First Draft: 1st Annual English Department Crawdad Boil/Pot Luck*

News and stuff

Dr. Schaap will be in St. Paul, Minnesota, for what promises to be a terrific conference at House of Hope Presbyterian Church. Along with him on the dais are a celebrated series of writers including former poet laureate Billy Collins. For a recital of what they day has to offer, see the House of Hope website: http://www.hohchurch.org/A%20Celebration%20of%20Faith%20and%20Writing.asp

The 20-something annual English Department Reading will take place, as always, on Sunday night September 26 at 8:00. Featured, of course, will be the usual gang of thieves and vamps, the department's unique members. Some furious preparation is presently going forth, as profs, like students, scramble before deadlines. As always, a good time is promised to all.

Dr. Schaap also announces publication of his story "Pilgrim" in the latest edition of IMAGE journal. IMAGE is the finest faith and arts journal published in North America, and it annually accepts fewer than ten short stories. "Pilgrim" is a story Schaap wrote during his Fiction Writing class two years ago, while his students were working away on their own stories. Go to http://imagejournal.org/

David Schelhaas, emeritus English prof, will read from his poetry--his book, The God of Material Things, and be joined by his old colleague Dr. Schaap, for a night of readings at Sioux Center's newest coffee shop, The Fruited Plain, in celebration of the shop's first anniverary. Schelhaas's son-in-law and daughter, Laramie and Becka De Vries, established the place--right downtown Sioux Center.

Monday, September 28, 2009

1st Annual English Department Crawdad Boil/Pot Luck*

The highlight--without a doubt--was Prof. Howard Schaap's bowl full of crawdads, still clawing over each other, only recently netted from the nether depths of the Rock River.

But those crawdads weren't the whole story. Food and fun were in gracious supply, all of it on a windblown hill in Oak Grove Park. A bunch of students and profs had a joyous pot luck with, as fortune would have it, more than enough grub for the multitudes.