December 17, 2002 News Releases
Released 12/16/02
USU ENGLISH PROF’S
NEW BOOK CELEBRATES THE SIGNIFICANCE OF “ORDINARY”
WRITING
LOGAN — “Ordinary writing, perhaps more than
memoir or autobiography, shows how we construct ourselves, how
we get through the day,” said Utah State University professor
of English Jennifer Sinor. Her new book, “The Extraordinary
Work of Ordinary Writing: Annie Ray’s Diary” (University
of Iowa Press), develops a critical lens through which to view
such everyday writing.
“Our world is filled with writing that we never really
pay attention to until something remarkable happens,”
said Sinor. For her, something remarkable happened when she
encountered a surviving diary of her great-great-great aunt,
Annie Ray.
Annie Ray homesteaded in the Dakotas in the late 1800s with
her husband Charley, who was largely absent and frequently unfaithful.
Annie used her diary, which Sinor notes is actually a ledger
book, “to contain everything in tight order. She doesn’t
have much control over her situation, so she tries to impose
it rhetorically.”
“Most of what she’d written had been thrown out,
burned,” said Sinor. “Annie’s writing is very
bare-boned, sparse. It took me a while to realize that what
was compelling about it was not the few moments of story, but
all the ordinary moments she’s able to capture. Annie’s
diary shows us how the layers of dailiness look on the page.”
As evidence, Sinor referred to a page of Annie’s diary
that she described as a “hybrid entry.”
“It’s not even certain when things get put on this
page,” said Sinor. “Here’s a list of the terribly
expensive tools they buy for her husband’s blacksmith
business, alongside her personal entries which are consumed
with the weather and baking and washing and things like that.
Neither the financial constraints from the tool purchase nor
the weather are experienced separately by Annie,” said
Sinor. “They work together; they’re interlaced.”
And this, argues Sinor, is what makes ordinary writing extraordinary.
It’s not “hugely shaped,” noted Sinor, in
the way that memoir and autobiography are. “In addition
to those forms,” she said, “we should consider the
bits of writing we have been taught to discard, like Annie’s
diary, as models of life writing. If we dismiss ordinary writing,
we’re missing out on what it’s like to document
dailiness. And that is what’s truly fascinating.”
December 16, 2002
Contact: Jennifer Sinor (435) 797-3304
Writer: Marina Hall (435) 797-3858
SECOND ANNUAL
BOX AWARD FOR CREATIVE WRITING PRESENTED AT READING BY POET
PATTIANN ROGERS
LOGAN — Utah State University American Studies grad student
Brandon Schrand has earned the second annual Jenny and Thad
Box Award for Creative Writing. The announcement was made Dec.
5 at the Department of English Speakers Series reading by poet
Pattiann Rogers.
Schrand’s essay, “Notes from a Drill Rig,”
which explores the significance of water to the West and at
the same time charts Schrand’s evolution from blue-collar
laborer to scholar/writer, earned high praise from Box Award
judges and from Department of English assistant professor and
author Christopher Cokinos.
“The essay makes numerous connections among subjects and
themes of water, work, pride, and loss,” said Cokinos.
“Brandon’s essay is sharp and memorable and full
of questions.” The essay will be published in the spring
issue of Petroglyph magazine.
Following the presentation of the Box Award, poet Pattiann Rogers
addressed the audience and read from her work.
“A lot of people are uncomfortable with poetry,”
Rogers said. “They are either afraid or angry about it.
‘Why don’t you just say what you mean!’ they
say. But you don’t have to intellectualize poetry. It’s
like music; you listen to it, and the sounds are enough. If
you only enjoy the sounds of language like most children do,
that’s enough, because that’s pretty much what poetry
is. It’s playing with language.”
Rogers read several of her poems whose subjects ranged from
the sounds coyotes make, to the sensations of rolling naked
in the morning dew, to the mating dance of a hummingbird. At
the core of all Rogers’ poems is a celebration of life.
For more information on the Jenny and Thad Box Creative Writing
Award or the Department of English Speakers Series, contact
Marina Hall at (435) 797-3858.
December 16, 2002
Contact: Marina Hall (435) 797-3858
Writer: Marina Hall (435) 797-3858
MELISSA BOWLES
EARNS OUTSTANDING PEER ADVISOR AWARD
LOGAN — Melissa Bowles, a peer advisor in the Department
of English for the past three semesters, recently earned the
Outstanding Peer Advisor Award. Strong interpersonal skills,
availability to advisees, and knowledge of institutional regulations,
policies and procedures were all considered by the selection
committee.
In addition to helping advise students with their schedules,
Bowles did extensive research with her supervisor, Jana Kay
Lunstad, in developing an alumni database.
“Thanks to Melissa’s efforts, the Department of
English is now able to provide detailed, specific information
about career options to our undergraduates,” said Lunstad.
Bowles, who plans to attend graduate school and ultimately teach
English on the university level, said the experience has been
invaluable.
“Seeing how an English department functions and learning
more about its students has been very rewarding,” said
Bowles. “The knowledge I’ve gained will help me
as I pursue my academic career.”
Lunstad was not surprised to learn that Melissa won the award.
“Melissa has exceeded my expectations as an employee and
she regularly goes above and beyond the requirements of a peer
advisor,” said Lunstad. “I cannot imagine another
student more deserving of the award.”
For more information, contact Lunstad at (435) 797-3351.
December 16, 2002
Contact: Jana Kay Lunstad (435) 797-3856
Writer: Marina Hall (435) 797-3858
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