English

Mischa Willett’s Phases is due to be published in March as part of the Poiema Poetry Series from Cascade Books in Eugene, OR.   Dr. Willett, a member of the English Department faculty, currently teaches a variety of courses, following on a long history of teaching at various institutions here and abroad.

Says Willett, “I was attracted to the press [Cascade Books] because of their roster of poets I admire including Luci Shaw, Jill Peláez Baumgaertner, Brad Davis, Robert Siegel, Paul Mariani, and others.

“Phases pretends to be a collection of biblically-informed, formally-challenging poems based on the areas of lunar geography mapped out by Galileo, though really it’s about the various phases in a person’s life and how useful maps in general can be in tracking and categorizing them–which makes it about reflections, then, and, therefore, about the moon.”

Willett’s scholarly essays have been published in RaVoN, Victoriographies, and Romantic Circles, among other places.

This summer, Dr. Willett will be assisting Dr. Jennifer Maier on the English Department’s Creative Writing in Rome study-abroad trip.

Congratulations, Mischa, on the publication!

Last Friday evening, Professor Emeritus of English Luke Reinsma attended Seattle Shakespeare Company’s production of the Comedy of Errors with students from his senior Shakespeare course. Professor Reinsma explains why this particular work is a good way to start off a quarter studying the Bard: “this early play of Shakespeare is based on a Roman comedy by Plautus, about two twins who get mixed up with one another in Ephesus – except, Shakespeare being Shakespeare, he doubles the fun by pairing each of them with yet another set of mixed-up twins, who are their servants. Much comic mayhem to follow!”

Attending productions by the Seattle Shakespeare Company has become something of a tradition associated with enrollment in the department’s Shakespeare course, bringing to life for students less familiar with Shakespeare the obvious delights his plays contain.