The annual UE LitFest gives undergraduates the opportunity to present creative and critical papers to audiences made up of their peers, their professors, and the members of the local literary community. Students also have the opportunity to win awards and prizes for their efforts.

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND CREATIVE WRITING

Melvin M. Peterson Literary Forum

The Truth in the Trope: Keats, Youth, and the Mists of Autumn

Friday, April 22, 2022, 7:00 p.m. - SOBA 162

Dr. Larry Caldwell

Professor Emeritus of English, servied in the UE English Department for thirty years, teaching general humanities, Medieval literature, and the Romantic Poets, among numerous other courses. He received his B.A. in English and German from Central College in Pella, Iowa and earned a Master's Degree in English and Germanic Languages at the University of Nebraska, where he subsequently also received his Ph.D. in English, with a focus on Anglo-Saxon poetry.

Coffee Hour and Senior Reading

Thursday, April 21, 2022
4:00 p.m. Melvin M. Peterson Gallery

Tenth Annual Student Literary Conference

Saturday, April 23, 2022
Student Panels at 9:30, 10:45, and Noon.
SOBA 271 & 272

The 2022 conference began on Thursday, April 21st with the Coffee Hour and Senior Reading. The student speakers were Liv Campbell, Rebecca Harwood, Hollie Hoffman, Liv Pedersen, and Jane Tafolla.

Friday evening saw the Melvin M. Peterson Literary Forum. Dr. Larry Caldwell, Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Evansville, gave a lecture titled “The Truth in the Trope: Keats, Youth, and the Mists of Autumn.”

The conference continued on the Saturday morning with a series of student panels. View the complete schedule. 

At the end of the conference, the Department of English and Creative Writing presented its 2022 awards:

GRABILL AWARDS

NONFICTION

• Third Place: “First Movie Without You,” Sam Tarter
• Second Place: “An Accomplice to Failure,” Audrey Theriac
• First Place: “Hag Stories,” Rebecca Harwood

FICTION

• Third Place: “Moving On,” Hollie Hoffman
• Second Place: “Vicissitude,” Jane Tafolla
• First Place: “Gay,” Sam Tarter

POETRY

• Third Place: “Fetal Possum,” Rebecca Harwood
• Second Place: “Human Error in Five Parts,” Erin Casey
• First Place: “Kitchen Witchery,” Alexis Carpenter

ACADEMIC ESSAY

• Third Place: “Mythic and Mystic Reality in The Left Hand of Darkness,” Mitchell Matthews
• Second Place: “How Jacob’s Room Examines the Notion of Communication,” Alexis Carpenter
• First Place: “The Double-Crossing Demon: Mephistophilis’ Manipulation in Marlow’s Doctor Faustus,” Charlie Watts

KLINGER WRITING AWARD

“Exploring the Conception and Expression of Manhood in England Throughout the Middle Ages,” Katherine Fox

THE LARRY CALDWELL SENIOR AWARD FOR DEPARTMENTAL SERVICE AND SPIRIT

Rebecca Harwood and Maddie Johnson

Past Speakers at UE LitFest

• 2021 – Michael Kim Roos – on Bob Dylan
• 2019 – Edward P. Comentale – on Kurt Vonnegut
• 2018 – Cecelia Tichi – on Edith Wharton and Jack London
• 2017 – Jacqueline Briggs Martin – on Children’s Literature
• 2016 – Matthew J. Bolton – on TS Eliot
• 2015 – William Hemminger – on Wallace Stevens
• 2014 – Robert Paul Lamb – on Mark Twain
• 2013 – Arthur Brown – on Stephen Crane
• 2012 – Charles Conaway – on William Shakespeare