Media Release

For Immediate Release

March 4, 2009

Saint Mary’s to host Atlantic Undergraduate English Conference

English undergraduates from across the Atlantic region will get the chance to share their thoughts this weekend at the 28th Annual Atlantic Undergraduate English Conference (AAUEC).

Saint Mary’s University will host the conference from Friday, March 6 until Sunday, March 8.

The AAUEC conference is designed to give undergraduate students an intellectual forum in which they can present their academic and creative work. It was hosted last year at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton.

This year’s conference, moderated by members of the Saint Mary’s English faculty, will feature 49 delegates from across Atlantic Canada – including eight students from Saint Mary’s. The conference is open to English students and faculty in the Atlantic region, including the Maritimes, Newfoundland and Maine.

Presentations by Saint Mary’s students will include: Shane Beehan, James Joyce's Ulysses -The Ireland Not Yet Seen; Leah Ellingwood, Book I of Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene as Patriotic Propaganda; Katherine Elizabeth Balcom, Happily Never After: a Look at Anthony Neilson's The Censor; Candace Rae Macintosh, Finding Hope in Dark Places: Sarah Kane's Blasted!; Kyle Doré, Just Because you can Write Poetry, Doesn't Mean you Should: Alexander Pope's Opinion of Contemporary Poets; Jeff Boyd, The Manliness of the Forge; Gina Beth Roberts, I'd Be An Ideal Husband If I Had A Real Wife:  Gendered Love and Erich Fromm's The Art of Loving In An Ideal; and Aiden Brydon, The Art of Donning and Discarding: Fantomina's Clever Disguises.

In addition to the student presentations, there will also be presentations by special guest authors and spoken word artists on Friday, March 6 at The Gorsebrook Lounge beginning at 8 p.m. David Rimmington, Colleen Subasic, and Native Son will be on hand to perform and present their works and to host a Speak!. Speak! events encourage writers – including members of the audience -- to share their works by giving live readings at an open mic.

Rimmington is a writer, actor, poet and spoken-word artist; Subasic is an accomplished playwright, editor and essayist; and Native Son is an empowerment poet, writer, spoken word artist, motivational speaker, story teller, musician, fine artist and performance artist. 

There will also be an informative session on the art of writing, publishing and producing creative and academic work at 9 a.m. on Saturday, March 7 in Loyola 174. Glenn Walton, Elizabeth Peirce, and Dr. Stephen Cloutier will be on hand to give a candid glimpse into life after undergrad and to answer students' burning questions. Walton is a Halifax writer, freelance journalist, award-winning filmmaker and university lecturer; Peirce is a writer, editor and part-time English teacher living in Halifax; and Dr. Cloutier is a poet, playwright, and academic researcher of leftist literature.

For information about the Atlantic Undergraduate English Conference (including schedule, topics, sessions and locations) please visit the Saint Mary's University English Society website at: www.englishsociety.ca.

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For More Information:

Blake Patterson
Public Affairs Officer
Saint Mary's University, Public Affairs
(902) 420.5514
E-mail: blake.patterson@smu.ca
www.smu.ca