Alumni News

2011 English Alumni News

A. Taylor won the Thomas and Lillie D. Chaffin Award for Appalachian Writing.

J. S. Henderson won a PEN/Emerging Writer Award.

B. Spriggs published her first collection of poems, Kaffir Lily.

B. Fisk was the runner-up for fiction for the Iron Horse Discovered Voices .Award.

K. Morrison was accepted into the literature PhD program at Cornell.

M. Sirles was accepted into the literature PhD program at MTSU.

C. Breaux is going on to the literature PhD program at University of Louisiana Lafayette.

L. Bale will be working for the non-profit Global Millenuim Villages in Mbarara, Uganda.

J. Williams, who recently returned from teaching English in South Korea, will be earning an M.A. in Creative Writing at Northern Arizona University, where he had a teaching assistantship.

 

2010 English Alumni News

Graduates T. Jaggers and B. Fisk (along with several faculty) moderated sessions at the Kentucky Writers Conference;

D. Strode and C. Alderdice work with Gatton Academy students.

W. Mills is completing her Ph.D. in Higher Ed Leadership and now works for FaCET.

R. Hall now directs WKU ESLI; D. Winters is assistant director.

S. Watkins is Education Director for a learning center near Nashville; she has recently hired another of our grads, R. McKnight.

J. Estes works at the Nashville Public Library.

T. Koger works for a non-profit organization in Columbus, Ohio.

N. Johnson writes grants for the WC Sheriff’s Office.

J.C. Brooks is teaching ESL at Brown U,

K. Dray teaches linguistics at Lee College, and S. Sipple was just hired to teach at Hazard Community College.

K. Matheny is writing her literature dissertation at the U of Alabama;

J. Crabtree-Jones is completing her TESOL Ph.D. at U of Georgia.

Ryan Hall was accepted into WKU’s Ph.D. program in Education Leadership.

 

Indeed, many other students are completing MFAs and doctorates, in New York, Ohio, Illinois, Florida, Texas, Nevada and more.

 

M.A. graduate, Ned Johnson, teaches at St. Petersburg College in Florida, where sixteen years ago he founded a writing contest in honor of one of our faculty who had died. The Karen Pelz Contest has six categories . The competition attracted 196 entries from several states and three foreign countries. Winners are selected in each category and one overall winner is chosen. This year’s overall winner, J. Cataldo, was first in literary criticism and fiction and second in poetry. She has decided to transfer to WKU to complete her degree (in Journalism).

2009 English Alumni News

 

In fall of 2009 several recent graduates began their work in M.A. programs

Chuck Williamson, in Film Studies at the Ohio State University

Samantha Mudd , in Rhetoric/Composition at Ohio University

Bobby Deignan, in Literature at University of North Carolina, Wilmington

Mason Broadwell, in Rhetoric/Composition at WKU

Jessie Knifely, in Creative Writing at WKU

Sean McCray (M.A. WKU) began his Ph.D. program in Literature at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Ryan Hall (M.A. WKU) has been accepted into WKU's Ph.D. program in Higher Education Leadership

Trish Jaggers completed her M.F.A at Spalding and won the New Millennium Writing contest (first prize $1000)

Emily Schulten, Ph.D. candidate at Georgia State, published her first book of poetry

Alex Taylor, M.F.A. U Mississippi, published his first collection of short stories

Jennifer Bradbury, who has taught English in India, published her first novel

Edric Thompson received the Thomas Jefferson Award for excellence in print journalism from the Dept. of Defense for an article on the dangers of gambling addiction

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Aubrey Videtto was promoted to Director of Tutoring at Loyola University

Amanda Schneider read a paper at the RPW Conference and will spend a year in the Peace Corps before beginning work on her Ph.D.

 

2008 English Alumni News

Frank Muller (2001) recently graduated from law school in Chicago and is working at an indy bookstore, Barbara's Books, while he rides out the recession

Jason Meares (2002) just started law school at Northern Illinois University

Michael Croley (2000) finished an MFA at Florida State and is teaching at John Carroll Univesity in Cleveland.

Lex Sonne (2005) is graduating this semester from the MFA program in Fiction at Columbia College. He is the editor of the online journal Somnambulist Quarterly. The current issue of which features fiction by

Seth Johnson (2005) and poetry by Dr. Tom Hunley

Aubrey Videtto (2005) works full-time at a univesity in Chicago and is pursuing an MBA.

Travis Morris (2007) is really enjoying his first-year of teaching and studying in the MFA program at Ole Miss.

John Owen (2007) Allison Joseph, head of the MFA program at Southern Illinois and editor of The Crab Orchard Review, reports that John will begin their MFA in poetry this Fall

 

Lindsay Sainlor (2005) is studying creative nonfiction in the MFA program at Emerson college (Boston) and working on the renown national literary journal, Ploughshares.

 

Brooke Shafar's (2008) poem, "Besondere Traume" was accepted for publication in The Rectangle, the literary journal of Sigma Tau Delta, the English Honor Society.

SEVEN ENGLISH M.A. GRADUATES WILL BEGIN OR HAVE COMPLETED ADVANCED PROFESSIONAL DEGREES:

 

 

 

Crystal Fodrey (M.A. '06) will attend the Ph.D. program in Composition and Rhetoric at the University of Arizona (with full assistanship).

Wayne Arnold (M.A. '07) will attend the Ph.D. program in Literature at the University of Louisiana (with full assistanship).

Cindy Childress completed her Ph.D. in Literature at the University of Louisiana.

Alex Taylor completed his M.F.A. in Fiction Writing at Ole Miss.

Eric Stalions has completed his Ph.D. in Composition/Rhetoric at Bowling Green State University and has a tenure track job.

Sam Ford completed his M.A. in Media Studies at M.I.T., where he has faculty status.

Jack Bryant completed his M.A. in Film at Boston University.

Leigh Ann Copas (M.A. '07) is now Writing Center Director at Utah Valley State College.

Jacob Shoaf was accepted by the M.A. in Film Theory Program at Ohio University.