NEWS FROM RIAN RIDER AND SAMANTHA BATTEN

Rian Rider and Samantha Batten are among the first of the former AUM English majors to send in info about their current circumstances.

Rian, presently a corporal with the Montgomery City Police, reports as follows:

"In the spirit of updating, I'll give the quick synopsis of my recent life. I made juvenile detective back in August '05, which means that I handle all investigations involving juveniles, whether they are victims or offenders. Then in February '06, I got promoted to Corporal, which didn't change my job any, but did change my pay! . . . In other news, I bought a house about two years ago. . . . [Meanwhile,] I took myself to Ireland back in April. I spent just over a week there, splitting time between Dublin, Killarney, and Galway. I did a bus tour, so I didn't have to worry about any of the arrangements for hotels, transportation, or food. All I had to do was enjoy the ride. It was incredible! I've always wanted to go to Ireland, and now that I've been, I know I'm going to have to go back. As for my writing, I still do the occassional bit of pleasure writing, but most of the writing I do is for court presentation. It's not nearly as enjoyable as my other writing, but a lot of it is just as interesting."

Samantha, who is presently a grad student at Auburn, provided these details of her recent life:

"I'm teaching 5 classes this semester (a world lit and two developmentals at Southern Union and two comp Is here at AU) and taking two (including my SIXTH theory class. . . . Gotta love some Jacques Lacan ;) "

If you have any info that YOU'D like to share, please send it to englishrce@aol.com

FIRST ASF CULTURE FEST

Jessica Skarda, a former AUM intern whose internship led to a regular position at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, has been instrumental in helping to plan ASF's first annual Culture Fest, which takes place on Saturday, September 1, 2007 from 1:00 to 7:30 p.m. For further details and a full schedule, please visit this link: http://newsletters.al.com/dm?id=D73E234FC1C48048A51FE8F0100F0B3050131FF9B4CFB7F2

Jessica is one of a number of past and present AUM English majors who have also been teaching this year in the university's English as a Second Language program. Other students involved include Audra Hagel, Mary Beth Hogan, Yer Kim, and Deborah Solomon.

ENGLISH AND PHILOSOPHY CLUB MEETINGS

This coming Friday, August 31, starting at 6:00pm, the English Club will have its first meeting at Starbucks Eastchase. The purpose of this meeting is to establish leadership organization and the club's direction for the future. The English Club can be whatever we want it to be -- we just have to shape it. The English Club sponsor is Dr. Jeff Melton.

The English Club will be affiliated, fairly closely, with Sigma Tau Delta (the International English Honor Society founded in 1924). Unlike the English Club, Sigma Tau Delta membership is limited to those who meet certain prerequisites. For more information about joining Sigma Tau Delta, speak with the Sigma Tau Delta sponsor, Dr. Michel Aaij or see the Sigma Tau Delta website -- http://www.english.org.

In somewhat unrelated news, the Philosophy Club is also seeking members. Members are expected to enjoy and partake in conversations of a philosophical nature while maintaining a friendly and at least somewhat intellectual debate. Topics are selected by members, and meetings usually are held at local coffeehouses. The coffeehouse chat system has worked well, but we are always open to fresh and even eccentric ideas. Other activities have included movie nights, followed by discussions of relevance and philosophy of the films watched. Our meetings are always relaxed and friendly. Please contact Charles Leigh (contact information listed below) if interested in joining. Dr. David Walker is the Philosophy Club sponsor.

As an English Club and Sigma Tau Delta member, and as Philosophy Club President, Charles Leigh is more than willing to answer questions via email at cleigh@student.aum.edu in relation to any of these fine student organizations under the English and Philosophy Department.

MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS

The AUM English Department is proud that many of its graduates have become published authors, not only after their graduations but even during their time as students.

Kurt Niland, who graduated from the AUM English Department in the early 1990s, is surely one of the most widely published of all AUM English majors. During his time as an undergraduate at AUM, Kurt was the author or co-author of five peer-reviewed scholarly publications (all of which are indexed in the MLA Bibliography). He was selected as a recipient of a highly prestigious Younger Scholars fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities (just before that program was eliminated because of budget cuts). His fellowship allowed him to do intensive research for one month at the Beinecke Library at Yale University.

In the time since his graduation, Kurt turned to publishing of a different sort. He worked as a writer and editor for a number of companies, and he also found time to write a number of his own books, including such coffee-table guide books as Florida's Emerald Coast (1995), Philadelphia (2002), Gwinnett: Success Lives Here (2003), and, most recently, The Churches of Alabama (2003), which has been a major best-seller and is now in its second printing. Kurt, who spent a year in Thailand while in high school, has always been interested in foreign travel; recent trips have taken him several times to Polynesia, especially Tahiti.

Meanwhile, Kurt's good friend, Wendi Lewis, also a graduate of the AUM English program, now serves as Director of Communications for the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce. Wendi is the co-author of a very handsome coffee-table book titled Montgomery: At the Forefront of a New Century (1996). A similar book titled Montgomery and the River Region: Together We Build (2001) contained significant contributions by Heather Edwards, who currently works for the AUM Speech and Hearing Clinic.

Ben Beard, an especially dynamic former English major who graduated in the late 1990s, is the author or co-author not only of Muhammed Ali: The Greatest (2002) but also of This Day in Civil Rights History (2005). Ben, who was himself a highly talented actor (especially noted for his role as Roderigo in a summer production of Shakespeare's Othello), for a time was a journalist whose job was to interview Hollywood celebrities (we are serious: this is not a joke).

Foster Dickson, who graduated with an undergraduate degree in English from AUM and is currently working on his Master of Liberal Arts degree, has become an award-winning creative writing teacher at Booker T. Washington magnet high school in Montgomery, where he has taken an active hand in fostering (pun intended) published work by his own students. In 2005, for instance, he helped edit (along with current stellar AUM English major Kevin Garner) a collection titled Taking the Time: Young Writers and Old Stories, and most recently he was the driving force behind a new book titled Our Hope, which was the subject of a major article in the Montgomery Advertiser (http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070816/NEWS01/708160322/1007)

Foster and Ben, who were good friends and who worked together at Montgomery's NewSouth publishing company, co-edited a number of books, including Hollow Bodies and Other Stories, King Midas in Reverse, and Kindling Not Yet Split (all published in 2002).

Scott Johnson, who graduated with a degree in English in the early 90s, was for years a copy-editor at the Montgomery Advertiser before recently trying his hand as a reporter. Scott's stories frequently appeared on the front pages of various sections of the paper, but he has now resumed the quieter life of a copy-editor -- a position also fulfilled at the Advertiser by Gary Goodson, also a graduate from Scott's era and a man widely admired for his skills as a wit, bon vivant, and raconteur. Neil Probst, also a graduate from the Age of Johnson and Goodson and also a one-time copy-editor and reporter at The Advertiser, now works as a full-time writer for the national magazine of the Civil Air Patrol. Before taking that job, Neil was a writer for Colonial Bank. His greatest accomplishment, however, was persuading fellow English major (and one-time departmental secretary) Julliana Ooi to become his wife. They are now the very proud parents of four very brilliant children: Noah, Caleb, Jonas, and Hannah.



MONTGOMERY
AS IT APPEARED
DURING THE
YOUTH OF GARY GOODSON

MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS

SOME RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN THE LIVES OF AUM ENGLISH MAJORS

Eric Atkins is the proud occupant of a new house. Marjean Corkran has begun teaching full-time at Enterprise Junior College. Heather Edwards was seen having supper recently at the Green Papaya (a restaurant she highly recommends). Lisa Harrison has begun working as a free-lance book editor and is receiving rave reviews from her clients. Mary Beth Hogan and her husband Kevin are doing their best to cope with the challenges of what Kevin has dubbed "mortability." Wanda Isham, Jennifer Jacobs, and Linda Uranga have begun teaching as adjunct instructors at AUM. Jennifer's brother, Andrew Jacobs, continues to wow his students at Faulkner University. Dallas Merritt and Catherine Winn were united this summer in holy matrimony; the new Mrs. Merritt began working this month as a tutor in the AUM Learning Center. Jessica Skarda recently accepted a position at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival after impressing everyone as an AUM intern there. Deborah Solomon and her husband Charles Solomon are celebrating their second wedding anniversary; earlier this spring they visited relatives of Deborah in Germany. Deborah was heavily involved in promoting this summer's CLEFWORKS chamber music series. Sarah Fish is having fun with her students at Macon East Academy. Robin Sulkosky visited Peru during the summer break, where he not only did some sight-seeing and mountain-climbing but also managed to survive the major earthquake that rocked Peru during his visit. Ashley Wright recently celebrated a birthday and was serenaded by a massive throng of musically-challenged admirers.

SCHOLARLY WORK BY AUM STUDENTS SELECTED FOR INCLUSION IN MAJOR DATABASE

Various books containing the scholarly work of hundreds of AUM students have been selected for inclusion in the Literary Reference Center (LRC), a key electronic database that is widely available in public, school, and college libraries throughout the world. The re-publication of the books in the LRC means that the scholarship of the AUM students will now be easily accessible to researchers, teachers, and students working just about anywhere and at any time of the day or night.

Among the books selected for inclusion in LRC are titles dealing with such writers as Ambrose Bierce, Kate Chopin, Ben Jonson, and Frank O’Connor, plus a comprehensive volume dealing with American and British short stories. In addition, LRC also reprints the newest edition of a comprehensive volume titled Close Readings: Analyses of Short Fiction from Multiple Perspectives by Students of Auburn University Montgomery. An earlier edition of that book had already been reprinted in the Ebrary database (www.ebrary.com), which is also available through many libraries in the US and abroad.

LRC is produced by EBSCO Publishing, an industry leader in information resources. EBSCO describes its databases as “the most-used, for-fee, online information resources for tens of thousands of institutions worldwide” (www.epnet.com ). The work of numerous AUM students is now readily available to library users at all of those subscribing institutions, including through the Alabama Virtual Library (www.avl.lib.al.us) as well as through the AUM Library itself.

Each book prints the work and ideas of numerous AUM students; the one on Bierce, instance, contains the work of more than 120 past and present students, including Michelle Ackerman, Suzanne Armstrong, Eric W. Atkins, Shannon M. Barco, Bebe Barefoot, Ben Beard, Larry Boswell, Nataliya Bowden, Lee Bridges, Candice Briggs, Spencer Brothers, Scott Bruner, Tanya Brummett, Maranda Bryant, Lisa Bush, Karen Capps, Tabetha Carpenter, Missi Carrier, Scott Champion, John Conway, Jessica Cook, Tenika Cottingham, Melissa Crane, Erika Davis, Shannon Davis, Shannon Dean, Foster Dickson, Lauren Duke, Paul Duke, Kathleen Durrer, Heather Edwards, Leslie Evans, Angie Fuhrman, Heather Finley, Erin Gambino, Jimmy Garrett, Jeff Glass, Michael Goldman, Shelley Green, Kenneth W. Griffin, Anthony T. Hagan, Gina M. Harper, Barbara Hartin, Nikisha Hayes, Scott Hayles, Phyllis Hedrick, Charlotte Henderson, Sonjanika Henderson, Deborah Cosier Hill, Russ Holder, Laketa Huddleston, Jenny Hudson, Glenn Hunt, Jennifer Jacobs, Hashim C. Jeffries, Jason Johnson, Travis Jordan, John Kelley, Mark Koehler, Monica Felicia Lee, Meg Lewis, Tony Liang, Danon Lucas, Denah Lucas, Regina G. Lucas, Katie Magaw, Kathy Mayfield, Mandy McAlister, LaWendy Meadows, Daniel Meredith, Christy Meyers, Toinette Mitchell, Laura Moore, Josh Mustin, Zachery Myrick, Kristi Owen, Jason Peacock, Pamela Combs Pettis, Lane Powell, Neil Probst, Derrick Rainwater, Alma Ramirez, Jennifer Richardson, Rian Rider, Denean Rivera, Marie Robinson, Melissa Roth, Terri Richburg, Katrina Sansom, Julie D. Sellers, Tawanda Shaw, Kimberly Ann Sloss, Mollie Smith, Charles Solomon, Quesha S. Starks, Patrick Steele, Caryn Stewart, Frances Stewart, Patsy Stewart, Randy C. Stone, Laura Stough, Sara Sweeton, Daniel Talley, Lori Taylor, Monica G. Tindol, Mike Trotter, Barbrietta Turner, Sharon Watts, Michael Webb, Marge West, Ashley Wilkins, Lisa Williams, Sasha Woods, and Jonathan Wright.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW? NEWS ABOUT RECENT GRADS

Thanks to Dr. Eric Sterling for news about the following graduates of our department!

ERIC ATKINS, after earning a master's degree in English at Middle Tennessee State University, is now employed in Montgomery as a program officer by Colonial Bank. SAMANTHA BATTEN is enrolled in an M.A./Ph.D. program at Auburn University. AMY BOAK was a full-time employee at the Fun Zone Learning Center before it was devastated by a tornado. (Fortunately, no one was seriously injured.) HEATHER FINLEY taught at Taylor Road Academy and then worked full-time in AUM's TRIO program. SARAH FISH recently earned her Master of Liberal Arts degree at AUM. JEFF GLASS teaches full-time at Wetumpka High School. LESLIE GROOMS owns and operates Invisible Fence, a company that helps solve that urgent question, "Who let the dogs out?!" MARY BETH HOGAN began a new job this year at East Memorial Christian Academy in Prattville. This summer she was an instructor in the AUM English as a Second Language program. MEG LEWIS is the Public Relations Manager at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, a job she earned after participating in the AUM internship program. KIM PATTERSON works full-time at Barnes & Noble bookstore. MANDY McALISTER earned her Master of Liberal Arts and is now in the Ph.D. program at Auburn University. JESSICA McNEILL, after graduating, received an attractive position working in public relations (thanks, in part, to her experiences in the internship program). MARGO PARASKA earned her MFA degree in creative writing at Colorado State University. HOLLY PETERSON is working for Planned Parenthood in Birmingham. STACIE PRITCHETT is enrolled in the graduate program at Oral Roberts University. RIAN RIDER is an officer on the City of Montgomery police force. BEN ROBINSON works at the Federal Court House and has just begun work on his law degree at Faulkner University. DANIELLE SEYMOUR teaches high school in Lannett, Alabama. She is currently working on a master's degree in Education. FLANNERY STANFORD teaches English full-time in a high school in Brewton. ALISHA SULLIVAN is in the second year of graduate studies at the University of Nevada, Reno. JONATHAN WRIGHT recently finished his Ph.D. at the University of Alabama and is now on the faculty at Faulkner University. [Preceding information is accurate and current, to the best of our knowledge, as of 8/27/07. If you spot any inaccuracies or need for changes, please let us know by writing to englishrce@aol.com.]