Issuu

2026

ENGLISH SHAHEEN EXPLORES FRENCH BATTLEFIELDS In June 2025, Dr. Aaron Shaheen took a ten-day trip to France to finalize research for a monograph he has been working on, and that has since been completed and placed under contract with Cambridge University Press. The research involves how World War I cartographic techniques contributed to some of the thematic and stylistic developments of American Modernism. So, a lot of his time

in France was spent wandering battlefields and cemeteries to see how closely maps corresponded to the landscapes they represented. This trip took him to the Somme and Cantigny battlefields, about an hour’s train-ride north of Paris. Cantigny was the May 1918 battle that took the life of Willa Cather’s first cousin Grosvenor (“GP”) Cather, who inspired the character (continued on page 5)

Exploring the Black Church

English Welcomes Mark Houston

see page 6

see page 30

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT ADMINISTRATION 2025–2026 Head, Department of English

Dr. Andrew McCarthy

Senior Associate Department Head

Dr. Bryan Hampton

Associate Department Head

Prof. Sybil Baker

Director of English Graduate Studies Director of Composition

Dr. Heather Palmer Dr. Jenn Stewart

Director of General Education

Dr. Lauren Ingraham

English Internships Coordinator

Prof. Kristine Whorton

Classroom Technologies & Website Coordinator

Prof. Tiffany Mitchell

Administrative Assistant, Composition Program

Yvonne Artis

Executive Secretary

Heather Grothe

CONTENTS Shaheen Explores French Battlefields Wakefield Examines the Black Church Undergraduate Spotlight: Alaska Lawson Quinlan Explores the Humanities and Artificial Intelligence Najberg Publishes Board Game Alumni Spotlight: Allison Burke Braggs Releases Morning Edge of Midnight An English Halloween Palmer Publishes New Works New BFA Major Coming Soon Alumni Spotlight: Jared Steiman Valentine’s Day Celebrated Justin Wymer: Letters, Poems, and Vignettes Babine Goes S(camping) Whorton’s Poems Explore Transformation Undergraduate Spotlight: Victoria Lemyn Marcia Noe: What Is the Midwest? UTC Faculty Awards Undergraduate Spotlight: Mattie Tabor Einstein Contemplates Regret and Desire with New Book Alumni Spotlight: Sarah Anderson Alumni Spotlight: Susan Thomas Poet Laureate Visits UTC Wakefield to Serve as President-Elect of the Faculty Senate English Department Welcomes Mark Houston Take Five Features Sybil Baker Graduate Student Spotlight: Oliver Cates Graduate Student Spotlight: Lauren Graves Meacham Cohosts the Southern Literary Festival Frost Returns to English Join Us on UTC English Department Social Media Haskell Leads Workshop Tolkien Reading Day Celebrated Alumni Spotlight: Gayvin Powers Department Head’s Annual Faculty Awards Why is Shakespeare Read? English Club Hosts Themed Salons Creative Writing Club Led by Students Babine to Release Two New Books Alumni Spotlight: Colton Greganti Undergraduate Student Spotlight: Bailey Gentry Earl Braggs Leads Juneteenth Celebration Wymer Reads from Latest Collection of Poetry

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LETTER FROM THE HEAD, ANDREW MCCARTHY Welcome to the UTC English Department’s annual alumni newsletter. It is hard to believe this is our sixth issue and I am delighted to share the incredible accomplishments of our alumni, faculty, and students. In the following pages you’ll get to meet our new colleague, Dr. Mark Houston who arrived from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and has already made a significant impression on our Public and Professional Writing track. You can also help me welcome Dr. Linda Frost who joins the department after a number of years serving as Dean of the UTC Honors College. Dr. Houston and Dr. Frost will join a cohort of exceptional colleagues like Dr. Hannah Wakefield who was recently elected to serve as Faculty Senate President-Elect for the 2026-27 academic year and whose research for a book project titled The Black Church and African American Literature was supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. 2025-26 was a big year for creative writing at UTC. A BFA was proposed and approved, we co-hosted poet laureate Natasha

Trethewey, many of our writers saw their works into publication and Meacham, under the excellent direction of Professor Sybil Baker, hosted the Southern Literary Festival at UTC. The Creative Writing Club continued to meet bi-weekly and our annual recruitment celebrations: A Very English Halloween and Roses and Whine attracted large numbers of students, even if the pizza delivery driver got lost on the way to our event. As always, thank you to Russell Helms, the newsletter’s managing editor, for producing yet another thorough account of the department’s activities from the past academic year. It would seem impossible to capture all that we accomplish in these pages and yet Russell finds a way. If you’re working on something that you’d like to see profiled here, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. I hope you enjoy learning more about the department and the wonderful people who make it such a great place to learn and work. Sincerely yours, Andrew

SHAHEEN EXPLORES FRENCH BATTLEFIELDS (continued from page 1) of Claude Wheeler in her Pulitzer-winning 1922 novel One of Ours. He teaches this novel frequently. Equipped with maps provided to him from the Willa Cather Center in Red Cloud, Nebraska, his wife and he arrived in the nearby city of Montdidier and walked the six kilometers to Cantingy and the battlefields just below it. Luckily for him, GP was killed in a trench that ran through a forest; so while the trenches that ran through pastures were cleared of ordinance for reuse a hundred years ago, the forested areas still bear the markings of warfare, including rough imprints of trenches and artillery shell holes. With detailed coordinates on his 1918 map, he was able to find, within a 50-foot radius, where GP was killed and where he was initially buried while his company was under fire. The entire experience was eerie, not just as his wife and he considered the agony that accompanied the deaths that took place on this spot, but also as they remembered that forested battlefields still contain unexploded artillery shells! So, after about ten minutes, they made a hasty retreat and trudged up the hill to the village of Cantigny and then to the neighboring village of Villers-Tournelle, where GP’s body was buried after it was removed from the initial burial site in the shell hole next to the trench where he was killed. At Cantigny, they took photos of the First Division Monument, which has GP’s name inscribed on one side of it. Coincidently, a soldier with the last name Shaheen was also killed that day, and his name on 5

the monument is found eight names below GP’s. All in all, they walked over 17 miles that day. The remainder of the trip was spent in nearby Amiens/Albert and Saint-Quentin. Amiens was one of the biggest rail hubs during the war, and in the 1918 Spring Offensive, it was almost overtaken by the Germans. In Albert, they took a guided tour of the Somme Battlefield, which in British history goes down as the nation’s single bloodiest battle site. Over 20,000 men were killed on just the first day (with another 40,000 wounded or missing). In 1918, the Americans joined the British and Australians to finally push the Germans back from that blood-stained land in the Somme Valley. From there, they took a train to the city of Compiegne, where the armistice was signed aboard General Foch’s private train car on November 11, 1918, at 11 a.m., just a few miles away in a forest clearing outside the city. Film footage shows the day Hitler came to the clearing

to oversee France’s capitulation to the Nazis in 1941, so it’s possible to see where he stood as France signed over its fate. “Eerie doesn’t describe it...” said Shaheen. Finally, after making it back to Paris for their departure the next day, they took an afternoon to visit the church of St. Denis, where most of the French Royalty is buried and where the Gothic style of architecture was born. One of the hallmarks of the Gothic style, as Shaheen teaches in The Canterbury Tales, is the use of stained-glass windows. According to the Abbot Suger, who developed the Gothic style at St. Denis in the twelfth century, the light that was filtered through stainedglass windows of a consecrated space made that space the closest to Heaven you could reach on earth. Luckily, the day he was there was “mighty sunny,” so he got to see the beautiful designs the sunlight made on the church’s floors and walls as it filtered through the stained-glass windows

WAKEFIELD EXAMINES THE BLACK CHURCH Dr. Hannah Wakefield was granted professional development leave for the Fall 2024 semester. This opportunity enabled her to make significant progress on research for her book project The Black Church and African American Literature. She spent several months in Philadelphia in Fall 2024 and Summer 2025 conducting research for the book in the related fields of early American and African American literature and networking with research staff and other scholars. 6

She received a $25,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to support five months of research at two significant Philadelphia archives: the Library Company of Philadelphia and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. While in Philadelphia, she toured several historical sites that relate to her teaching and research. Most notably, she toured Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the first church in the first national Black denomination. This particular church, located just blocks away from Independence Hall, has occupied the same plot of land continuously since 1794, and its history frames her book project. In Philadelphia-area archives, she collected over 6,000 images of historical documents and artifacts related to the founding of Philadelphia’s first four Black churches. Church disciplines, articles of association, hymnbooks, addresses, charters, and pamphlets reveal early Black Philadelphians’ drive to form autonomous faith communities in the face of enslavement, segregation, and prejudice. These early church documents also point to complex and sometimes contentious relationships with white individuals and institutions with whom Black congregations maintained legal and social connections. At the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, she explored the records of the Evangelical Society of Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Abolition Society to better understand the relationship between these predominantly white institutions and early Black religious print culture. Since her book focuses on the building of institutions, she will include many images of church buildings in its pages. 7

UNDERGRADUATE SPOTLIGHT: ALASKA LAWSON Alaska Lawson is an avid reader and loves a good video essay. She is also interested in linguistics and uses it in her efforts to become fluent in several languages. She also has an interest in the musical arts, having been a clarinetist for nine years and a member of her high school marching band all four years. Lawson is pursuing a bachelor of arts degree in both English and literary analysis and anthropology. She chose English because literature has always been a safe space for her and has been her primary focus since she was quite young. Her father loves to read, and he passed that love down to her. Originally, she was on the creative writing track; however, after taking “Intro to Literary Analysis,” she realized she found more joy in analysis than in creative writing. After college, she would like to enter the editing and publishing field and hopes to obtain a professorship at some point. Her research and reading interests align evenly, both falling on modernist American literature. She fell in love with Willa Cather’s writing, and her interest grew from there.

QUINLAN EXPLORES THE HUMANITIES AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE During the fall semester, Dr. Alex Quinlan presented a lecture as part of the Pleins Lecture Series, sponsored by the Walker Center for Teaching and Learning. The title of the talk was “Beyond the Turing Test: The Humanities and Human Capital in the Age of Creative Machines.” The Turing Test uses an interrogator to determine if the entity being addressed is human or a machine. Essentially, the interrogator must wade through the “bullshit” of AI responses to arrive at some sort of truth. Will artificial intelligence one day no longer need us? Although this could be the outcome, meanwhile, those in the humanities are challenged to find ways to use AI to improve on ancient ideas, such as writing. It seems necessary to enhance AI models as teachers move more into a coaching role than teaching. Here is what Quinlan had to say about his lecture: “For me, the biggest takeaway is that there is an emerging body of scientific research indicating that we should be mindful when integrating AI tools into our teaching and writing. There is a demonstrated “cognitive hangover” effect, whereby AI use decreases activation in key parts of the brain associated with thinking, memory formation, and language (among others), and this effect persists even after the AI tools are set aside. In practical terms, this research suggests that AI-driven tools may be more helpful for our students later in the writing process, and that integrating them too soon is likely to have deleterious effects. This stands in contrast with some of the early trends in AI use in composition and humanities classes, where it is often used as a tool to assist in issue formation, idea exploration, and other tasks associated with the early drafting phase of a project.” 9

NAJBERG PUBLISHES BOARD GAME Andrew Najberg has had a busy year, publishing his creative works. His book Extinction Dream (Wicked House) was released in 2025. A new edition of The Neverborn Thief (Crystal Lake) was released in 2025 as well, updating the text from middle grade to young adult. Aside from books, he has developed and published a board game, The Bad Side of Town, with Beyond Killer Games. The Bad Side of Town and its expansion, The Good Side of Town, are both being published by Beyond Killer Games with a Kickstarter launching in the first quarter of 2026. The game is a fully cooperative game for 2–4 players, and it was designed by Najbeg and author and game designer Jon Cohn. The premise is simple: in this darkly comedic, horror-themed board game, a group of serial killers has been living and working side by side in the Bad Side of Town for a long time, and they’ve reached an agreement: they stick to their neighborhoods and keep a low profile, and they can all carry on in relative peace. However, there’s a new fella in town who calls himself “The Bad Side Butcher,” and he’s gone on a killing spree that’s drawing all sorts of attention, bringing increased police presence, and threatening to throw the city into widespread panic. Now, it’s up to the unexpected alliance of killers to gather up evidence and clean up crime scenes to turn the Butcher over to 10

the police before the whole city is locked down. To play, players choose one of the game’s cast of seven unique serial killers (and three more come with the expansion). Each killer has a unique mechanic that helps them tackle the game’s challenges. Players take turns completing their goals using action points that determine just how much they can accomplish in a round, and then they decide if they want to push their luck by taking on stress. However, if you get too stressed out, you might have to draw cards from a different and more punishing deck, which rapidly ups the stakes.

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: ALLISON BURKE Alison Burke was born in Sleepy Hollow, New York, but moved to Chattanooga when she was seven. She earned her English degree in rhetoric and writing in 2009. Burke leads the product content design team at AllTrails.com. The website provides information on trails across the United States, including Chattanooga. Her degree in English prepared her well for the job, which requires extensive research and writing. Burke says that she “had a few false starts at college.” She started at UTC straight out of high school in 2000, but only made it a few semesters. She tried other schools before dropping out and just working for a couple of years. When she went back in earnest, she started at Chattanooga State before transferring to UTC. “I had actually planned to get an electrician’s license when I first enrolled!” She chose English as a major because “I always wanted to be a writer, ever since I was a kid. In school, English was forever the most interesting subject for me.” 11

BRAGGS RELEASES MORNING EDGE OF MIDNIGHT Earl Braggs’ first book of short stories was released in March. Morning Edge of Midnight is a collection of magically real stories and a novella set in the American South. Says author Anthony Grooms: “Only a poet of Braggs’ talent and sensibility could bring us stories of such lively language and lost-and-in-love characters. He tells their truths but tells them at a slant that is joyful to read and heartbreakingly beautiful to apprehend.” When asked about how he moved from poetry to fiction, Braggs said, “I sat down one day and wrote a five-page story about this super-rich Southern belle pawning her husband every time she wanted to get rid of him for a few weeks. Madalyn Smith read it and said, ‘Let me know when it gets published.’ So, I sent it out, and I let her know when Cutthroat Arts Journal published “Pawn Shop Blues on Guitar.”

AN ENGLISH HALLOWEEN The theme of this year’s Halloween event was “Something English This Way Comes.” Organized by Tracye Pool, the event was held in the Reading Room of the Guerry Center and attracted a large crowd of English faculty and students. Dr. Andrew McCarthy opened the evening with a welcome. Two competitions ensued, one for best horror poem and one for best costume.

PALMER PUBLISHES NEW WORKS Dr. Heather Palmer has published an article in the Africana journal, Safundi, on “Naked Agency and Global Black Rhetorics” and is teaching African American Rhetorics in the Spring. She also has a book contract with Brill for Free Together: Mindfulness in the Writing Classroom, which is not about the rhetoric of religion, but does engage Buddhism and rhetoric. She is teaching Rhetorics of Religion in the Spring, emerging from her interest in female Christian mystics and in the archives of serpent handlers. She has presented & published on Julian of Norwich and on the UTC Ralph Hood & W. Paul Williamson Serpent Handing Archives. The title of Free Together is taken from a Ram Dass lecture, “Being Free Together,” being about community and human relationships as vehicles, or a type of yoga, to overcome the illusion of separateness and alienation from self and others. Said Palmer, “Students of this generation are particularly vulnerable to these feelings of social isolation, as mental health studies show.”

NEW BFA MAJOR COMING SOON A BFA in creative writing has been approved as a new major within the English undergraduate program. Classes will begin the fall of 2027. 14

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: JARED STEIMAN In 2020, Jared Steiman earned a bachelor’s degree in creative writing (focused on poetry) and a bachelor’s in international studies (focused on Migration Theory and Latin America), both from UTC. He did a year and a half of a master’s in creative writing at UTC as well, before dropping out to accept a Fulbright Garcia-Robles Grant to teach English and poetry in Mexico. He is from Chattanooga. Aside from the1.5 years he lived in Mexico, Chattanooga has been home all his life. Steiman is a remote Fellowships Advisor for James Madison University in Virginia. He gets to know students who want to apply for fellowships and then helps them craft application narratives in which they feel seen, understood, and deserving of the opportunities ahead. He loves this work because he gets to apply many of the poetic strategies he has studied for years to help his students tell moving stories and win competitive awards such as Fulbright, Gilman, Rangel, Pickering, Marshall, and more. He also works for his family’s business, Cheiman Tea, making a variety of instant chai latte blends that sell at the Chattanooga Market and in several local stores and coffee shops. They also have a coffee/tea trailer that they set up at flower farms, and a Japanese mini-truck with a full espresso bar used for events. Said Steiman, “I’m really proud of what my mother and sister have built, and grateful to get paid to hang out with them every day.” He also does some editing, nude modeling for art classes, and the occasional motorcycle service or carpentry job when called upon. 15

In spring of 2025, he published All the Ghosts in this House through Walnut Street Publishing. The book is a side-by-side English/Spanish translation of his friend Frydha Victoria’s book, Todos los Fantasmas de esta Casa, which won several awards in Mexico. It’s a collection of poetry that deals with the death of her father, his complicated legacy, and the matriarchal nature of the family he leaves behind. Steiman met Frydha during his Fulbright placement in Tepic, Nayarit. In her poems, he saw elements of his own grief over his father’s death and felt he must translate her work and get her in front of a wider audience. He worked with her on the translations for a year and a half before bringing them to Walnut Street Publishing in their finished form. Walnut Street is a Chattanooga-based publishing company that uses a community-based model to find authors and share their work. They host a variety of weekly events intended to build artistic networks, hone craft, and promote the works they publish. Their work is high-quality and hyper-local, and he is very proud to be part of their project. Anyone who wants a copy of the book can order it from WalnutStreetPublishing.com, and all of the proceeds will be passed directly to Frydha in Mexico.

VALENTINE’S DAY CELEBRATED The annual Roses and Whine Valentine’s Day event took place on February 10, attended by faculty and students. Professor Tracye Pool organized the event, which included pizza and cupcakes. The highlights of the evening were student poetry readings and an English trivia contest. Dr. Andrew McCarthy opened the event, which graduate student Lauren Graves then hosted.

JUSTIN WYMER: LETTERS, POEMS, AND VIGNETTES Dr. Justin Wymer’s new book will be released this spring. Let the Forest Go is a memoir in poetic fragments that follows a queer Appalachian’s quest for truth as he explores memory, intergenerational trauma, and the rise of authoritarian power. During the turbulent 2016 US presidential election, Wymer felt a sense of dislocation while teaching English in Spain, where the landscape resembled his home region but the culture was deeply different. Through letters, poems, and vignettes, this intensely personal and formally inventive work captures his impressions, blending lyric prose and verse to offer a unique examination of belonging.

BABINE GOES S(CAMPING) Dr. Karen Babine’s book, The Allure of Elsewhere, was released last year by Milkweed. The book stems from a road trip she took with her two cats, living in a tiny trailer called a Scamp. As described by Milkweed: “Capturing the joy, freedom, and powerful pull of the open road, The Allure of Elsewhere is about the stories we’re told, the stories we tell, and the way those stories make us who we are, often in surprising ways. Intimate, curious, and candid, written with wry wit and warmth, this is a courageous and inspiring memoir.”

WHORTON’S POEMS EXPLORE TRANSFORMATION Professor Kris Whorton’s poetry collection, Everyday Omens, released this spring from Sheila-Na-Gig Editions. The poems trace a life’s journey through intimate moments of family, childhood, and personal transformation. The poems move between places— from suburban America to European cities, along Alaskan shores to Southern forests—revealing a speaker navigating complex relationships with parents, brothers, and lovers. Childhood trauma casts shadows while nature offers solace. Birds, water, and changing seasons become metaphors for the passage of time and emotional landscapes. Through precise imagery and unflinching honesty, these poems explore resilience, the search for belonging, and the courage to forge one’s own path despite—or because of—what has been inherited and endured. Whorton is also the author of the poetry collection Alchemy (2023). Originally from Boulder, Colorado, she has lived in the South since 1997. She teaches creative, scientific, and professional writing at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where she also served as assistant director of the Meacham Writers’ Workshop. Her poems, fiction, and creative nonfiction have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. She lives in the woods with her husband and two Australian shepherds, 19

UNDERGRADUATE SPOTLIGHT: VICTORIA LEMYN Victoria Lemyn is “a big artsy gal.” She loves to paint, write weird poetry, spend time in nature, and read books. Whenever she is not busy with her homework, she can usually be found dancing on Chamberlain Field or hanging out with friends. She is pursuing a BA in English (creative writing) and a BA in women’s and gender studies. Said Lemyn, “I enjoy both so much, and value the things I’ve learned from both programs.” After college, she plans to pursue an MA program in sociology, and then her PhD. Lemyn chose English because she loves to write, “and I wouldn’t be who I am without my passion for writing. When I’m writing, I feel in control. I feel drawn toward articulating myself through words.” My recent research/reading books have been: The Awakening by Kate Chopin, All About Love by bell hooks, Feminist City by Leslie Kern, and What Are Children For? by Anastasia Berg and Rachael Wiseman

MARCIA NOE: WHAT IS THE MIDWEST? Dr. Marcia Noe’s latest book, The Innocent Midwest: Culture, Region, and Identity, 1793–1930, has been released by Ohio University Press. Noe asks, “Why does everyone think the Midwest is an innocent place when the reality is far from the truth. The Innocent Midwest: Culture, Region, and Identity, 17931930 explores this paradox by examining the pastoral fallacy that has existed in America since its earliest days. This book shows how the paradox of the innocent Midwest has persisted by examining the role that popular and canonical literature have played in its resilience.” Through its nuanced exploration of literature and culture, this book offers a compelling account of how the Midwest came to symbolize innocence—and why that image continues to resonate in the American imagination.

UTC FACULTY AWARDS This spring, four English faculty received university faculty awards: Dr. Aaron Shaheen: Tenured research award Dr. Devori Kimbro: Non-tenured research award Stephanie Todd: General Education teaching award Gwen Alegre: Adjunct teaching award 21

UNDERGRADUATE SPOTLIGHT: MATTIE TABOR Mattie Tabor is a junior in the English: Literary Studies track. She chose this path because of its broader applications and her lifelong love of books. In her opinion, the importance of being a good reader, communicator, and writer is underappreciated in terms of assessing the value of the English major. She is extremely passionate about teaching others to use language (hence her job at the writing center) because seeing students, even at the micro-level, learn to express themselves is magical. Said Tabor, “Once you gain that knowledge base and have a kind of ownership over your language, it is an achievement that you can never go back from. Possessing the power to express yourself and your thoughts accurately is life-changing. So, being a small part of someone’s journey to that end goal is a dream.” Seeing how writers, both students and authors, express themselves and interpret the world fuels her pursuit of her academic and professional goals. In the English Department, she has been able to study intriguing works, honing in on her particular interests along the way. Her reading interests include 20th-century American literature, with a focus on “post-War and Southern Gothic works and authors.” Understanding the European traditions in literature, seeing those themes and genres evolve throughout history, and cross-continental travel to America has fascinated her. Thinking about studying literature surrounding past events, watching our culture 22

both radically shift and cyclically return into itself through our fiction, a pattern she has noticed in the genres she has mentioned above, is a facet of literature she has been “entranced” into studying. These genres’ unabashed criticism of modern culture, religion, and exterior events of their time has always fascinated her as a reader and a critic. Literature’s capabilities to portray such complex ideas through its prose and verse compel her to keep reading and critiquing. When it comes to her other passion, music, the first experience of a new piece can “sometimes be tainted by the desire to pick it apart and analyze it in pieces. In this view, the ability to recognize it wholly in all its wonder is lost.” Literature, however, still retains that amazement on first read. Additionally, class discussions bring out all the interpretations of individual pieces of literature, as well as opinions she has never heard before. The discourse over interpretation is special to her because, in other areas where discussions can turn to personal attacks, literature fosters creative interpretations on the critic’s end, “so I’m learning something new from others. Discussions on literature have always served as a stepping stone to teaching and understanding positive discourse in my eyes.” Her plans after graduating are to attend graduate school and, hopefully, continue towards a doctorate.

Making so many connections and gaining experiences in UTC’s English Department has only furthered her desire to teach at a university level. While she remains driven and optimistic, there are obviously difficulties in choosing this path. Currently, she said, “Our modern culture is slowly but surely changing its view of the humanities; keeping the flame alive for English departments and finding passionate participants in these programs is vital right now.” Gaining the knowledge she has in this program only inspires her to continue to more rigorous environments. All these things make that long-term goal so worth it to her. She cannot talk about her undergraduate experience at UTC without mentioning the Writing and Communication Center (WCC). She has been working there for three semesters, and the experience she has gained is invaluable. The WCC has changed the trajectory of her academic career, and she remains beyond grateful for her ever-friendly coworkers, unbelievably encouraging bosses, and—most importantly—the students. Lastly, she wants to mention The Quill, UTC’s student-run undergraduate literary criticism journal. She was brought on as a staff editor in the fall of 2024 and has been performing various roles over the past year, with plans to transition to the editor-in-chief position in the spring of 2026. 23

EINSTEIN CONTEMPLATES REGRET AND DESIRE WITH NEW BOOK Sarah Einstein’s essay collection, Self-Portrait in Apologies, was released in late 2025 from Mountain State Press. Here is a description of the book from the publisher: “What makes us nostalgic? What thoughtful ghosts from our pasts haunt our imaginations—and our intellects? Sarah Einstein’s Self-Portrait in Apologies explores past mistakes and the many kinds of love that need no apology. These fourteen essays contemplate loneliness and companionship, regret and desire, uncertainty, and wisdom, revealing the depths of a life richly lived. Self-Portrait in Apologies charts both love and loss with a sharp mind, a generous heart, and an eye for the dark beauties of a dappled life.”

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: SARAH ANDERSON Sarah Anderson is from Cleveland, Tennessee, and received her bachelor of arts in creative writing with a minor in communications in May 2025. She works as the Special Events and Community Relations Coordinator at the Austin Hatcher Foundation for Pediatric Cancer. Last August, she started as the Special Events and Marketing Intern and was asked to stay through the spring. Come April, her supervisor told her of her choice to leave work to become a stay-at-home mom and asked if she would like to interview for her role. Her first day was a week after graduation. Her job is to organize and host events to fund the foundation’s mission of providing a lifetime of free, comprehensive support to childhood cancer patients and their families through mental, behavioral, educational, and social services. Fundraising events account for 35% of their annual income. Their most significant event of the year, the Celebration of Life and Hope Gala, took place on September 20, hosting over 300 guests with a night of live and silent auctions, delicious food, live music, an open bar, and family testimony. The other side of her job is community relations. In this part of her role, she organizes and manages volunteers, including corporate groups like Unum, Cigna, and Maxim Healthcare, as well as 60-plus Teen Ambassador volunteers. UTC was not her initial choice, but after touring the campus, she was blown away by its beauty. It checked a lot of boxes for her, being close enough to go home if she was homesick, but far enough away to grow on 25

her own. The scholarships she was offered also played a huge part in her enrollment. When it came time to choose a college major, her parents had one piece of advice for her: “Choose something that makes you happy.” She is privileged to come from a family that can support her no matter what she chooses to do. To them, the degree she received didn’t matter. The degree is only a piece of documentation that proves you can commit to hard work for an extended period of time. Said Anderson, “You might as well take classes that will make you happy—enjoyment is the best motivation.” It was only with this encouragement that she felt comfortable enough to major in creative writing. She has been writing stories since she could first string words together in a sentence. Nurtured by her family members and a series of amazing English teachers, “there was never another choice for me but to pursue a degree in English.” Her English degree has helped her develop the unique ability to see the world from perspectives beyond her own. Reading and class discussions were truly a practice in strengthening empathy. “Through empathy, we can connect better with others in the workplace and analyze our performance, skills, and behaviors from an outside perspective.” She thinks it has made her a better coworker and has assisted in increasing her productivity. “Storytelling comes in so many forms: television, movies, books, news articles, events, and so much more. There are so many opportunities in so many forms for English majors, so do not believe the ‘English degrees are useless’ jabs. The skills you build in this major are versatile. Do not sell yourself short!”

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: SUSAN THOMAS Susan Thomas is from Atlanta, Georgia, and earned her MA in English from UTC in 1996. She is the Founding Director of Writing Studies in the Discipline of English and Writing at the University of Sydney, Australia. She chose UTC because the English Department faculty had a great reputation for scholarship and teaching. She worked in Cleveland, Tennessee, at the time and completed her MA in the evenings, which was extremely convenient for her. Said Thomas, “Having originally planned to become a journalist or an editor, I knew an MA in English would prepare me well for a career demanding strong writing and textual analysis skills.” While at UTC, she learned much about literature (and life) from world-class professors, including Verbie Prevost, Greg O’Dea, and the late Arlie Herron. However, it was the final class in her MA program, Modern Rhetoric with Eileen Meagher, that inspired her to become an academic. She had never fully understood literary theory until she studied rhetorical theory, and that combination has served her well in her career, enabling her to collaborate with both literature and rhetoric scholars and to build a writing program that draws on both literary and rhetorical theory. Said Thomas, “I will always be tremendously grateful to the UTC 27

English faculty for their professional generosity and for preparing me so well for my PhD program and academic career. In my final year at UTC, they recommended me for an assistantship in the Chancellor’s office, where I worked closely with former Chancellor Fred O’Bear on his speeches and media releases. This experience gave me a priceless whole-of-institution glimpse of university governance, preparing me for future academic leadership roles. I still have fond memories of crossing the stage at my MA graduation and receiving a hug from Dr. O’Bear along with my diploma.” She also feels extremely honored to call Drs. Meagher, Prevost, and O’Dea her colleagues, as well as treasured mentors and friends.

POET LAUREATE VISITS UTC The English Department hosted a brunch reception for Pulitzer Prize-winner and two-time Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey in the Guerry Center Reading Room on February 6. The previous evening, in the UC Tennessee Room, Threthewey gave the O’Dea Lecture in the Humanities titled “The Role of the Humanities in our Personal and Civic Lives.” The presentation was followed by a Q&A and book signing. Natasha Trethewey, second from left

WAKEFIELD TO SERVE AS PRESIDENTELECT OF THE FACULTY SENATE Dr. Hannah Wakefield will serve as Faculty Senate President-Elect for the 2026-27 academic year, winning by acclamation. After one year of service, Wakefield will become the Faculty Senate President. Currently, Dr. Sarah Einsteing of English serves as President. Wakefield is Associate Professor of English at UTC, where she has taught courses in Early American and African American literature since she joined the faculty in 2018. Her current research centers on Black Protestantism and specifically on the role of early Black churches in the making of African American literature. Dr. Wakefield is currently serving a second term as Faculty Senate Secretary as well as a second term as representative in the Tenure/Tenure-track Humanities division of the Faculty Senate. Said Wakefield, “I am honored to serve UTC as President-Elect of the Faculty Senate. It is a privilege to represent faculty interests and to lead in shared governance. I am committed to faculty well-being, and I strongly believe that a thriving faculty is key to the success of UTC’s students and to the overall vitality and growth of the university. I look forward to working with faculty, administration, and staff toward these shared ends.” 29

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT WELCOMES MARK HOUSTON Assistant Professor Mark Houston is the latest member to join the English Department faculty. He came to UTC from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he worked as a lecturer for two years after completing his PhD there in 2023. His areas of specialty include: composition pedagogy, place-based pedagogy and community writing, rhetorics of listening, and food justice rhetorics. Houston is originally from Iowa, but has also lived in Michigan, Colorado, and Texas. Nebraska, though, is where he has lived the longest. His published research articles include: “Messy Plates: Using Food-Themed Writing Courses to Resist Anthropocene Disorder” in Teaching Writing in the Age of Catastrophic Climate Change. Edited by Justin Everett and Russell Mayo (Lexington Books, 2025) “Riding Out of Abstraction: Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Re-materialization of Social Justice Rhetoric in ‘The Sacred and the Superfund.’” Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies, vol. 9, no. 1, 2022. “Writing Things: What’s the (Performative) Matter in Composition?” in College Composition and Communication, vol. 73, no. 2, 2021, pp. 338-364. Primarily, he will teach English 2050, Introduction to Rhetorical Analysis, which will be one of mainstays. He’s also teaching English 3850, Writing for Social Change, and will be developing courses in Grant Writing and Food Rhetorics. 30

TAKE FIVE FEATURES SYBIL BAKER As a part of the Take Five literary series led by Dr. Aaron Shaheen, Professor Sybil Baker presented Paul Bowles’ The Sheltering Sky in February of this year, a novel that plays with existential ideas such as nothingness and the importance of making one’s own blind choices. Baker drew parallels with her own experiences as a traveler and expatriate living in South Korea for twelve years. The Sheltering Sky is about three American travelers in post-World War II North Africa whose journey of self-discovery devolves into a harrowing descent into psychological disintegration, madness, and tragedy in the Sahara Desert, which presents a backdrop of indifference to life. To a packed house of some eighty persons, Baker spoke, using images from her own travels to Morocco, where Bowles lived and eventually died. Attendees were served a light supper, as with every Take Five event. Other presenters during spring Take Five events included Aaron Shaheen presenting April Smith’s A Star for Mrs. Blake, Will Kuby presenting Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley, Verbie Prevost presenting Henry James’s Daisy Miller, and Bryan Hampton presenting Julie Schumacher’s The English Experience.

GRADUATE STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: OLIVER CATES Oliver Cates is a Tennessean, born in Memphis. He spends a lot of his time writing creatively and reading, but he is also a pretty big nerd: “I play video games”—Magic: The Gathering, and Dungeons & Dragons. He has a twelveyear-old cat named Allie who has been very supportive of his academic career by stepping on his laptop while he writes papers. Cates earned his bachelor’s in English with a concentration in professional, technical, and creative writing from Austin Peay State University. At UTC, he is pursuing a master’s of English in rhetoric and professional writing. In terms of a thesis he said, “I’m still developing what I plan to do!” Since he is in the rhetoric and professional writing track, he also has the option to complete an internship, so this is a possibility for him. He chose English for a few reasons: “I get to talk about things I am passionate about (rhetorical analysis, writing pedagogy, and literature), and I also see it as an adaptable degree in the workforce. There are so many topics covered in an English degree that apply to many professional contexts.” He plans to teach first-year writing courses at a university or community college. During his time as a graduate teaching assistant for the 1011 tutorial sections of First Year Composition at UTC, he solidified his love for teaching and helping new students find their voice through writing. Said Cates: “I’m extremely grateful for the passionate, caring faculty in the English department that have encouraged me and helped me pursue my goals. Having faculty that is invested in my success has been incredibly meaningful to me.” 32

GRADUATE STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: LAUREN GRAVES Lauren Graves is a woman of many interests and hobbies. One of her largest struggles in life is the knowledge that she only has one of them to live and must therefore try to fit in as much as humanly possible within this short span of time. Lauren enjoys hobbies such as playing Dungeons and Dragons, spinning nunchucks, writing poetry, and, of course, reading. Her love of reading and writing is what drew her to rhetoric and professional writing in her undergraduate degree, and the fascinating insights she gained into how we perceive ourselves and others is what brought her back for her master’s in the same. Said Graves, “Language is the method by which we determine our identity and the identities of everything around us. It binds our perceptions and shapes our biases, which makes English one of the most critical fields to investigate and explore.” Within the field of English, Lauren is most interested in religious rhetoric in Southern Appalachia, monster theory, and narrative design. Lauren is currently beginning work on her scholarly project which will examine the origin and function of purity culture within the religious communities of Southern Appalachia. Lauren grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, as the oldest of four girls and about a million (14 and counting) cousins. She attended UTC for her undergraduate degree in rhetoric and professional writing where she made the most of her time serving in positions such as president of the creative writing club, research assistant for Dr. Richard Jackson, and editor-in-chief of UReCA: NCHC’s undergraduate journal. These experiences prepared 33

her to spend a year teaching in Japan in Hiroshima City. Being able to see how language development and study can open doors and build relationships in this position greatly influenced her decision to return for her masters at UTC. With faith in the talented faculty of UTC’s English department and excitement for her next adventure, Lauren returned to the program with a renewed ambition and outlook on the importance of language study. Lauren is currently working as a graduate assistant for the writing center and is absolutely loving being able to support students in the advancement of their writing. Seeing students leave the writing center with renewed hope in their drafts and relief in their eyes is an incredibly satisfying experience. In regard

to her future, Lauren’s interests remain diverse. Perhaps she will work in publishing for a while and put to use the editing skills she is developing with the writing center. Perhaps she will continue her studies in a doctorate program, which would allow her to teach at the collegiate level. Perhaps she might even explore a career in development and event organization to build on her skills as an orator and rhetorician. While nothing is set in stone for her, Lauren knows that the foundations and relationships she is building in this program will prepare her for whatever path she chooses. Lauren looks forward to making the most of the opportunities she has been given and building connections with others to better understand how we view ourselves and our place in the world.

MEACHAM COHOSTS THE SOUTHERN LITERARY FESTIVAL In the fall, the Meacham Writers’ Workshop kicked off a week of reading and writing events both on and off campus. A student reading from the newly released Sequoyah Review, an undergraduate journal of writing and art dedicated to the works of UTC students, led by Karen Babine, began the literary festivities. Nearly eighty students and faculty were in attendance. The following night began three events featuring visiting writers and UTC English faculty. Reading on Thursday night were Karen Babine, Andrew Najberg, along with Andrea Jurjević, the year’s Meacham Fellow. The Friday noon reading featured three UTC faculty: Justin Weimer, Alex Quinlan, and Kris Whorton. Friday night, at an event held off-campus at Stove Works, the readers were Edwin Murillo, Gwen Mullins, and Jared Steiman. 34

The festivities ended Saturday with student conferences and a publishing panel composed of Aaron Quinn, Cynthia Young, Paul Luikart, and Jared Steiman. Overall, under the direction of Meacham Director Sybil Baker, all events were well-attended. In the Spring (2026), Meacham was held in conjunction with the Southern Literary Festival, hosted by the English Department. Thursday night featured Colby Langley, Editor of Sequoyah Review Jamie Quatro, who read from her novel Two-Step Devil, which follows the adventures of an outsider artist on Lookout Mountain, Tennessee. Friday night presented the keynote speaker for the conference, Kevin Wilson. Other events included a presentation by Leigh Anne Couch on the art of the epistolary poem. The week ended with a joint reading by Couch, Richard Jackson, Christian J. Collier, and Matthew Hubbard. The events drew crowds of fifty-plus attendees,

Jamie Quatro, center 35

FROST RETURNS TO ENGLISH Dr. Linda Frost is stepping down as Dean of the Honors College and is returning to teach in the English Department. Frost came to UTC in 2013 as the founding dean of the new UTC Honors College. She had been Director of the Honors Program at Eastern Kentucky University for five years and Associate Director of the University Honors Program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham for four years. That makes twenty-two years in honors administration. When asked what she loved about her job as Dean, Frost said, “I love how creative a student or a faculty member can be in honors. I love that we have resources to support our students’ and faculty’s creativity. I love the students and getting to be part of their lives in an often-significant way for four years—if not more. I have had a great office. I’ve gotten to go places I never would have imagined and made it possible for others to go to those places, too. It’s been a great run. But I’m ready for something different.” While Dean, Frost was able to do some serious fundraising because she had people like Greg O’Dea and Debbie Bell who knew all of the alumni for twenty years. The program built a culture around their annual alumni gala that now includes real gift-giving, to the tune of around $25,000 a year at that one event. She said that she “couldn’t have done any of that without Greg and Debbie introducing me to everybody, and then those guys accepting me and working with me. All of that has been huge.” “And we’ve been fortunate because honors here is still being remem36

bered by folks who have passed on—Scotty Probasco and his wife being two of these generous people—and because I’ve gotten a chance to spend some time with some of these folks including Suzanne and Charles Forlidas (who I adore) and Brock alum Richard Zhang who is simply fabulous, who has become our major donor. Probably, though, everything really started when I began meeting with Zan Guerry (of the Guerry Center Gerrys) to make sure he felt good about what we were doing with the original gift from his foundation that started the college in 2013. Those meetings, what we talked about, and what I learned from all that really was the foundation I needed to understand what fund-

raising was all about. It’s true what they say: it’s about the relationships. I have felt so lucky for honors to have donors that I really liked and respected, beyond just being grateful to them.” When asked what she would enjoy about her return to teaching, Frost said, “Being around students for longer than one hour a week!!! Being able to build interesting classes and spend meaningful time in the community that each class hopefully becomes. I’m not looking forward to grading, it’s true, but I do miss really working with students closely. I am also looking forward to getting to know folks in the English Department like I haven’t been able to, as well as writing for myself.

JOIN US ON UTC ENGLISH DEPARTMENT SOCIAL MEDIA The English Department is being well represented in social media spaces thanks to Stephanie Todd who manages accounts with Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Make sure you take advantage of this publicity outlet by emailing your events and achievements to Stephanie at stephanie-todd@utc.edu

HASKELL LEADS WORKSHOP

In March, the English Department co-sponsored a generative writing workshop with writer and biologist David George Haskell, two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and author of the forthcoming How Flowers Made Our World: The Story of Nature’s Revolutionaries. Dr. Haskell’s nonfiction writing is deeply engaged with the natural world, and guides students in writing exercises that use the senses and the world around us to create meaningful, memorable work. “Haskell leads the reader into a new genre of nature writing, located between science and poetry.” —E. O. Wilson.

TOLKIEN READING DAY CELEBRATED To celebrate Tolkien Reading Day! on March 25, students were invited by Dr. Sarah Einstein and Dr. Bryan Hampton to view the 1978 animated version of Lord of the Rings. 39

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: GAYVIN POWERS Alumna Gayvin Powers is originally from Oregon. She earned her bachelor’s in English, creative writing, in 2020. Prior to attending UTC, she was a freelance writer with experience as an adjunct film and humanities instructor and director of development in education. Currently, she is a content writer and analyst contracted to a Fortune 10 company. She specializes in writing, editing, scriptwriting, training, VLM, LLM, and Gen-AI. “That’s my day job,” she said. She also continues to work as a freelance writer for magazines and as a developmental editor for books and scripts. She chose UTC as she was living in Chattanooga at the time and wanted to get a degree so that she could teach English at the college level. She chose the program because she loves English and Chattanooga. She had already earned an MFA in screenwriting from the American Film Institute and wanted to learn more about interiority for adapting scripts into prose. Said Powers, “English is fundamental. It can prepare a student for any career. Regardless of career path, English is the foundation for written and verbal communication.” Since UTC, she has continued to study historical fiction with Brenda Copeland, former Senior Editor at St. Martins Press. Historical fiction is her true love. As a writer, she is “intentional about what I create and how I market myself.” As a result, she started the Hidden Heroines of History podcast, which features writers, historians, and artists discussing courageous women who remain relevant today. For example, in April, she interviewed Meagan Church, a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of The Mad Wife, which delves into 1950s Jell-O molds, frozen dinners, and lobotomies. 40

DEPARTMENT HEAD’S ANNUAL FACULTY AWARDS Outstanding Tenure Track Award Dr. Hannah Wakefield

Outstanding Lecturer Award Professor Sheena Monds

Outstanding Adjunct Award Professor Caroline Petsch

WHY IS SHAKESPEARE READ? On April 16, Dr. Gayle Greene, professor emerita, Scripps College, presented the 2026 Kennedy Lecture in Shakespeare: “Tell Me Why Is Shakespeare Read? For the Heart, Or For the Head?” Following an introduction by Dr. Bryan Hampton, Greene spoke generally about the challenges facing the liberal arts and the teaching of Shakespeare. Greene said that Shakespeare lays out the human condition and that “hard is good.” She noted that there are three valuable outcomes of reading Shakespeare: attention, memory, and pleasure. A Q&A followed the well-attended lecture. Greene is the author of Immeasurable Outcomes: Teaching Shakespeare in the Age of the Algorithm, which informed the lecture

ENGLISH CLUB HOSTS THEMED SALONS During the fall and spring, the English Club held a series of salons, asking what is art and what is the role of artists in society. Led by Dr. Joseph Jordan and Dr. Chris Stuart, the events were well-attended by students, who enjoyed the lively discussions. Topics covered included: • • • • • • • •

BookTok: the Good, the Bad, and the Algorithm A discussion of anti-intellectualism and “it’s-not-that-deep” culture Horror: Why do we love it and why don’t we respect it? A show-and-tell of art and media: Students shared a piece of art or media they loved, explained why they loved it, and discussed the joy of sharing and indulging in our passions. Literature in the Internet Age: Discussed were the validity, importance, and impact of Instagram poetry, fanfictions, and, generally, how literary art has adapted to life with computers and smartphones. Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are, which included sharing childhood memories and reading Maurice Sendak’s original book to facilitate a conversation on adaptation. Art vs. Artist: A discussion of authorial intent, separating art from artist, and what ways art might mirror its creator. Art’s Power: Can art do anything? Does good art change the world? Is art just for pleasure and beauty, or is it also for activism?

CREATIVE WRITING CLUB LED BY STUDENTS

The creative writing club remains active with meetings every two weeks. The club’s faculty sponsors are Professor Catherine Meeks Quinlan and Dr. Alex Quinlan. The club is student-run, and students devise the programming for their meetings with support from Catherine and Alex. Typically, one of the members presents a generative prompt, the group writes to it, then they share their work.

BABINE TO RELEASE TWO NEW BOOKS Dr. Karen Babine has two books forthcoming in 2027. Innovations in the Craft of Creative Nonfiction is with Texas Review Press, and is the first anthology of work from Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies, which she founded in 2014 and that she edits. The second book is titled Updraft: The Lift, Drag, Craft, and Flight of Nonfiction, an intermediate nonfiction craft book, forthcoming from Bloomsbury Academic. Aimed at intermediate nonfiction writers, Updraft is written for those who have mastered the general craft of nonfiction, know how to write a narrative, construct a character, meander through an essay, braid or collage an idea, and want to build on the craft they know. This book is a call to go beyond the foundations, the basics, and is more than a simple manual of techniques. Each chapter bypasses introductory craft (round vs. flat characters) to an analysis of how and why a writer might employ microcharacterization in a nonfiction text, and how that might be delivered through place, action, dialogue, or appearance. Updraft provides practical insights into the craft of nonfiction, but also aims to spark a conversation about the work of the genre. It’s a meditation on one’s practice as a writer, trying to dig deeper into a form, blended with theoretical discussions that remain accessible and rely on concrete examples drawn from diverse writers and texts. It is poised to become the premier text for students of the form, who have progressed beyond introductory concepts (from Bloomsbury Academic.) 45

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: COLTON GREGANTI Colton Greganti received his BA in English from UTC in 2018. He is now finishing the PhD program in literary studies at the University of South Carolina, where he was recently awarded the Russell and Dorothy Bilinski Fellowship. These prestigious fellowships are given to the top doctoral students in the various departments of South Carolina’s McCausland College of Arts and Science. The grant comes with a yearlong teaching release and $40,000 for living and research expenses. This award will allow Colton to finish his dissertation in a single year. Apart from giving him time to focus on writing, it will give him sufficient funds to travel to Wilmington, NC, to research the 1898 Wilmington massacre portrayed in Charles Chesnutt’s The Marrow of Tradition.

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: BAILEY GENTRY Bailey Gentry graduated with her BA in English this spring and is planning on enrolling in U MA program in the fall. She recently learned that her essay “Wisteria and the Collapse of Coherence in Absalom, Absalom!” was awarded the prestigious North Callahan Essay Competition, sponsored by UTC’s Humanities Program. The competition is open to essays from various departments, including English, MCLL, philosophy, religion, and history. Funding for the award is provided by an endowment established by the late Dr. North Callahan, distinguished Professor Emeritus of History at New York University, author of seventeen books, and alumnus of the University of Chattanooga. The award comes with a cash prize of $1,000. Said Gnetry, “Winning the North Callahan Undergraduate Essay Contest was a huge surprise, but I’m very honored to receive it. The paper came out of Dr. Shaheen’s Southern Gothic Literature course, and I’m especially grateful that he encouraged me to submit it.”

EARL BRAGGS LEADS JUNETEENTH CELEBRATION To celebrate Juneteenth (June 19, 2026), Professor Earl Braggs developed and presented “Home to Harlem with Love,” a multi-faceted, audience-participation-interactive presentation that unfolded in three parts. The evening opened with dinner (Negro spirituals playing, low, in the background). The program began with the National Anthem (Marvin Gaye’s version). Dr. Hannah Wakefield introduced Braggs, focusing on the beauty of Negro spirituals. Part 1 of the program concentrated on The Harlem Renaissance, presented as a cultural/artistic explosion that resulted from the buildup of oppressed energy (slavery, America’s first global economic impact). Each audience member was provided with a pencil to list what was taken away during the transition from “free” to “slave.” Part 1 highlighted The Great Debate, The Great Migration, The Jazz Age, and the influence of jazz (field songs, blues, and ragtime) on white America’s psyche, on American and European culture, i.e., fashion, and on the overall acceptance of Negro contributions. Braggs posed W.E.B. Du Bois’s question to America: “What would America be without her Negro people?” Dr. Rowan Johnson prefaced the intermission with an invitation to view Bragg’s MLK montage/collage (a 2.5-foot by 60-foot exhibition composed partly of memorabilia and pamphlets picked up from the grounds of the D.C. Mall during the 1983 commemoration of MLK’s 1963 March on Washington), focusing on Martin Luther King Jr. from a South Afri48

can-American point of view. For Part 2, after a costume change by Braggs, Dr. Darrell Walsh in his introduction of Braggs, asked the audience to take out their phones and google “The Wilmington Ten.” After allowing time for surface familiarity, Dr. Walsh called out each of the names. From a place where the audience couldn’t see Braggs, Bragg’s voice spoke to the personal relations that he had with each one of them. Part three began with Braggs holding a signed copy of Langston Hughes’ Weary Blue, which he traced back from “me now” to “Harlem then” by reading poems by Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Nikki Giovanni, and his own poems, highlighting his personal relationship with Giovanni when he was 17. Said Braggs, “I was so in love with my mentor Giovanni that I named myself Malik Giovanni.”

80-plus audience members attended the clelebration.

WYMER READS FROM LATEST COLLECTION OF POETRY Dr. Justin Wymer’s book launch for Let the Forest Go (University Press of Kentucky, 2026) was held at Pennington’s Books in Chattanooga, along with local novelist Jess Alexander, who was launching her book Agnes, We’re Not Murderers (Clash, 2026). Wymer read from his new book, and also invited to read were Jude Keef and Alea Coble, two UTC graduates in creative writing, who were his thesis mentees. Guest Tate Gentry provided music for the event.