Writers at Work Speaker Series – Spring 2024

Greetings, Writers! Professor Tenaya Darlington has invited three professional writers to speak in her graduate Writers at Work class this spring, and you are welcome to attend. Two of the three writers are alums.

See the details below.

Writers at Work Speaker Series

Learn About Writing Careers on Wednesday Evenings, Online

For a link, please email Professor Tenaya Darlington (tdarling@sju.edu)

Spring 2024 Course Offerings

We have a great lineup for spring 2024!

ENG 641: Rhetorics of Silence and Listening
Online Mondays 6:30 p.m. – 9:15 p.m.
Instructor: Dr. Melissa Goldthwaite
CRN: 11813 – Area II

In Rhetorics of Silence and Listening, we will examine—through reading, writing, discussion, listening, and contemplative practices—the complex rhetorical relationships among silence, speech, and writing. We will focus on the multiple ways people both deliver and receive silence in intentional (and sometimes unintentional) ways and consider the rhetorical and even bodily effects of these silences. We will consider a range of practices involving silence and listening: the potentially destructive practices of silencing oneself or others, the potentially empowering effects of choosing to be silent for a particular purpose, and the calming and potentially healing effects of contemplative silences (including the ways in which such silences can help individuals listen more carefully to themselves, to others, and even to texts). We will seek to understand the potential of rhetorical listening across differences for communication, critical thinking, action, and compassion.


 ENG 620: Special Topics in Literature & Culture (The Essay, In Hard Times)
Online Tuesdays 6:30 p.m. – 9:15 p.m.
Instructor: Dr. Jenny Spinner
CRN: 11811 – Area I

 

 

In this course, we will explore personal essays written about the COVID-19 pandemic and protests against racial injustice that erupted around the U.S. in 2020. While our focus will primarily be American essayists, we will also examine writings by authors outside the U.S., including the work of Murong Xuecun. Additionally, we will dive into the past to read personal essays written during other global health crises, including the bubonic plague epidemic in the 1500s, the 1918 flu pandemic, and the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 1980s. As we will discover, one of the challenges faced by essayists writing in public hard times is how to position their personal experiences amid a public calamity. Writers of color face additional challenges as they navigate the complexities, and pressures, of representational narratives. We will tackle these challenges in our own writing, producing personal writing about (and in) hard times. Course material will include The Best American Essays 2021, Zadie Smith’s Intimations, Jesmyn Ward’s Men We Reaped, and a variety of other essays and podcasts. Assignments will include weekly discussion posts on readings, in-class creative responses to prompts, a historical reference entry and accompanying SlideShare presentation, a personal essay, and a collaborative class interview project on the Class of 2024, the graduating college seniors who missed their high school graduation and spent the first (and sometimes second) years of their college experiences enduring significant covid protocols.


 ENG 681: Writers at Work
Online Wednesdays 6:30 p.m. – 9:15 p.m.
Instructor: Professor Tenaya Darlington
CRN: 11814 – Area III

 

 

This course is designed to set your professional life as a writer in motion. Over the course of 15 weeks, you’ll meet a series of working writers from around Philadelphia who will visit our class. During these visits, you’ll have the opportunity to network with professional writers and learn about possible career paths, from public relations to publishing. Each writer’s visit will tie into a different writing assignment so that you can begin building a portfolio of professional work (likely assignments will include: a press release, a review, a book proposal, an edited manuscript, plus a professional resume and bio.) At the end, you’ll develop an online portfolio that you can use as a calling card.


 ENG 560: Rhetoric Then & Now
Online Thursdays 6:30 p.m. – 9:15 p.m.
Instructor: Dr. Cristina Hanganu-Bresch
CRN: 10592 – Core Class

 

Consideration of the history of rhetoric, from the Sophists to the present day, with particular concern both for the ethical considerations involved in persuasive uses of language and for the stylistic choices in developing written work.


 

On Writing for a Catholic Newspaper

SJU Writing Studies student Kevin Pitts talks with Pete Sanchez.

 

 

 

 

 

Peter “Pete” Sanchez (06’) is a Staff Writer and Social Media Coordinator at The Catholic Star Herald. In 2017 he launched the podcast Talking Catholic, which interviews Catholics leaders in the Diocese of Camden.

Since I’m interested in Catholicism and writing, I decided to talk to Pete about his work:

Kevin: You said you viewed telling other people’s stories as a “calling.” What did you mean?

Pete: I truly believe God has given everyone gifts, and I am thankful that he has given me the gift of being able to share other people’s stories through writing, about how God is working in their lives, be it in their parish, school, home, or community.  It’s a calling that I feel I should use this gift, to not only give God glory, but make known his goodness.  God has blessed me with the ability to write, and I have a responsibility to build up His kingdom here.

Kevin: The Talking Catholic podcast has a segment called “Talking Saints,” which simply tells stories from the lives of Catholic saints. Why do you do this?

Pete: My entire life, it seems, I’ve been inspired by the lives of the saints – Augustine, John Paul II, Teresa of Calcutta, to name a few. Their time here on Earth is a blueprint for how all of us should live out our daily lives. At the beginning of every show, my co-host, Laurie Power and I start off with a quote from Pope Francis: “To be a Saint is not a privilege for the few, but a vocation for everyone.”  We began this monthly program not just to show saints’ holiness, but their humanity and struggles; none of them were perfect.  God’s love and grace, however, transformed these men and women into models we can follow. They demonstrate that sainthood is possible for all of us.

Kevin: The Herald‘s intended audience is Catholics in the Diocese of Camden, which includes priests and laypeople of various ethnicities and levels of involvement. Writing for such a range of people, does your audience ever surprise you?

Pete: Honestly, I’m always surprised when I hear from my editor that one of my stories was picked up and shared by a national Catholic publication. It doesn’t happen often. On most days, I view my audience as the Catholic Community of South Jersey.  When I hear that one of my stories was read by someone in another state, it’s surprising and humbling. When it happens, it just reinforces the responsibility I have in my profession, as a Catholic who happens to be a journalist, to tell the truth.

Kevin: Is there a patron saint of newspapers for the Herald? Or have you chosen your own patron saint of newspapers, or writing in general?

Pete: In my office, I have artwork of Saint Francis de Sales, patron saint of writers and the Catholic press. In the 16th and 17th centuries, as a priest in Geneva, Switzerland, he would share the faith by writing it down and slipping it under people’s doors. I’m trying to do the same; get the Gospel message out to as many as possible.


You can find Pete’s work at the links below:

Home

Talking Saints

 

Info Letter from Director Tenaya Darlington

Spring registration, The Avenue, future course suggestions and more!

 

Dear Writers,

We’re approaching registration, and I’d like to share a little information to help you choose your spring classes. As you can see, we’re offering two of our regular Writing Studies offerings, along with a special course on Crime & Media. If you’re interested in this course, please register for it ASAP on Nov. 4. This is an extremely popular Communications class, taught by the incredible blogger and podcaster Mike Lyons, who has helped several of our former grad students break into writing/producing for radio. I have negotiated 5 spots in this course for Writing Studies students. If you have questions about it, please email Mike (jlyons@sju.edu) or me.

Call for Avenue Board Members

Interested in serving as editor or a board member for Avenue, our literary journal? This annual publication comes out each spring and is funded by Writing Studies. Each year, a new board creates its look, chooses submissions, handles the editing process, and oversees printing. If you’d like to gain experience being part of a publication, please email me (tenayadarlington@gmail.com) by November 15, 2019.

Got News?

We post job openings, updates, and info about writing events on our Facebook page and on Twitter. If you’ve got something you’d like us to share, please let us know. And consider following us so you can connect with others!

Future Classes

We love your input, so if there are courses you hope to see on the books in Summer 2020 or in 2021, please let us know!

Best wishes and happy writing,

Tenaya