Category: Humanities

Stephanie Carpenter (HU) has been named winner of the 2017 Press 53 Award for Short Fiction for her short story collection “Missing Persons.”

Besides publication by Press 53 in October, Carpenter will receive a $1,000 advance and a quarter-page color ad in Poets & Writers magazine. The judge for the competition was Kevin Morgan Watson, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Press 53.

Of the winning manuscript, Watson says, “These stories are diverse in voice, setting, conflict and style. Ms. Carpenter’s skills shine in this collection, as does her ability to step into the shoes of a wide range of people while peeling back the complex layers of their lives. For a group of stories to rise above 230 other manuscripts competing for my attention, every story has to deliver an interesting, satisfying and powerful experience, and ‘Missing Persons’ did just that. I’m looking forward to sharing this collection of stories with readers everywhere.”

Carpenter’s prose has appeared in journals and magazines such as Witness, Nimrod, The Cossack Review, Big Fiction, The Crab Orchard Review and others. She teaches creative writing and literature at Tech. “Missing Persons” is her first book-length publication.

There will be a poetry reading by Saara Raappana and reception held from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, March 30 in Walker 134. Raappana will read new and selected poems, share anecdotes about ice fishing and rhapsodize about Trenary Toast.

Raappana is the author of the poetry chapbooks “A Story of America Goes Walking.”

There will be a screening of selected works from recent seasons of Motionpoems and reception from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, March 31 in Walker 134.

Motionpoems, a non-profit arts organization, brings the work of inspired contemporary poets to the screen through collaborations with talented emerging filmmakers. The results are poignant, heart-wrenching, uplifting and not to be missed.

L. Syd M Johnson (HU) published a review of Nada Gligorov’s “Neuroethics and the Scientific Revision of Common Sense” in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. It can be found here.

Brooklyn Magazine published a feature article about Roxane Gay, a Michigan Tech Humanities alumna and outspoken women’s rights author and activist.

PhD Students Vincent Manzie and Tolulope Odebunmi will present their papers on the topic of “Crisis and Communication in Cross-Cultural Contexts” at the RTC Colloquium from 4 to 6 p.m. Friday (Feb. 24) in Walker 134.

Manzie’s presentation will be “Applying the Rhetoric of Renewal Model in a Contemporary African Context: Lessons Learned from the Royal Dutch Shell Oil Crisis in Nigeria.”

Odebunmi will present “Whatsapp: A Safe Haven for Gender Transgression?”

Read the abstracts online.