USU Eastern English majors travel to Louisville

Four sophomores, Gisele Ewan, Maeve Garvin, Stacy Graven and Megan Smith, attended the Sigma Tau Delta International Convention from March 29-April 1, in Louisville, Ky., where they chaired paper panels ranging from “Austen, Wharton, and Sexton: Women Writing Women” to “Alienation and Erasure in Literature” to creative works of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Sigma Tau Delta is an honor society for English majors that supports undergraduate research.
Over 1,000 students from 275 schools descended on Louisville to present their individual critical and creative work. Maeve Garvin says that “the words of other’s has greatly inspired me to do my own work and shown me that I am most definitely in the right career.”
In addition to attending paper sessions, students attended career workshops. The workshop on publishing was everyone’s favorite workshop. Students also had the opportunity to listen to and meet Marlon James, 2014 Man Booker Prize winner for A Brief History and Seven Killings, and Megan Mayhew-Berman, author of Almost Famous Women. Her call for women to keep writing about the lives of other women was inspirational.
Students met students from all over the country and participated in poetry jam sessions as well as a literary version of ComiCon, where students dressed up as their favorite literary characters and celebrated all things pop culture.
They also had the opportunity to get a taste of the culture by exploring some of the attractions in the area, such as the Louisville Slugger Factory and Museum.
Of the experience, Gisele Ewan says, “I was able to get great ideas for books to read and papers to write. It was really cool to get to know other people from other chapters from all over the country. It was an awesome experience to learn more about the fields I wanted to look into and meet people who could help me get there. I’m very excited for next year.”
If you are an English major and are interested in joining Sigma Tau Delta to have the opportunity to attend next year’s conference in Cincinnati, Ohio, as well as participate in club activities throughout the year, please contact Dr. Michaelann Nelson. The bachelor’s degree in English can be completely earned on the Price campus.