Published: October 30, 2009 08:04 pm      

EKU English, theatre departments busy with book publications

For Eastern Kentucky University’s Department of English and Theatre, it has been a busy, perhaps unprecedented, year for academic research and creative works.

During the past year, faculty in the department have produced 14 books, five chapters in books, 17 refereed journal articles, 24 refereed creative works, two published refereed proceedings, 17 non-refereed journal articles, 30 presentations at professional meetings and workshops, and 22 performances, exhibits and productions.

“This remarkable period of success is from a faculty who teach four classes a term and perform a great deal of service,” said Dr. James Keller, chair of the department. “The books that have been released this year are indicative of the broad scope of faculty endeavors, encompassing traditional literary scholarship, history, creative writing and editing. When one includes the multiple scholarly articles, poems and short stories that were also released over the past year, the full scope of the Department’s productiveness becomes apparent.

“The Department of English and Theatre at EKU is populated by an exceptional group of scholar/teachers … and I look forward to another year of teaching and research excellence as well as even more publications.”

The second novel by Derek Nikitas, “The Long Division,” is slated for release this fall, fresh on the heels of “Pyres,” which earned critical raves nationwide upon its release late last year and the screenplay of which is in production as a major motion picture. “Pyres” was recently released in Japanese and is forthcoming in German and French. Nikitas teaches in the University’s brief-residency MFA program in creative writing.

In “Conjoined Twins in Black and White: The Lives of Millie-Christine McCoy and Daisy and Violet Hilton,” Linda Frost, who also heads EKU’s Honors Program, examines the social and literary significance of historic texts describing the lives of two sets of conjoined twins.

Leading the publication list with four books in the past year is Keven McQueen, whose latest book is a collection of outlandish tales from the Hoosier State. McQueen’s books also include “Forgotten Tales of Kentucky,” a fascinating collection of bizarre Bluegrass history.

In a more modern academic vein, “Transcending the New Woman: Multiethnic Narratives in the Progressive Era,” authored by Charlotte Rich, focuses on the shift of Victorian attitudes toward women as domestics to a new era of social, political and economic autonomy at the turn of the 20th century.

Other books include “Cruelly Murdered” and “Kentucky Book of the Dead” by McQueen; “Journey’s Home: An Anthology of Contemporary African Diasporic Experience” edited by Salome Nnoromele and Lisa Day-Lindsey; “The Deep End of South Park: Critical Essays on TV’s Shocking Cartoon Series,” edited by Keller and Leslie Stratyner; “Road to Pleasant Hill,” “48 Hours” and “The Lost Dispatch” by Mason Smith and Marie Mitchell; “Backing into Mountains” by Dorothy Sutton, and “Looking Westward: Poetry, Landscape and Politics in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” by Ordelle Hill.

EKU’s Department of English and Theatre has 47 full-time and more than 60 part-time faculty members.