Hello from Simpkins Hall!

As the Interim Chair of the Department of English for 2025-2026, I have had the privilege of working closely with our outstanding faculty, students, and staff. This year, our faculty continued to publish, podcast widely, and share their expertise at conferences from Cleveland to Chicago, Albuquerque to Paris, and Toronto to Belem. Our annual Magliocco lecture brought University of Illinois scholar Dr. Aja Martinez to campus. Our Fred and Lola Case speakers were our own alumnus, poet and publisher Craig Finley, in the Fall and Pulitzer prize-winning novelist Jennifer Egan in the Spring. On April 16, we celebrated the accomplishments of our students at the annual English Department Scholarship and Awards event and awarded approximately $25,000 to our students. Our student scholarship and award recipients are enthusiastic, hardworking scholars whose educations are tangibly enhanced by this financial support. I am very, very grateful to all of our donors, past and present, who have generously supported our English Department scholarship and award foundations. Thank you!

Three new staff joined the English Department this year. In August, Dr. Lisa Parzefall joined the department from Malcolm X College in Chicago as the Director of the Writing Program, Dr. Matthew Balk joined the department from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs as the Director of the University Writing Center, and Ms. Charla Wrenn joined the department in March as our new Office Manager. All three of them have been instrumental in keeping English courses, committees, and events running smoothly. This year also saw two of our department colleagues, Dr. Dan Malachuk and Dr. Everett Hamner, transition from the Quad Cities campus to the Macomb campus where they have enriched both student and faculty experiences in Simpkins Hall.

English students and faculty gathered for many reading and writing events this year, including “Poetry Garden Party,” “Pizza, Pop, Poetry and Prose,” October’s “Spooky Simpkins,” and the English Graduate Organization Colloquium, where graduate and undergraduate students presented their scholarship. The culture in English is vibrant and engaged!

It has been a privilege and a pleasure to lead the department this year, and I invite everyone to learn more about the English community of faculty, students, and staff in this year’s print edition of The Mirror & the Lamp.