Michelle Tooker ’07, Marketing Writer for University Relations, recently had poems published in the Foundling Review and Gutter Eloquence. Her work also is forthcoming in The Schuylkill Valley Journal and The Ampersand. Read her poem “Storm Speak” here.

Tooker graduated with a bachelor’s in Print and Video Communications and is currently in the Master’s of Arts in English program. She recently completed her first chapbook-length collection under the guidance of Adjunct Professor Jeff Ingram. In the fall, she will begin her Master’s Thesis and plans to complete a poetry manuscript focused on the adventures and misadventures of traveling.

“The creative writing courses at Arcadia, both on the undergraduate and graduate level, have really helped me to hone my craft,” says Tooker. “Not only have I been able to work with some great professors like Dr. Wertime and Professor Ingram, but I’ve also made a lot of local literary connections. In May, I read in the Light of Unity Series, which is organized by Tamara Oakman ’10M, and I’m also in a writer’s group with some fellow graduate students and recent alumni. I would have never met these other talented writers or expanded my skills without Arcadia.”

Kerry A. Gibson ’12 received the Margaret F. LeClair Award for Writing and the Elaine P. Maimon Award for Excellence in Freshman Writing at the Arcadia University Honors Convocation on March 27. The LeClair award is made to the junior who submitted the best interdisciplinary writing selection based on work done in courses at Arcadia University. The Maimon award recognizes a freshman or sophomore who demonstrates superior achievement in writing during the freshman year. This award expresses the University’s belief that writing proficiency is one mark of a liberal education.

“Kerry has demonstrated an impressive ability to write clearly and substantively in her work in a number of disciplines,” said Assistant Professor Mark Wade. “Her works submitted for this award were written for education, English and Honors Program courses. She is an exemplary example of the Arcadia tradition of writing across the curriculum.”

Gibson, of Sugarloaf, Pa., is an Education major studying Elementary and Early Childhood and plans to pursue her master’s in Special Education in Arcadia’s 3+2 five-year program. She also plans to pursue an M.Ed. with an ESL Specialist certification and a Reading Specialist certificate. She will be studying abroad in Bangor, Wales, in the fall and hopes to teach in an urban setting.

Elizabeth Murphy, Adjunct Professor of Music since 2002, will be playing a feature role in Susannah, an opera by Carlise Floyd based on the story of Susannah and the Elders set in Appalachia, reported the West Windsor (N.J.) & Plainsboro News in a Feb. 5 article “Living in the World of Opera.” Murphy’s performances are on Friday and Sunday, Feb. 5 and 7, at the Rutgers University Nicholas Music Center.

In the article, Murphy compares the story with  The Crucible, where the town is on a witch hunt. Her character is at the forefront accusing Susannah of being a loose girl. “No wonder, I say, she is being raised by her drunken brother Sam,” says Murphy.

The article also states that Murphy, a soprano, has received numerous awards, including scholarships from the Pottstown Symphony Orchestra and the Kennett Symphony Orchestra.  She was the soprano soloist and section leader at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Chestnut Hill, Pa., for nine years.

Larry Atkins, an Adjunct Professor who teaches journalism at Arcadia University, wrote an article for the January/February 2010 issue of Pennsylvania Magazine (Vol. 3, No. 1) on “Historic Eats: When the revolution was brewing, the ale was flowing at the City Tavern,” built in 1773. “If you go the City Tavern in Philadelphia, don’t expect to catch a Phillies game on television or to listen to blaring rock music at the bar. You’re more likely to hear a harpsichord, the chimes of a grandfather clock, the clinking of silverware and the quiet chatter of restaurant patrons,” writes Atkins. The waiters and waitress dress in colonial garb. “In entering the rooms of the City Tavern, it is like visiting a living museum. In describing the menu, you can find 18th century staples like West Indies pepper pot soup, mallard duck sausages, medallions of venison, braised rabbit and Martha Washington-style colonial turkey pot pie, all served on replicas of original 18th century china.”

Larry the Liberal Lawyer Lashes Out, a book by Larry Atkins, Adjunct Professor of journalism, is now available in paperback (ASJA Press) through Amazon.com. Atkins book was first published in 2005 and is a collection of Op-Eds and essays that includes politics, law, journalism, current events, social issues in sports, humor and Philadelphia-related topics.

Adjunct Professor of English Randall Couch, who teaches the course Advanced Poetry Workshop, traveled to London, England, as one of the nominees for the 2009 Popescu Prize for Poetry Translation for his book Madwomen. Couch, who had received Faculty Development Fund support to make the trip to England, was named the winner of the 2009 Popescu Prize for Poetry Translation, sponsored by the Poetry Society (UK) and the Ratiu Family Foundation.

The biennial prize honors the best book of poetry translated into English from any European language (including Russian, Irish, etc.) in the prior two-year period. Publishers in 24 countries submitted 85 books to this year's competition, and the field was very strong, including translations by John Ashbery, Marilyn Hacker, Avi Sharon, Trevor Joyce, Elena Shvarts, James O'Connor, and many other distinguished practitioners. The judges were Elaine Feinstein, a noted translator of Akhmatova and Tsetaeva, and Stephen Romer, a highly regarded anthologist and French translator as well as a fine poet who's most recent book, Yellow Studio, has been short-listed this year for two major British poetry awards (T. S. Eliot Prize and the Forward Prize).

"I'd like to thank Arcadia for making it possible for me to attend the prize ceremony," said Couch. "It was a great honor and pleasure to meet so many leading members of the British poetry community (and the cultural attaché to the Chilean embassy in London), and to represent Mistral, Arcadia, and American poetry at the reading."

Alisa Kleckner, Adjunct Professor and Costume Shop Supervisor in Arcadia's Theater program, took part in a MAGPI video conference program Nov. 5 at the University of Pennsylvania called The Haunted Poe, which was hosted by Brat Productions, a theatre company in Philadelphia. The program highlighted the collaborative process of creating Haunted Poe, an interactive, site-specific show based on the short works of terror by Edgar Allan Poe. The program was funded by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative, with additional funding from the Marketing Innovation Program. The target audience for this conference was students in grades 8-12. More than 14 schools participated.

Kleckner's presentation was on designing and creating costumes and masks for the production, and with the help of actors from the Haunted Poe production showed how the makeup and prosthetics are applied. She also demonstrated the “Red Death” mask and Punch-and-Judy style puppets, describing their used in the show.

Outside of the work that Kleckner is doing at Arcadia University, she also has been involved in the following shows: Fractured Scarytales: The Black Cat for her puppet company Little Bunny Voodoo, The First Day of School for 1812, Haunted Poe for Brat Productions, The Long Christmas Ride Home for Azuka Theater, and This is The Year That Is for 1812.