ASU Events – s [r] blog

Stellar Alumni Series: Bojan Louis and Sara Sams

March 22, 2023March 17, 2023Superstition Review

On Thursday, March 23, at 7:00 PM, the Creative Writing Program at ASU presents a reading by Bojan Louis and Sara Sams.

Bojan Louis is Diné of the Naakai dine’é, born for the Áshííhí. He’s written a variety of poetry and fiction, published in Alaska Quarterly, Ecotone, Colorado Review, and elsewhere. He’s published two books: Sinking Bell: Stories and Currents, which received an American Book Award. To learn more, visit his website.

Sara Sams is a writer and translator from Oak Ridge, Tennessee. She’s written a variety of poetry and nonfiction in Blackbird, Now and Then, Waxwing, and elsewhere. She’s published Atom City, her fist book of poems. To learn more, visit her website.

Read Bojan Louis’s interview in Issue 20 of Superstition Review.

Sara Sams advised on and helped to create Issue 22 of Superstition Review.

This event is free and open to the public! To learn more and register, go here.

TomorrowTalks with Jemele Hill: Uphill

January 23, 2023January 19, 2023Superstition Review

The cover of "Uphill" by Jemele Hill. — *Uphill* (Henry Holt and Co., 2022) | Jemele Hill

Join ASU’s TomorrowTalks with Jemele Hill on Thursday, January 26th, at 6pm AZ time. TomorrowTalks is a student-engagement initiative meant to put students in conversation with authors, who explain how they use their writing to address society’s most pressing issues. It’s led by the Division of Humanities at ASU and hosted by ASU’s Department of English in partnership with Macmillan Publishers.

This event takes place over Zoom and is free, although registration is required. Hill will be discussing her memoir Uphill, published by Henry Holt and Co. One of Oprah Daily’s Best Fall Nonfiction Books of 2022, Uphill is a bold, unflinching look at Hill’s life and her battle to overcome intergenerational trauma. Hill forges a new path with truth and confidence, rising to find her voice and speak to the world.

Jemele Hill’s commitment to truth telling is unparalleled. Whether she is exposing white supremacy or being radically transparent about her own history, Jemele’s resolve remains steadfast. She makes you want to lean in and listen, but more importantly, she encourages us all to use our voices to tell necessary, hard truths.
Gabrielle Union, New York Times bestselling author of We’re Going to Need More Wine and You Got Anything Stronger?

Jemele Hill is currently a contributor for the Atlantic, where she writes about the intersection of culture, politics, race, and sports. She was an Emmy-Award winning cohost of ESPN and was 2018 NABJ Journalist of the Year.

Hill is relentless but fair, and she is equally comfortable parsing out instances of institutional racism and admitting to her own mistakes. She balances humor, vulnerability, and passion, creating a text that is both exciting and emotionally satisfying.
kirkus

To learn more about TomorrowTalks and register for the event, go here.

GSEA Writing Workshop

November 21, 2022November 17, 2022Superstition Review

On Friday, Dec. 2nd, from 10am – 1pm, the Graduate Scholars of English Association will be hosting a writing workshop at Ross-Blakely Hall, room 117. There will be two 45-minute writing sessions (so be sure to bring your laptop) and a Q&A session with faculty members. Free food will be provided.

GSEA is an official student organization; its goal is to promote the “professional development of the English Graduate Student community at Arizona State University.” It regularly hosts writing workshops.

This event can also be joined online. To learn more and register, go here.

An Evening with Rita Dove, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Poet

October 12, 2022October 7, 2022Superstition Review

Currently a professor at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Rita Dove is coming to give a lecture at ASU’s Tempe campus. Called “An Evening with Rita Dove,” this event will be the highlight of ASU’s second annual Humanities Week. This is a series of special events that celebrate how students and faculty are exploring human adventure across culture, time, and space.

Born in 1952, Rita Dove has won the Pulitzer Prize, the Carole Weinstein Poetry Prize, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, and others. She has written extensively; her most notable works include her poetry collections Thomas and Beulah (which won the Pulitzer Prize), Playlist for the Apocalypse, and Collected Poems 1974 – 2004. Although many of her awards relate to her poetry, Dove has also written essays, songs, a play, and a novel.

Dove’s lecture is free and open to the public; it will take place on Tuesday, October 18, at 7:00pm in the Roskind Great Hall. Go here to learn more and register!

TomorrowTalks with Jocelyn Nicole Johnson: My Monticello

October 5, 2022October 19, 2022Superstition Review

Cover of "My Monticello." — *My Monticello* (Henry Holt and Co., 2021) | Jocelyn Nicole Johnson

Join ASU’s TomorrowTalks with Jocelyn Nicole Johnson, October 13th at 7pm AZ time. TomorrowTalks is a student-engagement initiative meant to put students in conversation with authors who explain how they use their writing to address society’s most pressing issues. It’s led by the Division of Humanities at ASU and hosted by ASU’s Department of English in partnership with Macmillan Publishers.

This event takes place over Zoom and is free, although registration is required. Johnson will be discussing her book My Monticello, published by Henry Holt and Company and winner of the Weatherford Award, the Balcones Fiction Prize, and the Lillian Smith Award. Set in the near future, her stories feature Da’Naisha—a Black descendent of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings—a university professor studying his son in secret, and a single mother grasping to purchase her first home. Johnson reckons with America’s past and present in this thrilling debut.

A badass debut by any measure—nimble, knowing, and electrifying.
Colson Whitehead, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Nickel Boys and Harlem Shuffle

Jocelyn Nicole Johnson’s work has appeared in Guernica, The Guardian, Kweli Journal, and elsewhere. To learn more about her, visit her website.

…’My Monticello’ is, quite simply, an extraordinary debut from a gifted writer with an unflinching view of history and what may come of it.
The Washington Post

To learn more about TomorrowTalks and register for the event, go here.

Linguist Paul Baker: Sex Differences on a Forum About Anxiety

September 26, 2022September 22, 2022Superstition Review

Paul Baker discussion flyer. — Dr. Paul Baker Discussing Gender and Anxiety

This Friday at 9:00am AZ time, Dr. Paul Baker will be discussing global trends in anxiety and the intersection between anxiety and gender. The WHO estimates over 200 million people around the globe have anxiety, and women are more likely than men to be diagnosed. Some studies suggest that the way people conceptualize their emotions through language impacts whether they develop anxiety.

Dr. Baker has published over twenty books, conducting research on media, gender, sexuality, language, and more. He is a Professor of English Language at the Department of Linguistics and English Language, Lancaster University.

The linguistics and applied linguistics / TESOL program in the Department of English at ASU presents this free, open, and virtual talk.

Click here to learn more and register for this event!

Submissions Open: Dear Mother Earth

September 21, 2022October 10, 2022Superstition Review

Narrative Storytelling Initiative Submissions: Dear Mother Earth

The Narrative Storytelling Initiative‘s goal is to enhance access and public engagement with narrators and narratives. They are currently looking for messages written to Mother Earth in the future, with a maximum of 100 words. These messages will be included in a special exhibition piece at the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory during the last two weeks of October.

Learn more and submit your message here!

TomorrowTalks with Jonathon Franzen: Crossroads

September 12, 2022October 19, 2022Superstition Review

The cover of "Crossroads" by Jonathon Franzen — Crossroads (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021) | Jonathan Franzen

Crossroads (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021) | Jonathan Franzen

Join ASU’s TomorrowTalks with Jonathan Franzen Wednesday, October 5th at 6pm AZ time. TomorrowTalks is a student-engagement initiative meant to put students in conversation with authors who explain how they use their writing to address society’s most pressing issues. It’s led by the Division of Humanities at ASU and hosted by ASU’s Department of English in partnership with Macmillan Publishers.

This event takes place over Zoom and is free, although registration is required. Franzen will be discussing his book Crossroads, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. His book is set in December of 1971, and it examines a Midwestern family in the midst of a moral crisis. With careful attention to each of the family members, he interweaves their perspectives into a tale of suspense and complexity.

Thank God for Jonathan Franzen . . . With its dazzling style and tireless attention to the machinations of a single family, Crossroads is distinctly Franzen-esque, but it represents a marked evolution . . . It’s an electrifying examination of the irreducible complexities of an ethical life. With his ever-parsing style and his relentless calculation of the fractals of consciousness, Franzen makes a good claim to being the 21st century’s Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Ron Charles, The Washington Post

Jonathan Franzen has written six novels. He has won a variety of awards: the National Book Award, the James Tait Black Memorial Award, the Heartland Prize, and others. Visit his website to read more about him.

To learn more about TomorrowTalks and register for the event, go here.

Virtual Theatre Production of “Antigone at the Border”

November 19, 2020November 18, 2020Superstition Review

ASU’s Master of Liberal Studies Director & Assistant Clinical Professor Angela Giron will be performing the role of Tiresia in the theatrical co-production by Teatro Bravo (Phoenix) and Borderlands Theater (Tucson), Antigone at the Border. Congratulations, Angela!

Tucson’s Borderlands Theater and Teatro Bravo of Phoenix come together for a groundbreaking collaboration of digital theatre-making. Based on interviews with DACA recipients and Latinx Border Patrol agents, Antigone at the Border sheds light on the emotional labor and mental health toll experienced by Latinx border communities affected by US immigration policy as both enforcers and the enforced.

Written by Mark David Pinate

Directed by Ricky Araiza

A Virtual Theatre Event, Friday and Saturday November 20th & 21st, 6:00pm MST. Sunday, November 22nd, 4:00pm MST

Ticket Sliding Scale: $5-$100

Check out the Borderlands Theater website for more information on Teatro Bravo and Antigone at the Border. Click here to purchase tickets.

Humanities Dialogues at Poly: Stop Motion Animation, Juvenile-Lit Censorship, Transnational Feminist Activism

November 15, 2020November 14, 2020Superstition Review

The fall 2020 Humanities Dialogues online at ASU Poly concludes on Nov. 17 at 3 p.m., with presentations and dialogue about the work of Interdisciplinary Humanities and Communication scholars:

Wendy Williams, Assistant Professor of English
“Visual Storytelling: A Closer Look at Stop Motion Animation”

This presentation will consider how visual and multimodal literacies are at work in students’ stop motion animation projects. This research is part of a multi-year study investigating how college students interpret and compose visual narratives such as picturebooks, comics, animation and short films.

Kendall Dawson, MA student in Narrative Studies
“Molded Youth: The Implications of Children’s Literature Censorship”

This presentation will focus on commonly challenged juvenile fiction books and the material deemed ‘inappropriate’ for our youth.

Rafael Martinez Orozco, Assistant Professor of Southwest Borderlands
“Undoing Global Paradigms: and Spiritual Exercise”

In 2006-2007 Elvira Arellano, a single mother, migrant, deportee and asylum fighter, circumvented the law to advocate for human rights. I’ll analyze the ways in which immigrant women like Elvira Arellano use spiritual activism as a component of global immigrant rights movements to produce new feminist discourses that de-center nation states and complicate colonial models that uphold racialized and gendered borders.

The series is coordinated by the College of Integrative Sciences and Arts’ Faculty of Interdisciplinary Humanities and Communication. Contact Professor Ian Moulton at his email, Ian.Moulton@asu.edu, with any questions or concerns. Be sure to check out what the ASU website has to say about the event as well.

Special congratulations to Kendall Dawson for her presentation on literature censorship. Kendall Dawson is the interview editor for Issue 26 of Superstition Review this semester. Check out Kendall’s Twitter and LinkedIn. We are so proud of you, Kendall!