Thursday, November 15, 2012

Current ChildLit Activities around SDSU

Some goings-on around campus...

1. If you've visited the English Lit department's website recently you might have noticed a news item freshly featured on the front page, highlighting the impressive activities of Professor Jenny Minitti-Shippey and students of her Class on Literary Editing and Publishing (ENGL 576).  Her students have created an insightful and creative array of web journals centered around different genres and aspects of young people's literature. From the multicultural (The Playground Diaries) to dystopian (The Dauntless Review) and all that bizarre stuff in between (The Bizarre Assemblage, for example), these new blogs demonstrate the popular and growing interests of the current era. There are seven literary journals listed that all feature book reviews, interviews, event write ups and more, so peruse the sites and see which ones fit your fancy. Speaking of event highlights...

2. The SDSU Childlit GSA held its first event last Thursday, Nov. 8, at Lestat's Coffehouse and it was a great success. We were introduced to some new faces (and even a random passerby who shared his interests with us too!) and spent the evening immersed in various topics intersecting Pop Culture with Children's Lit. We kicked off the event with a pub(lication) quiz created by GSA President Kelsey Wadman, testing everyone's knowledge of kidlit as it exists in movies, music, and beyond. Congrats to super member Megan Parry for taking home the honor of first place accompanied by a ginormous cupcake. From there we delved into discussions on TV shows and the rise of fairy tale adaptations (Phillip Pullman's new book would have been a great asset for this discussion, come to think of it); book-to-movie adaptations, including the pros and cons when Disney gains the production rights; favorite Disney films/characters and why; and the occasional tangent into conference experiences or imaginary friends. It was a fruitful discussion which culminated with reviewing Maurice Sendak's appearance on the Colbert Report, which served as icing on the (cup)cake.

3. Don't forget! The Peter Pan & Wendy theatre performance is almost upon us as well! Performances begin tomorrow (Nov 16) and more news about the Pre-Show Discussion circle should appear shortly. In the meantime, check out the Production Blog for Peter Pan & Wendy.

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