Between the Stars

Young Adult Literature Projects

2009-05-06T12:32:00.000-07:00

On the right, find the wonderful work created by students in HSU's Young Adult Lit course. Comment on the work below!

FESCUE hosts Richard Van Camp

2008-10-14T10:05:00.003-07:00

FESCUE 2008:
Fall English Studies Conference Uniting Educators
presents
Storytelling, Place and Community
OCTOBER 24-25, 2008
Humboldt State University
Featuring Keynote Speaker
Richard Van Camp

"First Nation noir madness this book is.
I love it, and I'm sorta scared of it, too.
Van Camp writes like a dream (or a night terror)."
---Sherman Alexie on Van Camp's The Lesser Blessed

Richard Van Camp is a proud member of the Dogrib (Tlicho) Nation from Fort Smith, Canada. Richard currently teaches Creative Writing with an Aboriginal Focus at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC.
Richard is the author of two children's books with the Cree artist, George Littlechild, A Man Called Raven and What's the Most Beautiful Thing You Know About Horses?; a novel, The Lesser Blessed; and a collection of his finest short stories, Angel Wing Splash Pattern and a baby book titled Welcome Song for Baby: A Lullaby for Newborns, which will be given to every newborn baby in British Columbia in 2008. His new novel, Blessing Wendy, will be out with Orca Books in 2009.

FESCUE 2008 is a conference of creative writing, teaching workshops, research presentations and panel discussions designed to highlight the interdisciplinarity of English Studies.
It is co-sponsored by the Redwood Writing Project, the Redwood Chapter of CATE, and the HSU English Department.

Fall English Studies Conference Uniting Educators 2008

2008-07-14T13:43:00.000-07:00

Call for Proposals

The Redwood Writing Project, The HSU English Department & The Redwood Chapter of CATE
invite local educators to submit presentation proposals for the

FESCUE: Fall English Studies Conference Uniting Educators
Friday & Saturday, October 24-25, 2008
Founders Hall, Humboldt State University
The Fall English Studies Conference aims to increase awareness of the interdisciplinarity of English Studies. This year’s theme, Storytelling, Place & Community , encompasses and questions:

* Teaching about place *
*Teaching about local communities and writing*
* Geographical, cultural, and ecological landscapes *
* Storytelling, poetry and narratives of how we live in our communities*

FESCUE brings together educators, researchers, students, and the community for the purposes of professional development, creative presentations, dialogue, and research dissemination. This two-day Conference is comprised of panel discussions, workshops, creative readings and performances, lectures, and symposia. Proposals are encouraged that engage two common readings: Richard Van Camp's The Lesser Blessed and Octavia Butler's The Parable of the Sower.

Primary Proposal Submission Deadline: Friday, August 15, 2008
Proposals received after this deadline will be considered on a space-available basis
Electronic submissions are preferred.
Proposals should be emailed as MS Word or RTF files to
FESCUE Committee, at fescue@humboldt.edu.

FESCUE 2008 Proposal Guidelines
Proposals will be judged on the following criteria:
• Level of appeal to a broad audience. FESCUE brings together a wide range of people: kindergarten through college teachers, students, researchers, community activists, and more.
• Quality of proposal. Proposals should be well-written and well-conceived.
• Relationship to theme. Proposals that address the Storytelling, Place & Community theme will be preferred over general ones.
There are two options for presenting at FESCUE.
Please clearly indicate which option you prefer.

Option 1 = 75 Minute Session: One or more presenters who have together constructed 75 minutes worth of activities, presentation, lecture, reading/performance, and/or discussion along a central theme, text, or issue.

Option 2 = 10-30 Minute Panel Presentation: An individual who has researched and/or has expertise with a specific topic that she/he would like to share as part of a panel to be organized by the conference team. Original creative nonfiction, short fiction and poetry are welcome. Please indicate a preferred length of time for your presentation.

ALL SESSION PROPOSALS should include the following:
a. Specify option 1 or 2.
b. A [catchy!] title for the session.
c. An abstract of no more than 100 words in length, to be included in the conference program.
d. Full description of 500–750 words, which details the nature and length of the presentation.
e. The full name and affiliation of each presenter, including email and telephone.
f. The body of the proposal should detail the composition of the session, describing, for example, the presentation topics, the workshop activities, etc. It should also include, if appropriate, a list of suggested readings for audience members and course participants.
g. Audio/Visual needs.

2008-05-20T11:27:00.000-07:00

Sea Turtle, Hapuna Bay

2008-05-14T00:27:00.000-07:00

Beginning the New Year

2008-01-21T14:06:00.000-08:00

"...people universally tend to think that happiness is a stroke of luck, something that will maybe descend upon you like fine weather if you're fortunate enough. But that's not how happiness works. Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it, you must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it. If you don't, you will leak away your innate contentment."---Elizabeth Gilbert, "Eat, Pray, Love" (p.260, 2006)

Tarquin, my Daemon the Raccoon

2008-01-21T14:03:00.000-08:00

What it Means to Live Downstream

2007-11-28T16:19:00.000-08:00

My family doesn’t gather
aggregaterockssmoothed
for holidays
madebytidalritual
we don’t see each other smiling
riverweavestheuniverse
over roast turkeys and heavy
alivinggift
boxes wrapped in green foil.

I know no stories
salmonrocksriveroceanwillow
of previous generations
wovenlikebasketsoverandunder
somebody was a farmer
watersinksintosoil
somebody was an aristocrat
waterblessesthebody
there is the Finnish front
waterdefinesboundaries
there a Catholic
waterissanctified
there not.

Without God to tell us
whatitmeanstolivedownstream
what the land is for
beyondtheuseofwater
what women are for
beyondtheuseofman
we hold dominion only
riverweavestheuniverse
over ourselves.

The Republic of Conscience

2007-10-03T17:05:00.000-07:00

I.
When I landed in the republic of conscience
it was so noiseless when the engines stopped
I could hear a curlew high above the runway.

At immigration, the clerk was an old man
who produced a wallet from his homespun coat
and showed me a photograph of his grandfather.

The woman in customs asked me to declare
the words of our traditional cures and charms
to cure dumbness and heal the evil eye.

No porters. No interpreters. No taxi.
You carried your own burden and very soon
your symptoms of creeping privilege disappeared.

II.
Fog is a dreaded omen there but lightning
spells universal good and parents hang
swaddled infants in trees during thunderstorms.

Salt is their precious mineral. And seashells
are held to the ear during births and funerals.
The base of all inks and pigments is seawater.

The sacred symbol is a stylized boat.
The sail is an ear, the mast a sloping pen,
The hull a mouth-shape, the keel an open eye.

At their inauguration, public leaders
must swear to uphold the unwritten law and weep
to atone for their presumption to hold office---

and to affirm their faith that all life sprang
from salt in tears which the sky-god wept
after he dreamt his solitude was endless.

III.
I came back from that frugal republic
with my two arms the one length, the customs woman
having insisted my allowance was myself.

The old man rose and gazed into my face
and said that was official recognition
that I was now a dual citizen.

He therefore desired me when I got home
to consider myself a representative
and to speak on their behalf in my own tongue

Their embassies, he said, were everywhere
but operated independently
and no ambassador would ever be relieved.

---Seamus Heaney

After D.H. Lawrence & Czeslaw Milosz

2007-09-29T00:37:00.000-07:00

(Like Lawrence’s Mystic on Milosz’s Earth)

in the pursuit of the real relentless and sweet like a too-big bite taken
from wineshineskinned red apple clear juice sweating coolly
out the sides and center divot of my lips
beyond and back I slide ride diggety-dive
over and under my thumb holding up that slack-jawed chin grin and

tuck it in hide my surprise
don’t push the envelope
fold it in half
remember the dead
fold it in half again
forget your promises
fold it again
whisper
try folding the thickness one last triangle time
suck in a tooth-shuddering flick of air
between pulsing clenches of jaw

in the pursuit of the unattainable
sullen and bitter like a broken grape seed
against the side of my tongue
bite down on this
and wander in the streets of some city that seems familiar
to someone else

capture a friend

2007-09-06T22:17:00.000-07:00

peering wildly
shaking fiercely
emanating joy
& turning, turning
whole novels written
in her eyes
then turning bitter &
strange rage
whole novels written
in her eyes
somehow without words
we say so much
but still
talk, talk, talk

---Junie-Moon Curtiss

2007-08-21T11:15:00.000-07:00

I write to put the world right---
the landscapes of my dreams
fruits, tender-fleshed
rubied juices
the uneven rubble
of riverrocks under foot

wasps seeking flowers
buds
closed and crenellated like fists

the landscapes of philosophy
languages that disappear shouts that drown
murmurs
words like granite or like
butter on the counter

words that shape the mouth speaking.

Waxwings

2007-07-27T14:22:00.000-07:00

Four Tao philosophers as cedar waxwings
chat on a February berrybush
in sun, and I am one.

Such merriment and such sobriety---
the small wild fruit on the tall stalk---
was this not always my true style?

Above an elegance of snow, beneath
a silk-blue sky a brotherhood of four
birds. Can you mistake us?

To sun, to feast, and to converse
and all together---for this I have abandoned
all my other lives.

---Robert Francis