Average number of books an English major claims to be reading at any given time: 4 Number they are actually reading: 1, slowly
Estimated percentage of English majors who have finished Wuthering Heights: 12 Percentage who have confidently pretended to: 87
Portion of English majors who annotate library books despite the moral implications: 1 in 3
Ratio of students who say they like poetry to those who actually write it: 5:1 Ratio of students who secretly write it to those who admit it: 9:1
Percentage of English department office printers out of toner at any given moment: 76
Average number of times per semester someone asks, “But… what are you going to do with that degree?”: 14
Percentage of English majors students with a rehearsed response: 100 Percentage who still panic inside: 100
Portion of faculty who will die on the “Oxford comma is non-negotiable” hill: 4/5
Estimated percentage of grad students who have Googled “jobs that require no human contact”: 63
Average number of metaphors used in a single undergraduate poem: 11 Number that works: 1, generously
Percentage of students who have claimed a book “changed their life”: 92 Percentage for whom the book was actually just The Stranger: 48
Chance that an English major has a favorite edition of the same book someone else owns: 2 in 3 Chance they will judge them for it: certain
Portion of English faculty with a personal mug hierarchy: 3/4
Approximate rate at which someone in a theory seminar says “But what is the meaning?”: once every 10 minutes
Percentage of English majors who believe they will write a novel someday: 89
Percentage who have written more than three chapters: 7
Letter from the Chair
Number of UMass academic programs that start with the letter “E”: 13
Chance that the best one is “English”: 100%
Am I slightly biased? It’s hard not to be! If you read through this newsletter, you will feel a similar swell of pride. Our undergraduate numbers continue to grow. Our graduate students land terrific jobs. Our faculty produce top shelf scholarship.
But wait. Before I talk about us, I want to talk about you. When I stepped in as chair, I asked you to reach out with stories. Lo! You did! It has inspired us to turn the spotlight on our alumni. Specifically, we take a good look at what I’m calling shenanigans. Here, you will find two such stories. The first recounts the University’s ban of The Quarterly, the department’s literary magazine, and Sam Kaplan’s (Class of '56) fight to have it reinstated. The second is the tale of Dan Hemenway’s 1959 resourceful use of The Collegian to lobby for better faculty pay. Such stories don’t just capture our rebellious spirit. They testify to the core belief that unites everyone in this department: words matter.
To that end, I want to give a special shout-out to our MFA alumni, who have produced a lot of words in a record number of books of poetry and prose. I also want to direct your eye to our faculty publications, which publishers continue to translate into multiple languages and for ever larger audiences. Also worthy of mention is the Writing Program, which continues to thrive, and the Arthur F. Kinney Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies, which has brought together important conversations about public humanities, environmental humanities, earth sciences, and the arts.
The achievements of our centers, our faculty, and our alumni take place against the backdrop of a department filled with activities and opportunities for our current undergraduates. We have rebooted the English Club, offered more support for study abroad (most notably to Oxford and Edinburgh), and continue to encourage students to explore the many literary readings and lectures that we offer.
In fact, I am penning this column only several days after the Troy Lecture. There, the brilliant science fiction writer N.K. Jemisin delivered her talk to a packed house, and our students turned out in full force. If you are of my generation and have fears about the future, I’m here to tell you that the kids are okay. The attendance at that lecture, along with our playful opening to this newsletter, authored by major Isalia Paulino, ‘29, prove that words still matter for play, for careers, for change, for life. And with that, I will end with the final words of one of Jemisin’s short stories...
“Now. Let’s get to work.”
—Jenny Adams, Chair, Department of English
New Faculty
Gabriel Bump
Gabriel Bump received his MFA from our own Program for Poets and Writers in 2017. We are delighted that he has joined us as faculty in that same program.
Bump grew up in South Shore, Chicago. His debut novel, Everywhere You Don't Belong, was a New York Times Notable Book of 2020 and won the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, the Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award for Fiction, the Heartland Booksellers Award for Fiction, and the Black Caucus of the American Library Association's First Novelist Award. His second novel, The New Naturals, was a Washington Post, Boston Globe, and New York Times Notable Book of 2023. Bump's writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Best American Short Stories, and elsewhere.
Another year is in the books for Undergraduate Studies here at UMass English… literally? Figuratively? In this case, it is a bit hard to tell. But one thing is certain — our community continues to thrive. We are the largest major in the College of Humanities and Fine Arts, and we are growing! Why? We have a few guesses. A teaching-award-winning faculty, committed to undergraduate education. A continued emphasis on smaller seminar-style courses. A sudden burst of interest in Shakespeare? That last one may be less likely. But it seems clear that the English Major’s focused devotion to language and art and imaginative action of all sorts offer students time to develop the kinds of human intelligence and human experience they crave.
A few highlights from our year of growth:
More and more students from across campus have been signing up for our new Creative Writing Concentration, which entails taking a few additional electives alongside our usual major requirements. Our MFA program’s top tier reputation means that UMass undergrads have a rare opportunity to share work in and be part of an internationally renowned community of novelists and poets, and they love it.
We’ve resurrected the English Club! Meetings feature laid-back socializing, snacks, informal writing, and general good vibes. Will there be a Beowulf inspired bonfire at the Renaissance Center? [A note from the Chair: No there will not be.] Who knows what the future holds…
We are adding a new colloquium to our major requirements! Our Chief Undergraduate Advisor, Dr. Jennifer Minnen, is transforming our career/community advising course, ‘The Major and Beyond’ into a broad-ranging experience for juniors and seniors. The new colloquium will give students a few discipline-specific ways of understanding how English Major skills in encountering and creating language and art can lead to a universe of meaningful work and community both at UMass and out in the wider world. We’ll be weaving alumni events into the course, so if you’d like to reconnect and share your expertise and experience with our students in this changing world, please do reach out.
And all this is happening alongside the usual routines of courses and papers, lectures and poetry readings, office-hours chats and advising appointments. Celeste continues to be a beacon of wisdom (and registration fixes) in our office in South College. Jabberwocky continues to be a top-notch undergraduate literary journal. Alumni of all ages would recognize and enjoy the kinds of conversations ongoing in our classrooms. But most importantly of all, our commitment to fostering creative action and understanding in our students remains unchanged. In a world that wants to devalue the creative energies of younger minds and writers, a world that tells them they can (or worse, should) be replaced by generic, corporate text-creation programs of one kind or another, we tell them the truth: nothing can replace our lived experiences together, in a classroom, in a hallway of South College, in conversation, or in commune with a good book.
Many graduate students will have achieved important milestones in AY 2025-2026. Five defended their dissertations and received their PhDs in fall of 2025, and three more will defend this spring. Another three students passed their area exams, and four submitted their prospectus and began work on their dissertation. Two students passed their advisory session or American Studies advisory session. Perhaps even more excitingly, many students published new work across a variety of venues and gave presentations at national and international conferences. The high caliber of this work is evinced in the ten advanced doctoral students who were awarded summer dissertation fellowships.
Because numbers do not convey the full scope of our graduate program, it is worth mentioning a few specific achievements to convey the multifaceted nature of our program. For instance, in spring 2026 Mackie Black joined The Art(e)facts Project as a graduate intern, and in that position will contribute to that project’s work on environmental humanities. Phoebe Glick completed her American Studies advisory session in fall 2025. Dyala Kasim submitted her prospectus in 2025 and is currently working on her dissertation. Meenakshi Nair, who completed her areas in fall 2025, was awarded a Graduate School Public Writing Fellowship in summer 2025 and is currently a Graduate Fellow for the Interdisciplinary Studies Institute 2025-2026; and, she has also published “Dilli Darshan: Training the tourist gaze” in the Journal of Urban Cultural Studies. Additionally, Nick Sancho-Rosi defended his dissertation in December 2025. In the area of composition and rhetoric, Nicole O’Connell is scheduled to defend her dissertation this spring 2026 semester, an achievement aided by a 2025 Summer Dissertation Completion Fellowship from the Graduate School. Othniel Williams, currently an Instructional Innovation Fellow with Instructional Design, Engagement and Support Group (IDEAS) for the 2025-2026 academic year was also awarded a Graduate School Pre-dissertation Grant and he will present his work-in-progress at CCCC 2026.
Just as exciting as these individual achievements is the collective work of the English Graduate Organization, which organized another active year of professional, social, and scholarly programming. The centerpiece of this was the Spring Methods Symposium 2026, co-chaired by Jeremy Geragotelis and Jon Hoel. The theme, Future Potentialities, continued the “longstanding tradition of critiquing the workings of empire [and brought] focus to those future considerations that strive to imagine life past precarity, illegibility, or impossibility.”
We welcomed a large and talented incoming class of fifteen MA/PhD and PhD students this past fall, and we look forward to the new, smaller cohort that will join us in the fall of 2026. Crucial to the success of our graduate program is the support we get. To that end, I want to thank Brianna Mason for all for her work in the English Graduate Office. I also want to thank the Associate Graduate Program Director, Haivan Hoang, for her assistance organizing events and providing crucial career support to our students. I will be stepping down from my position as Graduate Program Director on July 31st after completing my term. It was a sincere pleasure to serve our accomplished and generous-spirited graduate students. I want to acknowledge my successor, Professor Joseph Black, who is an incredibly capable administrator and a veteran of this position.
Many say “publishing is the coin of the realm” in MFA programs. And yet, in addition to publishing, our graduates go on to achieve many accolades in long and storied careers in the public sector, education, marketing, law, nonprofit management, fundraising, publishing, healthcare, libraries and the literary arts—and that’s only a handful of the industries in which our alumni stand out.
So, let us sing about the stunning number of alumni publications in 2025, but let us also raise up those of you saving lives in community hospitals, working towards school readiness, serving on suicide prevention hotlines, or acting as poet laureates and teaching middle school! I speak for all of the faculty and administration when I say: we are mightily proud of your accomplishments one and all!
The current cohort of graduate candidates continues to inspire our community with their dedication to literary citizenry in the region and abroad. Here are two examples: Third-year poet, Bella Moses, is the Managing Editor for Slope Editions (founded by MFA alums Ethan Paquin and Christopher Janke) coordinating administration, production, distribution, and promotion of the press. Third-year prose writer, Richmond Wills took part in the Obodo International Artist Residency (Obodo Oma) in Nigeria. The residency invites applications from Black diaspora artists to collaborate with Nigerian artists, focusing on the intersection of arts and human rights and how the former can be leveraged in dealing with societal norms and prejudices while advocating for LGBTQ+ people in Nigeria and beyond. While he was there, Wills offered workshops to Nigerian artists and youth.
In our local community, many MFA students serve as readers for The Massachusetts Review and the UMass Press’s Juniper Prizes in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Others work as assistant directors for the Juniper Summer Writing Institute where they gain outstanding professional development in literary programming and event planning. For the last five years, MFA candidates have judged the Five College Prize in Prose and Poetry, reviewing submissions from undergrads across the five colleges and participants at the Care Center in Holyoke, MA. The MFA judges say this prize is a significant way to raise up the voices of emerging writers and poets in the region.
Other vital ways to celebrate the voices of the MFA community are through the MFA Literary Arts Festival (formerly the Juniper Festival) and the MFA’s Visiting Writers Series. The 2025 MFA Literary Arts Festival featured alums Jedediah Berry, Gion Davis, Emilie Menzel, and Okey Ndibe along with readings from our newest faculty members, Gabriel J. Bump and Desiree C. Bailey. As the final reader of the Fall 2025 VWS series, Jeff Parker regaled the audience with fishing stories and an excerpt from his recently published G v P, which appears in Proper Imposters. As always, these events are free, open to the public, and for over sixty years have been essential in making western Massachusetts a vibrant place to work and live.
For those who want to visit UMass and the MFA, please check our website for VWS and Festival information, as well as other department offerings. If you’d like to immerse yourself in writing, we hope you’ll consider attending the Juniper Summer Writing Institute (see website for application information and alumni discounts). If you have a teen writer in your world, review the options offered by The Juniper Institute for Young Writers, an amazing pre-college experience focused on the literary arts designed for writers at all levels.
This year, Sabina Murray’s leadership as MFA Program Director brings excitement and delight as the faculty/admin team works to provide our students with exceptional opportunities through classes, writing residencies, professional development, public events, and job talks. Sabina will lead the MFA’s strategic planning session in May to craft a plan that will guide the program over the next five years.
I’ll close by circling back to our alumni and reiterating the faculty and administration’s great pride in all of your accomplishments! We want to hear from you! Please join us on the MFA’s LinkedIn platform, share your news with us, and come visit!
With thanks and great admiration from the MFA,
—Jennifer Jacobson, Director, Community Engagement
Professor of poetry Peter Gizzi has received the 2024 T.S. Eliot Prize for his poetry collection, “Fierce Elegy.” Gizzi’s work was shortlisted from 187 poetry collections submitted by British and Irish publishers.
Program for Professional Writing and Technical Communication
We’re delighted this year to welcome Michael Lyons as the PWTC program’s teaching associate. Michael is PhD candidate in Composition and Rhetoric who comes to us with considerable experience and energy. Even as he continues his teaching and studies here he is interning with Dassault Systémes. Michael’s classes have received praise from his students, who speak highly of his expertise, enthusiasm and concern for their intellectual and academic well-being.
Jesse Buday, ’05, and Sydney Burke, ’23.
Graduates of the Program for Professional Writing and Technical Communication now number more than 400, making for a professional network spanning many fields and many countries, with graduates working in Germany, Israel, Scotland and Spain. Each year several return (in person or remotely) and share with current students their perspectives from technical writing and UX design, commercial and academic publishing, law, and medicine, and of course, artificial intelligence. Among the visiting luminaries this year were Jesse Buday, ’05, Principal Content Platform and Tools Specialist at Pegasystems and Sydney Burke, ’23, Content Engineer, also at Pegasystems.
In 2025 we continued our partnership with UMass Information Technology offices, providing our students apprenticeships and a practicum while applying best practices in UX to the university’s learning management systems, with attention to universal design, accessibility, and design justice. This year we also continued another interdepartmental collaboration, as current students interned with the Center for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence.
—Janine Solberg and David Toomey, Co-directors, Program for Professional Writing and Technical Communication
Kinney Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies
The Kinney Center joined the New England Humanities Consortium, a collaboration among Humanities Centers and Institutes across the region. This partnership expands our collaborative reach across institutions in the region, creating opportunities for shared programming, faculty exchange, and interdisciplinary research networks. By connecting our work with Humanities Centers across New England, we deepen conversations at the intersection of the public humanities, environmental humanities, earth sciences, and the arts—and expand opportunity for innovation across this community.
At the Kinney Center, the Renaissance of the Earth (RoE) project fosters a network of relationships. RoE is a vibrant, collaborative model for research and student engagement. It brings together scholars, artists, and community members to explore how past ways of knowing (especially from early modern literature and environmental thought) can illuminate urgent contemporary concerns. Rather than positioning the humanities and sciences as distinct disciplines, RoE invites sustained interdisciplinary dialogue. The result of this work has been an unfolding conversation across campus—one that is shaping how we teach and learn in the Department of English and beyond. This year, faculty from biology and environmental sciences co-led discussions with English literature professors. Students attended insect specimen collecting labs with entomologists and poetry readings in the same week. Community members joined us for exhibitions and roundtables, contributing perspectives grounded in local knowledge. In every instance, RoE emphasizes listening—gathering with and from one another—as much as speaking from a position of expertise. These exchanges reveal how intellectual work is also relational work. The future is not forged in competition but in collaboration.
The RoE Artist in Residence program invites painters, musicians, and poets from across the region to work with our rare book library as they explore how their processes intersect with Renaissance thought and craft. In Spring 2025, Felicity Sheehy (poet and PhD Candidate, Princeton University) created a collection of original poems, Almanac for the Anthropocene. This chapbook, in conversation with the Kinney Center’s early modern almanacs, husbandry guides, and botanicals, explores enduring themes of seasonal instability that link our current climate crisis to early modernity’s little ice age. In conjunction with her residency, Sheehy offered a hands-on generative poetry workshop for UMass students and the Amherst public who explored a range of ways to engage with archival material. Sheehy drew upon our outdoor living laboratory to set objects from the natural world—bark, lichen, mushrooms, and lithic features—together with early modern poetry and scientific descriptions of the natural world.
That spirit of exchange also animated a summer poetry workshop “The Poetics of Descent” created by Scout Turkel (MFA Alumna ‘25). As a Renaissance of the Earth Teaching Fellow, Scout invited participants (including many familiar faces from the English department!) to explore ideas about getting stuck below or leaving behind “the earth.” Scout invited us to work in comparative conversation with the Kinney Center’s rare book collection, to consider poets whose work moves beyond and below the earth-as-surface, to critique representations of extraction and descent in geologic, mythic, and poetic history.
Following the success of her poetry workshop, Scout offered a brilliant guest lecture in the co-taught, interdisciplinary graduate seminar “Elemental Thinking.” This course asked how elemental frameworks shape political, philosophical, and literary imagination across time? Moving between earth, air, fire, and water as conceptual and material categories, students read early modern natural philosophy alongside contemporary environmental humanities and critical theory, placing historical texts in conversation with current climate science. The classroom became a site of rigorous debate, and intellectual engagement, as well as a space for shared reflections.
For more information about the Kinney Center, the Renaissance of the Earth project, our rare book collection, and opportunities for engagement, visit the Kinney Center’s website. Or come visit us and see for yourself. We’re open M-F 9:30-4:30.
—Marjorie Rubright, Director, Liz Fox, Arts & Academic Programs Coordinator, Kinney Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies
Oxford Summer Seminar
Behold, the 59th annual spectacle of academic delight, the Oxford Summer Seminar of 2025, once again graced with brilliance at none other than the illustrious Keble College—a sanctuary of brickwork so charmingly analogous to layers of lasagna that even the most discerning culinary aficionados would nod in approval. This season, a merry band of 40 erudite scholars from UMass Amherst and Smith College converged upon the hallowed spires and storied quads of Oxford, ready to imbibe the very essence of knowledge and partake in quintessential English escapades—from the serene strolls through University Parks to the raucous revelry at the famed Lamb and Flag Pub, a mere song’s length from the bustling epicenters of Broad and Cornmarket.
Keble, venerable for its striking nineteenth-century grandeur, served as the perfect amphitheater for our longstanding tradition of scholastic excellence intertwined with a zestful spirit of camaraderie. The program’s ingenious "house" system—named with reverence after Keble’s own quads, namely Liddon, Pusey, Hayward, and Newman—foments a fierce yet friendly contest for the venerated House Cup, a prize coveted more fervently than a fresh pot of English tea on a foggy morning.
Under the spirited guidance of our dynamic Junior Deans, Olivia Doherty (English Commonwealth Honors College/Seminarian 2024) and Manas Pandit (Economics/Commonwealth Honors College, Seminarian 2024) our seminarians danced through a panoply of delight—from brain-bending trivia nights and daring punt expeditions on the gentle Cherwell, to the sweltering thrill of the “Amazing Race” and weekly duels of photographic artistry. This year’s champions, Liddon House, boasting a diverse and talented cohort including the likes of Lauren Brown (Political Science/History), Juan Valencia Gallego (Political Science/Commonwealth Honors College), Hanah Chow (Economics), Aidan Nisbett (English/Commonwealth Honors College), James Westerfeld (Microbiology), Georgie Mark (Communication), Eleanor Peltz (Classics/Commonwealth Honors College), Arshie Chaudry (Government, Smith College), Hailey Higgins-Figeroa (English/Legal Studies), and their compatriots, demonstrated teamwork and sportsmanship worthy of Oxford itself, seizing the House Cup with deserved glory.
Thanks to the benevolent largesse of the Hofer Fund, our intrepid explorers braved the rising tempest of travel costs and mercurial currency winds—navigating excursions of mythic grandeur: a foray into London’s regal splendor (Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace State Rooms, the National Gallery), a sojourn to the ancient city of Bath and the mystic stones of Stonehenge, and the opulent majesty of Blenheim Palace. Meanwhile, during the revered reading week’s sacrosanct reprieve, many ventured further afield to famed locales such as Paris, Amsterdam, Barcelona, and Dublin, absorbing culture with the zeal of true scholars on furlough.
The intellectual feast continued with courses as intoxicating as history itself: "British Detective Fiction," expertly led by Dr. Sally Bayley of Lady Margaret Hall, and "Global Political Economy," deftly helmed by Dr. Silvia Palano within the medieval splendor of Brasenose College. A sparkling jewel in this year’s crown was the debut of "Piety, Power, and Performance in Tudor England," taught by the esteemed Dr. Lucy Wooding, Lincoln College Fellow and Henry VIII savant par excellence.
Our seminar was further enriched by the British Studies Colloquium, featuring riveting lectures on topics from state aggression and the value of human life to Joshua Abraham Norton, self-proclaimed “Norton I, Emperor of the United States”, Henry VIII’s manifold portrayals, and Lady Chaucer’s enduring legacy—all complemented by the Seminar’s resplendent Formal Dinners in Keble Hall. A particular highlight was the warm welcome extended to 150 guests from the University of Georgia’s Oxford cohort, rekindling bonds forged in the program’s erstwhile days at Trinity College.
As the curtain closes on the 2025 Oxford Summer Seminar, we celebrate the formidable intellect and infectious enthusiasm of our participants, which propelled this year to resounding success. Poised in our beloved new home, Keble College, we eagerly anticipate the dawn of the 60th anniversary in 2026—a milestone portentous with promise, diversity, and the vibrant arrival of a new generation of scholars.
The UMass Writing Program (WP) provides quality writing instruction and support through three primary initiatives: First-Year Writing (Englwrit 111 and 112); Junior Year Writing; and the University Writing Center (WC), which offers one-on-one writing support to campus community members through 45-minute synchronous in-person and online sessions. While the WP is an independent academic unit, many of the English department’s undergraduate majors and graduate students tutor and teach in the WP.
2025 has been a year of expansion for the WP and Writing Center, with the addition of six new full-time faculty members, the launch of a new open access course reader, and the development of partnerships on and off campus.
Welcoming New Full-Time Faculty
This year, the Writing Program welcomed Matthew Gagnon, Dr. Laura Greenfield, Alexandra Itzi, Madhukar KC, Dr. Matthew Morrison, and Jaclyn Ordway as full-time faculty. The Writing Program is excited to have expanded our robust and stable team of eperienced faculty to complement the innovative work of our graduate instructors.
New Open Access Reader
In September, the Writing Program launched a new reader, Opening Conversations, an Open Educational Resource. Free to students and available online, the new reader was developed with input from undergraduates and graduate instructors. The project was spearheaded by curriculum committee chair Dr. Devin Day and supported by an Open Education Initiative grant from UMass Libraries. The project was a team effort, and recent alumni may recognize titles they suggested during the Writing Program’s 2024 and 2025 Spring Symposia. Feedback from students and instructors on the new reader has been overwhelmingly positive, with accessibility and multimodality as highlights.
Campus Partnerships
The Writing Program has partnered with multiple campus organizations to extend its support of student writers. Under the leadership of Dr. Aaron Tillman, sections of College Writing are being offered on the Charles River campus through UMass Amherst Career Launch, and Dr. Greenfield has been piloting 112 sections designated for students returning from the Global Launch program. Gagnon, Itzi, and PhD student Dylan Newbrey have taught sections of 112 and 111 for the growing Early College program. Bex Ringle, recipient of the 2025 Peggy Woods Award for Innovative Teaching, taught sections of 112 through the Jail Education Initiative, and Jade Yeen Onn piloted a hybrid section of 112 online, with support for incoming student athletes.
Writing Center Updates
The University Writing Center continues to offer writing support to UMass campus members with over 4,000 appointments scheduled. The WC has been actively involved in outreach, hosting a 3-hour event on campus for high school tutors and high school writing center directors. Last April, 23 high school writing center tutors and six UMass tutors workshopped and discussed their writing center philosophies and experiences. Director Dr. Anna Rita Napoleone has secured funding for three years by University Without Walls for the Writing Center to support UWW Interdisciplinary Studies students during the summer. During the fall semester, WC tutors participated in professional development meetings focused on ethical uses of A.I. and conducting group tutoring sessions. In the spring, the WC formed inquiry groups that focused on identity (through an intersectional lens) and the WC, looking specifically at identities affected by current public debates. Tutors chose queerness and neurodivergence and then presented on equitable tutoring practices informed by their own experiences and from relevant scholarship.
The Writing Program as a whole continues to be engaged in the evolving conversation surrounding generative AI and writing. Under the leadership of WP director Dr. Tara Pauliny, English PhD student Sky Cummings and another graduate student from communications have led a team of Writing Program TOs in developing resources and programming to support AI literacy within the writing classroom.
—Anne Bello, Deputy Director of the UMass Writing Program
Live Performance: International Theater Festival Immersion
The Department of English ran its study-abroad course “Live Performance: International Theatre Festival Immersion” in Edinburgh, Scotland. This was the 16th year that the department has run the course, which is now organized in collaboration with the University of New Mexico. The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is the world’s largest arts festival, featuring more than 3,893 performances by artists from 68 countries during the month of August. Another 3,000 performers filled the city with all manner of street performance. Several other festivals run concurrently throughout the city, including an international Book Festival and Arts Festival, making Edinburgh an unrivaled center for cultural expression and exchange.
Professor Daniel Sack co-directed this year’s course with Professor Dominika Laster of the University of New Mexico. Ten undergraduate students, several hailing from UMass, joined two graduate students from UNM’s Playwriting program. The group attended 18 performances together including work from Australia, Belgium, Finland, Ireland, Lebanon, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States—while still leaving time for participants to see additional work on their own. They held conversations with the artists whose work they saw, ranging from the acclaimed Native American composer Raven Chacon (winner of the Pulitzer Prize) to younger performance makers just out of university. The program will run again in the summer of 2026 with Theatre Professor Harley Erdman representing UMass, and Professor Sack will return to co-directing the course in 2027.
—Daniel Sack, Program Advisor Live Performance: International Theater Festival Immersion
“Deeply affecting and sonically rich. . . . Throughout Jailbreak of Sparrows, Espada captures and releases the memories and stories of the Puerto Rican diaspora, of the unsung or impoverished. It does so tenderly and attentively, with curiosity and compassion—qualities that Espada’s poems cultivate masterfully, as they attempt and succeed to rescue the individuals and communities, struggles and songs that history too often elides.” —Christopher Kondrich, The Washington Post
“This site offers an archive of speeches by 'influential, contemporary women.' Almost all of the speeches in the collection come directly from the authors themselves or from the organizations representing them and have not been published elsewhere.” —Kirsten Mckenzie, University of Sydney.
Peter Gizzi. Żarliwa elegia (Fierce Elegy). Translated into Polish by Kacper Bartczak. (Katowice: Wydawnictwo Biblioteki Śląskiej, 2025).
“The book’s broad subject is elegy, which Gizzi calls ‘a mode that can transform a broken heart in a fierce world into a fierce heart in a broken world.’ Here, ferocity is reimagined as vulnerability, bravery and discovery, a braiding of emotional and otherworldly depth. Joy and sorrow make a complex ecosystem. And then, as we read, it is as if we have left our bodies, are looking down on them from above, and find – as Rae Armantrout has put it in an appreciation of this book – that ‘everything is fine, better than fine.’ In their quest for a lyric reality, these poems remind us that elegy is lament, but also – as it has been for centuries – a work of openness, and a work of love.” (from the English edition).
Peter Gizzi.Consider the Wound. Translated into Norwegian by Matthias Samuelson and Martin Ingebrigtsen. (Trondheim: Beijing Trondheim Press, 2025).
“Logomotives is a beautifully crafted study of the world-changing power of words. Ranging across diverse geographies and cultures, these essays show how words catalyse cultural, political and epistemological change in the pre-modern world. This collection will be an indispensable reference for anyone interested in the force language exerts across history.” —Jenny C. Mann, New York University
Nominated for the Prosvetitel Prize, awarded annually by the Zimin Foundation to “the best non-fiction science books, both written in Russian and translated into Russian from other languages.”
PhD Alumni Books
Hayley Cotter, PhD ‘21. Poetics of the Legal Sea in English Renaissance Literature. (University of Alabama Press, 2026).
Liz Fox, PhD ’21 and Gina Hausknecht (eds.). Shakespeare in the Age of Mass Incarceration. (Routledge Press, 2025).
Len Gougeon, PhD. Old England, New England and the Civil War. (SUNY Press, 2025).
Liane Malinowski, PhD '18. City Housekeeping: Women’s Labor Rhetorics and Spaces for Solidarity, 1886-1911. (Parlor Press, 2025).
BA Alumni Books
Adam Szetela, BA '12. That Book Is Dangerous! How Moral Panic, Social Media, and the Culture Wars Are Remaking Publishing. (MIT Press, 2025).
Marjorie Short, BA ’70. Making Mischief: The Intern Diaries (BearManor Media, 2025).
Jaqueline Feldman, MFA ’23, Precarious Lease: The Paris Document (Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2026).
Emily Hunt, MFA ‘13, Stranger (The Song Cave, 2024).
Valerie Martin, MFA ’74, Mrs. Gulliver (Vintage, Feb 25, 2025).
Hilary Plum, MFA ‘11, State Champ (Bloomsbury, May 2025).
Rachelle Toarmino, MFA ’23, Hell Yeah (Third Man Books, 2025).
Lena Tsykynovska, The Last Days of My Boyhood (Light Rail, 2025), The Golden World, a chapbook by Lena Tsykynovska, is scheduled for publication by The Year press in the spring of 2025.
Leni Zumas (MFA ‘04), Wolf Bells (Algonquin Books, 2025).
From the Archives: Two Pieces of English Department History
Sam Kaplan ‘57, Editor of the Quarterly
For Sam Kaplan ‘57*, the UMass Amherst Department of English “was the very heart of [his] education.” Alongside learning literary criticism and poetry, Kaplan served from 1954 to 1955 as the editor of UMass Amherst’s literary magazine the Quarterly.
An offshoot of the Collegian and a predecessor of today’s Jabberwocky, the Quarterly ran from the 1930s until the late 1950s. A statement in the Fall 1950 issue declared its mission:
We have sought to give recognition to those departments of the university which do not usually produce material for a literary publication. We are dedicated to a literature that is modern and fresh, but yet expressing the universal and timeless ideas of man. Above all, the QUARTERLY is your magazine—and ours.
In 1954 the University suspended publication of the Quarterly for reasons that may be lost to history. The UMass Amherst Special Collections and University Archives do not have the 1954 edition in their holdings, but contemporaneous sources from the Collegian shed light on the suspension, noting “allegedly improper articles,” "improper taste,” “alleged obscenities,” “supposedly obscene material,” and “four letter words.”
The suspension of the journal in fall 1954 was a major move by the UMass administration, and as the Collegian noted soon after, it “was carried out without any reasons for the suspension ever being presented to any member of the staff.”
Any First Amendment issues were complicated by the fact that the Fall 1954 issue had been sent to 350 high schools across the state in connection with a writing contest. Robert Hopkins, Dean of Men and by all accounts the one who made the decision to suspend, explained that the administration feared “possible off-campus protests” and that the publication was suspended “to protect the University from objectors.”
Naturally, the suspension raised questions about censorship. The Collegian surveyed students and faculty about administrative oversight of student publications; there was talk of the university establishing a “Good Taste Code”; and the Quarterly staff stated “a censored press is worse than no press at all.”
Kaplan recalls that “There were months of weekly hearings that threatened the expulsion of many staff members, but we convinced a three-man faculty committee to vote on the side of freedom of speech and we all survived and graduated. The vote was 2-1, with the deciding vote cast by the head of the ROTC unit on campus.”
The Quarterly was allowed to resume publication in spring 1955. A statement by the Quarterly's editors in the returning issue is plain-spoken and point blank: “It has come to a sorry day when the university president must take the time to edit. [...] We think he is not only wrong to claim that the Quarterly is vulgar but also hypocritical to maintain that his privilege to edit material is not censorship.”
The Collegian wanted to cover the story in the next day's edition, which had already been sent to its printer, but it was late in the paper's deadlines, the staff had scattered, and there was no one to do the interviewing and write the story. I was one of the paper's editors, the senior reporter, a principal source, and available, but the basic principles of journalistic decorum obviously ruled me out. In the end, however, there was no one but me, and so I wrote the story under the meticulous scrutiny of Wendell Cook, another editor, a close friend, and a man of undeniable honor. It took us many hours in a largely deserted, hollow-sounding Mem Hall to revise every syllable and then revise again, but around midnight we had produced what we thought was an honest, unbiased account, and someone volunteered to carry the copy to our printer halfway across town in time for the front page to be remade.
Everyone involved pledged secrecy, the story bore no byline, and we all waited to be revealed as faithless traitors of journalism's holiest codes. The next day I wandered around campus full of both anxiety and curiosity and discovered no one suspected anything, not even Art Musgrave, who taught journalism and had worked for two big-city dailies. It was our triumph of romantic virtue over cynicism: we had proven that newspapers and reporters were capable of objectivity, even about themselves. It still can give me a chill to remember how devoted we were that night, scrubbing every word of any hint of our anger about the suspension.
* “but I identify with ’56” – S. K.
The Grassroots Fight to Secure Pay Raises for UMass Faculty
By Dan Hemenway
Dan Hemenway in Collegian offices circa 1959. Image credit: Ed York.
Midway through January 1959, UMass President J. Paul Mather dropped in on the Collegian offices unannounced. He told us that the Board of Trustees had voted to double tuition and sought our support. Present were Robert Prentisss, Editor-in-Chief, me (News Editor) and probably a few others. Some months previous, the Collegian had opposed a rent increase at the married student housing. Many, probably most, of those students were on the GI Bill, and had been involved in the Korean “police action.” Bob and I felt strongly that these people had earned more than a little consideration. The Collegian won: administration rescinded the increase.
In my opinion, Mather thought it wise to head off a much louder student outcry, inasmuch as all students were affected. He explained that UMass faculty pay rated last among land-grant institutions. The tuition was nominal—$25 per semester. Any of us could easily meet the increase in a few days at our summer jobs.
The matter came before the Great and General Court of Massachusetts, specifically, in the form of House Bill 1030. Why? Because all UMass revenues reverted to the legislature where they could be used in whatever way it saw fit. This was pretty unique among land grant institutions in other states.
President Mather also pitched the Student Senate, again winning support. There was no general student opposition to paying the people who taught us a fair…well a less unfair…salary. We mostly came from working class families.
The legislature was glad of the income increase, but not predisposed to ‘waste’ it on scholars and teachers. House Bill 1030 granting the salary increases, failed. The Collegian responded with a call upon UMass students and their families to raise hell. I don’t recall if I wrote the article—maybe —but I did write the bold 36 point headline: BILL 1039 TREATED DIRTY.
While the Student Senate and Collegian where strategizing, I paid a call to the University library. A marvelously helpful reference librarian acquainted me with Statistical Abstract of the United States. From it I was able to compute for Massachusetts the increased earning power of college graduates and the increased income taxes they would pay. It was simple arithmetic. The government made money by supporting its university. I spelled it out in numbers and we ran the piece in the Collegian.
Prentiss took the article to the student senate where it was agreed to send it out as a letter to the editors of every publication in Massachusetts. There were no appropriated funds for that, but the Student Senate had a slush fund arrangement. They had a surprisingly large postage budget. They bought postage, then took it back to the Post Office and cashed-in the stamps. With that cash they ran off my article and sent it to every “news” publication in the state, from weekly shopping bulletins to the Boston Globe and wire services.
Two or three weeks later, Bill Deminoff, who ran the UMass news bureau, showed up at the Collegian, looking for me. His clipping service overwhelmed them with copies of my article. If not every publication in the state ran it, it was close. He offered ma a job as a student writer. In my freshman year, I’d contributed savings to help with a family emergency, so I needed more income. I was already working as a student features writer with the state Cooperative Extension service on campus, and part time at Newell Printing that printed the Collegian, had a small stipend as Collegian librarian and sundry one-off jobs. The News Bureau job meant less struggle and more focus. I leapt at the opportunity.
Meanwhile, other students were snagging stringer gigs with Western Mass. newspapers based in Greenfield, Pittsfield, and Springfield, and Collegian photographer Ed York was supplying graphics to go with the copy. My late friend Marshall Whithead and I would strategize at the Extension, where I had recommended he be hired, and the stringers would get together at an “anti fraternity,” DDS (Dirty Dog Saloon), and decide on the news. We had hybridized paying work with guerilla tactics and public relations. Legislator John Powers, the last holdover from the Boston ward bosses, was adamant that the pay raise fail. The stringers organized a burning of Powers in effigy (twice, I think) and York photographed the event(s) in such a way that a handful of rag-tag kids looked like a mob. And the media paid the organizers!
The legislature responded by postponing action on a new pay raise bill until August, when they figured students would be dispersed. That was a mistake. Some of our amorphous guerilla group enrolled in summer school, communicating with the rest of students, who were in every crack and cranny of the state. Thus they organized a well-publicized march on Boston. And the Boston Globe decided to champion the UMass pay raise issue.
(I was not there. Raddie Bunn, my boss at the Extension press office had sent copies of my work to the US Department of Agriculture in DC. I had been awarded a journalism internship with the Agricultural Research Service.)
The other pertinent event was a conference with my advisor. I had only taken one year of ROTC. Two were required of every male student. I was told I had to complete the requirement in my senior year, or I would not graduate. I chose UMass because I could afford it without scholarships and because it was a university, offering potentially broad exposure to, I sensed, a universe of knowledge and experience far beyond my imagination. I was right in my choice. I had not been a student for a month when a chance letter to the editor diverted me from my expected math major to journalism.
Now I had undergone an immense expansion of my horizons. Part of that was coming to realize that I did not regard war as necessary to a liberal education. I let my thoughts stew a bit and, after a few months, sent my letter of withdrawal from DC. I enrolled on night courses at American University, and set about selecting another school to finish my degree work.
By the time I received a letter from Robert Tucker, one of my UMass creative writing professors, I had been accepted at Boston University as a major in Film. I had landed a student newswriting job with the BU News Bureau that paid my tuition. Prof. Tucker, who was more than just a teacher to me, had been chosen (undoubtedly at his request) to inform me that a band of faculty had approached the Board of Trustees and they rescinded ROTC requirement. I was invited to return. My efforts on behalf of the faculty “had not gone unnoticed.”
I had already made a decision, secure in the conviction that I could earn my room and board in Boston.
Meanwhile the march on Boston coupled with increased news coverage, especially from the Boston Globe, as well as a series of Globe editorials won the pay increase.
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