Center for Writing and Rhetoric
Write here, Write now.
Established in 1990 in memory of Cynthia Krieser, These awards are made annually to first-year composition students (with lower-division status) who exhibit outstanding writing skills.
The winner of the 2013 Cynthia Krieser award for outstanding student writing is Hunter Johnson. Hunter was a student in Wendy Goldberg’s WRIT 102 class this semester.
Congratulations to Hunter!
Hunter Johnson and Alice Myatt
For more information about the Krieser award, go to our Student Awards page.
On Wednesday May 1, first-year student writers and artists gathered with faculty, staff, family, and friends to celebrate the publication of the seventh edition of Venture Online, the University of Mississippi’s first-year writing magazine. Venture Online, under the direction of editor Emily Cooley and assistant editor Milly West, both instructors in the CWR, is a venue to showcase the many creative talents of University of Mississippi students.
This semester’s launch party featured guest-speaker Tom Franklin, author of the 2012 Common Reading Experience text, Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter.
The magazine, supported jointly by the Center for Writing and Rhetoric and the Division of Outreach, is published each semester of the regular academic year. Any first-year student may submit writing or artwork to the magazine, and a group of student editors (many of whom have published previously in Venture) decide which works to publish. The student editors work with Milly West and Emily Cooley to assemble the magazine’s contents, and Division of Outreach Graphic Designer Larry Agostinelli develops the magazine itself.
The Mystic Krew of Mykarma, a group dedicated to the support of gender freedom and creative endeavors in the University of Mississippi community, chooses winners from three categories of the magazine. This semester, the winners are:
Poetry Winner: “Precipitation” by Lo Burton
Honorable mention: “Build a Fire” by Abbie Szabo and “What the Future Holds” by Robert Williams
Prose Winner: “Golden Waves” by Mary Hannah Cooper
Honorable mention: “Biography of A. W. from a Comfy Couch” by Alex Waddell
Art Winner: “Coffee Obsessed” by Caitlyn Sullivan
Honorable mention: “Jars” by Morgan Fyfe
The CWR is proud of our students who were published in Venture, and excited about the enthusiasm of our instructors and staff in promoting the magazine and encouraging students to submit work.
To learn more about Venture Online, and to read current and former issues, visit the Venture Online section of our website.
Venture Online student editors.
Tom Franklin speaks at the Venture Online launch party.
Established in 1986 in memory of X. A. Kramer, Jr., the Kramer Outstanding Teaching Award is presented annually to a CWR composition instructor for outstanding teaching. This year, the Kramer Outstanding Teaching Award went to Jane Meek, an instructor in the FASTrack program. CWR faculty and staff celebrated Jane’s award on Tuesday April 16 with cake and coffee.
The CWR celebrates Jane Meek.
The Winning Design
Milly West’s LIBA 102 Generation Green course focuses on issues relating to sustainability and the environment. Recently, Milly and her current class of students were the first ever recipients of a Green Fund Award at The University of Mississippi. The class project will involve selling BPA-free water bottles and educating students about the positive benefits of reusable bottles. Congratulations to Milly and her students, who are gaining real value from learning to write, and writing to learn! Look for their h2otty toddy bottles on sale during Green Week on Wednesday, April 24th in front of the student union. All proceeds will be returned to the Ole Miss Green Fund.
LIBA 102 courses are taught by faculty members from across the university, and are designed to be writing classes with specific disciplinary themes. These courses allow enrolled students to explore an content area related to their own academic or personal interests, while at the same time developing sophisticated academic writing and research skills. For more details, visit the LIBA 102 Course Page.
The 2013 Common Reader
A West Point grad, Rhodes scholar, and Army Ranger recounts his unparalleled education in the art of war and reckons with the hard wisdom that only battle itself can bestow.
One haunting afternoon on Losano Ridge in Afghanistan, Captain Craig Mullaney and his platoon were caught in a deadly firefight with Al Qaeda fighters when a message came over the radio: one of his soldiers had been killed in action.
Mullaney’s education had been relentlessly preparing him for this moment. The four years he spent at West Point and the harrowing test of Ranger School readied him for a career in the Army. His subsequent experience as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford couldn’t have been further from the Army and his working class roots, and yet the unorthodox education he received there would be surprisingly relevant as a combat leader. Years later, after that unforgettable experience in Afghanistan, he would return to the United States to teach history to future Navy and Marine Corps officers at the Naval Academy. He had been in their position once, and he had put his education to the test. How would he use his own life-changing experience prepare them?
The Unforgiving Minute is the extraordinary story of one soldier’s singular education. From a hilarious plebe’s-eye view of the author’s West Point experience to the demanding leadership crucible of Ranger School’s swamps and mountains, to a two-year whirlwind of scintillating debate, pub crawls, and romance at Oxford, Mullaney’s winding path to the battlegrounds of Afghanistan was unique and remarkable. Despite all his preparation, the hardest questions remained. When the call came to lead his platoon into battle and earn his soldiers’ salutes, would he be ready? Was his education sufficient for the unforgiving minutes he’d face? A fascinating account of an Army captain’s unusual path through some of the most legendary seats of learning straight into a brutal fight with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, The Unforgiving Minute is, above all, an unforgettable portrait of a young soldier grappling with the weight of his hard-earned knowledge while coming to grips with becoming a man.
The Common Reading Experience began with the 2011-2012 school year. In this third year of the program, it will work very similarly to the first two years. Every freshman receives a copy of the selected text at orientation to finish before the school year begins in August. Instructors from the Center for Writing and Rhetoric, Freshman Year Experience, Department of Nursing, and others then utilize the text in their classes. It allows for an enriched sense of community by all reading the text as one.
For more information, visit umreads.olemiss.edu
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