Eugene Paul Nassar
Poetry Prize. Te prize is given for
the best book of poems published
in the previous year by a resident of
upstate New York. Tis years judge
was poet Steven Haven, who di-
rects the MFA programs at Ashland
University in Ohio and is a native of
Amsterdam, New York. Her winning
book, Roleplay, features poems in the
voices of various personae as well as
poems about acting, movies, and
as the title suggestsplaying roles.
Gray is also the author of three other
collections, the newest of which
is a chapbook titled Anne Boleyns
Sleeve, a sequence of poems which
retells the story of Boleyns relation-
ship with, marriage to, and death by
order of King Henry VIII.
When Gray came to Utica Col-
lege in April to accept her prize, she
read from both of these collections,
showcasing her ability to write in
various voices and forms, from the
blank verse of some of the Anne
Boleyn poems to a sestina about
attending a Bob Dylan concert. In
addition to fnely crafted poems, the
reading revealed Grays rich sense of
humor in the prizewinning book, a
humor rooted in a kind of wit and
irony that always evokes other emo-
tions. For example, the poem Ro-
leplay makes fun of its speaker (an
English professor named Dr. Gray
who vividly resembles the poet) with
a wistful concluding tone. A poem
about girl detective Nancy Drew all
grown up and searching for love on
Match.com invites laughter at the
language of personal ads framed in
poetry while also making us laugh
at ourselves for, perhaps, fnding her
firty voice engaging and attractive.
Earlier in the day, Gray met with
UC students to look at and critique
some of their own poems. She of-
fered them suggestions for ways to
tighten their work, write clearer im-
ages, as well as sending them of with
a reading listfrom Philip Larkin to
Charles Olsonof model poets for
inspiration.
Te Eugene Paul Nassar Poetry
Prize is supported by the generous
donation of UC English alumni
Steven Critelli (72), who also spent
time with the winner as well as with
the prizes eponym, Dr. Eugene
Paul Nassar, emeritus professor of
English, and a few others, at dinner
before the reading. Te prize is open
for submissions for next years com-
petition. Information is available on
the web: www.utica.edu/nassarprize.
4
New Yorks Mixed-Race Riot
By Lisa Orr
Dr. Lisa Orr is Professor of English
at Utica College, where she has taught
American literature and creative writ-
ing since 1996. Te following article
ran in the New York Times on July 15,
2013, as part of the Disunion series,
commemorating the 150th anniversary
of the Civil War. It grew out of Pro-
fessor Orrs research for her historical
novel, Te Adventuress, about the
daughter of an Irish immigrant and a
free black man in Civil War era New
York. Dr. Orr is represented by Joyce
Holland of the D4EO Literary Agency.
When draft rioters set fre to the
Colored Orphan Asylum in New
York on the night of July 13, 1863,
one man in the crowd called out,
If there is a man among you with
a heart within him, come and help
these poor children! Incensed, the
crowd turned on him and almost
dismembered him. But he had dis-
tracted them, enabling the orphans
to escape.
Te rioters were Irish. So was the
man who sacrifced himself. And
chances are good that at least some
of those orphans were part Irish, too.
In the years before the Civil War,
Irish immigrants to Northern cities
inhabited the same slums as free
blacks, worked alongside them in
the worst jobs and often married
them. Antebellum New York held
no large, specifcally black neighbor-
hoods. Many slaves freed in New
Yorks gradual emancipation settled
in the Sixth Ward, along with other
low-income people of Irish, German
and Jewish descent. Tose neighbor-
hoods were unifed mainly by the
kind of work residents performed:
cartmen, corn sellers and prostitutes
all plied their wares around the
infamous Five Points. With the rapid
infux of immigrants during the fam-
ine years of the 1840s, the majority
of the neighborhood became Irish.
But the hardscrabble, interracial
lifestyle remained.
Historians disagree on the extent
to which the Irish and their black
neighbors clashed or cooperated.
Examples can be found for both.
Te Irish and African-Americans
lived intimately connected, boarding
together and drinking in the same
taverns, mingling in the streets and
the dance halls. But living closely
did not always mean harmoniously.
A fre in June 1863, just a month
before the riots, destroyed a tene-
ment housing a liquor store, a black
husband and wife and Irish immi-
grants. Te black man and an Irish
woman who lived above him argued
over who started the fre but their
neighbors testifed that both were
drunk at the time, and equally likely
suspects.
Five Points became something of
a tourist stop precisely because of its
promiscuous racemixing. Journalists
and other writers toured the area un-
der police protection. All found the
same mixture of poverty and crime,
and all attributed it to the evils of
amalgamation. A reporter for a New
York paper in the 1830s lamented
the white women, and black and
yellow men, and black and yellow
women, with white men, all in a
state of gross intoxication, and ex-
hibiting indecencies revolting to vir-
tue and humanity. Charles Dickens,
in his American Notes, described
the heavily Irish Five Points almost
entirely in terms of the black men
and their mulatto partners he found
in the basement dance halls, while
Davy Crockett, in his ghostwritten
account, dwelt on the infamy of
black and white, white and black,
all hugemsnug together.
Harmonious or not, most mixed-
race marriages in New York were
between Irish women and black men
and mulatto children were common.
Te year 1850 saw a new racial cat-
egory, mulatto, added to the census,
to account for their ofspring. When
the draft came, during a heat wave
in the bleak middle of the Civil War,
the mob targeted mixed-race house-
holds, especially those containing
Irish women who had children with
African-American men.
Southerners used the threat of
amalgamation to undermine North-
ern support for the war. A United
States representative from a border
state, arguing that Republicans fa-
vored total race equality, described a
ball held at Five Points in the city of
New York, where white women and
negroes mingled `in sweet confusion
in the mazy dance. (His opponent,
Francis W. Kellogg, Republican of
Michigan, pointed out that Five
Points was within the strongest
Democratic ward in the city.)
Two New York City Democrats
5
invented the term miscegenation
during the 1864 election campaign.
Te present war is a war for the
negro, argued a faked Republican
pamphlet, designed to discredit
Lincoln. Let it go on until the
great truth shall be declared in our
public documents and announced in
the messages of our President, that
it is desirable the white man should
marry the black woman and the
white woman the black man. One
subhead was entitled, Te Irish and
Negroes First to Comingle.
Te wording was meant to incense,
but it wasnt that far from what
Ralph Waldo Emerson had written
in response to nativists in 1845: In
this continent asylum of all races
the energy of the Irish, Germans,
Swedes, Poles and Cossacks, and
all the European tribes of the
Africans, of the Polynesians will
construct a new race, a new reli-
gion, a new state, a new literature,
which will be as vigorous as the
new Europe which came out of the
smelting-pot of the Dark Ages. His
Concord neighbor, Louisa May Al-
cott, published a short story in 1863
featuring an interracial marriage as
the happy ending. Northern liber-
als had already thought through the
implications of race equality.
Irish mens perception that they
were being asked to fght a war that
would free more slaves who would
then move North and compete with
them was stoked by politicians
and businessmen with ties to the
South. Mayor Fernando Wood told
an Irish crowd that the true purpose
of the Emancipation Proclamation
was to food the North with black
mechanics, who would lower wages
for whites. He further infamed
his listeners by claiming that rich
Republicans believed the African
superior to the poor white. Irish
men responded by forming trade
unions that specifcally excluded
black men, pushing them further to
the economic margins.
Te draft riots followed years of
politicians and middle-class reform-
ers attempts to separate the two
groups. Irish mothers were particu-
larly vulnerable to the latter, for as
the men enlisted or were pushed
out of work, their families relied
more heavily on outside aid. When a
widow asked the Methodist minister
Lewis M. Pease, director of the Five
Points House of Industry, to take in
her daughter Lizzie for a few days,
until she found work, he obliged.
But when she returned, Pease refused
to let her have her child, because he
had discovered that she lived with
a black man. Despite the pleas and
tears of both Lizzie and her mother,
Pease put the child up for adoption,
and sent her on an orphan train to
Illinois.
After the riots subsided, a relief
committee set up by merchants
reported that white wives of black
men had been severely dealt with
by the mob. One Irish woman,
the committee reported, had been
driven insane by the persecution she
endured. Among the mobs victims
were colored people with Irish
names like Elizabeth Hennessy.
After the war, the organizers of the
Colored Orphanage attempted to
rebuild, but found themselves un-
welcome in their old neighborhood.
Instead they moved uptown, to an
isolated area that would become Har-
lem. Te citys segregation had begun.
What happened to all those mixed-
race children? In some cases, their
ancestry has been forgotten. Work-
ing with colleagues on a large-scale
DNA analysis, Mark D. Shriver, a
Pennsylvania State University geneti-
cist, has found that 30 percent of
self-identifed white Americans have
some African ancestry including,
to his surprise, himself.
Sources: Barnet Schecter, Te
Devils Own Work: Te Civil War
Draft Riots and the Fight to Recon-
struct America; Tyler Anbinder,
Five Points: Te 19th-Century New
York City Neighborhood; Te New
York Times, June 10, 1863; Charles
Dickens, American Notes for General
Circulation; Noel Ignatiev, How the
Irish Became White; Speech of Hon.
Francis W. Kellogg, of Michigan, in
the House of Representatives, June 12,
1860; Elise Lemire, Miscegenation:
Making Race in America; J. Marcus
Bloch, Miscegenation, Melaleukation
and Mr. Lincolns Dog; Ralph Waldo
Emerson, Essays and Poems; Jerome
Mushkat, Fernando Wood: A Political
Biography; Report of the Committee
of Merchants for the Relief of Colored
People, Sufering From the Late Riots
in the City of New York; Mark D.
Shriver, et al., Skin Pigmentation,
Biogeographical Ancestry and Admix-
ture Mapping, Human Genetics, 112
(2003).
6
Meet the New Professors
Stephanie M. Selvick and Daniel Shank Cruz are new assistant professors in the English department. Dr. Selvick
teaches contemporary world literature, and Dr. Cruz teaches contemporary American literature. Both focus on eth-
nicity and sexuality in their teaching and research.
What is the most unexpected or
surprising event that has ever hap-
pened in a class you were teaching?
DC: One time
my class was study-
ing the section of
Zora Neale Hur-
stons Mules and
Men on hoodoo,
and one of my
students mentioned
that she practiced
witchcraft and threatened to use
it on her classmates if they werent
nice to her. My initial reaction was
Tats awesome! Good job making
connections between literature and
real life, but in hindsight I probably
should have asked her not to threat-
en her classmates.
Te runner-up for this question
occurred several years ago when I
was teaching J.G. Ballards novel
Crash. When I got to the classroom
about fve minutes before the begin-
ning of the period, several students
were already in a shouting match
about the book, and a few students
reacted so strongly to the book that
they cried during our discussion of
it. Despite being ensconced in litera-
ture all the time, sometimes I forget
how powerful it can be on some sort
of unnameable, visceral level instead
of just on an aesthetic one.
SS: During the
frst week of teach-
ing a course that
focused on gender
and sexuality, I
learned that one
students mother
was responsible
for allowing a
transgender woman to receive sexual
reassignment surgery. It was the
1970s. We now think of this surgery
as sexual afrmation surgery, rather
than reassignment. But, in the 1970s
if you were someone who was born
in the wrong gender you had to get
permission from a doctor in order
to surgically alter your body. Our
class was flled with tragic stories by
transgender people who were met by
phobic doctors.
My students mother, in contrast,
didnt ask this patient to come in
for therapy or treatment, as was
the norm. Instead, she looked at
the patient a bit confused, and said
something to the extent of: I am
not an expert on sexual reassignment
surgery. Surely you can make this
decision for yourself? Where do I
need to sign?
Shortly before our course began,
and thus almost 40 years later, this
woman found my students mother.
Te woman was able to receive her
surgery without being subjected to a
doctor who may have disagreed with
that decision. She was thrilled in her
body and wanted my students mother
to know that she helped save her life.
My student told the whole class
this during the second week of our
semester. I was literally still stuck on:
You talk to your mom about what
we read in class? I could not have
been more proud.
If a student in one of your courses
only left learning one thing, what
would you want that to be?
SS: I would be thrilled if students
left knowing that Africa, indeed,
was not a country. I would also
love students to know that there are
more than two genders. My frst
year students last semester identifed
63 genders. Tat seems like a good
enough place to start.
DC: I want them to realize that
literature has relevance to life outside
of the classroom, that it can be a
force for social change in the world,
though it also gives us something un-
speakably personal and intimate. As
William Carlos Williams says, It is
difcult to get the news from poems,
yet people die horrible deaths every
day for lack of what is found there.
What is the craziest book you have
ever read, and under what conditions
would you consider teaching it?
DC: It depends on what is meant
by craziest, but for sheer WTF-
ness, no one beats Kathy Ackers
fction. I am actually teaching one
of her novels, Blood and Guts in
High School, in my ENG 145 this
semester, though this isnt the crazi-
est of her works (Pussy, King of the
Pirates probably is). But Blood and
Guts in High School does have lots
of disturbing sex and also some il-
lustrations. Lets just say Im expect-
ing some complaints on my course
evaluations.
SS: Nigerian author Chris Abanis
Virgin of Flames is a novel set in East
Los Angeles and follows the inter-
secting lives of a struggling muralist
named Black, a transsexual Mexican
stripper named Sweet Girl, and a
former boy soldier from Rwanda
named Bomboy. Te narrative is as
imaginative as the characters, if not
also terribly tragic. I look forward to
teaching it someday so that students
know the wide-range of forms con-
temporary African writing takes.
What is your favorite food, sport,
hobby, flm?
SS: When I was at the very end
of fnishing my dissertation I found
a community of writers who had
all identifed their junk food of
7
choicethe comfort food that
would get them through the black
hole that is writing your frst book.
Most had made relatively harmless
choices: Red Hots, gummy worms,
Doritos. Mine was pizza. I have
come to precisely the wrong place
if I was hoping to move beyond my
eating-pizza-while-writing days.
DC: I love to watch soccer and
baseball because they help me make
connections with larger communi-
ties. In the case of baseball, I feel
connected to New York City, my
hometown, when I watch the Mets
even though I havent lived there
since 2004. Soccer connects me to
the global community. When I wake
up at 6:00 a.m. to watch a match in
England, it reminds me that there is
so much else going on aside from my
often narrowly-focused American
context. I am super, super excited for
the World Cup this summer.
When did you decide you wanted to
become a professor, and what moved
you toward this decision?
DC: Id known since high school
that I wanted to do some kind of
graduate study after college, but it
wasnt until the year after college,
when I was working in a non-academ-
ic job while deciding what I wanted
to go to graduate school for, that I
decided I wanted to become a profes-
sor. It took me a while to realize how
I could translate my love of reading
and my intellectually curious nature
into a job. I still cant believe that I get
paid a living wage to read books and
discuss them with other people.
SS: Ive always wanted to be a
teacher. But, I didnt want to teach at
university until my assigned guid-
ance counselor during undergradu-
ate studies told me that I couldnt. I
went to the University of Wisconsin-
Oshkosh for undergrada school
that, at least then, didnt often see its
students attend graduate school. Im
sure I said something terribly an-
noying to my counselor on my frst
day of school, like: I want to be an
English professor (with 18 year old
enthusiasm)! He promptly signed
me into the adolescent education
program without my knowledge.
Four semesters later I was assigned
an interview time slot to enter into
the education program; I then real-
ized what he had done on my behalf
and without my consent. I promptly
changed my guidance counselor to
someone who thought I was fabu-
lous and have been feeding of of 18
year old jilted anger ever since.
Whats been your favorite thing
about the city of Utica thus far?
SS: I appreciate cities that are not
surface level. On the surface here
you see beautifully haunting aban-
doned buildings, a pizzeria on every
corner, and signs that say Utica be-
gins with YOU!. But, I have also be-
gun to notice Somali markets in East
Utica, a pizzeria run by Russians
who adopted Utican food culture, a
group of LGBT youth that meet at
the Otherside every Tursday, and
a Planned Parenthood that appears
to be resilience personifed, faced as
they are by weekly protesters. I love
discovering the undercurrents that
run throughout this city.
DC: My favorite thing about the
city of Utica so far is the variety of
delicious ethnic foods available. Tus
far Ive eaten at good-to-excellent
Italian, Indian, Puerto Rican, Do-
minican, and Japanese restaurants.
Uticas food scene puts Salt Lake
Citys (my previous place of resi-
dence) to shame even though the
latter is a large city. Aside from New
York City, Utica has the best res-
taurants of the six places Ive lived,
which I was not expecting.
Final Question: Who do you share
an ofce with? And how completely
awesome has that experience been?
DC: Stephanie M. Selvick, and
shes awesome! I enjoy how we have
copies of lots of the same books.
SS: Daniel asked me on our frst
day if he could put a rainbow fag in
our window, and I knew that I had
found the right place.
After reading David Henry Hwangs play Chinglish in Literature
206, the class went to see the live performance at Syracuse Stage on
opening night (February 26, 2014). Tey had the surprise pleasure
of meeting the playwright in person.
In the photo (left to right) are: Calie Taranto, Kishon Grant, Lynsie
Ferguson, Cecilia Gulius, David Henry Hwang; Cynthia Nagel;
new English faculty member Stephanie Selvick.
8
English Majors Courtney Foll and Lynsie
Ferguson Win DiSpirito and Wasserman
Scholarships for Teir Creative Writing
By Suzanne Richardson
On Sunday, April 13th, 2014, at
an ofcial school wide award cer-
emony, surrounded by family and
friends, Dean Johnsen of the School
of Arts & Science presented Court-
ney Foll and Lynsie Ferguson with
arts scholarships for their achieve-
ments and talents in creative writing.
Both Courtney and Lynsie submitted
about forty pages of creative writing
to be considered for this award.
Te Henry R. & Rose DiSpirito
award is given to a Junior or Senior
with at least a 3.0 GPA and a par-
ticular talent in the arts. Te Dean
remarked of Courtney while present-
ing the DiSpirito Scholarship, She
is quite simply one of the hardest
working writers around campus. It
takes a lot of time, planning and
thought for a writer to produce,
and shes always methodically going
through her process, and it turns
out great work. Most writers, at this
age, dont have the patience for the
kind of work she is willing to put
in. I think this is true testament to
the kind of relationship Courtney
has with her art form; it challenges
her and she likes that so she puts
in the time to get it right. She has
proved time and time again that its
the process of writing that thrills
her, not necessarily the end product
and thats the mark of a true writer,
someone who will keep going back
to the blank page.
Te Mary Wasserman Fine Arts
Scholarship is given to student who
shows promise in beneftting from a
formal art education. Dean Johnsen
told the crowd as he presented Lynsie
with this award, Lynsies voice on
the page is very raw, very honest, and
over time this rawness will serve her
well. She also has a knack for unique
description, images that just pop of
the page. Tere is no subject matter
that is of-limits for Lynsie and as a
writer that is the mark of someone
who could be very successful, some-
one who is willing to investigate
themselves, even their less fattering
sides, and do it thoughtfully. Te
ability to refect in Lynsies work is
very high and this is a skill that cant
really be taught. Shes able to look
at her own self, her own actions, her
own past critically and this is a skill
every nonfction writer must have.
A lovely awards breakfast followed,
along with photographs in the court-
yard. Congratulations to both Lynsie
and Courtney for their excellent
work in the feld of creative writing.
9
English Across the Curriculum
Creative Writing and Creative Nonfction courses hold a continued appeal for non-English majors for a variety of rea-
sons. All English courses, whether writing courses or literature courses or linguistic courses, ofer an opportunity for students
of all disciplines to enjoy the reading and writing experience.
In the Spring 2014 semester, Dr. Gary Leising taught a Beginning Creative Writing course and two non-English major
students ofered some information about their backgrounds and some of their work.
Shannon Harrington is a local student who commutes
from Oneida, New York. She will be a senior this fall.
Her major is psychology. Shannon writes, I fnd myself
enjoying writing when Im stressed and consumed by the
college work load; it allows me to express my thoughts
of topics and ideas not typically covered in a psychology
classroom. . . .I feel as if it is extremely important for
non-English majors to take a creative writing course in
order to stretch their writing boundaries. APA, MLA,
and Chicago style writing is burned into students
minds, yet it is refreshing to discover that an excellent
paper, poem, or story can be composed without a uni-
versal, set structure. Maternity Ward was written as an
assignment to write about a scary place.
Maternity Ward
Shannon Harrington
Everyone in this place is dying,
but in this strange vortex life is born.
Opening the double doors to the maternity ward
is like entering a possessed, clown infested funhouse.
Wide, smiling faces of the staf
With eyes bright and bulging,
Dressed in teddy bear and duck scrubs
greet you when you enter.
Te walls are pale pinks and baby blues,
warm wooden furniture lines the halls.
Te smell of sanitizer is numbing, consuming.
Cheers, clapping, crying.
A lullaby sounds the halls,
a scream echoes out.
A nurse swaddles the new, heavy burden of responsibility.
Daddy mourns his freedom.
Mommy mourns her body.
No sleep.
No escape.
Trapped.
Everyone cries.
Brian Fitzsimmons is a recent graduate and is from
New Hartford, New York. He majored in Liberal Stud-
ies. Brian writes, Te creative writing class . . . was
something I had never done before and made me keep
thinking in new and diferent ways.
Rough Draft
Brian Fitzsimmons
Te plot is certain, the story will come,
Te main characters are solid
Teir new friends will arrive and build,
creating the adventure ahead.
Punctuation is not important, other than the period.
Let the run-ons, run on
And the fragments, fragment
Spell check is our friend and our enemy
Distractions of red and green lines.
Tis is the time the story will build,
Your world will expand,
Your life immersed into the life of another,
A life you are creating.
Grammar is unimportant
Spelling is unimportant
Continue the story, dont get distracted,
Ignore those colored lines
And write without judgment.
1600 Burrstone Road
Utica, NY 13502-4892
Non-Proft
Organization
U.S. Postage
PAID
Utica College
HFES Hosted Open Mic at Te Tramontane
Caf to Launch Ampersand 2014
By Suzanne Richardson
On Tursday, May 1st, 2014,
at 7:30 p.m. folks gathered at the
Tramontane caf for an evening of
poetry and selected readings from
the latest issue of Utica Colleges
undergraduate literary journal,
Ampersand. Te vice president of
HFES, Rose Zaloom, the editor-
in-chief of Ampersand 2014, David
Eves, and I cohosted the evening.
Perched on the funky, foral, print
couches and colorful chairs, people
from both Utica College and the
community enjoyed an evening
of fantastic poetry and prose. Te
Tramontanes casual and friendly
atmosphere made for a successful and
well-attended open mic.
Readers alternated all night from
UC afliates to locals for an inter-
esting diversity in subject matter:
Dogs, recovery, multiple selves, Star
Wars, ice cream, abs, curses, monks,
Facebook, malls, and of course, love,
both requited and unrequited. Local
poets, Mike Cecconi and Roger B.
Smith kicked of the evening. Dr.
Leising read some of his original
work, while Dr. Cruz dramatically
read a well-known published piece,
I am the People, the Mob by Carl
Sandberg. Spotted in the crowd were
Dr. Scannell, Dr. Selvick and senior
English major, Taylor Banovic.
Former Ampersand editor-in-chief
Jenn Strife also read an original poem
and Ampersand staf wished her luck
on beginning her MFA in poetry
this fall at the University of Tennes-
see. Students who read from their
work published in Ampersand 2014
included senior English majors Sean
Feener and Courtney Foll, as well as
sophomores Rose Zaloom and David
Eves. Public congratulations were
also given to Ampersands 2014 Vogel
Award Winners, David Eves (poetry),
and Nicole Szalkowski (fction).
Many UC students told the room it
was their frst time ever reading their
work aloud in public and the crowd
always responded with cheers of sup-
port. With the smell of cofee and hot
chocolate in the air, a good time was
had by all at this celebratory event.
Tramontane owners Robin Raabe and
Garrett Ingarham look forward to
partnering with UC English majors
and faculty for other events.
Te Tramontane Caf has a poetry
open mic every Tursday starting at
7:30pm.