M.A. Alumni
Rachel Hancock (M.A. 2013) was recently hired as the Associate Director of Development Proposals with University Advancement’s Office of Development. In this position, Rachel serves as principal writer, editor, and project manager for various projects (e.g., grant proposals, proposal templates, newsletters, benefactor profiles, stewardship reports, etc.).
Rebecca Newth Harrison (M.A. 1988) will have a book of poetry published by Salmon Poetry Ireland in 2020. She is working on a novel set in Crete. In addition, with Carol Babylon (M.F.A. English), Rebecca is working to transcribe and edit interviews done on Ozarks at Large with Kyle Kellams.
Denise “Nese” Nemec (M.A. 1979), a full-time instructor of English composition and journalism at Northwest Arkansas Community College and adviser to the student newspaper, traveled to Siena, Italy, for study abroad in June 2019 and posted information, photographs, and short videos to NWACC Eagle View on Facebook. As a freelance reporter for North Arkansas newspapers, her news and feature pieces appear from time to time in the Pea Ridge Times and the Washington County Enterprise-Leader. One of her feature stories in WCEL won third place in feature writing for a weekly in the 2019 Arkansas Press Association state-wide contest. In February of 2019, Nemec was recognized by Lyon College (B.A. English 1976) as a member of its first women’s basketball team, which began in 1973 after passage of Title IX. Nemec lives in Fayetteville and enjoys spending time with her children (2) and grandchildren (5), all of whom live in the area.
Susan Roach (M.A. 1972), in May 2019, received the Louisiana Tech University Foundation 2019 Professorship Award in excellence in teaching, research, and service. The professorship is awarded annually to a member of the tenured faculty holding the rank of Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, or Professor who has demonstrated extraordinary service and performance in the areas of teaching, research, and/or service to the campus community and the public sector. Individuals are nominated without their knowledge by one or more of their peers. Susan, who also earned a Ph.A. (Associate of Philosophy) in English from the University of Arkansas in 1974, as well as a Ph.D. in Anthropology (Folklore) from the University of Texas, Austin, in 1986, has served as the director of the School of Literature and Language at Louisiana Tech University, housing the English and Modern Language Departments, for the past eight years.
Ph.D. Alumni
Jim Barnes (Ph.D. in Comparative Literature 1972) saw his Sundown Explains Nothing: New and Selected Poems published in the summer of 2019 by Stephen F. Austin State University Press. Barnes retired from Brigham Young University in 2006 and presently lives Santa Fe, NM. Among his accolades are two Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Fellowships, two Camargo Fellowships, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and a Senior Fulbright Fellowship to Switzerland.
Jason (“Jake”) Edwards (Ph.D. 2013) was appointed Interim Director of the Georgia Gwinnett College Honors Program.
Ryder Finnegan (Ph.D. 2003) was awarded the Ronald M. Berz Scholarship to attend the Women of Resilience Conference in San Antonio, Texas, this past February. This is a “sister” conference to the Creativity and Madness conferences. The scholarship covered trip expenses, and Ryder received a $500 stipend. At the conference, she presented her prize-winning narrative essay, “You Are Changed by the People You Love.”
Kelly Jennings (Ph.D. 1995; M.F.A. 1990) has a short story coming out in an anthology in Spring 2020. The short story is “Little Bird,” and the anthology, published by Candlemark & Gleam, is Retellings of the Inland Sea.
Garrett C. Jeter (Ph.D. 2018), Assistant Professor of English at Georgia Military College, Warner Robins, GA, works with the campus Veterans’ Club. Recently, Marquis’s Who’s Who in America named him a Top Educator and Top Military. He was also awarded the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award, which Marquis awards only to 5% of its listees. Additionally, Garrett is working to launch a community theater in Warner Robins’s downtown as part of an emerging arts district.
Wayne McGinnis (Ph.D. 1974) retired in May of 2016, after 41 years at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. (His previous two years were at Norfolk State College, Norfolk, Virginia).
Leslie Seawright (M.A. 2008; Ph.D. 2012), whose dissertation was on police report writing practices, had her manuscript, Genre of Power: Police Report Writers and Readers in the Justice System, published by NCTE in 2017. In February, she gave the keynote address at the California Association of Teachers of English as an NCTE co-sponsored speaker. Her talk was titled “Investigating Police Report Writing.” Leslie is an Assistant Professor of English at Missouri State University in Springfield.