Congratulations English grads 2017

It was a lovely spring day for the 2017 B.A. convocation on Friday, May 19th. Congratulations to our newest English alumni.

We managed to gather almost all of the English grads for this photo, along with attending faculty. From left to right, Dr. Reina Green, Dr. Karen Macfarlane. Back row: David Wilson, Luke Hammond, Kevin Smith, Andrew Potter, Ryan Terry, Dr. Anna Smol. Front, left to right: Cassadie Day, Sarah Vallis, Allyson Roussy, Gavin Rollins, Dr. Diane Piccitto, Dr. Susan Drain.

Bachelor of Arts (Honours)

Allyson K. Roussy (with first-class honours)

Sarah K. Vallis (with first-class honours)

Bachelor of Arts (Major)

Duaa Chamsi Basha

Cassadie F. Day

Luke P. Hammond

Michael Luciano

Andrew Potter

Gavin L. Rollins

Ryan K. Terry

Bachelor of Arts (Combined Major)

Kevin Smith (English and History)

Congratulations also to Professor David Wilson, who received the MSVU Part-Time Teaching Award and to Dr. Susan Drain, who was awarded the rank of Professor Emerita.

Graduates, please keep in touch! If you haven’t already, please join the English Society Facebook group or follow us on Twitter or Instagram to keep up with our activities. Or subscribe for email notifications from this blog (scroll down on this page to find the subscription form). However you do it, let us know where your future adventures take you!

Watch this blog for more convocation pictures in the days ahead.

Places to Write: Lucky Penny

There are still a few more days in the term to finish off those essays! Here is the last in the series on Places to Write by our media assistant, Kyle Cross.

Places to Write: Time Travel in Lucky Penny Coffee Co.
by Kyle Cross

Located at 6440 Quinpool Road, Lucky Penny Coffee Co. is a small coffee shop with an immensely atmospheric quality that you won’t find anywhere else in Halifax. Everything about this café radiates ‘history’; everything sends you back to the past without ever leaving the present. It is, in many ways, like a brand new antique.

The dessert plates and saucers recall a bygone era. In fact, as one staff member tells me, every dish is vintage. Even the pennies sitting in a pool of water with real (yes, REAL) flowers take you back in time; they are, like the saucer pictured above, out of circulation and thus a thing of the past.

The stained mahogany tables and the antique dishes make me feel like I’m at Le Dôme Café or La Rotonde in Montparnasse, two historic literary cafés that were frequented by such writers as Gertrude Stein and Ernest Hemingway. Lucky Penny’s thick, wooden antique tables, along with its vintage mahogany decorum, give the café this Modernist salon-like atmosphere. The crowd at Lucky Penny also tends to consist of students of the Arts, as a staff member tells me, and, as I glance at others around me, I see a woman reading a novel by Atwood, another reading a book of poetry, and a man reading Kafka. I get the feeling that I’m in Paris, but I am, of course, sitting in a café on Quinpool Road. Needless to say, it is a great place to read, write, create stories, eat scrumptious desserts, and drink fine coffee.

Instead of cheap over-priced drinks, Lucky Penny serves heavenly coffee. Do try Lucky Penny’s Black Honey brew, a medium blend roasted locally in Berwick, Nova Scotia. The coffee is a blend of the global and the local. Its beans are grown in Costa Rica and roasted in Berwick. Lucky Penny might be described as an establishment of glocalization, what with the locally roasted yet foreign coffee beans and the vintage 20th-century, European-style decor.

Lucky Penny is very much a fusion of the past and the present. The banner for Queen Elizabeth High School, which was shut down in 2007, also creeps up on and invades the present. Like the pennies, the Queen Elizabeth banner is a thing from the past, although it does sport the name of the current reigning queen.

The interpenetration of past and present, along with the interplay of global and local culture, makes Lucky Penny a great place for creative intellectuals to let their imaginations run free.

(Please note that Kyle has no personal or professional affiliations with the places he writes about).

Places to Write: Lion & Bright

It’s essay-writing season!  If you’re looking for Places to Write off campus, our media assistant Kyle Cross has some suggestions for you. Today we have the second installment in the series, this one about Kyle’s visit to Lion & Bright. (We note again that Kyle has no affiliation with the places he’s writing about).

Places to Write: The Locality of Lion & Bright
by Kyle Cross

Located in the re-developed community of Halifax’s North End on Agricola Street, Lion & Bright is a spacious café and wine bar that serves both locally-roasted coffee and local food. I feel that the owners are too humble when they characterize their establishment as a café / wine bar; it is also a restaurant, a local grocery, an arts space, and a proper bar – a place where you can buy fresh produce, delicious coffee, a work of art, or a Screwdriver (a vodka orange, that is).

Because it’s so spacious, this café / bar/ restaurant has plenty of seating. You can claim a place on the long wooden bench, on a stool at the bar, or in a comfy leather chair on the perimeter of the room. Wherever you choose, you’ll have more than enough space to read, write, study, as well as eat and drink.

Need some coffee to fuel your writing? Lion & Bright serves North Mountain Coffee, which is roasted locally in Berwick, N.S.  Pictured below are Lion & Bright’s London Fog and North Mountain Peruvian Blend, an electrifying medium roast that will surely awaken your third eye. Looking for a unique caffeinated beverage to indulge in?  Try their Red Wine Hot Chocolate or Red Velvet Mocha, which I highly recommend! (Imagine an espresso infused with red velvet cake).

And if you’re craving some protein while you’re working away on that end-of-term paper, you can take advantage of Lion & Bright’s kitchen and order one of their pulled-pork quesadillas; it’s to die for. Or if you want to shake off your nerves after studying for that accumulative exam you can head to the bar and order a Blueberry G, made with Tito’s Handmade Vodka, house-made blueberry juice, natural cane sugar, and carbonated club soda. Lion & Bright also has on tap various locally-brewed beer, and both local and imported wines are available.

The brick wall, elongated beams, fog lights, and exposed vents make Lion & Bright seem like an abandoned distillery or warehouse. In fact, its interior is inspired by European café culture, as one staff member tells me, where many cafés are situated in historic buildings that were once textile or flour mills, or other production plants and factories.

This place howls with creative energy. It also serves as an art gallery and hosts various events such as art exhibits, poetry readings, and musical and theatrical performances by local up-and-coming artists.

It goes without saying that Lion & Bright is a university student’s paradise, given that here you can seque from study time to social time. Glancing at others around me, I see groups of students and young professionals alike discussing their ideas with each other, drinking their beer while they either agree or disagree with the theories of their peers. If Karl Marx and Engels were alive today and living in Halifax, they would be at Lion & Bright arguing about and debating the specifics of The Communist Manifesto, trying to figure out how to unite the workers and intellectuals of the world, all while enjoying their locally-grown grub.

You should experience the unique atmosphere of Lion & Bright, whether it’s to do school work, go out for dinner, or have a couple of drinks. You can even buy your groceries at the Local Source Market, which is attached to the café and belongs to the same owner. For information on Lion & Bright, visit their website: http://www.lionandbright.com/

 

Our students shine at the Atlantic Undergraduate English Conference

Mount students at the AAUEC 2017

Each year, an English Department faculty committee selects among the best of our students’ work in literature and creative writing for presentation at the Annual Atlantic Undergraduate English Conference (AAUEC). This year’s conference was held at the University of PEI last weekend, March 3-5, when faculty and students from around the Atlantic region gathered to listen to and discuss various topics.

The following students were selected for the 2017 conference:

• Katie O’Brien, “The Maternal Abject and ‘Passive Suffering’ as the Real Horror in Rosemary’s Baby”
• Kevin Smith, “A Picture Like a Poem: William Hogarth’s The Harlot’s Progress”
• Hope Tohme, “The Utter Unpredictability of Words: An Analysis of Translation and Transposition as it Pertains to Mary Stuart’s Casket Sonnets”
• Sarah Vallis, “Polite Deference: Queen Elizabeth I’s tempering with gendered bodies and power”
• Karlee Bustelli, “Flight”
• Tuqqaasi Nuqingaq, “The Way the Earth Feels”

Congratulations to all of the English students who did such a great job of representing our department!

 

New Course Descriptions 2017-18

The new English and Writing course descriptions for 2017-2018 are now available! Our course booklet launch is on right now until 2 p.m. today.  Come to the fifth floor of Seton in the English Corner and grab a coffee and a booklet. Faculty advisors are standing by to help.

You can also find the course descriptions on our English Department website — click on “Course Guide 2017-18.”  Unfortunately, the website doesn’t come with snacks.

Poetry Reading: Brian Bartlett

Poetry Reading / Q&A:  Poetry & Process

Brian Bartlett

MacDonald Room Reading Series 2017

All welcome. Open to the public. Free

Brian Bartlett has published 7 collections of poetry, including The Watchmaker’s Table and The Afterlife of Trees, as well as a book of prose, Ringing Here & There: A Natural Calendar; he has twice won The Malahat Review Long Poem prize. He is currently editing the collected poems of Alden Nowlan with 3 new books forthcoming, including a second book of nature writing (from Gaspereau Press).

“reflective precision” . . . “a passionate worldview & joy in language”
(Canadian Literature; Arc)

Monday March 6
7:30 p.m.
Mount Saint Vincent University Library
EMF Centre, Main Floor
166 Bedford Highway

Campus map

poster [pdf]

Twelfth Night Dramatic Reading

Twelfth Night

A Dramatic Reading

Wednesday March 1, 2017
4:30 p.m.
Seton 404

All are welcome. Volunteer to read a part or just listen to the comedy.

Refreshments will be served.

 

Hands-on Research by English Honours Students

Our English Honours students have a rare opportunity to spend a year researching and writing in the manner of professional literary critics and theorists. Under the supervision of a professor, they select a topic, develop it through research, and write a substantial scholarly work. Last week, our current Honours students presented their research to the department in our annual Honours Colloquium.

Meet our 2016-17 Honours students:

Kyle Cross

My thesis explores John Gardner’s novel Grendel, which is an adaptation of Beowulf told from the monster’s perspective.  In my project, I employ postcolonial theory — mainly the theories of Edward Said and Homi K. Bhabha — to explore the ways in which Gardner portrays the relationship between the monster and the Danes.

Allyson Roussy

With a focus on children’s literature, I am examining how structures of surveillance, specifically the panoptical structure, are used for the social conditioning and social control of children. I will be working with Mary Martha Sherwood’s The Fairchild Family, Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons, Elizabeth George Speare’s The Witch of Blackbird Pond, and Madeline L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time.

Alexandra Rudderham

My thesis focuses exclusively on novels and short stories by Thomas King. A self-described “contemporary Native writer,” King blends written narratives with oral traditions. I am interested in his specific brand of interfusional storytelling: King creates an intentionally liminal space and deconstructs assumptions about the way stories are told and perceived. The novel Green Grass, Running Water, short stories “One Good Story, That One” and “Coyote Goes West” are a few of the texts I use to explore King’s methods of replicating the spoken voice through written narrative. In my research, I am considering authority and a possible capital-T “Truth” in storytelling.

*****

If you’re a Mount English student and think you might be interested in an Honours degree, speak to your faculty advisor or the Department Chair. You can find some information about our Honours program on our Course Guide webpage.

Halifax Poet Laureate Rebecca Thomas at the Mount

Halifax Poet Laureate
Rebecca Thomas

Public Performance

photo credit Javian Trotman

Wednesday, February 8, 2017, noon
MSVU Faculty Lounge Seton 404-405

Hosted by the Departments of English, History, Sociology and Anthropology, Women’s Studies,  and the Cultural Studies programme

Everyone welcome!

Places to Write: Cabin Coffee

Essay-writing season is here, and if you’re looking for a place to write with just the right ambiance, our media assistant Kyle Cross has some suggestions for you. This is the first in Kyle’s series “Places to Write” in which he reviews local cafés. (We note that Kyle has no family or financial connections with the cafés he will be reviewing). If you’d like to suggest your own favorite places to write, let us know in the comments.

******

Places to Write: Cabin Coffee
by Kyle Cross

Just as the cafe’s logo suggests, Cabin Coffee makes you feel like you’re situated in a log cottage outside of civilization, completely removed from society, surrounded by powdery snow in the middle of January. However, it is, in fact, located in the heart of downtown Halifax at 1554 Hollis Street, across from Salter’s Gate Apartments. In many ways, it is an embodiment of the fusion of rustic and urban lifestyles, an embodiment that speaks to the city of Halifax itself: not so metropolitan as Toronto, not so rural as Summerville.

In my introductory blog in this series, I suggest that readers and writers alike might want a warm and humble nook in which to write – somewhere they feel at home, without all the distractions, of course. Well, if you’re looking to get away from people and feel like you’re on the outskirts of town without leaving town, plant yourself in one of Cabin Coffee’s comfy, brown leather chairs; they will envelop you in love while you read, write, and drink copious amounts of coffee. As you can see, the log-constructed back wall shuts out the bustling downtown core, allowing you to focus intently on the work that sits in front of you, possibly taunting you saying, “You won’t have finished me by the time you leave this cabin.” If you take advantage of the stained wood to help block out the world, though, you will, indeed, tackle that work like a Japanese sumo wrestler.

My vegan and vegetarian friends, rejoice! The ‘moose’ on the sidewall of the Cabin is, in fact, fake; it is merely a decoration that adds to the whole rustic-like atmosphere of the cafe. This place gets cozier and cozier with every picture: a fireplace in the downtown core! Although the fireplace, too, is not real, as you focus on that seemingly overwhelming assignment, you will feel the imaginary fire sparking your ever-so-creative imagination – that is, if the coffee doesn’t do it for you. The fireplace will relax you as you write, and write, and write; it will settle your nerves while the coffee sets your mind ablaze.

Yes, that is a classic Coleman lantern pictured above. Like the fireplace, the lantern can be seen as another motif for the crackling imagination. What’s more, it adds to the feeling that you are sitting in not so much a downtown coffee shop as a cottage in, say, Summerville, Nova Scotia. Let the lantern guide you from the gauzy, wooded narrow path into the vast open field of your written work. You needn’t worry: the coffee will help you get to your destination.

Although these red and green balloon animals seem festive enough to be in a National Lampoon movie, they do not merely ring in the holidays; they are representative of Cabin Coffee’s new beverage, their Picante Mocha, which is on for a limited time only. If this doesn’t fire up your imagination, you must be Jack Frost. And I must say that I was skeptical at first, but once I sipped the mocha a few times, I was hooked. The slight spice accentuated the chocolaty mocha quite nicely. If you plan on visiting Cabin Coffee, though, you must try their Costa Rican blend; it is a toasty medium roast that will inevitably set fire to your creative superpowers.

I highly recommend going to Cabin Coffee, whether it’s to write, read, study, or just sit and chat with your friends next to the fireplace. Opening hours are 6:30 am to 6:00 pm Monday to Friday; 7:30 am to 5:00 pm on Saturday; and 8:30 am to 5:00 pm on Sunday. Go experience being nestled in a cozy cottage in the middle of downtown Halifax.