General announcements/reminders

1. The exam is in 20 Wheeler (in the basement, lucky us!) on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2 pm.

2. If you haven't picked up your marked-up draft yet, it's in my mailbox in 322 Wheeler, which is open M-F 9am-noon and 1-4pm.

3. Optional exam review is on Friday 9-10 am in 400 Wheeler, where I hold my regular office hours. If you're longing to know what your colleagues would say about a Williams poem, this is the time and the place.

Interested in film?

The San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, which runs every March, has just started a Student Delegate program. Whether or not you're interested in committing to an intense schedule of watching films and meeting directors etc., I highly recommend the festival. They screen films at the PFA here on campus as well as at various locations in the city. It's a good opportunity to see new independent films from the United States and several Asian countries.

Purpose:

The aim of the SFIAAFF Student Delegate Program is to engage students with Asian and Asian American cinema, as well as to cultivate future generations of scholars, artists, administrators and activists who are invested in the field of Asian American Media.

Opportunities:

Students who are chosen to participate in the Student Delegate Program will have the opportunity for plenty of interaction with the 2009 SFIAAFF, including meeting with filmmakers, attending screenings, events and panels, and writing a blog and article for the festival website.

Schedule:

The Student Delegate Program runs March 12-22, 2009, with an Orientation meeting on March 7 and post-festival meeting on March 28.

Applying:

Applicants from all fields are encouraged to apply, from film majors to non-film majors - in fact, the most important qualities that SFIAAFF seeks in its program applicants are a love for film and a desire to share and cultivate that passion, and the the ability to interact with other students and festival guests. Because there are
only 6 spots available, applicants must fully commit to a rigorous program of screenings and discussions.

Deadlines:

The deadline to apply for this program is DECEMBER 31, 2008.

Contact:

For more information on either the program, CAAM, or SFIAAFF, please visit our website at www.asianamericanmedia.org, e-mail Geraldine Ah-Sue at gahsue(at)asianamericanmedia(dot)org or Christine Kwon at christine(at)asianamericanmedia(dot)org.

Choosing an R1B

I thought I'd let you all know that you can find course descriptions for the R1B courses on offer on individual department web sites:

• English


• Rhetoric (descriptions are not yet up)


• Comparative Literature


• Gender and Women's Studies (it looks like there's only one section)


• College Writing

Several other humanities departments also offer R1B (or variants thereof that will fill the R&C requirement), like French, Scandinavian, German, Spanish & Portuguese, and History of Art.


I also wanted to mention that Robin Blaser will be reading for Lunch Poems (in the library) on Nov. 6. He'll also be doing a conversation with Robert Hass on Nov. 5 (Wednesday). Blaser was part of the "Berkeley Renaissance," along with poets like Jack Spicer and Robert Duncan. We'll be reading poems by Robert Duncan soon, as well as poems by Robert Hass! Check it out.

Upcoming poetry events

Tuesday, Oct. 21, 7:30 pm
Moe's Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave, Berkeley

Omnidawn Reading and Book Party

*Maxine Chernoff & Paul Hoover
*Lyn Hejinian
*Hank Lazer
*Tyrone Williams



Regent's Lecturer Norma Cole

Wednesday, October 29th, 5pm Geballe Room, Stephens Hall: Poetry Reading

Thursday, October 30th, 5pm Comparative Literature Library, 4337
Dwinelle Hall: "Instances of Time: Poetry and Performance"

Wednesday, November 5th, 6pm 4337 Comparative Literature Library, Dwinelle Hall: "Why I Am Not a Translator"

UC Press Book Sale

PSA:

The University of California Press is having an online sale right now, lasting until October 31. If you haven't bought your Harryette Mullen yet, you can buy it direct from UC Press for $8.95.

Note that you will have to sign up for their mailing list in order to get the sale code.

They also have lots of other great poetry, including the Lorine Niedecker Collected, and of course, loads of academic monographs.

(Princeton University Press is also having a sale, by the way.)

Register to Vote

My colleague Catherine passes on the following message, which I heartily endorse:

* * *

Make sure you're registered to vote (if you're eligible to do so) for the Presidential Election on November 4. You may register to vote in California if:

- You are a United States citizen
- You are a resident of California
- You are at least 18 years of age (or will be by the date of the next election)
- You are not in prison or on parole for a felony conviction
- You have not been judged by a court to be mentally incompetent

To vote in the Nov. 4 election, your registration form must be postmarked by Oct. 20. You can download a form or request that one be mailed to you at the website of the California Secretary of State: http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_vr.htm . You should also know that any time you move in California you are supposed to re-register to vote.

If you need to register to vote as a resident of another state (perhaps because you're a freshman and don't have residency here yet), doing a Google search for "voter registration" and the state should get you there.

In 2004, only 47% of 18-24 year old citizens voted. (Source:
http://www.civicyouth.org/quick/youth_voting.htm). Let's work to increase that dismally low percentage!

Readings on campus

This is a plug for some readings on campus -- the Holloway Series, run by the English department and co-curated by Lyn Hejinian and Charles Légère; the Lunch Poems (hah!) series, run by the Doe Library and curated by Robert Hass (and held in the cool-looking Morrison Room); the Story Hour (fiction reading) at the Doe Library, curated by Melanie Abrams and Vikram Chandra, and the Ethnic Studies Library's 40th anniversary reading series.

Upcoming readings include:

Sept. 11: Tom Pickard, with graduate poet Hillary Gravendyk
Holloway Series, 6:30 pm, 315 Wheeler

Sept. 18: Michael Chabon
Story Hour, 5-6 pm, Morrison Library (inside the Doe Library)

Sept. 24: Cecile Pineda
6:00 pm, 30 Stephens (Ethnic Studies Library)

Oct. 2: Ilya Kaminsky
Lunch Poems, 12:10, Morrison Library (inside the Doe Library)

Welcome

Welcome to the course blog for English R1A/01, "Poetry and Language." The objects of this blog are as follows:


-To exchange ideas that you may not have had a chance to bring up in class

-To keep you in the habit of articulating your thoughts in writing for others to read.

-To maintain a sense of community in the class


When posting or commenting on this blog, please remember a few things.

First, this blog can be seen (and googled) by anyone, and you may not want "anyone" (i.e. future employers) to read what you wrote for your English class. Respect people's internet anonymity, including your own, by not mentioning surnames, or by using (appropriate) pseudonyms.

Second, reading on a screen is hard on the eyes, so use plenty of white space. The return key is your friend. This may mean writing shorter paragraphs than you would in a paper, or adding white space at a logical place in the middle of a paragraph.

Finally, remember to treat everyone with professional courtesy.