To which I would add the nonfiction of Kundera, Testaments Betrayed and The Art of the Novel.

Wonderful question, wonderful answers–I’ll just toss in four more: Borges, Seven Nights, Calvino, Six Memos for the Next Millennium, and in case anyone out there still considers poetry part of what we mean by “literary” (many non-litterateur friends of mine do, but I’m drawn to poetry-lovers), Muriel Rukeyser’s The Life of Poetry and Glyn M…[Read more]

I love Artful!

Such a pleasure to share tastes; I’d be delighted if you submitted to readingsjournal.net

Dear Steve,

thank you very much! All your suggestions are either books I like, or (incl. the beguilingly entitled work of your own) books that I probably will like. You are very warmly invited to join the journal I’m launching  as an author and/or reviewer.:)

Call for Papers and Reviewers

Best,

Alexandra

If you do recommend Azar Nafisi’s “Reading Lolita in Tehran,” I would also strongly recommend that you suggest that they read Fatemeh Keshavarz’s trenchant critique of it, “Jasmine and Stars: Reading More Than Lolita in Tehran.” Nafisi’s book is full of problems and, as Keshavarz argues, it–like Khaled Hosseini’s “Kite Runner” and many other…[Read more]

Reading Lolita in Tehran never grabbed me, but it sure resonated with a broad public and has been translated into many languages. Ali Smith’s Artful is a strange amalgam, in which a well-done, ghoulish narrative of grief drives some otherwise not terribly interesting literary remarks, but the novelty of the form deserves a look. Then there are…[Read more]

Hi Alexandra,

Books such as Francine Prose’s Reading Like a Writer come to mind, as do Jane Smiley’s 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel and Charles Dickens: A Life. In general it looks like literary biographies and collections of author letters are most likely to be read for pleasure. A good example is Phyllis Rose’s Parallel Lives: Five Victorian…[Read more]

Hi Alexandra,

Books such as Francine Prose’s Reading Like a Writer come to mind, as do Jane Smiley’s 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel and Charles Dickens: A Life. In general it looks like literary biographies and collections of author letters are most likely to be read for pleasure. A good example is Phyllis Rose’s Parallel Lives: Five Victorian…[Read more]

Dear Sanjeev,
Thank you for your interest in our program. I will reply to you directly via e-mail. Please be aware that this forum distributes messages to all members of the forum/group.
Yours sincerely,
Jessica Winston

Dear Stacey, Linda, and Doug,

Thank you for these responses, and Doug Hesse is right that ISU’s program has its origins in the Doctor of Arts (D.A.) degree. We transitioned from the D.A. to the Ph.D. in 2009, which is more recent than Illinois State, although Illinois State and Middle Tennessee were important precedents for us as we made our…[Read more]

Thanks for posting this,  Jessica.  When I saw “ISU,” I initially thought it was a different one, Illinois State University, where I taught many years, some of them as director of graduate studies in English.  ILSTU’s PhD in English Studies long had a similar integrative program focusing on teaching, and it had a placement rate in TT positions am…[Read more]

Jessica,

Thank you!  When I took part in an MLA forum on the MA as  a terminal degree, we discussed the need for faculty at the two year college to be trained in pedagogy, to be acquainted with the scholarship on the teaching of writing, and to be prepared to do research on the teaching of writing.  Your program seems ideal.

Thanks for sharing, Jessica. I’d love to see your placement data: I haven’t seen any PhDs in this field in our searches yet. How is it going?