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English and Writing Studies

Grad sets novel in London, at Western

Grad sets novel in London, at Western

When author Erica McKeen arrives at Western this week, she’ll retrace steps she walked as a student, as well as those she imagined for the protagonist in her debut novel Tear.  The walk between ‘what’s real and what’s not real’ is central to  …

The Bard offers rare cuts for compulsive completist

The Bard offers rare cuts for compulsive completist

For a long time, a fierce completist instinct determined my musical purchases. Elliott Smith played on a Birddog album? Thom Yorke sings on Unkle’s Psyence Fiction? Better buy them. In the days before iTunes, tracking down The Damned’s Turkey Song proved to be a grail...

Uncovering the object of sonnet’s passion

Uncovering the object of sonnet’s passion

Shakespeare’s Sonnets both express and excite strong passions, though many troubled readers have tried to downplay the poems’ effusions of passion. The reason is simple: The principal addressee and object of praise in most of these poems is not a beautiful woman, but...

New stagings shed fear of fatigue of familiar texts

New stagings shed fear of fatigue of familiar texts

There are very few books I read a second time. Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Laurie R. King’s O Jerusalem. The Days are Just Packed, by Bill Watterson. And when I read for a second time a book I remember loving, the memory of that pleasure is more often than not...

Western performances keep summer tradition alive

Western performances keep summer tradition alive

While innumerable celebrations are being held this year around the globe – not to mention at The Globe in London, England – to mark the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death, here at Western we are continuing a venerable theatrical community tradition that...

Language of food pleased palate of audiences

Language of food pleased palate of audiences

How does food speak to us? What does it say when we choose salad, not steak? When we buy our vegetables from local farmers, when we avoid pork or shellfish or insist on gluten-free? As Shakespeare knew, food is a shared language, full of dramatic possibility. The...

PhD candidate wins CBC Short Story Prize

PhD candidate wins CBC Short Story Prize

English PhD candidate David Huebert joins company with some of Canada’s best writers who received CBC Literary Prizes and went on to receive national and international acclaim.

Leonard, Shoemaker named to top professor honour

Leonard, Shoemaker named to top professor honour

Two professors are the latest recipients of Distinguished University Professorships (DUP) awards, joining a select group of faculty members recognized for exceptional scholarly careers. Honoured this year are John Leonard, English and Writing Studies, Arts &...

Book draws modern lessons from America’s Puritan roots

Book draws modern lessons from America’s Puritan roots

Religion is quintessentially part of what it means to “be an American,” English and Writing Studies Chair Bryce Traister argues. “We think of religion as outside of the normal or a way to understand the world. But for many people, particularly in the United States,...

Taking to a new stage

Taking to a new stage

Today, Western formally launches its Theatre Studies program with a two-day celebration. In honour of that occasion, Western News asked four students – Caitlin Austin, Jack Copland, Rachel Flear and Sarah Gilpin –to share their reasonings behind studying theatre and...

Theatre Studies launches a conversation on arts

Theatre Studies launches a conversation on arts

Long a campus passion, Western’s latest attempt to refresh its theatre roots looks to create a community, not only across campus, but throughout the region. “London has a very passionate theatre scene,” said English and Writing Studies professor M.J. Kidnie. “We want...

Theatre Studies launches with ‘Lost’ opportunity

Theatre Studies launches with ‘Lost’ opportunity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsAPeL8DDBc On March 3, Western formally launches its Theatre Studies program with a two-day event. The centerpiece of the launch is a staging of Milton’s Paradise Lost, adapted and directed by Montreal-based performer Paul Van Dyck....

How to die like Bowie, or, we can be heroes

How to die like Bowie, or, we can be heroes

By now, everyone has heard the news of David Bowie’s death of cancer at 69 years of age. Bowie’s death came two days after his birthday and the simultaneous release of his newest album, Blackstar, and so many fans and Bowie aficionados likely received this news after...

The Bard offers rare cuts for compulsive completist

The Bard offers rare cuts for compulsive completist

For a long time, a fierce completist instinct determined my musical purchases. Elliott Smith played on a Birddog album? Thom Yorke sings on Unkle’s Psyence Fiction? Better buy them. In the days before iTunes, tracking down The Damned’s Turkey Song proved to be a grail...

Uncovering the object of sonnet’s passion

Uncovering the object of sonnet’s passion

Shakespeare’s Sonnets both express and excite strong passions, though many troubled readers have tried to downplay the poems’ effusions of passion. The reason is simple: The principal addressee and object of praise in most of these poems is not a beautiful woman, but...

New stagings shed fear of fatigue of familiar texts

New stagings shed fear of fatigue of familiar texts

There are very few books I read a second time. Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Laurie R. King’s O Jerusalem. The Days are Just Packed, by Bill Watterson. And when I read for a second time a book I remember loving, the memory of that pleasure is more often than not...

Western performances keep summer tradition alive

Western performances keep summer tradition alive

While innumerable celebrations are being held this year around the globe – not to mention at The Globe in London, England – to mark the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death, here at Western we are continuing a venerable theatrical community tradition that...

Language of food pleased palate of audiences

Language of food pleased palate of audiences

How does food speak to us? What does it say when we choose salad, not steak? When we buy our vegetables from local farmers, when we avoid pork or shellfish or insist on gluten-free? As Shakespeare knew, food is a shared language, full of dramatic possibility. The...

PhD candidate wins CBC Short Story Prize

PhD candidate wins CBC Short Story Prize

English PhD candidate David Huebert joins company with some of Canada’s best writers who received CBC Literary Prizes and went on to receive national and international acclaim.

Leonard, Shoemaker named to top professor honour

Leonard, Shoemaker named to top professor honour

Two professors are the latest recipients of Distinguished University Professorships (DUP) awards, joining a select group of faculty members recognized for exceptional scholarly careers. Honoured this year are John Leonard, English and Writing Studies, Arts &...

Book draws modern lessons from America’s Puritan roots

Book draws modern lessons from America’s Puritan roots

Religion is quintessentially part of what it means to “be an American,” English and Writing Studies Chair Bryce Traister argues. “We think of religion as outside of the normal or a way to understand the world. But for many people, particularly in the United States,...

Taking to a new stage

Taking to a new stage

Today, Western formally launches its Theatre Studies program with a two-day celebration. In honour of that occasion, Western News asked four students – Caitlin Austin, Jack Copland, Rachel Flear and Sarah Gilpin –to share their reasonings behind studying theatre and...

Theatre Studies launches a conversation on arts

Theatre Studies launches a conversation on arts

Long a campus passion, Western’s latest attempt to refresh its theatre roots looks to create a community, not only across campus, but throughout the region. “London has a very passionate theatre scene,” said English and Writing Studies professor M.J. Kidnie. “We want...

Theatre Studies launches with ‘Lost’ opportunity

Theatre Studies launches with ‘Lost’ opportunity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsAPeL8DDBc On March 3, Western formally launches its Theatre Studies program with a two-day event. The centerpiece of the launch is a staging of Milton’s Paradise Lost, adapted and directed by Montreal-based performer Paul Van Dyck....

How to die like Bowie, or, we can be heroes

How to die like Bowie, or, we can be heroes

By now, everyone has heard the news of David Bowie’s death of cancer at 69 years of age. Bowie’s death came two days after his birthday and the simultaneous release of his newest album, Blackstar, and so many fans and Bowie aficionados likely received this news after...