Kavadlo, whose book was published in January 2004, said, "It's gratifying yet scary to see the actual book in print-- strangers somewhere will read the words without me!" His book, Don DeLillo: Balance at the Edge of Belief, is a contribution to Don DeLillo's increasing recognition, readership, and scholarship. Kavadlo said his book seeks to stimulate discussion about DeLillo's work, American literature and the roles of theory and humanism in contemporary discussion and teaching of literature.

David Cowert, author of Don DeLillo: The Physics of Language, praised Kavadlo's book saying, "Thinking such as Kavadlo's accurately gauges the theoretical dimensions of DeLillo's work at the same time that it registers and does justice to that work's extraordinary range of sympathy and humanity." Although Kavadlo started work on his study before coming to WSU, the book has characteristics that are appropriate for at least three courses in the English Department's new curriculum: Literary Studies, Modernism, and Postmodernism. Kavadlo is in the research stages for another book, "likely to be about literary treatments of Brooklyn, New York (where I grew up)," he said.

Hayes's book, Rhetorical Subversion in Early English Drama, looks at the recurrences of a stock character called the Vice figure in early English drama. Hayes aims to show how the Vice character uses language to fool and corrupt others in the plays and to entertain audiences, even when those audiences are supposed to dismiss Vice figures as evil. Alexandra F. Johnston, director of the Records of Early English Drama, says of Hayes's book: "This brief but dense work is an important contribution to the study of the English moral play long considered… to be a seminal influence on later English theatre."

Hayes studies not only the medieval morality plays and 16th century interludes, but also the works of later well-known writers such as Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare. Rhetorical Subversion in Early English Drama has a February 2004 publish date.

Johnson, also the Director of the WSU University Studies Program, is co-editor of Teaching/Writing in the Late Age of Print, which collects 29 essays on teaching writing across the United States, and includes an essay co-written by WSU English faculty Gary Eddy and Jane Carducci. Johnson said, "Bringing the book to fruition was no simple task, in part because of the scope and the collaborative nature of the project." The collection aims to celebrate the work of the current generation's writing teachers and students at a variety of post-secondary institutions. An essay of Johnson's written for the volume, Writing Around the Text: A Network of Contexts, Opportunities, and Responses, features discussion of an award-winning paper by former WSU student Sara Clendening.

Johnson explained, "Since so much of the rhetoric surrounding the writing of college students is negative, if not downright pejorative, we wanted to demonstrate how well many students write, and we wanted to describe the unique and interesting contexts and classrooms in which they undertake their writing." Johnson's co-editors of Teaching/Writing in the Late Age Print are Jeff Galin of Florida Atlantic University and Carol Haviland of California State University-San Bernardino.

Oness, who teaches fiction writing, has written her first novel, Departures, forthcoming in May. In Departures, a mother sends each of her grown daughters a note, telling them she's leaving the country, and asking them not to look for her. In the mother's absence, each daughter is forced to reconsider what it might have cost their mother, a child of the sixties, to sacrifice her free-spirited ways in order to raise them in a comfortable Westchester town. Oness, who grew up in Chappaqua, New York, set her novel in a fictional version of Chappaqua. "I grew up in a literary landscape, although I wasn't aware of it at the time," Oness said. "I also grew up in what might be called 'Cheever country,' and it's a nod to John Cheever's famous story, 'The Housebreaker of Shady Hill' that I give Chappaqua the name of 'Shady Grove.'"

Much praise has been been given to Oness' novel. Elizabeth McCracken calls Oness "a tremendous and heartfelt and gutsy writer." Alyson Hagy, author of Keenland says Oness' novel "has the passion and resolve of a brilliantly played symphony."

Oness has received numerous honors including an O Henry Prize and a Nelson Algren Award. Her published collection of short stories entitled Articles of Faith was winner of the 2000 Iowa Short Fiction Award, and was subsequently awarded the Ann Powers Fiction Prize, and selected for the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Program.

Oness is reading on May 6, at the University of Minnesota Bookstore, and on May 12, at Micawber's Bookstore in St. Paul. She is also signing books in Winona on May 14, at The Book Shelf.

Last Modified: Thursday, December 09, 2004 13:36 by