Leni Ramberg (1973, Speech-Theatre and English) has been a writer for years, authoring plays, screenplays and short stories. “I thought it would be fun to write a mystery book, or series of books, aimed at middle-grade readers, ages 10-12,” she said.

She completed a final draft of Girlfriend Detectives: The Missing Photo Mystery, last year, but the manuscript needed an editor and proofreader. Leni remembered meeting Pamela Troumbly (1971, Elementary Education) at an alumni reunion at a restaurant in Los Angeles last summer. “Pamela and I sat near each other and we talked for some time that evening. She struck me as energetic, smart and someone who would be a stickler for good grammar, spelling and also a careful reader.”

Months after the reunion, Leni called Pamela, and the partnership began. Together, the MSUM alums worked on the manuscript page by page. “She was meticulous and clear,” Leni recalls.

Retired from a 30-year career working in law libraries in downtown Los Angeles, Pamela developed editing and proofreading skills as a subject editor for “A/V A-Z,” an entertainment encyclopedic dictionary authored by Richard Kroonan and published in 2010. She’s retired now, but edits and maintains a website for a chiropractic association, and works with Leni.

Girlfriend Detectives is now available for sale and download for the Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble’s Nook and other e-reading devices.  A second Girlfriend Detectives book is in the works. “I plan to have it ready for Pamela’s editing skills by the end of the year,” Leni says. Pamela is currently editing A Clown Dog’s Christmas, a book Leni wrote for children. She hopes to have it ready for sale on e-readers by Thanksgiving.

Tunseth said, “After I graduated in December I moved back to Grand Forks, and was an English substitute teacher for 9th graders.  I interviewed for three openings in Grand Forks; I was offered all three jobs. There were 30 applicants and I was their first choice, so I am now facing the dilemma of choosing which school to work for. I never thought I’d get my dream job and be able to choose four months out of college!”

Learn about the research and editorial processes the editors used to “recover” the lost voices of Minnesota women poets to create their award-winning anthology (2007 WILLA Literary Award; 2007 Midwest Booksellers’ Choice Award Honor Book). Listen to poems by Minnesota women poets spanning more than 150 years and discover the lives and work of these amazing women! PastedGraphic-1

All events are free and open to the public.

Programming is sponsored by Lake Agassiz Regional Library and supported in part with funds from the Minnesota Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund. For more information, contact: 218.233.3757

Collection bins are located in Weld Hall, McLean Hall, Flora Frick Hall, the Livingston Lord Library, and the Residence Halls. Sigma Tau Delta members will also be more than happy to pick up donations. Textbooks printed within the last ten years are our primary focus, although any type of book is welcome. Please contact a Sigma Tau Delta member at sigma@mnstate.edu with any questions. Thank you for your support.

The 2012 edition of the literary journal Red Weather has been published and you’re invited to celebrate with Minnesota State University Moorhead students, alumni, and faculty as they read from their work and discuss their visual art at 7:00 p.m. Thursday, April 26, in the Livingston Lord Library porch. Copies of this year’s journal will be available for purchase at the event. Light refreshments will be served.

Contributors to this year’s Red Weather include Zachary Koppang, Jennifer Phillips, Jacob Hedlund, Rachel Lense, Shadd Piehl, Renée LaMie, Billie Gaffney, Karl Bakkum, Tanya Miller, Brittany Anderson, Megan Bartholomay, Regene Radniecki, Kurt Kleidon, Nikkie Nouwen, Whitney Walters, Jenny Christen, Kristin Miller, Darin Doty, Sarah Deimel, Katelyn Bladel, Athena Gracyk, Meridyth Morgan, Garrett Matteson, Mike Renner, Julie Walnum, Jesse Balzer, and Nicholas Boushee.

Now in its 31st edition and continuing a tradition that began 49 years ago with the first campus literary magazine Convivio, the journal Red Weather gets its name from the poem “Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock” by Wallace Stevens, wherein the poet writes, “Only, here and there, an old sailor / Drunk and asleep in his boots / Catches tigers / In red weather.”

The staff for this year’s Red Weather includes managing editor and the book’s interior designer Ryan Christiansen, editors Ron Frannea, Jan Hough, Dustin Mohagen, Justin Montgomery, John Powers, Michael Resch, Emily Silverman, Tyler Sorensen, Shane Thielges, and Jonah Volheim, the book’s cover designer Mychal Waldorf, and faculty advisor Dr. Thom Tammaro.

Red Weather is brought to you by the students enrolled in the ENGL 495/595 Literary Editing course with support from the MSUM English Department.

More than 2,000 people attend the UND Writer’s Conference to listen to readings and panel discussions and ask authors questions. The University of North Dakota has been an active literary festival since 1970.

Keynote speakers include:

• “Liberatory biology: the practice of an immunologist in the liberal arts“ Dr. Devavani Chatterjea, professor, Macalester College
• Hands-on Workshop “Online Instruction: Beyond the Four Walls of a Classroom” Dr. Linda Lein, online teaching specialist from MSU Moorhead

Register for free.

Tyler Sorensen was awarded an honorable mention in the Editorial/Commentary category for his column, “The importance of showing interest,” published Oct. 5.

Haley is the editor of The Advocate; Sorensen is the online editor and a regular columnist. Sorensen is a senior, majoring in film studies and English. Haley is a junior, majoring in mass communications with an emphasis in multimedia journalism.

Click here for a list of all the awards.

Today from 7 to 9 p.m. join us in celebration; hear Kevin’s story and listen to him read from “Sugartown.”

14 Roberts St., Fargo
701.239.0063

Professor Larry Aitken is the Endowed Chair and Director of American Indian Studies at Itasca Community College in Grand Rapids, Minn., and the Tribal Historian for the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe.

His lecture at MSUM will outline the history of the Ojibwe people in Minnesota and show the need to preserve Ojibwemowin, the native language. Professor Aitken will also speak on the programs currently in place to record and revitalize the Ojibwe language. After the lecture Aitken will field questions from the MSUM campus community.

Aitken has worked extensively on the preservation of Ojibwe culture throughout Minnesota; nationally he has been a speaker at the University of Pennsylvania and at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia. He has also collaborated with White Earth Tribal College on a National Endowment for the Humanities Initiatives grant in 2007 entitled, “Gi-bugadin-a-maa-goom: To Sanction, To Give Authority, To Bring to Life.”

Please join us for an event that promises to provide an excellent opportunity to learn about historical as well as contemporary Ojibwe language and culture in Minnesota. A reception with light refreshments will follow. Free and open to the public!

For further information, please contact Susan Imbarrato, English Department, at:
218.477.4674 or simbarra@mnstate.edu

The lead quote in Sugartown is “Dulcius Ex Asperis”, which is Latin for “After difficulty, sweetness.”

“This poetry book is about where I live or at least how I vision things in this region,” Zepper said. “Then, there’s the idea of “sweetness” in just about every piece. The theme of earthiness and humility are represented.”

About Sugartown:

“This new collection by Kevin Zepper is a slam and a celebration. In a tone both wistful and amazed, he alliterates, puns and raps his way from Pez candies to pot pies, from Icarus to Johnny Cash.”

– Lin Enger, author of Undiscovered Country

“Sugartown brims with the good stuff: beets, potatoes, all other staples of clean language and line.”

–Lisa Gill, author of Mortar and Pestle

“Kevin Zepper’s poems honor life in its many aspects, sensuous, sacred and absurd. The world is beautifully off-kilter in this fine collection…”

– Ruth Schwartz, author of Edgewater

Johnny Cash (from Sugartown)

Long thin rails,

Johnny walked every one

with an even pace

from the past

down the line.

Sting of tar

rises from railroad ties,

he continues,

over the back

of his black shirt

he catches the wayward whine

of a tired train

far beyond the hills

of Tennessee.

Flightless bird,

more hawk than raven,

jet eyes cut through coal lies,

set in high features

of his brown,

wrinkles in a Cherokee blanket.

The Sigma Tau Delta English Honor Society is working with Better World Books to sponsor a book drive through Dec. 15. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the National Center for Family Literacy. In addition, Sigma Tau Delta will receive $1 for each accepted book we collect. The money that is raised will be used to fund future service projects and assist members in attending the International Sigma Tau Delta Conference in New Orleans, La., in February 2012.

Collection bins are located in Weld Hall, Hagen Hall, McLean Hall, Flora Frick Hall, the Livingston Lord Library, and the Residence Halls. Sigma Tau Delta members will also be more than happy to pick up donations. Text books printed within the last 10 years is our primary focus, although any type of book is welcome. Please contact a Sigma Tau Delta member at sigma@mnstate.edu with any questions. Thank you for your support.

Let our festive event overshadow your spirits dampened by thoughts of finals. Come rejoice in the cheerful recital of holiday stories. Bring family and friends to this child-friendly event. Whether it is Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanzaa, Yule, religious or secular, ALL holiday-themed works of prose or poetry welcome! Sign up to read at the English Office in Weld Hall. Reading is encouraged but not required.

Arjen Duinker is the author of 11 books of poetry, including his most recent, Neighborhood Kids (Buurtkinderen). Book-length translations of his work have appeared in France, Portgual, Italy, Iran, Russia and the UK, and are underway in China, Finland, Croatia and Mexico.

Kees ‘t Hart is the author of more than 20 works of fiction, nonficition, essays andpoetry. In 2011, he published the short story collection Goethe’s Image (Het beeld van Goethe). He is the co-editor of the Dutch translation of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass (Grasbladen).