CHICAGO, IL. (February, 2009) – This February 11-14, Chicago played host to one of the largest literary conferences in the country, the four-day extravaganza known as AWP (Association of Writers and Writing Programs). The conference, which was held at the Hilton Hotel on Michigan Avenue, drew record numbers of almost 8,500 attendees, causing the sprawling campus of Columbia to teem with students, publishers, authors and editors.
Each annual conference is held in a different region of North America in order to celebrate the outstanding authors, teachers, writing programs, literary centers, and small press publishers of that area. AWP typically features 300 presentations, consisting of: readings, lectures, panel discussions, and forums, as well as hundreds of book signings, receptions, dances and informal gatherings.
This year Columbia enjoyed the spotlight as the Creative Writing – Poetry and Nonfiction programs of the English Department, and Fiction Writing and Story Week garnered top billing as sponsors for the convention. The departments made full use of their hometown advantage, organizing readings and events around campus and the city. Faculty and students from each department played a role in participating and promoting, helping to expand the reach of their work from galleries in the South Loop to neighborhood bars on the North side.
Court Green, a poetry journal published annually by English Department, in collaboration with the publisher Fence Books and their literary magazine Fence, hosted a book release and poetry reading, featuring readings by a selection of authors including Albert Goldbarth, Julie Carr, Elizabeth Robinson, James Shea, Brian Young and Rodrigo Toscano.
On Friday afternoon, Columbia’s new literary journal, Hotel Amerika, celebrated its move to Chicago and the college’s English Department with a reading moderated by Creative Non-Fiction’s David Lazar. Kelly Cherry, Ray Gonzalez, Cynthia Hogue, Ander Monson and Diane Wakoski shared their work. Hotel Amerika was created in 2002 at Ohio University to offer a provocative and eclectic mix of work in known and unknown genres by acclaimed and emerging writers.
With long days made up of an endless array of panels, readings and traversing the mammoth Book Fair, AWP reached a crescendo on Friday night in the International Ballroom at the Hilton. The Fiction Writing department organized a special performance of its legendary Story Week venue Literary Rock ‘n Roll. The event, which was produced by Metro, featured an all-star cast of readers, beginning with ZZ Packer, author of the award-winning short story collection Drinking Coffee Elsewhere and Fiction Department faculty and local Chicago author of Hairstyles of the Damned, Joe Meno. The finale boasted an explosive reading by the incomparable Dorothy Allison, author of Bastard Out of Carolina and a crowd stirring performance by the Chicago-based, thirty-piece punk circus marching band Mucca Pazza.
By Saturday, the festivities began to wind down as conference-goers dragged heavy tote bags full of literary journals from the Book Fair and made the final rounds of scheduled events. In the end, innumerable books were signed, connections were made and it became abundantly clear that Chicago and Columbia certainly know how to host a literary convention. To prove the point, AWP will be back in The Windy City for a repeat in 2012.
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CHCAGO, IL – Robert B. Koverman has been named Associate Vice President of Safety and Security at Columbia College Chicago. This newly created position is designed to enhance the college’s security and emergency preparedness efforts.
“With the phenomenal growth of the Columbia footprint in Chicago’s South Loop and the increasing need for continuous improvement necessary to meet the demands of an urban environment, it was time to beef up our safety and security program with the leadership of a seasoned strategist,” says Alicia Berg, vice president for Campus Environment.
Koverman has a master’s degree in criminal justice from Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio and joins Columbia with an extensive background in security system technology, emergency preparedness initiatives and response, physical security improvements, and operations management. He is a former Police Chief with the cities of Bryan and Englewood, Ohio and Executive Director of Protective Services for the Art Institute of Chicago (which includes the School of the Art Institute of Chicago). Koverman has managed vulnerability assessments for government, corporate, educational and not-for-profit entities and has directed protection details for visiting foreign dignitaries. He is the recipient of the Smithsonian Institution’s 2002 Robert Burke Award for Excellence in Cultural Property Protection.
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CHICAGO, IL (February 13, 2009) – Columbia College Chicago Provost and Senior Vice President Steven Kapelke has announced this year’s appointments for Distinguished College Scholar, Artist, and Teacher. Each of these Columbia faculty members has amassed an extraordinary body of work and has demonstrated the potential to continue to produce innovative and important work during their fellowships.
Distinguished College Teacher
The Television Department’s Dr. Beau Beaudoin, was recently named the 2008 Illinois Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. A leader in the field of pedagogy and best teaching practices, Dr. Beaudoin has presented numerous papers and facilitated workshops on Media Literacy, Analysis and Multicultural Learning at national conferences. Dr. Beaudoin was also responsible for the development of the Columbia’s Culture, Race and Media course in which students learn to examine their ethical responsibilities in media and communications. This course now enrolls more that 30 sections each semester, a testament to its popularity and success. Dr. Beaudoin has also introduced a number of workshops at the college on learning theory, classroom methods and pedagogy. As Dr. Beaudoin’s Chair, Michael Niederman notes, “Beau personifies the criteria [of Distinguished College Teacher].”
Distinguished College Artist
Fiction Writing’s Joe Meno has published six critically acclaimed books, the most recent of which is the collection Demons in the Spring (Akashic). He is at work on his seventh book, The Great Perhaps. Meno is the recipient of the Nelson Algren Award and the Midland Authors Award for Fiction and three awards from the Illinois Arts Council. His novel The Boy Detective Fails, was a Kirkus and Chicago Tribune Best Book. Meno has also published many short stories and his work has appeared in such prestigious journals such as Tri-Quarterly and Mid-America Review. Meno is also the author of eight plays that have been produced in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. A diverse and prolific writer, Meno was called “The hardest-working writer I know,” by Fiction Writng Department Chair Randy Albers. Visit www.joemeno.com to learn more.
Distinguished College Scholar
The English department’s Dr. Tony Trigilio continues to excel as both a scholar and a poet, having recently been awarded a 2009 Artists Fellowship in Poetry from The Illinois Arts Council. His recent book Allen Ginsberg’s Buddhist Poetics has been hailed as a significant contribution to the body of criticism of Ginsberg. Dr. Trigilio is also the author of Strange Prophesies Anew: Rereading Apocalypse in Blake, H.D and Ginsberg and is recognized as one of the nation’s foremost scholars on Beat literature, a title he solidified by organizing the Beat Generation Symposium at Columbia in the fall of 2008. Dr. Trigilio was the co-editor of the anthology Visions and Divisions: American Immigration Literature, 1870 – 1930 (Rutgers University Press, 2008). Dr. Trigilio is currently at work on two new projects: one on Diane DiPrima’s spiritual poetics and an edited volume of surviving fragments of the poems of Beat writer Elise Cowen which, as English department Chair Ken Daley says “…would deepen our understanding of the often underappreciated contributions of women artists in the mid-twentieth century of avant-garde.” Dr. Trigilio serves as the director of the creative writing-poetry program at Columbia.
Beaudoin, Meno and Trigilio will serve in their awarded positions for the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 academic years. The two-year appointments are intended to help them make their scholarly inquiry or creative process and work-in-progress visible across departments and disciplines, helping to engage colleagues and students throughout the campus.
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