Department Archives: English

Terry Ann Thaxton, professor of English and M.F.A. program director, has won her second Florida Book Award for her third book of poems, Mud Song. Her first Florida Book Award was in 2014 for her second book of poems, The Terrible Wife. Mud Song won the silver and The Terrible Wife won the bronze, both in the poetry category, The Florida Book Awards, […]

Jaroslav Kalfař ‘11 might feel that literary success is elusive, but it seems to be following him closely. Kalfař was recently awarded a highly competitive and prestigious National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship for $25,000. Kalfař majored in Creative Writing at UCF before completing his MFA at New York University, and published his […]

Susan Lilley ’75 ‘80MA has been chosen as Orlando’s first poet laureate after a five month search. Lilley, an English major for both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees and formerly a UCF faculty member for 12 years, was chosen from forty-nine applicants. The three award-winning finalists were all UCF Alumni: Lilley, who teaches creative writing […]

Terry Ann Thaxton, a professor in the Department of English, won Truman State University Press’ 2017 T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry for her third book of poems, Mud Song. Each year, TSUP receives about 500 manuscripts that are screened and judged by a nationally known poet. Kevin Prufer, author of Churches, In a Beautiful Country, […]

UCF senior Branden Hall hopes that one day Zeek St. Cloud finds his true purpose in life – but he knows that’s going to take thousands of years. Hall, who is majoring in creative writing and advertising/public relations, and his brother Horacio are enabling Zeek on his journey, and recently received an offer of help […]

Dr. Kirk St.Amant, Professor and the Eunice C. Williamson Endowed Chair in Technical Communication at Louisiana Technical University, visited the University of Central Florida (UCF) campus on April 11, 2017, to speak with students and faculty in the Texts and Technology Doctoral Program, as well as to perform other on-site activities. Two students in the […]

Dr. Kevin Meehan of the English Department has received a Fulbright Award for a research project based at the Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College in St. Kitts. Kevin will be developing educational resources on non-traditional agricultural systems for Caribbean schools, completing a textbook on hydroponics for climate change adaptation, and teaching a course in communication for […]

UCF Creative Writing professor Ephraim Scott Sommers has released his first book, a collection of poetry entitled The Night We Set the Dead Kid on Fire, this month through Tebot Bach Press. The Night We Set the Dead Kid on Fire focuses on the underrepresented—the convicts, the grave-diggers, the addicts—the “others,” and brings to life […]

Congratulations to UCF students Kristina Abicca, Dana Mikkelsen, Taylor Rayfield, Amber Steward, and Shravan Yandra, all of whom have had work they produced in their first-year composition classes published in the latest issue of Stylus: A Journal of First-Year Writing. The subjects of their individual articles vary—from considerations of writing processes to the effects of […]

Andrew Wakefield, a British doctor who lost his medical license in 2010, falsely claimed in a 1998 scientific paper published in The Lancet that measles, mumps and rubella vaccines cause autism and Crohn’s disease. His claims, though bogus, were widely reported and led to a decline in vaccination rates and new outbreaks of measles and […]