The director of the University of Iowa's writing center recommended me as a reliable candidate to write and design the 2024 Out of Iowa newsletter. This was my first professional writing project, and I worked alongside Elana Walters to write various articles highlighting the English department's thriving community of writers, readers, teachers, and scholars. I had the pleasure of interviewing 31 people across the English department throughout the process as well as designing graphics on Canva.
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I would like to thank Daniel Khalastchi for his recommendation, Loren Glass and Tara Atkinson for their guidance and communication, and Elana Walters for being a wonderful and reliable coworker.
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Elana Walters wrote:
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Faculty obituaries for Nieh Hualing Engle and Jim Marshall
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Class highlights for the publishing track, "Gender, Sexuality, and Literature," "Novel Writing," and "Writing and Reading Romance Fiction"
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Student highlight of '23 and '24 Iowa grads
Meet new English department faculty and staff while saying farewell to retiring faculty, Professor Boos and Professor Whaley.
Class highlight: Learning content management and creation is the next step in the job process for English majors.
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Class highlight: Fairy Tales are the origin of children's literature and encourage dynamic discussion and thinking.
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Explore the diverse array of campus literary magazines contributing to the university's thriving literary community.
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A little bit about Elana Walters and Sophia Considine, this year's Out of Iowa newsletter writers.
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A Note from the Chair: Loren Glass
Dear Friends of the English Department,
Welcome to Out of Iowa 2024, a celebration of our thriving community of writers and readers and teachers and scholars. We’re building the English Department of the future in EPB, and we’re excited to share our progress with you. In the process we are welcoming new members and offering heartfelt farewells to those who have departed. And along the way we document and celebrate the achievements of our remarkable students, faculty, and alumni.
I am particularly proud to welcome novelist and scholar Tom Lin to Iowa. Professor Lin’s hire marks the continuing growth of our popular major in English and Creative Writing and is another milestone in the transformation of our department into a pioneering laboratory of critical creativity and creative criticism. Professor Lin arrives with his partner, the novelist Pia Struzzieri. They join an exciting and productive cohort of new faculty—including Kaveh Akbar, Paige Lewis, Melissa Febos, Donika Kelly, Louisa Hall, and Bennett Sims—all of whom work at the intersection of scholarly research and creative expression. They are the reason we’ve become a destination major and an anchor of the University’s literary reputation.
One of the most popular components of our new major is the publishing track, and I’m proud to announce that this issue of Out of Iowa has been written and designed by one of our most talented students in that track, Elana Walters, along with her talented colleague Sophia Considine. Elana is in her fourth year at Iowa. She has a minor in Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality studies, Honors in the major, and has been on the Dean’s List in every semester she’s been here. She’s from New York, and she came to the University of Iowa because of our world-renowned writing program. Sophia is a senior English and Creative Writing major with minors in Communication Studies and News and Media Literacy. She is very involved in student life, being a part of ATI, Hallyu at Iowa, and the Executive Editor of earthwords: the undergraduate literary review. Sophia hopes to get into the publishing industry after graduation and eventually be an editor championing for diverse and exciting romance, fantasy, and coming-of-age YA novels. This newsletter illustrates and celebrates their creative talent and professional development and foregrounds the undergraduate experience in our department.
We also continue to transform graduate study as we work to accommodate ourselves to a changing job market. This year’s PhD cohort includes two students working in translation studies, and I anticipate that they will pilot a new track in literary translation. We also welcome four students in our brand new U2G program, which enables our most promising undergraduate majors to earn an MA in English along with their BA. And our diligent and devoted DGS, Professor Jen Buckley, is currently revising our advising and mentoring system in order to ensure that our graduate students are aware of their opportunities and can plan their careers with confidence.
Chairing a department with such creative and dedicated faculty, staff, and students is an honor and a pleasure that I am proud to share with you. I look forward to meeting and working with the many alumni and friends who receive this newsletter. Our students, both undergraduate and graduate, are eager to learn more about what they can do in the world with their English degrees, and, as always, we welcome any and all opportunities for internships, mentoring, or just making connections. Please feel free to reach out to me at any time for further information.
Finally, thanks to our Graduate Program Academic Coordinator Tara Atkinson for all her excellent work on this issue.
Best wishes for the Holiday Season and the New Year.
Loren Glass
M.F. Carpenter Professor and Chair of English
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